Research Writing Exercise by Kirsten

    For my research topic, I had the controversial pardons by President Carter for men fleeing service. During the late 1960's and early 1970's, somewhere around 100,000 Americans fled their draft to the war, 90% moving to Canada and the other 10% hiding in the states. there were even around 1,000 men who fled the war to move to Canada. The U.S. was legally allowed to prosecute those who fled the draft or war, and they did. Many were accused and charged for violating draft laws, and even more still were never formally accused.
   In 1976, Jimmy Carter stated during his presidential campaign that he would pardon draft dodgers in order to put the war behind them and help the country move forward. After he won the election he did just that, and pardoned the men who had attempted to escape the draft. Many people were very upset by this pardon, saying that it allowed "unpatriotic law-breakers" to get off without any repercussions.
   This event was important because it opened the eyes of many to how unfair and unwanted the draft really was. People were willing to leave their families and move to another country to avoid the horrifies war. That says quite a bit about the war and how terrible it must have been. Many people did not believe in the war and what it stood for while others knew how violent and cruel the war was. This caused them to flee and President Carters decision to pardon them may have been extremely controversial, but in the end it accomplished what it was meant to do. It moved our country forward and helped put at least a little bit of the war behind us.

Resource website: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-carter-pardons-draft-dodgers

A picture of someone protesting for pardons of war/draft dodgers and war criminals.