Amnesty of Draft Evaders
On February 18, 1972, Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson received a letter from Linda Ledford of Redding, CA about an upcoming policy proposal for amnesty of men who had avoided being drafted or deserted the war effort by escaping to Canada and other various countries. The original response Bizz had given her first letter was that he did not agree with offering the deserters/resisters any form of Amnesty, for they had a basic duty to follow the law and they broke it.
Ms. Ledford did not agree with Mr.Johnson’s opinion as her letter goes on to describe that any and all deserters who accepted amnesty were forced to serve a minimum of 2 years in a federal institution, when all they did was avoid killing “unknown” people. The way she uses unknown, shows a possible insight that she does not fully believe the people Americans are killing are possibly innocent, nor are they a kind of people Americans have barely heard of.
Ms. Ledford also touches on the idea that Mr.Johnson has a duty as her representative to vote in what she believes is right, whether his opinion agrees or not. As her letter quotes “We are each entitled to our opinions, but you, as my representative, vote in my place, and your opinion does not correctly represent mine”. This could say that she will not be voting for Mr. Johnson in the next upcoming election.
Ms. Ledford’s letter shows a lot of detail to research of the policy and her reading of the booklets gives insight that she is well educated, meaning she may have known in the past that presidents before have granted amnesty to others when there was a time of unsteadiness. “Although the Constitution does not use the word, there is a long tradition of presidential amnesty in America. George Washington granted amnesty to the farmers who staged the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794″(CQ almanac).
Originally When President Nixon was asked about offering amnesty to deserters in November 1971, he gave a strong and firm no to the idea, but when January 1972 came around and asked the question again, he stated he would consider the idea of amnesty, but not while there were still soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Coincidentally, President Nixon never had a chance to see that through as July 1974, he resigned from president of the United States. This put President Gerald Ford to the forefront of this issue, and by September 16 (Today!), 41 years ago (1974), he offered any remaining deserters conditional amnesty.
Bibliography
Amnesty: Reputation for draft evaders, deserters. (1973). CQ almanac 1972(28th ed.). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac
