Volume 18, Number 6 · April 6, 1972
The Case for Amnesty
By Henry Steele Commager
We do not have and, in the circumstances, we cannot have accurate statistics on desertion and draft evasion for the past seven years. It seems likely that desertion has been as high in the war in Southeast Asia as in any other war in which we have been involved, although since draftees were allowed to buy substitutes during the Civil War, the comparison is bound to be faulty. In 1970 the desertion rate in Vietnam was 52 per thousand—twice the rate of the Korean war. In 1971, up to September, the rate was 73.5 per thousand. Many of these deserters were subsequently returned to military control. As for draft evaders, estimates run between fifty and one hundred thousand, but since many potential draftees took cover before being formally inducted, these figures are almost meaningless.
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