Don’t Overlook Coretta Scott King

On the Coretta Scott King side, I think one thing that’s so powerful about her story is how clear and early she was about the dangers posed by US military intervention in Vietnam, and how she understood the broader contours of colonialism and what it meant for the United States to be engaged not just in Vietnam, but in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. And then the broader resonances with the possibilities of nuclear war, and how she was unafraid to challenge politicians about it, and how she worked to rally Americans across many different demographic lines to fight against the war and to activate for peace.

When I think about the present — obviously Coretta and Martin Luther King and their allies were adamantly opposed to the kind of gunboat diplomacy we’re seeing in Venezuela, and to the broader sense that the United States can impose its will wherever it chooses in other countries, and that it can do that without thinking through the long‑term consequences.

I think for Coretta, she always thought about it in economic terms, so she was opposed to Vietnam both in terms of the moral aspect of it, but also because she was always making the case that the money being spent fighting the Vietnam War would be much better spent here in the United States taking care of the needs of American citizens — housing, health care. Those issues obviously have not gone away, and they remain front and center for most average Americans. People are concerned across party lines about day‑to‑day economics, and that’s something Coretta Scott King was always on the forefront of thinking about. As the Vietnam War was winding down, she was really interested in what it meant to have a peacetime economy that could serve the needs of average Americans.

On the Dwight Johnson side, I think Dwight Johnson looked like what the American military looks like today — not just a young black man, but someone from a lower socioeconomic status for whom the military offered some opportunities but also dangers. Dwight was drafted, as many men were in Vietnam. We have an all‑volunteer military today, but the racial and socioeconomic demographics of the military resonate strongly with Dwight Johnson’s profile and experiences.

One part of that story that’s important to think about is the human costs and consequences of American military deployments. It’s easy for presidents, politicians, policymakers, and average citizens to talk about whether the United States should be in Venezuela or Nigeria or wherever as if moving pieces around on a board, but there are real lives at stake. If the country moves into a situation where we are actively engaged in another war, it’s going to be men and women with profiles like Skip Johnson who bear the brunt.