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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (135342)	6/2/2004 1:21:47 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

But the difference between 2 years and 4 years is still 2 years, no matter how you slice it. I'm a little younger than you, but Kerry's somewhat older. As you wrote, your age cohort would have been elligble for the draft in 1970, Kerry volunteered in 1966, things changed a lot in the intervening years. There was a famous account written by James Fallows about the draft which correlates with your view. I remember it well, but thought it was somewhat more recent than it turns out to be. Here's a reference and indirect account: Again, however, the initial breathless reporting was evidence of how so much of daily journalism lives in a void, ignorant of history, even its own. A few months after the fall of Saigon, Fallows wrote a memorable article called "What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?" Fallows, who starved himself to get a deferment, tallied his 1,200 Harvard classmates and found only fifty-six who had entered the military at all, and only two who had gone to Vietnam. archives.cjr.org A more precise reference, from the source: If you are looking for the articles “What Did You Do in the Class War, Daddy?” or “The Philippines: A Damaged Culture,” unfortunately neither of them is available on-line. “Class War” was published in the October, 1975 issue of The Washington Monthly. An expanded version was included in More Like Us, available in paperback. The original article may be available in libraries or directly from the Washington Monthly. jamesfallows.com Fallows appears to have graduated from Harvard in 1970, so his account would be contemporaneous with your recollection. From Fallow's figures, enlisting would seem to be a fairly odd and unusual way to deal with the draft issue. I think your glib dismissal of Kerry's service is a little too obviously political.