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{
    "localId": "7336118",
    "label": "Statement by the President in Announcing a Program for the Return of Vietnam Era Draft Evaders and Military Deserters [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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}

{
    "id": "7336118",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7336118",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Statement by the President in Announcing a Program for the Return of Vietnam Era Draft Evaders and Military Deserters [Ford Speech or Statement]",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7336118",
    "collections": [
        "White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)",
        "Press Releases"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Vietnam War, 1961-1975",
        "Amnesty"
    ],
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    "naId": 7336118,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 16,
            "logicalDate": "1974-09-16",
            "month": 9,
            "year": 1974
        }
    ],
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    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/3361/7336118/content/library/document/0248/whpr19740916-012.pdf",
    "mediaId": "964f336d623e211c",
    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 2 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nTOTALLY EMBARGOED\nSEPTEMBER 16, 1974\nUNTIL 11:30 a.m. EDT\nOffice of the White House Press Secretary\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nSTATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT IN\nANNOUNCING A PROGRAM FOR THE\nRETURN OF VIETNAM ERA DRAFT\nEVADERS AND MILITARY DESERTERS\nIn my first week as President, I asked the Attorney General of the United\nStates and the Secretary of Defense to report to me, after consultation with\nother government officials and private citizens concerned, on the status of\nthose young Americans who have been convicted, charged, investigated or are\nstill being sought as draft evaders or military deserters. On August 19, at\nthe national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, I\nannounced my intention to give these young people a chance to earn their\nreturn to the mainstream of American society so that they can, if they choose,\ncontribute even though belatedly to the building and betterment of our country\nand the world.\nI did this for the simple reason that the long and divisive war in Vietnam has\nbeen over, for American fighting men, more than a year, and I was determined\nthen as now to do everything in my power to bind up the nation's wounds.\nI promised to throw the weight of my Presidency into the scales of justice\non the side of leniency and mercy, but I promised also to work within the\nexisting system of military and civilian law and the precedents set by my\npredecessors who faced similar post-war situations such as Abraham Lincoln\nand Harry Truman,\nMy objective of making future penalties fitsthe seriousness of each individual's\noffense and of mitigating punishment already meted out in a spirit of equity\nhas proved an immensely hard and complicated matter, even more difficult\nthan I knew it would be. But the agencies of government concerned and my\nown staff have worked with me literally day and night in order to develop fair\nand orderly procedures and completed their work for my final approval over\nthis last weekend. I do not want to delay another day in resolving the dilemmas\nof the past, so that we may all get going on the pressing problems of the present.\nTherefore, I am today signing the necessary Presidential proclamation and\nexecutive orders that will put this plan into effect.\nThe program provides for administrative disposition of cases involving draft\nevaders and military deserters not yet convicted or punished. In such cases,\n24 months of alternate service will be required which may be reduced for\nmitigating circumstances. The program also deals with cases of those already\nconvicted by a civilian or military court. For the latter purpose, I am estab-\nlishing a Clemency Review Board of nine distinguished Americans whose duty\nit will be to assist me in assuring that the government's forgiveness is\nextended to applicable cases of prior conviction as equitably and as impartially\nas is humanly possible.\nThe primary purpose of this program is the reconciliation of all our people\nand the restoration of the essential unity of Americans within which honest\ndifferences of opinion do not descend to angry discord and mutual problems\nare not polarized by excessive passion.\nMy sincere hope is that this is a constructive step toward a calmer and cooler\nappreciation of our individual rights and responsibilities and our common pur-\npose as a nation, whose future is always more important than its past.\n#\n#\n#"
}