Draft evasion
[9] Draft evasion has been a significant phenomenon in nations as different as Colombia, Eritrea, Canada, France, Russia, South Korea, Syria, Ukraine and the United States.
[11] Another type consists of attempts to circumvent, manipulate, or surreptitiously violate the substance or spirit of the draft laws in order to obtain a deferment or exemption.
Canadians objected to conscription for diverse reasons: some thought it unnecessary, some did not identify with the British, and some felt it imposed unfair burdens on economically struggling segments of society.
[51] During World War II, there was no legal way to avoid the draft, and failure to obey was treated as insubordination or desertion, punished by execution or jail.
[52] Approximately 1,500 men failed to show up for the draft at the start of the Continuation War (1941–1944, pitting Finland against the Soviet Union), and 32,186 cases of desertion were handled by the courts.
The käpykaarti (forest-dwelling Pine Cone Guard, mentioned above) was a diverse group including draft evaders, deserters, Communists, and Soviet desants (military skydivers).
[64] Around this time period, a gendarmerie was assembled, aiming to hunt for the people who deserted the military or dodged drafts; the French also enforced the mandatory carrying of passports, among other measures.
[67][68][69] The draft has become part of the fabric of Israeli society: according to Le Monde senior editor Sylvain Cypel, Israel is a place where military service is seen not just as a duty but a "certificate of entry into active life".
[66] In 2007 the Israeli government initiated what some called a "shaming campaign", banning young entertainers from holding concerts and making television appearances if they failed to fulfill their military requirement.
[66] By 2008 over 3,000 high school students belonged to "Shministim" (Hebrew for twelfth graders), a group of young people claiming to be conscientiously opposed to military service.
In contrast, draft-resisters, members of New Profile and Shministim, refusing to manipulate nationalistic and militaristic codes, voice a much more radical and comprehensive critique of the state’s war making plans.
[23] A declassified Central Intelligence Agency report revealed that the Soviet elite routinely bribed its sons' way out of deployment to Afghanistan, or out of military service altogether.
[84][85] According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, since the early 2000s, the country has been rocked by scandals involving celebrities who try to use their fame to evade the draft or receive special treatment from the military.
[91] In 2015, responding to perceived threats from pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military instituted a compulsory draft for males between 20 and 27 years of age.
[106] The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was controversial in the US[109] and was accompanied by a significant amount of draft evasion among young Americans, with many managing to remain in the U.S. by various means and some eventually leaving for Canada or elsewhere.
[110] According to peace studies scholar David Cortright, more than half of the 27 million men eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War were deferred, exempted, or disqualified.
[111] The head of US President Richard Nixon's task force on the all-volunteer military reported in 1970 that the number of resisters was "expanding at an alarming rate" and that the government was "almost powerless to apprehend and prosecute them".
"Draft Dodger Rag", a 1965 song by Phil Ochs, employed satire to provide a how-to list of available deferments: ruptured spleen, poor eyesight, flat feet, asthma, and many more.
[120] Another text pertinent to draft-age men was Jules Feiffer's cartoon novella from the 1950s, Munro, later a short film, in which a four-year-old boy is drafted by mistake.
[141] In 2017, University of Toronto professor Robert McGill cited estimates by four scholars, including Jones, ranging from a floor of 30,000 to a ceiling of 100,000, depending in part on who is being counted as a draft evader.
In September 1974, President Gerald Ford offered an amnesty program for draft dodgers that required them to work in alternative service occupations for periods of six to 24 months.
[166] American draft evaders who left for Canada and became prominent there include author William Gibson, politician Jim Green, gay rights advocate Michael Hendricks, attorney Jeffry House, author Keith Maillard, playwright John Murrell, television personality Eric Nagler, film critic Jay Scott, and musician Jesse Winchester.
[7][169] Adams says they contain some surprises: It is to be expected that the draft dodgers denounce the state as an oppressive bureaucracy, using the vernacular of the time to rail against "the machine" and "the system."
What is more surprising is their general resistance to mass movements, a sentiment that contradicts the association of the draft dodger with sixties protest found in more recent work by [Scott] Turow or [Mordecai] Richler.
[170]Later memoirs by Vietnam-era draft evaders who went to Canada include Donald Simons's I Refuse (1992),[171][172] George Fetherling's Travels by Night (1994),[173][174] and Mark Frutkin's Erratic North (2008).
According to a column by E. J. Dionne in The Washington Post, by 2006 politicians whom opponents had accused of improperly avoiding the draft included George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Bill Clinton.
[177] In a 1970s High Times article, American singer-songwriter Ted Nugent stated that he took crystal meth, and urinated and defecated in his pants before his physical, in order to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War.
In 1989, approximately two decades after the fact, Chase revealed on a television talk show that he avoided the Vietnam War by making several false claims to his draft board, including that he harbored homosexual tendencies.
[194] By contrast, prominent journalist James Fallows is convinced that social class (rather than conscience or political conviction) was the dominant factor in determining who would fight in the war and who would evade their obligation to do so.
[199] According to Christ, while many of these playwrights were sensitive to the moral dilemmas of war and the imperfections of Athenian democracy,[199] most touted "the ethical imperative that a man should support his friends and community.
