Students and the Draft-A Statement
THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT was prepared before President Johnson's announcement that he would institute an incomplete ban on the bombing of North Vietnam. Our hope is that events in the next few...
...Moreover, we believe that the right to advocate—and counsel—such a course on the draft is protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States...
...Robert Boyers, editor Salmagundi...
...George Charney...
...Leon Shull, ADA...
...Steven Kelman, Harvard YPSL...
...society) it must be examined like all other political strategies, that is, in terms of likely consequences, productive or counter-productive...
...Horst Brand...
...Shall this country, in the willful pursuit of a war that millions of Americans find dubious and a smaller but still notable number of us find odious— shall this country now proceed to prosecute and throw into jail thousands of its finest young people, precisely the ones who in other circumstances might take the lead in social reconstruction...
...Bill Goode, asst...
...Precisely how many will abide by their judgment to the bitter end, we do not know...
...Harry Fleischman, vice president, Workers Defense League...
...We wish therefore to state for the public record the following opinions: Where students and other people of draft age refuse to obey the draft on grounds of individual conscience, regardless of whether or not their refusal rests on a belief in a "Supreme Being," we respect and sympathize with their decision...
...Richard Wasserstrom, UCLA...
...Joseph Starobin...
...Alan Lelchuk, Brandeis University...
...Max Green...
...Jack Rader...
...Our hope is that a turn toward peace will have as its immediate consequences a sharp reduction of draft quotas and the dropping of the Spock-Coffin indictments...
...Gordon Haskell, ACLU...
...Jack Bollens, Center for War/Peace Studies, Chicago...
...Walter Goldwater...
...Arthur Springer...
...Irving Thau, Workers Defense League...
...continued on page 196) STUDENTS AND THE DRAFT (continued from page 194) Right now, especially in view of recent encouraging events, we believe that the best way of rallying the American people to the need for a sharp change in our Vietnam policy is through public and electoral activity, which can include popular demonstrations, work in the primaries, and continued agitation...
...Lacking the support of more than a tiny fraction of the American people, such a strategy might make the task of ending the war in Vietnam still more difficult by confounding the issue of the war itself with the issue of "draft evasion," something that could well elicit among large sections of the population repressive and chauvinist responses...
...Ben Seligman...
...Martin Fleisher, Brooklyn College...
...Meyer Schapiro...
...Emanuel Geltman...
...Stephan Themstrom, Harvard U...
...Irving Howe...
...Henry Schwarzschild, Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee...
...For it should strike every sensitive American as a fact of the greatest urgency that a good many of our most serious and idealistic students feel compelled to take this step...
...Victor Kerszencwejg, Jewish Socialist Youth...
...Brendan Sexton, UAW...
...Michael Walzer...
...Edward Chase...
...Signers: (organization or institution listed for identification only) H. W. Benson, editor Union Democracy in Action...
...Norman Podhoretz, editor Commentary...
...There is no cogent reason why conscientious objection must, in 1968, be based on a formal religious system or be regarded STUDENTS AND THE DRAFT as legitimate only if put forward as an objection to all wars...
...Earl Bourdon...
...We know them as among the best of their generation—sincere, selfless, brave...
...Morris Fried, State University at Buffalo...
...Nevertheless, we believe it is important to maintain public pressure on these issues and therefore publish the following statement exactly as it was written and agreed to by those who signed it...
...society) is likely to prove self-defeating...
...We share the view of the resisting students that the war is politically insupportable and morally reprehensible...
...Laurent Stem, Rutgers U...
...We therefore propose to join in support of Dr...
...When draft refusal is put forward as a matter of conscience, it should be honored intrinsically...
...Ronnie Dugger, former editor Texas Observer...
...James Finn, author Protest: Pacifism & Politics...
...N. Gordon Levin, Amherst College...
...John Israel, Claremont College...
...Nor does it greatly matter...
...H. L. Nieburg, U. of Wisconsin...
...In our opinion, draft refusal as a systematic strategy for ending the war (or reconstructing U.S...
...Bernard Rosenberg...
...Joseph Rauh, ADA...
...David Spitz, Ohio State U...
...It signifies a moral revulsion from the country's policies in Vietnam which it would be utterly foolish to dismiss and coarse to mock...
...If this country does not listen to their testimony, if it simply scorns them as "draft dodgers" or proceeds to impose legal penalties, then there will occur, among other disastrous consequences, a terrible alienation between generations that could only damage our hopes for a new upsurge of social progress in the U.S...
...Stanley Plastrik...
...Albert Glotzer, ADA...
...Coffin, and their co-defendents, through public agitation against their prosecution and financial help to defense committees...
...Robert Endleman, Adelphi University...
...but when put forward as a political strategy for ending the war (or reconstructing U.S...
...Joseph Clark...
...Deborah and Fred Meier...
...The U.S...
...Spock, the Rev...
...Michael Harrington...
...It is entirely possible to hold to moral imperatives and apply them to specific events on the basis of secularist and/or humanist persuasions...
...Paul Schrade, West Coast director UAW...
...Pamela Hart...
...We know some of these students...
...Marvin Rich, Scholarship Education & Defense Fund...
...Penn Kemble, Natl...
...Our hope is that events in the next few months—a cease-fire, negotiations toward peace— will render this statement unnecessary...
...James McNamara...
...Norman Thomas...
...Ronald Wright, director, California Federation of Young Democrats...
...now finds itself in a crisis of unprecedented gravity...
...But however we may differ with some of the draft resisters on tactical grounds, we affirm our solidarity with them in support of their conscientious decisions...
...Leadership Studies Center UAW...
...Chairman Young Peoples Socialist League...
...Norman Miller, NYU...
...Bela Kiraly, Brooklyn College...
...Lewis Coser...
...Arnold Kaufman, U. of Michigan...
...THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT was prepared before President Johnson's announcement that he would institute an incomplete ban on the bombing of North Vietnam...
...Thomas R. Brooks...
...We pledge ourselves to support them in their conscientious objection and to provide whatever material and moral aid we can in case they are subject to prosecution...
...A A significant number of young Americans have decided they must refuse military service in Vietnam, even if the consequence will be their imprisonment...
...While supporting those students who as a result of serious conviction and mature reflection decide they cannot fight in this war, we do not find ourselves in accord with movements of "radical resistance...
...At the same time we would strongly urge a liberalization of the draft regulations to permit such acts of conscientious objection to a particular war or kind of war...
...We urgently and firmly declare that the answer must be: No...
...Andrew Martin, U. of Massachusetts...
...William Spinrad, Adelphi U...
Vol. 15 • May 1968 • No. 3
