In memory of the general pardon granted by Jimmy Carter to those resisting the Vietnam War: NPR

When President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977, he wasted no time in fulfilling one of his most controversial campaign promises: pardoning those who escaped the draft for the Vietnam War.

Carter issued Proclamation 4483 on his first full day in office, less than two years after the end of what was then America’s longest war.

The new commander-in-chief hoped to heal the divisions left by the conflict, but the move also drew criticism from some who saw it as too lenient toward men who had avoided military service during the war.

It was one of the defining presidential moments for Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100.

Anti-war activists called for pardons for offenders

Carter himself had served in the armed forces before entering politics. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 and rose to the rank of lieutenant.

But during the Vietnam War – and especially when public opinion turned against the conflict – young men made efforts to avoid conscription.

There were legal ways to avoid the draft, such as going to college or having a health condition that exempted you from military service. And there were illegal ways, like fleeing to another country.

To escape abroad, you needed money. The majority of enlisted men who served in Vietnam were from the working class.

As America’s involvement in the war came to an end, the public was faced with the question of what to do about these men who had escaped military service and now found themselves in legal limbo.

David Kieran, a professor of military history at Columbus State University who has written about the Vietnam War, said Americans were divided on whether to punish draft dodgers for violating the law. or pardon them to help the American public move on from the war. .

“Did these people fail to fulfill their civic duty…and serve their country when called upon?” » Kieran said. “On the other hand, there were people who claimed they had taken a moral stand against an unjust war.”

During the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter said it was essential that the country unite after the war and pledged to pardon all men who had escaped the draft.

“I think the time has come to heal our country after the Vietnam War,” he said during a televised debate.

His Republican opponent, Gerald Ford, then president, was not in favor of a general pardon. While in the White House, Ford initiated a program granting amnesty to some men who had escaped the draft. during the Vietnam War in exchange for 24 months of public service.

Carter kept his promise – and was criticized from both sides

Carter won, and after his inauguration, he pardoned certain individuals who “violated the Military Selective Service Act by evasive acts or omissions committed between August 4, 1964, and March 28, 1973.”

The pardon means that the thousands of men who avoided military service and went underground or fled to countries like Canada and Sweden would not face criminal charges. This did not apply to people who began military service and then deserted.

The move was criticized by military personnel and conservative politicians, who said it was an insult to those who had gone to Vietnam. Senator Barry Goldwater, an Arizona Republican, said the pardon was “the most shameful thing a president has ever done.” The Washington Post reported at the time.

Still others said Carter’s action did not go far enough.

The American Veterans Committee welcomed the pardon, but said it should also have included deserters and those who received less than honorable discharges, categories that were disproportionately represented by “minority and less advantaged groups.” of our society.”

In the years since, Kieran said: conservatives continued to view liberals as excuses for the Vietnam War, with Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan declaring in 1980 that America had fought a “noble cause” at home.

But decades later, Carter still defended pardon as “the right thing to do” and saw it as an extension of the partial amnesty program undertaken by the Ford administration.

“I think in that sense, (Carter) is seen as having made a good faith effort,” Kieran said, “to address a problem that had been quite significant in American life for almost a decade by the time he becomes president, and was really looking for a way to help the country heal after Vietnam.