Controversial Issue of pardons by President Carter for draft dodgers during the war - Chris Phillips

     When the United States government began drafting for the Vietnam War in the 1960s, many eligible men attempted to avoid being selected. Reasons that one could be ineligible for the draft included being disabled or in college. Young men could also avoid the draft by going AWOL and fleeing the country, or by claiming to be of the conscientious objector status. To be a conscientious objector means to oppose war for moral or religious reasons, and these people would not see any combat. According to my first source, by 1972 there were more people who claimed conscientious objector status than people who were actually drafted into the war. In fact, so many people were attempting to avoid the draft that there were eventually too many people to punish.
     By the time that presidential elections came around in 1976, presidential candidate Jimmy Carter announced his intention to pardon all of the people who attempted to dodge the draft. This would be a blanket pardon, meaning that whatever those people did, whether it was right or wrong, they were forgiven for it. On Carter's second day in office, on January the 21st, 1977, he followed through on his promise.
     Quite a bit of controversy arose over Carter's decision to pardon draft dodgers. According to my second source, critics of this decision claimed that the pardon was "an affront to men who served and died during the war." They meant that the men who were drafted and feared prosecution enough to go and serve died in vain, now knowing that these men would have eventually been pardoned of their crime. Critics also claimed that this pardon would set a precedent if ever the draft needed to implemented again. They mean that in the event of another draft, men would simply dodge it illegally, knowing that there is a good chance that they would eventually be pardoned.

Eligible draft members telling the public to join them in illegally dodging the draft

First source: http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/vietnam_draft.shtml 
Second source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/carter-pardons-draft-dodgers