U.S. military medals sent to the White House by veterans as a measure of protest over President Ford’s 1974 Vietnam Reconciliation Program – a program created to provide clemency to Vietnam era draft evaders and military deserters.
photo: A0214-05A
In
one of his first controversial acts as president, World War II
veteran Ford shocks the seventy-fifth annual convention of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago by
announcing his plan for clemency for draft evaders.
To heal the nation, around the same time
he pardoned Richard Nixon, he offered amnesty to the people who had gone
to Canada to dodge the draft. He wrapped his arms around the country,
and said, “Listen, we need to heal. Let’s move on.”
--Steve Ford