AMERICAN NOTES: The Amnesty Failure

Amnesty, once among the most volatile of national issues, has quietly fizzled. This week the 18-member presidential clemency board will close shop after a year in operation, and its success has been slight. Only 21,000 of the nation's 108,000 convicted Viet Nam-era draft evaders and deserters have applied to the panel. It approved 16,500 of the applications and passed them on to the White House, where the young men were to be granted either full amnesty or conditional amnesty based upon their performance in a year in an alternate-service job such as hospital orderly or park attendant. Just about...

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