From: rja@redwood26.cray.com (Russ Anderson)
Subject: Re: Kremlin_Gate: Bill Clinton in Moscow during Viet Nam
Originator: rja@redwood26
Organization: The 1991 World Champion Minnesota Twins!
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:04:59 CDT


In article <Bvt60M.LLr@apollo.hp.com>, goykhman_a@apollo.hp.com (Alex Goykhman) writes:
> In article <1992Oct8.061124.16245@Princeton.EDU> niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent) writes:
> ...
> >Yes, he wrote in the now-infamous ROTC letter that he "loathed" the
> >military.  But I think it's clear from context that he loathed the
> >leadership of the military that would get us involved in Vietnam and
> >mess up so badly while there.
> ...
> 
>     Clinton did not write that he "loathed" the military. According 
>     to CBS, he wrote that there were "many fine people loving their 
>     country and loathing the military".

Clinton's letter is quite sensible.

From Clinton's letter:
[...]
        Interlocked with the war is the draft issue, which I did
        not begin to consider separately until early 1968.  For a
        law seminar at Georgetown I wrote a paper on the legal
        arguments for and against allowing, within the Selective
        Service System, the classification of selective conscientious
        objection, for those oppose to participation in a particular
        war, not simply to "participation in war in any form."

        From my work I came to believe that the draft system itself
        is illegitimate.  No government really rooted in limited,
        parliamentary democracy should have the power to make its
        citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose,
        a war which, in any case, does not involve immediately the
        peace and freedom of the nation.

        The draft was justified in World War II because the life of
        the people collectively was at stake.  Individuals had to
        fight, if the nation was to survive, for the lives of their
        countrymen and their way of life.  Vietnam is no such case.
        Nor was Korea an example where, in my opinion, certain
        military action was justified but the draft was not, for
        the reasons stated above.
[...]
        And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have
        been good to me and have a right to know what I think and
        feel.  I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one
        story will help you to understand more clearly how so many
        fine young people have come to find themselves still loving
        their country but loathing the military, to which you and
        other good men have devoted years, lifetimes, of the best
        service you could give.  To many of us, it is no longer
        clear what is service and what is disservice, or if it is
        clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal.
[...]
>     If the letter is so incriminating, why haven't the Bush supporters
>     already posted it?  I mean, there have been a lot of campaign
>     propaganda posted here in the last couple of months, why not
>     the infamous letter?
> ...
>     Whoever said "Lie repeated a thousand times becomes true" 
>     (Goebbels?) may have been right.


-- 
Russ Anderson    |  Disclaimer: Any statements are my own and do not reflect
------------------              upon my employer or anyone else.  (c) 1992
EX-Twins' Jack Morris, 10 innings pitched, 0 runs (World Series MVP!)
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