• Kerry exchange Kerry exchange I am quite happy to admit mistakes when I am wrong. However, according to its own official Web site (www.ang.af.mil/history), the Air National Guard’s official history states that, during the Vietnam War, “The Reserves and
• Kerry exchange
Kerry exchange
I am quite happy to admit mistakes when I am wrong. However, according to its own official Web site (www.ang.af.mil/history), the Air National Guard’s official history states that, during the Vietnam War, “The Reserves and the Guard acquired reputations as draft havens for relatively affluent young white men.”
In addition, Josh Levin and Timothy Noah reported, on slate.msn.com, that “…what really denigrates the National Guard of 2004 is to compare it to the National Guard of the early 1970’s, when it was a haven for people who wanted to avoid the Vietnam draft.”
A few months ago, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen confessed that, like Bush, he had joined the Guard to stay out of Vietnam: “Back then the Guard was where you went if you did not want to fight.” Cohen told how he repeatedly moved around, “establishing a confusing paper trail” and that for two years or so he “played hooky” and even got paid for all the meetings he missed. Cohen said, “The National Guard and the Reserves were something of a joke. Everyone knew it. Books have been written about it.”
Commenting on the actual state of draft-dodging “back then,” during the Vietnam era, does not in any way reflect negatively on the current Guard and Reserve members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nowhere have I ever denigrated the service of honorable combat soldiers and veterans.
Barbara Elmore
Lihu‘e
