University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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THE DRAFT: No one knows except the Selective Service- and they ' re not saying. The military manpower requirements of the war in Viet Nam this year prompted the Selective Service administration to issue two changes in the draft law relevant to students at Notre Dame: first, the new automatic II-S deferment for undergraduates; and second, the cancellation of graduate school and vo- cational deferments. The basic problem that devel- oped for students was that the changes demanded a decision much earlier than ever before. Students who requested the II-S could not receive any defer- ment after their graduation, and without the guar- antee of grad school, found themselves in the prime age group for military induction. This year ' s seniors were left hopelessly in uncertainty right to the day of graduation since there simply was no precedent for the Selective Service ' s wide-scale cancellation. No one knew, and Selective Service wasn ' t saying, just how the projected 240,000 men would be chosen from the senior class of 280,000. Rumors were spread to the effect that the local board would have com- plete autonomy; that graduate schools would have to shut down and undergraduate courses that re- quired large nu mbers of assistants would be dis- continued; and that ROTC deferments would be con- tinued. The utter confusion of the first year of a new law, coupled with the lack of definitive state- ments and the demanding of important decisions without full knowledge of the law, created a real need for qualified draft counsellors on campus. The story of the counselling center and some of the diffi- culties that it encountered is told below by one of the counsellors. Prompted by a conviction that thinking people are somewhat embittered by the imposition of a government ' s power to channel their lives into an appropriate slot affording the national interest, gross national product, standard of living, or military manpower supply, a few Notre Dame students de- cided in October to help supply a draft counseling service on campus. The need for such a service grew as the year progressed : for the first time in Selective Service ' s history, students were obligated to ask for their II-S student deferment. Although the Military Selective Service Act of June 1967 provided auto- matic student deferments (now requiring the stu- dent ' s signature) , the effect of forcing a student to hereby request that I be granted an undergraduate student deferment in Class II-S made it seem that the government (Selective Service) was doing stu- dents a grand favor in granting, out of kindness, this gift deferment. Thus, in a strange way, this

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There is no clearer indication of the injustice of American presence in Viet Nam than our military tactics : the use of napalm and fragmentation bombs on populated hamlets; the use of delayed-action bombs which kill indiscriminately hours after being dropped; the use of fragmentation bombs to flush out enemy soldiers from fields and villages where there are known noncombatants ; the use of herbi- cides, harmful to human and animal life, on thou- sands of square miles of land. These policies have not been denied, but justified on the grounds that the enemy also commits atrocities. Were we fighting cannibals, this logic would have American soldiers eating human captives. Human beings do not liberate captive women and children by incinerating them with napalm. We are either wanton animals destroy- ing the land and people we claim to be freeing, or these people are our enemies. If that is the case, we are the aggressors, attempting to establish a stronghold of American influence against the will of the people. In the name of honor, in the name of God, we must no longer demand surrender to our will ; we must negotiate a truly representative gov- ernment and leave. Mr. Johnson has made it ap- parent that as long as Americans support this war, we will not stop fighting until we have our will. The Vietnamese people have made it clear that this will never be until they and their country no longer exist. Forrest Hainline aid and comfort to our enemy as a natural result of some vague credibility gap. But the American youth who sees American goods going to Russia and Russian weapons and technicians killing American soldiers in Viet Nam is very likely to shake his fist and say Hell no, I won ' t go! It is probable that there has never been a popular war at least a war popular with the men who have to fight it. For it is the soldier who is the real peace- maker the one who lays his life on the line to de- fend the liberties which he and his countrymen are willing to fight for. He realizes that freedom isn ' t free, and so do the campus demonstrators. But the more convincing demonstration is given by the soldiers in Viet Nam. Hundreds of Notre Dame men have served there; several have given their lives in an act to preserve our freedom to demonstrate. We all seek an end to the war. But we will not achieve this goal by compromising. To reward Com- munist aggression by negotiating is suicidal for while we can win the war, we might lose the nego- tiation: our philosophy of limited objectives is not shared by our Communist enemies. From an- other war we can still hear the words of a great general, Douglas MacArthur: From the Far East I send you one single thought, one sole idea, written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo : There is no substitute for victory. Clearly, the only way to end the war in Viet Nam is to win it. Christopher Manion THE WAR IN VIET NAM: Two opposing views.

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request (constructed like a contract) prompted stu- dents to reflect about their obligation or duty to return the favor, to serve their country . . . and how. Another way the Selective Service seemed to fall down in giving students the whole story in regards to accepting this new student deferment : by ask- ing for a II-S after June 30, 1967 a student was thereby forfeiting forever his right to a mandatory (if the wife, mistress, etc. is with child) Father- hood (III-A) deferment. The counseling service was pleased to announce this neglect-to-relate-the-whole- story by Selective Service, and was happy to obtain deferment for newlyweds. As time grew close for seniors to try to decide how they were to go to grad school, to decide wheth- er they could or should stay out of the military, and at the same time as the Viet Nam war grew, the need for a bigger and better counseling service emerged. The Notre Dame Psychological Counseling Service, staffed by psychiatrists, educators and psy- chologists, provided group counseling sessions to explore the many difficulties of becoming a conscien- tious objector. Fr. David Burrell circulated a letter signed by many resident priests who stated their readiness, willingness, and deep obligation toward anyone who needed personal, individual counseling regarding the morality of war, of this war, of serv- ing in any and all capacities for God, country and Notre Dame. The statement which pointed out the gap between national policy and personal decision, offered to assist fellow Christians in forming a conscience . . . through not advice by counsel was printed in the Scholastic. As the Spring arrived, it became necessary to hold bi-weekly Information Afternoons especially to help seniors question their responsibilities and provide concrete plans. Far from peace began to settle about those under- graduates who had been expecting a mandatory graduate school deferment. The February 16 Selec- tive Service announcement limiting graduate defer- ments to those in medical fields, those already in grad school for two years, or ROTC members put many who had planned on grad school in anxiety. Counselors slightly quelled the turmoil by reminding those who wanted to know that anyone who loses a II-S by graduating and who thus gains a I-A is entitled to appealing for their rightful prerogative to a personal appearance, a state appeal, and a Presidential appeal, this appeal procedure lasting a minimum of three months. In that period, seniors who were reluctant to serve immediately as soldiers, who were no longer guaranteed either a Peace Corps, teaching, or graduate school deferment could give themselves time to either think more about Conscien- tious Objection, to obtain a teaching position in an inner city area which would give them a year-long deferment, to continue appealing for other defer- ments, to join the Services, to resist altogether, or to take off to Canada. ned alien buchbinder Above, Dr. Benjamin Spock is led by police from New York ' s White- hall induction center after being arrested in connection with a mass anti-draft demonstration last December. Spock, a pacifist and leader of antiwar demonstrators, was arrested along with more than 200 during the day.