Juan Cole on MLK and Vietnam/Iraq points out what our “liberal media” won’t; that MLK staunchly opposed Kennedy-Johnson on Vietnam. He hurt himself immensely in a political sense by not “sticking to civil rights”, linking the war to issues of justice. You don’t hear much about THAT Martin Luther King when the holiday is on the news. Neither do you hear about the Poor People’s campaign in which he was engaged when he was assassinated.
I Do take issue with something Cole says in his comments:
Dr. King was not saying that war cannot solve military problems, you will note. He was saying that it cannot solve social problems.
Actually, I have never “taken notice” of that. I totally disagree with that attempt to make MLK “non-pacifist”. There are no indications anywhere in his speeches or writings that I have seen where he “approves” or makes distinctions between “military problems” and “social problems”. I have always taken the above statement to mean that ALL is “social problem”, INCLUDING the so-called “military problem”.
Aside from that attempt to superimpose something onto MLK, I found the article a refreshing alternative to the “safe” venerations of MLK on his holiday and otherwise.
