From: mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov (Richard Mulac)
Subject: Re: Clinton's anti-Vietnam efforts
Followup-To: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center [Cleveland, Ohio]
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 03:29:50 GMT

In a previous article, mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov (Richard Mulac) wrote:
>>> If all these things are true, wouldn't such a
>>> man have thrown himself into the forefront of the anti-war movement and
>>> demonstrated what a great leader he was?

In article <7SEP92.16220722@vax.clarku.edu>, htilney@vax.clarku.edu writes:
>> What are the facts regarding Clinton's involvement with the anti-war 
>> movement? Is it certain that he didn't partake in it to any degree?

In article <1992Sep8.171807.9359@ll.mit.edu> ryba@ll.mit.edu (Marty Ryba) writes:
>   For the record, and a bit of care in such records is often lacking in
>posts seen here, here's a relevant piece from Clinton's 1969 letter to
>Col. Holmes:
>
>        Let me try to explain. As you know, I worked for two years in a
>     very minor position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I

  How come you never hear him mention this as part of his foreign policy
experience?  He needs to list evreything he can in his resume.

>     did it for the experience and the salary but also for the
>     opportunity, however small, of working every day against a war I
>     opposed and despised with a depth of feeling I had reserved solely
>     for racism in America before Vietnam. I did not take the matter
>     lightly but studied it carefully, and there was a time when not
>     many people had more information about Vietnam at hand than I did.
>
>        I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One of
>     the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a close friend
>     of mine. After I left Arkansas last summer, I went to Washington to
>     work in the national headquarters of the Moratorium, then to
>     England to organize the Americans here for demonstrations Oct. 15
>     and Nov. 16.
>
>        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 opposed 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 in
>     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 even possibly may be
>     wrong, 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.
>
>As we see, he did partake in anti-war activities, within his self-imposed
>limit of not completely cutting himself off from the political mainstream.

  Thanks for throwing some more light on the subject.  But after reading
this I would have to ask - If he truly believes in the things he states in
the letter, how could he possibly consider joining the ROTC program?  But
then, he wrote this letter after he wanted to get out and needed some good
excuses.  Can this 'active' participation in the anti-war effort be
corroborated?  Or was he now trying to build an anti-war persona which
would get him thrown out of the ROTC.  If he doesn't win in November,
Clinton could possibly get a job in the circus as a tightrope walker. {:^)

-- 
Richard Mulac                                     mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov
NASA Lewis Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, MS 5-9, Cleveland, OH  44135
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"Well, judging by his outlandish attire, he's some sort | These pontifications
of free-thinking anarchist." - Charles Montgomery Burns |      are my own!    
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