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Back when the Dan Quayle method of youthful patriotism -- support the Vietnam War enthusiastically while disparaging protesters, but pull strings to get into a guard unit that will never go overseas -- was first published, a friend thought the furor was hilarious.
Hey, I went into the reserves, too, so I could avoid
going to 'Nam,
he said. That's the only smart thing
that Dan Quayle has ever done.
Now the Vietnam-era draft comes up again to haunt another candidate, Bill Clinton, who apparently tried to avoid conscription.
Vietnam tore the country apart twenty years ago, and now
our elections may turn on James Fallows' apt question:
What did you do in the class war, Daddy?
The draft was supposed to be democratic and affect all classes equally; as Fallows demonstrated, it hit minorities and blue-collar whites much harder. The people who get the worst deal from America are those who make the supreme sacrifice. It's an American tradition. Those who had $300, a year's wage then, could buy their way out of our first draft, during the Civil War.
During Vietnam, the system was less forthright, so straight cash wouldn't work. You had to find a way to stay in college; that was my trick, even though I occupied space that should have gone to a scholar. (Confession: when my deferment ran out in 1972, I ended up in uniform at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. The Army and I soon agreed that I was not Army material. I was honorably discharged after a miserable seven weeks.)
Some friends discovered a shrink in Boston who'd certify anyone as psychiatrically unfit for a fee. Others found a dentist in Golden who installed tooth braces; you were deferred from the draft as long as you were undergoing orthodontic work. Many healthy young men searched their bodies diligently for knee injuries, back ailments and substance addictions.
Do we learn anything by re-opening all that?
It doesn't tell us much about someone's current character; none of us is the same person we were twenty years ago. The people who preached peace and love in the sixties were known for greed and materialism in the eighties.
Further, a look at the tragic career of someone like Audie Murphy shows that military heroism certainly doesn't guarantee civilian competence. And draft-dodgers are often honorable, competent people who enrich their communities: Colorado owes much to slackers like Adolf Coors and Charles Boettcher who fled the Prussian draft.
Maybe there is a study somewhere which demonstrates that leaping to the bugle's call produces character and competence. But from what I can tell, it has about as much relevance as whether someone was born in a log cabin.
When, oh when, will Vietnam finally end?
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