“I said to Dr. King,” Smiley recalled, “‘I’m assuming that you’re very familiar and have been greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi.’ And he was very thoughtful, and he said, ‘As a matter of fact, no. I know who the man is. I have read some statements by him, and so on, but I will have to truthfully say’—and this is almost a direct quote …—‘I will have to say that I know very little about the man.’” King emphasized that he nonetheless admired Gandhi, and Smiley described to him how the essence of nonviolence was a refusal to retaliate against evil, a refusal based on the realization that “the
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