 Chavez kept a large portrait of Gandhi in his office, alongside another of Martin Luther King and busts of both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln.Influenced by the ideas of Gandhi and King, Chavez emphasized non-violent confrontation as a tactic.He repeatedly referred to himself as the leader of the "non-violent Viet Cong", a reference to the Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist militia that the U.S. was combating in the Vietnam War.