From: dredish+@cs.cmu.edu (David Redish)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Clinton and the draft (was Re: CNN/Crossfire)
Date: 29 Aug 92 14:27:20 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In response to a post I made, I received this message.  
I would like to keep this discussion on the net because I think
it is of interest to everyone.
This is Rick Eames' message in its entirety.  I have not edited it.

From: athos@apple.com (Rick Eames)
To: dredish+@cs.cmu.edu (David Redish)
Subject: Re: CNN/Crossfire
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.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for the message, but I would like to keep this on the net.
In that interest I will post both your message and my reply.
I apologize now if you did not want this on the net, but I would
like to give everybody else a chance to respond as well.

So what you are saying is that he received a low draft number and
was called up and then volunteered for ROTC and then put his
name back in and got a different draft number?  Why didn't he
keep his old draft number?  (Ok, I admit it, I'm too young 
(barely) to remember how the system worked.)  

I think whatever the situation with his draft,  (and I
still think there is more to this.)  I think it is clear
that Clinton has wanted to be President since he was very young.
How else did he get that fantastic film of him shaking Kennedy's
hand?  (That is one of the best political instants any candidate 
has ever had recorded.) I think that Clinton needs to be seen
as an idealist who believed that the best way to change the
system was from within.  In order to stay in the system he
was forced to compromise certain beliefs.  (This bothers
me some, especially in relation to some of his environmental
record.)  But it is very important to realize that there is
no other way to become President.  (And I won't discuss the
comparison to Bush here.  I would like to keep this thread
on Clinton.)

Lastly, we cannot compare the decision to fight in World War II
with the decision to fight (or not to) in Viet Nam.  I know many people
who are practically pacifists, but who went to World War II because
we had to stop the Nazis.  My great uncle, a beatnik and a hippie,
someone who marched against Viet Nam, and believed in pacifism, volunteered
to go to World War II.  And I am told his proudest picture is him in
his WW II army uniform.  The two wars just are not comparable.

david redish
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,soc.women