From: athos@apple.com (Rick Eames)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: CNN/Crossfire
Date: 29 Aug 92 06:39:15 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.clinton
Organization: Apple Computer

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.
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