Wrong

An article in the Boston Globe reinforces my recollection in an earlier posting Back Up the Truck Johnny, that draft deferments were widely obtained in the 60's. The author notes that two of Cheney's deferments occured before the Vietnam Draft began.

Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusual

WASHINGTON -- Democrats now accuse him of ducking a war that defined his generation. But when 18-year-old Dick Cheney became eligible for the draft in 1959, compulsory military service did not loom large in the future vice president's life -- or for many other young men of his generation.

True, Elvis Presley had just been drafted into the Army, but the pace of inductions was slow. The Cold War was on, and few Americans gave any thought to troubles in Southeast Asia.

Over the next eight years, though, the draft cast a growing shadow over Cheney and others like him as the United States plunged into a military conflict in Vietnam that forced many young men to answer their country's call.

Records indicate that Cheney received his first draft deferment in March 1963, two years before President Lyndon B. Johnson launched a large military offensive in Vietnam. [emphasis added]

[...]

But George Flynn, a retired professor of history at Texas Tech University and author of a book on the draft, said it was not unusual for men like Cheney to have multiple deferments, especially if they were in college. Flynn said many students returned periodically to local draft boards to renew deferments. He likened Cheney's case to that of a former Democratic president who was famously a student and not a soldier during Vietnam.

''Cheney got legal deferments, as did thousands of others, including Bill Clinton," Flynn said. ''Nothing odd about this behavior. What is odd is that Kerry, a Yale graduate with terrific credentials and opportunities, decided to volunteer for the war."

Cheney received four student deferments, a category called 2-S, according to Patrick Schuback, a spokesman for the Selective Service System. They were dated March 20, 1963; July 23, 1963; Oct. 14, 1964; and Nov. 1, 1965.

The deferments were issued as Cheney was in the midst of an on-and-off college career. He started at Yale in 1959 but flunked out, by his own admission, and eventually earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wyoming.

His last deferment, dated Jan. 19, 1966, was category 3-A, usually issued to men with a family hardship. That was given as the Cheneys, who had married in August 1964, were expecting their first baby.

Deferments were common in the 1960s. More than 3.5 million men received 3-A deferments the same year Cheney got his, Schuback said. And 1.7 million others got 2-S deferments that year. More than 343,000 were drafted from July 1, 1965, to June 30, 1966.

Cheney's record also shows he was twice given 1-A status, indicating he was able to serve. The first instance was Feb. 15, 1962, when he was first exposed to the draft because government policy then was to confer that status on men who had reached their 20s, specialists say. The second time was May 19, 1965. As a result, there were apparently several months -- especially in 1965 -- when he could have been drafted. In all, 1.8 million men were drafted from 1964 to 1973.

By John Edwards' logic, there are 5.2 million middle-aged cowards among us. Given that the country is evenly divided between the two parties. One could extrapolate that 2.6 million of these cowards are Democrats. Edwards' rhetoric is not only offensive, it's Wrong on every level.

Can we drop the deferment/draft-dodger meme now?