2/25/2004 6:00:00 PM MINOR/Political pull and Bush’s Vietnam
By BILL MINOR
Commentary
JACKSON — In his 1995 autobiography, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was angry that many sons of the “powerful and well-placed” managed to “wangle” safe stateside slots in National Guard or Reserve units during the Vietnam War draft.
Powell had no idea then that he would be characterizing the Vietnam-era record of his future boss, President George W. Bush, in the Texas Air National Guard.
After his 1968 Yale graduation, with the draft breathing down his neck, Bush was jumped over 500 others on waiting lists and given a slot in a Houston-based “champagne unit” of the Texas Air National Guard.
Bush’s father was then the U.S. Congressman from the Houston district. A former Texas lieutenant governor has said that at the behest of a Bush friend he spoke to the head of the Texas Air National Guard on the younger Bush’s behalf.
Soon after he joined the Air Guard unit, Bush was handed a commission as a Second Lieutenant, something the historian of the Texas National Guard says was extremely rare, particularly for anyone without a previous commitment.
Now George W. Bush, as a self-proclaimed “war president” is being put on the hot seat by the media over the gaping holes found in how much duty time he actually spent in the Guard in 1972 and 1973.
Technically he had been transferred to an Alabama Guard unit but it’s well-known that W worked for months in the 1972 Senate campaign of his Dad’s friend, Winton “Red” Blount.
Plus, recent published accounts have underscored that Bush was a no-show for more than a year, failing to take the required Air Force flight physical exam in October 1972 to retain his flying status.
Bush’s demonstrated cavalier attitude toward his Air National Guard service at a time young Americans were dying in the jungles of Vietnam has been interesting news copy, especially because now he is ordering Americans to die on the sands of a nation that posed no threat to us.
However, what most concerns me is that political pull obviously landed him a coveted stateside Guard billet in the first place. That’s because I vividly remember how some prominent people here in Mississippi used influence to put their sons in similar cozy stateside military slots to escape the draft and avoid Vietnam.
One instance especially comes to mind: that in which the son of a powerful Jackson newspaper publishing family suddenly was slipped into the state’s last available Army Reserve slot in a JAG (judge advocate general) unit without any prior legal training.
That young man had graduated from Jackson’s Murrah High School in the same 1964 class as my oldest son, Paul, who, as I will point out in a moment, served in Vietnam in 1969-70.
What happened in Mississippi resonated with me in 1988 when Dan Quayle was put on the GOP ticket with George H. W. Bush. It was disclosed that Quayle’s very powerful Indiana newspaper publishing family used heavy influence to get him a safe National Guard slot during Vietnam.
I certainly don’t mean to knock the National Guard as we know it today (one of my sons is in the Mississippi Air Guard) when units are being mobilized and sent to Iraq to relieve the 160,000 regular troops stretched thin by deployment far beyond what the Pentagon had initially promised.
But the National Guard back in the Vietnam era was something entirely different, regarded as “weekend warriors,” a choice haven to keep from being drafted.
From my own perspective, I find it significant that my oldest son graduated from LSU in 1968, the same year George W. Bush finished Yale. Big difference: Bush had gotten college deferments from the draft. My son had been in the Army ROTC in his four years at LSU and in his senior year was the commander of the 4,000-member cadet corps.
At his graduation, Paul was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army. What should he do next, whether to begin active duty in the Army or start law school, which was his ultimate goal, caused a lot of agonizing in the Minor household.
Knowing the Army already had their hooks in Paul and with the Vietnam draft then in full swing, I advised that even if he enrolled in law school it would be just a matter of time before the Army yanked him out and put him on active duty.
My wife was totally against the war in Vietnam and she wouldn’t have minded it one bit if our son went to Canada. She urged me to work my political contacts to keep Paul from having to go to Vietnam.
While I also had misgivings about this country fighting a war in which the issues were certainly not clear-cut as they were when I fought in World War II, my feelings came down on the side that if you were called by your country it was a matter of duty to serve.
But I left it up to Paul to decide for himself. He opted to postpone any plans for law school and went on active duty, then got married before being sent to the Army intelligence school at Fort Holabird, MD. When his six-month training as an Army spook ended in 1969 it was almost certain he would wind up in Vietnam. Of course, that’s what happened.
It was a painful year, as we learned very little about what Paul was doing in ‘Nam, largely because of the secrecy that went with his being an intelligence officer.
My wife was beside herself when reports of casualties came out of Vietnam, and when Mississippi Sen. John Stennis kept promising that “we’re tunin’ the corner,” in the war.
Nightly, I would get on my knees to pray that Paul would return safely. Thank God, he did in late 1970 and with a Bronze Star. He won it for going beyond what his job called for, making helicopter gunship missions to destroy Vietcong munitions his intelligence team had located.
Me, I’m with Colin Powell: I too believe it was an antidemocratic disgrace that young men with connections avoided risking their lives during Vietnam while the poorer, less-privileged risked theirs.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Minor, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. Diaz’s former wife and two other former judges were indicted last summer on fraud and bribery charges. Minor is also charged with racketeering. Minor was also named in an indictment Friday that charged Diaz with trying to extort money from two lawyers who had a case before Mississippi’s high court. Minor issued a statement denying the allegations. “The government thinks piling false charges on top of other false charges will somehow make their case better,” he said.
Bill Minor of Jackson is a longtime observer of state politics.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Article comment by:
Marshall Miller Lilburn, Georgia
George W. Bush is being called a deserter, AWOL, etc. by his political detractors, but how does a person with such a record merit an honorable discharge, which he has ? There are a lot of politically motivated lies circulating about Bush. He needs to stop trying to accomodate the left and simply ignore them, as the savvy Ronald Reagan used to do. I also served in the Air Force Reserve, six months active as an enlisted man. My unit was activated once while I was in it and again shortly after I was discharged. Bush is catching flack about missing drills but it was common practice to miss drills and make them up. I did this occasionally, and have an honorable discharge. And no, I am not particularly impressed with GWB and voted for Steve Forbes in the primary, Bush in the general election. Bush is way too liberal for me. My favorite politician is America's best Congressman, Ron Paul of Texas. Steve Forbes also served in the reserves or guard. So did Dan Quayle and I consider Dan Quayle a great American who stood up to his leftwing bashers. Unlike Gingrich, Dan Quayle never caved in to the left. Some liberals also took the six months plan, notably the late Penn. Senator John Heinz, liberal Republican ketchup heir, almost as liberal as Arlen Specter. Ugh ! Arlen Specter makes me sick. And Bush and Cheney support him for reelection over a conservative challenger. So what is it that liberals do not like about Bush ? He hangs around with liberal Republicans (ex. Colin Powell, Tom Ridge). They should be happy with Bush.
Posted: Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Article comment by:
Marshall Miller Lilburn, Georgia
George W. Bush is being called a deserter, AWOL, etc. by his political detractors, but how does a person with such a record merit an honorable discharge, which he has ? There are a lot of politically motivated lies circulating about Bush. He needs to stop trying to accomodate the left and simply ignore them, as the savvy Ronald Reagan used to do. I also served in the Air Force Reserve, six months active as an enlisted man. My unit was activated once while I was in it and again shortly after I was discharged. Bush is catching flack about missing drills but it was common practice to miss drills and make them up. I did this occasionally, and have an honorable discharge. And no, I am not particularly impressed with GWB and voted for Steve Forbes in the primary, Bush in the general election. Bush is way too liberal for me. My favorite politician is America's best Congressman, Ron Paul of Texas. Steve Forbes also served in the reserves or guard. So did Dan Quayle and I consider Dan Quayle a great American who stood up to his leftwing bashers. Unlike Gingrich, Dan Quayle never caved in to the left. Some liberals also took the six months plan, notably the late Penn. Senator John Heinz, liberal Republican ketchup heir, almost as liberal as Arlen Specter. Ugh ! Arlen makes me sick. And Bush and Cheney support him for reelection over a conservative challenger. So what is it that liberals do not like about Bush ?
