Thursday, March 18, 2004
Cheney's draft-dodging
Eric Alterman digs up a story from the 2000 campaign:
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Cheney received four 2-S draft deferments -- granted to students -- from 1963 through 1965 while he was a student at the University of Wyoming. He married Lynne in 1964, and was thus banned from the draft.I'm not saying draft-dodging during the Vietnam era was wrong. Had I been in their generation, I certainly would have tried just as hard as Bush and Cheney did--and Bill Clinton, for that matter--to get out of the draft. And Cheney's way of avoiding the draft was completely legitimate. But it continues to amaze me that a ticket of two draft-dodgers can get away with attacking their opponent, who actually fought in a war, for being weak on defense.
But in October 1965, the Selective Service announced that married men without children could then be drafted. Exactly nine months and two days later -- on July 28, 1966 -- his first child was born. Cheney hadn't waited until her birth before he sought a 3-A deferment classification -- given to those with dependents. He did so when Lynne was only 10 weeks pregnant.
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