I don’t think you have to defend them to forgive them. Some vets do return to atone for their past actions and ask for forgiveness. And forgiveness they would often receive (although the Vietnamese who forgave here are typically descendants and wouldn’t remember the war). They’d still have to be responsible for actions they took in the past. We all do. The sentence would vary depending on how much you still would want to excuse or justify your past actions. If you don’t take responsibility, but rather blaming it on Uncle Sam, you’re just mocking all the people you helped murder.
I think there’s also a difference between I was drafted, purposefully injured myself on day one so I can go home, and I was drafted and begrudgingly followed orders because my life anr national pride should be prioritised over the lives of people I will help killing.
worth pointing out that the penalty for refusing was a maximum of 5 years in prison and/or a fine
they weren’t going to be murdered over it
and though 5 years in a yankee prison isn’t a picnic, you are also spending those years not being shot at by Vietnamese soldiers (or occasionally your own side lol)
Also, god only knows about other expresion of antiwar praxis. I remember a lesser know uprising in one of the yankee bases in vietnam, that ended with destroyed helicopters and supression of the soldiers located in there.
“A distinction is made between draft evaders and draft resisters. There were millions of men who avoided the draft, and many thousands who openly resisted the conscription system and actively opposed the war.[9] The head of U.S. President Richard Nixon’s task force on the all-volunteer military reported in 1970 that the number of resisters was “expanding at an alarming rate” and that the government was “almost powerless to apprehend and prosecute them”.[10] It is now known that, during the Vietnam era, approximately 570,000 young men were classified as draft offenders,[3] and approximately 210,000 were formally accused of draft violations;[11][3] however, only 8,750 were convicted and only 3,250 were jailed.[3] Some draft eligible men publicly burned their draft cards, but the Justice Department brought charges against only 50, of whom 40 were convicted.[12]”
This ought to be distributed far and wide. Shows how weak the US state was and how much it was dependent for imperialism on consent of its people. I do believe that draft dodging was punished differently depending on intersecting categories though.
This is why I have very little sympathy for any American who went to Vietnam or Korea. The punishment for draft dodging was in and of itself less awful than not draft dodging. And that’s only if you got caught.
I don’t think you have to defend them to forgive them. Some vets do return to atone for their past actions and ask for forgiveness. And forgiveness they would often receive (although the Vietnamese who forgave here are typically descendants and wouldn’t remember the war). They’d still have to be responsible for actions they took in the past. We all do. The sentence would vary depending on how much you still would want to excuse or justify your past actions. If you don’t take responsibility, but rather blaming it on Uncle Sam, you’re just mocking all the people you helped murder.
I think there’s also a difference between I was drafted, purposefully injured myself on day one so I can go home, and I was drafted and begrudgingly followed orders because my life anr national pride should be prioritised over the lives of people I will help killing.
worth pointing out that the penalty for refusing was a maximum of 5 years in prison and/or a fine
they weren’t going to be murdered over it
and though 5 years in a yankee prison isn’t a picnic, you are also spending those years not being shot at by Vietnamese soldiers (or occasionally your own side lol)
Also, there were networks that helped americans to dodge the draft and escape to Canada or Europe.
Others went full sabotage.
Also, god only knows about other expresion of antiwar praxis. I remember a lesser know uprising in one of the yankee bases in vietnam, that ended with destroyed helicopters and supression of the soldiers located in there.
Also most draft dodgers weren’t prosecuted.
“A distinction is made between draft evaders and draft resisters. There were millions of men who avoided the draft, and many thousands who openly resisted the conscription system and actively opposed the war.[9] The head of U.S. President Richard Nixon’s task force on the all-volunteer military reported in 1970 that the number of resisters was “expanding at an alarming rate” and that the government was “almost powerless to apprehend and prosecute them”.[10] It is now known that, during the Vietnam era, approximately 570,000 young men were classified as draft offenders,[3] and approximately 210,000 were formally accused of draft violations;[11][3] however, only 8,750 were convicted and only 3,250 were jailed.[3] Some draft eligible men publicly burned their draft cards, but the Justice Department brought charges against only 50, of whom 40 were convicted.[12]”
This ought to be distributed far and wide. Shows how weak the US state was and how much it was dependent for imperialism on consent of its people. I do believe that draft dodging was punished differently depending on intersecting categories though.
This is why I have very little sympathy for any American who went to Vietnam or Korea. The punishment for draft dodging was in and of itself less awful than not draft dodging. And that’s only if you got caught.