It was a Presidential Clemency as opposed to pardons and had restrictions and good citizenship program attached to it. Here is another article. Much of the program was completed while Cater was in office, however it started with Ford. Carter's continuance as an "Amnesty, merely disolved the traching and good citizenship focus of returnees. Some didn't return as exhibited by certain posters on this board.
In 1974, President Ford established a program of partial relief for Vietnam War resisters.
That clemency program was said to complement Ford’s pardon of President Nixon, who resigned from office to avoid likely impeachment.
Covered under the program were convicted draft violators, convicted military deserters and those gone AWOL. Draft violators who had never been tried, and veterans with less than honorable discharges for absence offenses, were also eligible.
Persons receiving clemency were given 24 months of alternative service and required to sign a broad oath of allegiance to the United States.
Under the plan, GI participants lost all veterans benefits, unlike many other veterans with less than honorable discharges.
The program was widely regarded as a failure, even by people who administered it. Only 27,000 of the 350,000 eligible persons applied; 21,800 were granted clemency, mostly men living in the United States.
Those granted clemency were divided between “draft offenders” and “military offenders” who abandoned active-duty military jobs.
The program was said to have limited success, since many war resisters ignored it. Program critics insisted that Ford should have offered unconditional amnesty.
When President Carter was inaugurated on January 20, 1977, his first act was granting amnesty to draft evaders and some deserters from the Vietnam War. According to Immigration and Naturalization Service figures, 381 persons returned to the United States between January 21, 1977, and June 1, 1978, when INS stopped keeping track.
Only 114 of the returnees said they intended to stay in the United States; the remaining 267 men said they intended to visit, INS officials said.
According to Justice Department records, the amnesty program potentially affected 2,167 draft dodgers who were considered fugitives at the time of Carter’s blanket pardon.
Their charges were dismissed after the amnesty, which covered nonviolent violations of the Selective Service Act. There were some 9,000 draft law convictions before the Carter pardon; the imprisoned were set free.
In addition, the Defense Department upgraded the discharges of nearly 19,000 members of the armed forces, who had been accused of deserting and had been given less than honorable discharges.
Estimates of the number of draft and military resisters who went into exile during the Vietnam Era vary widely.
The best estimate is 100,000, at least 90 percent of who fled to Canada. How many remain abroad is unknown, according to Amnesty International sources.
The New York Times estimates that as many as 25,000 draft resisters live in Canada; that does not include active-duty servicemembers in exile.
Today, military resisters who return to the United States may still face criminal prosecution or a bad-conduct discharge.
GI resisters, including those in exile, remain in legal jeopardy. No universal amnesty was ever granted. Every year, a small number are arrested upon returning to the United States.
That could be the same fate awaiting Jenkins.
— Wayne Specht |
