From: fred@johnd.tamu.edu (Fred Seals 5-2298)
Subject: Re: CNN/Crossfire
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 13:41:26 GMT

In article <athos-280892234453@kip2-49.apple.com>, athos@apple.com (Rick Eames) writes:
|> In article <BtpIKH.7Fn.2@cs.cmu.edu>, you wrote:
|> 
|> > Fred, could you please post proof that Clinton received a draft notice 
|> > BEFORE he joined ROTC?  As this situation was explained (by both
|> > the media AND by his republican attackers), he joined ROTC because
|> > he was scared he would get drafted -- not because he was escaping
|> > a draft notice.  But then he felt guilty and put his name into 
|> > the draft pool and got lucky and received a low number.  He did NOT
|> > leave ROTC after he found out he had a low number but BEFORE.
|> 
|> Clinton himself stated this at the American Legion the other day.  Here is
|> a clipping from an article I have on the candidates military records:
|> 
|> ----------
|> 
|> * Governor Bill Clinton (ARK)
|> - Spring 1968: Classified 1-A (eligible for draft) while a student at
|> Georgetown Univ.
|> - Feb 1969: passed pre-induction physical during post-graduate studies
|> at Oxford, England. Received draft notice late Apr 1969.
|> "According to Clinton, who opposed the war, his local draft board in
|> Arkansas then gave him permission to finish the academic term. Clinton
|> returned to the United States that summer and, after failing physicals
|> for Navy and Air Force officer programs, enrolled in the Army's ROTC
|> program (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) at U Arkansas, providing him
|> with a draft deferment. Clinton has said he planned to attend law school
|> in Arkansas after another year in England but never did. In the fall of
|> 1969, he asked to have his name put back in the draft pool but received
|> a high lottery number, 311, and was never called. That December he wrote
|> a letter to the commander of the ROTC unit in Arkansas explaining his
|> reasons for not joining the unit and thaking him for 'saving me from the
|> draft.' "
|> 
|> -------------
|> 
|> As you can see, he was drafted, and bailed on it.  
|> 
|> > Also, I have respect for someone who was hashing out
|> > his feelings at age 20 and stepped back from a decision that
|> > he felt was a mistake.  You show me someone at age 20 who isn't
|> > hashing out feelings like this (especially about going to
|> > a war that he opposed, but for a country he supported) and I 
|> > will show you a fool who isn't thinking for himself.  
|> 
|> Bush didn't.  He went to war.  My grandfather did the same thing.  I don't
|> count either of them as "fools."
|> 
|> The problem for me here is this quote from the letter Clinton sent to his
|> ROTC advisor
|>      "The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent
|>       decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept
|>       the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my
|>       political viability within the system."
|> 
|> While his friends were either dying in Vietnam or going to jail fighting
|> the draft at home, poor Billy was worring about his political future.  THIS
|> bothers me a great deal.  Probably more than anything else about him. 
|> --
|> Rick Eames
|> athos@apple.com
|> I don't speak for Apple.  Really, I don't.
|> --
|> Rick Eames
|> athos@apple.com
|> I don't speak for Apple.  Really, I don't.


Thanks Rick.  I had forgotten where I heard this information on Willy.  My final and
personal point on this matter is this;  I do not want someone who avoided service to 
the country by lies and deceit having the power to send any American to war.



fred

##############################################################################


The above opinions are my own. To my knowledge they are not shared by my 
employer or my friends. However, they should be.

If you receive more than one copy of this notice please pass it on to a 
friend.

Fred Seals
409-845-2298

##############################################################################
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton