Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992 TAG: 9202130126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, N.H. LENGTH: Medium
LETTER ABOUT DRAFT HAS CLINTON ON SPOT
In the latest crisis of his faltering presidential campaign, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton tried Wednesday to contain the political damage from a 1969 letter about his effort to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam war.Clinton, then a graduate student, wrote that despite his intense opposition to the war, he decided to risk being drafted "for one reason: to maintain my political viability."
Disclosure of the letter puts renewed focus on the draft controversy, which has contributed to Clinton's plunge in the polls.
At a tense news conference, a grim-faced Clinton attempted to deflect attention from the contents of the letter he wrote 22 years ago. He suggested the Bush administration had leaked it in an effort to destroy his candidacy.
A Bush spokesman denied any White House involvement and refused further comment.
The Clinton campaign made the letter public only hours before it was to be the subject of a network TV report. ABC News provided a copy of the letter to the campaign this week, saying it had been obtained through Pentagon sources, according to Clinton.
But the network reported Wednesday that the letter had been provided by the former second-in-command of the Army ROTC unit at the University of Arkansas.
The letter was to Col. Eugene Holmes, then-head of the university's ROTC unit. It was dated Dec. 3, 1969, one day after Clinton learned that he had drawn a high number in the draft lottery, assuring he would never be drafted.
Clinton, then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England, thanked Holmes for "saving me from the draft." The letter went on to explain Clinton's deep opposition both to the draft system, which he termed "illegitimate," and the war itself.
Clinton had signed a letter of intent to join the ROTC. He thus obtained a draft determent that allowed him to complete his final year at Oxford. Later, in graduate school, Clinton dropped his ROTC deferment and made himself eligible for the draft.
Clinton wrote that he "decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system. For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead."
Clinton explained Wednesday that this passage referred to his desire to oppose the war from within the political system, not to a planned political career.
Keywords:
POLITICS