Word: draft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...White House spokesman said Irons could not receive a presidential pardon under President Carter's program for draft resisters, because that program, like Ford's applies only to people who resisted the draft after...
Estimates on the number of draft resisters included in Carter's program range from 10,000 to 20,000, the spokesman said. The program does not include the more than 100,000 Vietnam war veterans who received less than honorable discharges...
...were nervous about becoming President. "No," he answered after a moment's reflection. "I'm sorry, but I'm not." He plunged immediately and vigorously into his work. Within a day he had issued his first Executive order, pardoning all Viet Nam-era draft evaders who were not involved in violent antiwar acts (see story page 15). He also issued a statement urging Americans to save energy by turning down their thermostats to 65° F. in the daytime and even lower at night. Carter found time to select the desk he will use in the Oval...
Less than 24 hours after taking the oath of office, President Carter fulfilled one of his key campaign pledges: he pardoned the Viet Nam draft evaders. His order covered an estimated 10,000 men already convicted (only seven of whom are still in prison), an additional 2,500 still under indictment, and an undetermined number who never registered for the draft. More than 2,000 who had fled abroad will now be free to return home...
Carter's pardon was carefully limited. He excluded those few draft dodgers who had used "force and violence" to stay out of uniform. More important, he did not forgive the 4,500 deserters still at large, or the 88,700 who received less than honorable discharges for deserting or going AWOL. He simply asked the Pentagon to review their cases with the aim of possibly upgrading some discharges. Finally, Carter promised to begin another study of the estimated 173,000 undesirable discharges that had been dispensed during the Viet Nam years. Pentagon critics claim that many men received such...