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The United Kingdom introduced conscription to full-time military service for the first time in January 1916 (the eighteenth month of World War I) and abolished it in 1920. Ireland , then part of the United Kingdom, was exempted from the original 1916 military service legislation, and although further legislation in 1918 gave power for an ...
Deliberately disrupting a military draft agency's processes or procedures. [12] [37] Destroying a military draft agency's records. [16] [38] [39] Organizing or participating in a riot against the draft. [36] [40] Building an anti-war movement that treats draft resistance as a vital and integral part of it. [15] [28]
Of the nearly 16 million men not engaged in active military service, 96% were exempted (typically because of jobs including other military service), deferred (usually for educational reasons), or disqualified (usually for physical and mental deficiencies but also for criminal records including draft violations). [32]
In September 1974, President Gerald R. Ford offered a conditional amnesty program for draft dodgers that required them to work in alternative service occupations for periods of six to 24 months. [60] At the same time, an offer of prison-release was made to resisters who had remained in the U.S. and had been imprisoned for the offense.
Starting in 1965, Canada became the main haven for Vietnam War resisters. Canadian immigration policy at the time made it easy for immigrants from all countries to obtain legal status in Canada, and classified war resisters as immigrants. [3] There is no official estimate of how many draft evaders and deserters were admitted during the Vietnam War.
Although conscientious objection was not initially part of the draft law, individuals could provide a substitute or pay a commutation fee of $300 ($4,674.34 in 2017 [8]) to hire one. [7]: 3 A July 4, 1864, amendment to the draft law ended commutation except for those draftees who were "conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms."
Moreover, work conditions under military service typically involved more hardship and inconvenience than Wehrersatzdienst. In 2004, military service and Wehrersatzdienst were then made to last equal lengths of time. Military service and draft were controversial during much of their existence.
Opposition to the war arose during a time of unprecedented student activism, which included the free speech movement and the civil rights movement. The military draft mobilized the baby-boomers, who were most at risk of being drafted, but the opposition grew to include a varied cross-section of Americans. The growing opposition to the Vietnam ...