A
draft dodger is a term, usually pejorative, that refers to a person who avoids ("dodges") the
conscriptionConscription is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by an established authority. It is most often used in the specific sense of requiring citizens to serve in the armed forces...
policies of the nation in which he or she is a citizen or resident by leaving the country, going into hiding, or other attempts at
fraudIn the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and is also a civil law violation....
ulent means. Avoidances involving
nonviolenceNonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it...
or
conscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war or, in some cases, to take any role that would support a combatant organization armed forces. In the first case, conscientious objectors may be willing to accept...
ships are sometimes referred to as draft evasion or draft resistance.
Although the term originated earlier, the term became popular during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
to describe citizens of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who dodged the
mandatory conscriptionConscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
policy, in order to avoid serving in the war, by leaving the country, originally to
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, but later in greater numbers to
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
The United States has employed conscription (mandatory military service, also called "the draft") several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
. The U.S. discontinued the draft in 1973, moving to an all-volunteer force.
Today, the
Selective Service SystemThe Selective Service System is a means by which the United States maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. All males between the ages of 18 to 25 are required by law to register within 60 days of their 18th birthday...
remains in place as a contingency; young men aged 18–26 are required to register so that a draft can be more readily resumed. The U.S. armed forces are now designated as "all-volunteer", although, in 2004 as well as during the 1991 Gulf War, some personnel were kept in the military longer than they expected. However, this was consistent with their enlistment contracts because of a clause that permits retention based on the needs of the military. In 2003, legislation to reintroduce general conscription was defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives due to widespread disapproval among lawmakers and the American public. Similar legislation has been proposed for reintroduction recently but it has not yet been approved.
The motivations for draft dodgers and resisters are manifold. Some are individuals who merely wish to avoid the dangers of combat (and may otherwise support the war in question). Others have political or moral objections to warfare in general, or to the circumstances of a particular conflict in which their country is fighting; or may identify with a different country altogether.
Refusing to submit the draft is considered a criminal offense in most countries where conscription is in effect.
Avoidance, evasion, resistance and desertion compared
It is possible to draw a contrast between
draft evasion and
draft avoidance. Just as
tax avoidance is defined as reducing or eliminating one's tax liability through legal means,
draft avoidance is the elimination or mitigation of a potential conscript's military service obligation through some lawful procedure. The term
draft dodging is sometimes used more loosely (and to some inappropriately) to describe draft avoidance. Some means of draft avoidance:
- Becoming a conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war or, in some cases, to take any role that would support a combatant organization armed forces. In the first case, conscientious objectors may be willing to accept...
, whether one's anti-war sentiment is religious or otherwise. Peace churchesPeace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism. The term historic peace churches refers specifically to three church groups: Church of the Brethren, Mennonites , and Religious Society of Friends .The peace churches agree that Jesus advocated nonviolence...
, such as Mennonites, AmishThe various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations that form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches. They are best known for their simple living, plain dress and resistance to the adoption of many modern conveniences...
, BrethrenThe Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination originating from the Schwarzenau Brethren organized in 1708 by eight people led by Alexander Mack, a miller, in Schwarzenau , Germany. The Brethren movement began as a melding of Radical Pietist and Anabaptist ideas. The first of its churches...
, and Quakers, oppose any kind of military service for their members, even in non-combatantNon-combatant is a military and legal term describing civilians not engaged in combat. It also includes persons, such as medical personnel and chaplains and soldiers who are hors de combat.Article 50 in Chapter II: "Civilians and Civilian Population" of...
fields, but are not opposed to alternative non-uniformed civilian service. Note that many people who support conscription will distinguish between "bona fideBona Fide is a studio album from rock band Wishbone Ash. It is the first studio album in six years and is the only studio album to feature guitarist Ben Granfelt...
" conscientious objection and draft dodging, which they view as evasion of military service without a valid excuse. Conscientious objection would be considered evasion if the sentiment was not genuine.
- Seeking excusal from military service due to health reasons - this would be considered evasion if the purported health issue was feigned or overstated.
- Claiming to be homosexual, when the military in question excludes gay people - this would be considered evasion if the claim was false, and avoidance if the claim is true.
- Marrying and/or fathering children, if the military in question will grant deferments to spouses and/or parents.
- Seeking and receiving a student deferment as in the cases of Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
, Joe BidenJoseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. , is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States under the administration of President Barack Obama. He was a United States Senator from Delaware from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009, following his election to the Vice...
and Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
. This would be considered evasion if false or misleading academic credentials were used.
- Enlisting in a branch of the military, such as the United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States...
during the Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
, whose members are less likely to be deployed into combat. U.S. politicians who come from well-established political families, such as Dan QuayleJames Danforth "Dan" Quayle was the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving under George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana.-Early life:...
and George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, have been accused of using family influence to secure Guard assignments that would be unavailable to ordinary citizens. This could be considered evasion if such influence was used unlawfully.
- Applying for a job in an "essential" civilian occupation and seeking deferment on those grounds - often this required a letter from the potential draftee's employer to be accepted. After receiving deferment as a student, 2008 U.S. Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani received further deferment after his occupation as a law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court....
was deemed "essential" by the Selective Service.
- Non-pacifist churches have at times deferred missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
as "divinity students". During the Vietnam War the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became embroiled in controversy for deferring large numbers of its young members. The LDS church eventually agreed to cap the number of missionary deferments it sought for members in any one state, however this generally did not stop LDS missionaries who lived outside UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
(such as 2008 presidential candidate Mitt RomneyWillard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and former Governor of Massachusetts. Romney was CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm...
) from receiving deferments with relative ease.
- Simply declining to enlist, if the potential conscript appears likely to avoid the draft through sheer "luck of the draw." During the Vietnam War, not all eligible young men were drafted; many who had a high lottery number
On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States held a lottery to determine the order of draft into the Army for the Vietnam War.-Method:...
simply took no action, knowing that they were unlikely to ever be drafted. Declining to enlist is not evasion, however some hold the view that young persons (or young men) of combat age have an affirmative duty to enlist in the military during wartime, even if not drafted. Both Giuliani and Romney drew high lottery numbers after exhausting their deferments.
- Paying a stand-in
A stand-in in film and television is a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting.Stand-ins are helpful in the initial processes of production. Lighting setup can be a slow and tedious process; during this time the actor will often be somewhere else...
to take one's place if drafted. In most countries this is no longer legally sanctioned, but it was a lawful and very common practice in the U.S. Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
- In some countries it is often possible to evade military service by bribing
Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an...
corrupt draft officers, or by finding a doctor who will certify one as medically unfit.
- Moving out of the country.
The term
draft resister specifically refers to someone who explicitly refuses military service - simply attempting to flee the draft is draft evasion.
Draft dodging should not be confused with
desertionIn military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission from one's Government or superior. The term AWOL is an acronym for "Absent Without Leave." Ultimate "duty" or "responsibility," however, under International Law, is not necessarily always to a "Government"...
- a conscript cannot "desert" until he is inducted into the military and has thus submitted to the draft. Strictly defined, a deserter is someone who, after being inducted into the military, then absconds from the service without receiving a valid
leave of absenceLeave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
or
dischargeA military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve.-Military discharge in the United States:...
, and with the intention of never returning to the service.
World War I
During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, many Canadians that did not want to be conscripted left for the US. This part of Canadian history and American history of WWI is little researched and often the research is highly suppressed for political reasons. It is historically understood that the number of Canadians avoiding conscription via going to the US was in relative population terms less than the equivalent numbers of Americans coming to Canada during the Vietnam War. However, because Canada has always had a brain drain with respect to the US since 1830—sorting out those avoiding conscription from the ongoing stream of economic or social migrants is difficult.
North America
There was some opposition to the draft even before the major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The large cohort of
Baby BoomersBaby Boom Generation is a term which portrays the cohorts born during the middle part of the 20th Century. The birth years of the Baby Boom Generation are the subject of controversy. Historically, everyone born during the post-World War II demographic boom in births was called part of the Baby...
who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War also meant a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college and graduate students. This was the source of considerable resentment among poor and working class young men including African-Americans - who could not afford college. Large groups of draftees publicly burned draft cards. Of all the service members who served in Vietnam, 10.6% were black, 88.4% were Caucasian (including Hispanics) and 1% other. At the time, Blacks represented 12.5% of the total U.S. population and 13.5% of the military age cohort, so they were significantly under represented in the war zone. Casualty data shows 86.8% of those killed in action were Caucasian, while 12.1% were Black. Although slightly higher than the proportion serving in combat, it was significantly below the Black military age cohort in the general population at the time. (Source: Combat Area Casualty File of 11/93 (CACF1193), and The Adjutant General's Center (TAGCEN) file of 1981.
The overall effect was that a large proportion of the ground troops in Vietnam were from the working class, resulting in the saying, "Rich man's war, poor man's fight". Some soldiers committed (
fratricideFratricide is the act of a person killing his or her brother....
) otherwise known as (fragging) against their officers. The word relates to the use of a fragmentation grenade for this purpose. It should be noted that when fragging did occur, it was done by both African-American and Caucasian enlisted soldiers. Such incidents of fragging) were typically the result of servicemen who thought their officers were too aggressive in pursuing the enemy.
As U.S. troop strength in Vietnam increased, more and more young men were drafted for service there and more and more of those still at home sought means of avoiding the draft. For those seeking a relatively safe alternative, service in the Coast Guard was an option (provided one could meet the more stringent enlistment standards). Since only a handful of National Guard and Reserve units were sent to Vietnam, enlistment in the Guard or the Reserves became a favored means of draft avoidance. Vocations to the ministry and the rabbinate soared, as divinity students were exempt from the draft. Doctors and draft board members found themselves being pressured by relatives or family friends to exempt potential draftees.
Other means included finding, exaggerating, or causing physical and psychological reasons for deferment, whether in the temporary "1-Y" classification, or the permanent "4-F" deferment.
Physical reasons such as high blood pressure could get a man exempted. Various methods to worsen physical reasons included, in at least one case, a man who went to the movies, at the Biograph Theater in Chicago, every night on the week before the draft to eat buttered popcorn. In addition, antiwar psychiatrists could often find dormant mental conditions to be serious enough to warrant exemptions. Folksinger Arlo Guthrie lampooned the paradox of seeking exemption from a war many people thought crazy, by acting or being crazy, in his song
Alice's Restaurant"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is one of singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie's most prominent works, a musical monologue based on a true story that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie of the same name...
: "I said, 'I wanna kill! Kill! Eat dead burnt bodies!', and the Sergeant said, 'you're our boy'".
Many lawyers worked during the Vietnam war "pro bono" as draft counselors for the
American Friends Service CommitteeThe American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which provides humanitarian relief and works for social justice, peace and reconciliation, human rights, and abolition of the death penalty...
and other antiwar groups to counsel men on their options. They were aware that laws, on the books since World War I, forbade Americans to counsel men on how to evade the draft, therefore the AFSC was careful to factually and neutrally present the young man with his choices.
Less sober texts on draft "avoidance" (as opposed to "resistance" as described below) included "One Hundred and One Ways to Avoid the Draft" by musician
Tuli KupferbergTuli Kupferberg is an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:...
, a member of The Fugs. Methods he espoused included arriving at the draft board in diapers or feigning homosexuality. Another text popular with men subject to the draft was a 1950s cartoon novella by Jules Feiffer, Munro, in which a four-year-old boy is drafted by mistake. Some men, taking an idea from the book, said they might ask the sergeant at the draft examination to "button me, Mister", but usually these schemes came to naught in an era where homophobia was normed, and only partly deconstructed by the antics of the counterculture.
Draft counselors, and the Selective Service System itself, emphasized that there was no such thing as an "exemption" from the draft, only a "deferment". Even the coveted status of 4-F (which by the late 1960s had lost its shameful connotation) was technically a deferment, implying that even 4-Fs might have to serve if America were invaded, as a home guard. The reasons for this were historical: during the first American draft of the Civil War, rich men or their parents could purchase an actual exemption for the then-large sum of three hundred dollars, and this caused the New York Draft Riots of that era, a major civil disturbance.
Evading the draft through loopholes or technicalities took planning, literacy and education; therefore, it was much easier for young men with middle or upper class backgrounds to finagle a deferment, even after deferments were ended for graduate students and limited for undergraduates in 1969. These men were more likely to have access to college educations, letters from psychiatrists, and pro bono advice from lawyers. Men without these resources were less able to avoid being drafted. To compensate for this inequality, the U.S. government changed to a lottery system which would treat all citizens equally in 1969.
The draft was unpopular both for its impact on those drafted and as a focal point for opposition to a controversial war. Therefore, beyond the evasive methods identified above, methods of more positive and assertive resistance existed.
Rather than submit to conscription, tens of thousands of young men migrated to Canada, which did not support war in Vietnam. Conscription ended in 1973. The end came after a series of lawsuits challenged the draft upon its re-enactment and renewed conscription in 1972 without regard to the 90-day waiting period required in the original Korean War era draft law (section 20 of the Act) that remained in the 1972 Act (which U.S. Attorneys defending conscription argued was as a result of a legislative drafting error). After a series of challenges to the draft under section 20 in 1971 and 1972, leading to an injunction against induction in the geographical area encompassed by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by Justice William O. Douglas (Where, legend has it, Justice Douglas posted the injunction on a tree near a camp site while hiking in the Cascade Mountains). It became so difficult for the Selective Service System to unwind the mess the Section 20 cases caused (and to draft men according to the priorities required by law—the "order of call" named after the "order of call" defense), that the draft was quietly ended—just in time for the wind down of the Vietnam War.
During the Vietnam War, about 100,000 draft dodgers, in total, went abroad; others hid in the United States. An estimated 50,000 to 90,000 of these moved to Canada, where they were treated as immigrants. Though their presence was initially controversial within Canada, the government eventually chose to welcome them. Draft evasion was not a criminal offense under Canadian law (during the two World Wars when conscription was enacted in Canada, those who attempted to evade the draft illegally were pursued by military officials, forced into the Army and then court martialed if they refused to obey an officer). The issue of deserters was more complex, because desertion was a crime in Canada, and the Canadian military was strongly opposed to condoning it. In the end, the government maintained the right to prosecute these deserters, but in practice left them alone and instructed border guards not to ask questions relating to the issue. Eventually, tens of thousands of deserters were among those who found safe refuge in Canada, as well as in Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom.
Those that went abroad faced imprisonment or forced military service if they returned home. The U.S. continued to prosecute draft dodgers after the end of the Vietnam War. In 1977, President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
issued an
amnestyAmnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent persons. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. The word has the same root as amnesia...
in the form of a
pardonA pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. It is granted by a head of state, such as a monarch or president, or by a competent church authority. Clemency is an associated term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime itself. The...
to all remaining draft evaders, as part of a general climate of "cultural reconciliation" after the end of the controversial and unpopular war.
Some draft dodgers returned home to the United States after the 1977 amnesty, but according to an estimate by sociologist John Hagan, around 50,000 settled in Canada. This young and mostly educated population expanded Canada's arts and academic scenes, and helped push Canadian politics further to the left. Notable Canadians who were draft dodgers include
Jay ScottJay Scott was the pen name of Jeffrey Scott Beaven , a Canadian film critic.Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Scott fled to Canada in 1969 as a draft dodger. He settled in Calgary, and began writing film reviews for the Calgary Albertan a few years later...
and Michael Hendricks.
During the Vietnam War, an active movement of draft resistance also occurred, spearheaded by the Resistance organization, headed by David Harris. The insignia of the organization was the Greek letter
omegaOmega is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system, it has a value of 800. The word literally means "great O" , as opposed to Omicron, which means "little O"...
, Ω, the symbol for ohms—the unit of
electrical resistanceThe electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the passage of a steady electric current. An object of uniform cross section will have a resistance proportional to its length and inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area, and proportional to the resistivity of the...
. Members of the Resistance movement publicly burned their draft cards or refused to register for the draft. Other members deposited their cards into boxes on selected dates and then mailed them to the government. They were then drafted, refused to be inducted, and fought their cases in the federal courts. These draft resisters hoped that their public civil disobedience would help to bring the war and the draft to an end. Many young men went to federal prison as part of this movement.
Australia & New Zealand
Draft dodging was also common in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
at the time, though locally it was known as Draft Resistance or active non-compliance, see
conscription in AustraliaConscription in Australia, or mandatory military service also known as National Service, has a controversial history dating back to the first years of nationhood...
. There was a film made about a draft dodger in Australia during the later stages of the Vietnam War that is often shown as part of Australia's film heritage at Screen Sound Canberra. Because of Australia's lesser involvement in the Vietnam War, New Zealand did not emerge as a destination for Australian draft dodgers.
Present ramifications
Long after the Vietnam War, military service, or its avoidance, remains an issue for politicians in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Some U.S. politicians are labeled as draft dodgers by their opponents, though no prominent political figures in the U.S. were among those who went to Canada or otherwise broke any laws.
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
,
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
,
Joe BidenJoseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. , is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States under the administration of President Barack Obama. He was a United States Senator from Delaware from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009, following his election to the Vice...
,
Howard DeanHoward Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont. He served six terms as Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination...
,
Dan QuayleJames Danforth "Dan" Quayle was the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving under George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana.-Early life:...
, and
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
have all been accused of being draft dodgers on the grounds that they never saw combat in Vietnam, even though none of them received a conscription notice (Bill Clinton received one that arrived after the date he was to report, due to having been sent by surface mail to the United Kingdom. As he had already begun another term at university, regulations allowed him to complete the term before reporting, but he applied and was accepted for an ROTC program 11 days before the new induction reporting date ).
George W. Bush did serve two years on active duty and several more years of part-time duty during the Vietnam War, all stateside in the Texas Air National Guard as an F-102 pilot, in a unit assigned to the defense of the continental United States and hence unlikely to be deployed overseas. His service in the Guard (and the question of whether
his fatherGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
used undue influence to secure a Guard position for the younger Bush)
was an issueGeorge W. Bush's National Guard service was an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign and in the 2004 presidential campaign. A controversy centered on questions of how George W...
in both the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections with his Democratic opponents claiming that he, "protected Texas airspace from invasion by the Vietnamese".
Dan Quayle served in the Indiana Army National Guard during Vietnam, which became an issue during the 1988 election. Dick Cheney, in explaining why he kept seeking deferment after deferment in a war that he supported, has publicly stated, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."
Although there is no longer a draft in the United States, the issues of desertion and conscientious objection remain for soldiers fighting in
IraqThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
and
AfghanistanThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
. Some military personnel, both active and reservist, have attempted to find asylum in Canada and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, though not in the numbers that did so during the Vietnam War. A recent ruling in Canada supports asylum claims based on "being forced to participate in military misconduct, even if it stops short of a war crime", however, a Canadian Court has now deported an Iraq era deserter for the first time (there are reported to be at least 50, perhaps 200, currently in Canada). A second deserter, female, and her family, have been ordered to leave or be deported. Two Iraq era serving soldiers have also applied for asylum in Germany (one application later withdrawn).
In 2004, the European Union passed a directive "requiring member countries to grant asylum to soldiers protesting unlawful wars". In the same story; "The U.S. Army says 71 soldiers deserted from its European bases last year, a mere sliver of the roughly 3,500 soldiers who deserted world-wide over the past year. It says it doesn't actively pursue most deserters, who make up less than 1% of the enlisted force in any given year."
Many deserters and draft evaders from the Vietnam era still remain in Canada and Europe, despite the general pardon granted to the evaders by President Carter.
Further reading
- Cortright, David. Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War (Re-issue). Chicago: Haymarket Books. 2005.
- Foley, Michael S. Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance during the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2003.
- Hagan, John. Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada. Boston: Harvard University Press. 2001.
- Halstead, Fred. GIs speak out against the war: The case of the Ft. Jackson 8. 128 pages. New York: Pathfinder Press. 1970.
- Kasinsky, Renee. Refugees from Militarism: Draft-Age Americans in Canada. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. 1976.
- Michener, James A. The Drifters. Ballantine Books. 1971.
- Simons, Donald L. I Refuse: Memories of a Vietnam War Objector. Trenton, NJ: Broken Rifle Press. 1992.
- Todd, Jack. Desertion: In the Time of Vietnam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001.
- Williams, Roger Neville. The New Exiles: American War Resisters in Canada. New York: Liveright. 1970.
External links