Vietnam Deserters

THE PENTAGON has ended its six-month old program to "automatically" upgrade some 60,000 undesirable discharges received by Vietnam-era deserters, but figures show that only a fraction of those who had received non-honorable discharges had chosen to participate.

The manner in which the upgrading was handled displays a painful double standard of justice for those who resisted during the war in Vietnam. Draft evaders, who were generally white, middle-class, and college-educated, received a blanket pardon. Deserters, however, who were largely black, poor, or ill-educated, were given the burden of applying to have their discharges upgraded to erase the official stigma. Those who were aware of the program, who were not afraid of battling the bureaucracy once more, and who were eligible for the program, were given upgraded discharges. But the process should have been much simpler. In many cases, deserters displayed supreme moral courage in their resistance in Vietnam. Yet in return for their acts of conscience, they have been scorned and snubbed by society. The Pentagon should immediately upgrade the status of these discharges with no burden upon the dischargee to act.