Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusualMany exercised option in the '60sWASHINGTON -- 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. Days before his 25th birthday, in January 1966, Cheney obtained his fifth and final deferment. It ensured that he would not have to serve in the war, which eventually claimed more than 58,000 American lives. On Jan. 30, 1967, as the war raged, Cheney turned 26, an age that removed him from the draft pool for good. This period of Cheney's life drew little notice in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s as he rose to White House chief of staff under President Ford, House Republican whip, and defense secretary under President George H. W. Bush. It was barely an issue in 2000 when Cheney ran for the vice presidency. This year, that has changed. Cheney and President George W. Bush are depicting themselves as wartime leaders, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the Iraq invasion, and trying to brand the Democrats as dangerously weak and confused. In response, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee, this month heaped scorn on Cheney's Vietnam-era draft record. Kerry enlisted in the Navy in 1966 and volunteered for swift-boat duty in Vietnam. ''I will not have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and who have misled America into Iraq," Kerry said in Ohio this month. ''I'm going to leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments makes someone more qualified than two tours of duty." Cheney has not responded to Kerry in public, and his staff declined to comment for this article. In years past, Cheney has acknowledged that he did not want to go to Vietnam. Kerry's ''five deferments" line implies that Cheney was especially zealous in his efforts to escape the draft. 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. Continued... |
