Where Have All the Flower Children Gone?

4. And It’s One, Two, Three: Draft Evaders, Expatriates, and Conscientious Objectors

And It’s One, Two, Three Draft Evaders, Expatriates, and Conscientious Objectors Introduction The Country Joe song, sung at Woodstock and at protests before and since, eloquently captures the mindset of young men such as Dennis McFadden (not his real name), who could be the poster child for the stereotypical draft dodger. “I started to flll out the CO [conscientious objector] paperwork but realized I’d probably be turned down because I couldn’t play the game of the devout Christian,” he recalls. “I was so much into the hippie lifestyle—partying and demonstrating—that I fiunked out of college.Then the lottery came up and my number was low. I was sure to be drafted, so I borrowed some money from relatives and spent a couple of years in Europe. . . . Anyway, somehow I was reclassifled as a 4-F, probably because the [government] thought I was a Communist,” he laughs. “So I came back.” Single and childless , he now lives in the house he grew up in and works at various odd jobs. He says, “The antiwar stigma has followed me throughout my life. I never flnished college and encountered discrimination, particularly [during times] when long hair was out and dressing for success was in” (author interview). 4 145 Draft Evaders, Expatriates, and Conscientious Objectors 146 The song could also apply to the hundreds of thousands of men who, shortly before, after, or during the Vietnam War, made a conscious decision not to participate. Their reasons ranged from simple fear to rage at an unjust war to the belief that killing was wrong. Or, as one put it in words that still ring true today,“Why put yourself in mortal danger, when you don’t know what the hell you’re flghting for?” Along with interviews, this chapter discusses the various types of draft evaders, veterans turned antiwar protesters, conscientious objectors , and expatriates. Events and infiuences that affected this group, such as the massacre at My Lai, antiwar coffeehouses around military bases, and the various presidential pardons, are also included. Offspring of a (Not So) Great Society Of the 27 million draft-age males who came of age during the Vietnam War era, “more than 90 percent found ways to avoid serving, leaving the flghting and dying to be done . . . by the nation’s poor and minorities,” states author/historian Jack Colhoun, himself a former evader and expatriate who returned to the United States several years ago (Colhoun 1980). A study done in the early 1970s showed that, unlike deserters, draft evaders were mostly university educated. Most used the tried-and-true parachutes of the great washed middle and the upper classes: student deferments; early marriages; legal loopholes tailored by savvy lawyers; sudden and/or bizarre physical ailments diagnosed by family physicians; claims of mental illness, homosexuality ,or transvestitism,which rarely worked,by the way.Few draft boards bought the guy-in-a-miniskirt routine, although it is nearly impossible to tell exactly how many young men slipped through the cracks using the other techniques. Antimilitary sentiment snowballed during the late 1960s.Although the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) was organized in Draft Evaders, Expatriates, and Conscientious Objectors 147 1967, the revelation of the massacre at My Lai two years later resulted in a tidal wave of resentment both outside and within the armed forces. Coffeehouses sprang up near military bases, further nurturing growing dissatisfaction. The unfairness of the Selective Service system also angered many soldiers. The government attempted to level the fleld by holding an annual draft lottery from 1969 to 1973. This was one game of chance where losers were winners: birthdays were drawn from a glass bowl, with the lowest numbers (1–100) being drafted, the middle (up to 250) being in the “sweat zone”—maybe yes, maybe no, depending upon the whim of the draft board—and all above that being the lucky non–GI Joes. Once the lottery was instituted, most deferments, such as graduate school, were no longer acceptable, although those in the know could still take the National Guard/ROTC route, hoping for a softer assignment. By 1971, the desertion rate in the army peaked at 73.5 per 1,000 men, much higher than during the Korean confiict and World War II. Even middle-class white boys were willing to risk “bad papers”—dishonorable, less-than-honorable, general, or undesirable discharges, many of which took place without due...