"I was supportive of my country," Romney said. "I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there..."Romney 2004:
"It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam. [But]I did not take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,"[A]ccording Selective Service records, [h]e received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford.
After his first year at Stanford, Romney qualified for 4-D deferment status as "a minister of religion or divinity student." It was a status he would hold from July 1966 until February 1969, a period he largely spent in France working as a Mormon missionary...
His 31-month religious deferment expired in early 1969, and Romney received an academic studies deferment for much of the next two years. He became available for military service at the end of 1970 when his deferments ran out and he could have been drafted. But by that time, America was beginning to slice its troop levels, and Romney's relatively high lottery number - 300 out of 365 - was not called.
---AP
Notes:
- It does seem to Vitus that Mr Romney's acceptance of all those deferments might, contrary to Romney '07, be construed to be actions taken to remove Mr Romney from the pool. Also, how did Mr Romney become invested with said deferments? More "actions", one might infer.
- From experience, Vitus can attest to the truth of the proposition that it would have been quite easy and straightforward for Mr Romney to slake his longing to be in Vietnam.
- However it was actually "not his desire" to go to Vietnam. Poor Mitt. Torn between longing for Vietnam on the one hand, and lack of desire to go there on the other. Whatever; Cool. Vitus can see that a trip to France might be more likely to stir one's desire than a trip to Vietnam, even disregarding the fact that all one's expenses would be paid in the latter case.
No comments:
Post a Comment