Draft Dodger Demonstrated for Vietnam Draft then Ran to France

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by  Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

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Wikipedia gives Romney’s history, showing him to have dropped out of college at 19 and, instead of going to Vietnam as most Americans, he left for France but not covered by any deferment other than one claimed as part of a “private agreement” to name all Mormon children “ministers” according to Mitt’s biographers.

The US Constitution says otherwise, from page one onward.  There is no language in the Federal Register supporting this claim, no court decisions and, as there were no African Americans allowed in the Mormon Church at the time, such a decision would have also been a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Equal Protection provisions of the Constitution.

It wasn’t until 1978 that the challenges to the Mormon Church as legitimate due to their racists policies was settled by the IRS allowing them the legal status of a religious organization.  Prior to that, they had the same tax standing as the KKK.

No ACLU lawsuit, no complaints against the then “whites only” Mormon Church and a bizarre number of contradictory stories to make Romney seem like something other than a felon, not very convincing stories at that.

Romney attended Stanford University in 1965–1966 for a year.^{[20][nb 2]} Although the campus and environs were becoming radicalized with the beginnings of 1960s social and political movements, he kept a well-groomed appearance and participated in pre-“Big Game” customs involving the Stanford Axe.^[20][31][32] In May 1966, he was part of a counter-protest against a group staging a sit-in at the university administration building in opposition to draft status tests.^[20][31]

In July 1966, he left for a thirty-month stay in France as a Mormon missionary,^[20][33] a traditional rite of passage for which his father and many other relatives had volunteered.^{[nb 3]} He arrived in Le Havre with ideas about how to change and promote the French Mission, while facing physical and economic deprivation in their cramped quarters.^[13][3

An article in today’s Daily Mail features a 19 year old Mitt Romney, not in France as he claimed but in the US, demonstrating in favor of the draft.

They say every picture tells a  story.

A newly-unearthed photograph showing Mitt  Romney demonstrating in favour of the Vietnam War draft might leave the  presidential candidate feeling somewhat embarrassed.

The veteran Republican, then 19, can be seen  picketing an anti-war sit-in at Stanford University in Palo  Alto, California, in 1966.

Mr Romney will no doubt be proud of his  younger self taking what was at the time a very unpopular stance.However, he might grimace at his clean-cut  appearance and preppy wardrobe.

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Here, from Yahoo, is the entire list of draft deferments.  Voluntary service as a “missionary” or helping the homeless or raking lawns aren’t on the list:

The Vietnam War produced “the starkest class division in American military service since the days of purchased draft deferments in the Civil War

PWWII period: (1948 thru 1976*)

1-A Available for military service

1-AM Medical specialist available for military service

1-A-O Conscientious objector available for noncombatant military service

1-A-OM Medical specialist conscientious objector available for noncombatant military service

1-C Member of the Armed Forces of the United States, the

Coast and Geodetic Survey, or the Public Health Service

(Enl)-enlisted; (Ind)-Inducted; (Dis)-discharged

1-D Member of a Reserve component or student taking military training

**1-H Registrant not currently subject to processing for induction or alternate service

1-O Conscientious objector available for civilian work contributing to the national health, safety, or interest

1-OM Medical specialist conscientious objector available for civilian work contributing to the national health, safety, or interest

1-S Student deferred by statute: (H)-high school; (C)-college

1-W Conscientious objector performing civilian work in the national health, safety, or interest (Rel)-released

***1-Y Registrant qualified for service only in time of war or national emergency

2-A Registrant deferred because of civilian occupation (except agriculture)

2-AM Medical specialist deferred because of critical community need involving patient care

2-C Registrant deferred because of agricultural occupation

2-D Registrant deferred because of study in preparation for the ministry (there were NO Mormon divinity schools in France)

2-M Registrant deferred for medical study

2-S Registrant deferred because of activity in study

3-A Registrant with a child or children; or registrant deferred by reason of extreme hardship to dependents

4-A Registrant who has completed service; or sole surviving son

4-B Official deferred by law

4-C Alien

4-D Minister of religion or divinity student

4-E Conscientious objector opposed to both combatant and noncombatant training and service

4-F Registrant not qualified for military service

4-FM Medical specialist not qualified for military service

4-G Sole surviving son

4-W Conscientious objector who has completed civilian alternate service

5-A Registrant over the age of liability for military service

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There is no record of Romney filing for conscientious objector status. His photo ops riding around on a bicycle asking the French if they wanted free English lessons, what he actually did while there, is hardly divinity study.

Mitt Romney graduated from high school in 1965.  He then left the United States for France, spending 2 and a half years there during the height of the Vietnam War.

A Mormon “missionary” is a religious volunteer position not affiliated with a divinity school.  There are, in fact, no records of Romney’s residency in France, only rumors of a millionaire’s son recruiting for a religion the people of France find absurd.

There are no Mormon facilities in France now nor have there ever been.  It wasn’t until 2009 that Mormonism applied to be registered as an established religion in France.

In 2006, the Mormon church came under investigation for its policies toward women and children which are inconsistent with French law.  A report was issued. (French Language)

The ADFI (Union in Defense of Families and Individuals) declared Mormonism a cult and a danger to French society, indicating it used trickery and deceit to proselytize, offing free English lessons and genealogy research in order to attempt to recruit members.

Unwanted by the French, facing a war he seemed so dedicated to see others fight, there he sat in France, we are told not enjoying wine or sex, 30 months outside the United States during wartime with no imaginable rationale for failing to serve his nation.  With a father that was a close friend of the president, do you imagine he felt the rules didn’t apply to him?

If there are any doubts, Romney could have volunteered for missionary work, something not covered by deferment.  He took a college deferment, attended for as short time, left Stanford for some unknown reason, should have been drafted the day Stanford sent in the report to the draft required by law.

A letter written to the Columbian defends Romney.  This is an interesting way of looking at things:

Now the media is making a big to-do about Mitt Romney having draft deferments while he was in college and doing his obligatory ministry with the church. (A June 6 Columbian story reported “Romney’s lack of military record faces new scrutiny.”)

I, too got college deferments, and apologize to no one because of it. These deferments are given out by the government, not out of goodness, but because certain skills are needed to continue in the workforce.

According to this logic, if you join any organization of any kind that says you don’t have to serve, be it a sewing club, a pinochle circle or whatever, this supersedes draft law.

Romney’s claim is that when he “left” Stanford, reason not given, his “missionary obligation” then overrode US law. Funny thing, the desire to go to Stanford overrode his “missionary obligation.”

In fact, he never seemed to meet that obligation whatsoever though he went two and a half years at prime draft age with NO deferment other than being somewhere a draft notice could never find him and having a father capable of putting in “the fix.”

Bruce Franklin of “Counterpunch“ describes the deal this way.  However, there is a bit of a smell about what seems to be a “hit piece” but actually provides real cover for Mitt based on hot air:

Thus all Mormon young men could claim deferments as ministers.   When the inequity of this arrangement became too blatant, the Selective Service entered into an agreement with the LDS that required the church to specify just one “minister” for each geographical district. 

Since there were relatively few Mormons in Michigan, and Governor George Romney had considerable influence in the church, Mitt quickly received an official appointment as a Mormon “minister of religion,” consecrated by a draft deferment from the Selective Service. 

So instead of returning to Stanford, Mitt went off to become a Mormon missionary in France, where he would spend the next two and a half years—while Vietnam became a slaughterhouse for the Vietnamese and many Americans drafted to slaughter them.

The first “stinko” that comes out is the statement “Since there are relatively few Mormons in Michigan.”  Actually, Michigan has tens of thousands of Mormons (42,000) and has one of the biggest Mormon populations in the Midwest.

Thus, the line about the Selective Service agreement was bad enough, pure “imagineering, then we added to the mythology by taking a state drowning in Mormons and hoping people are stupid enough to believe what is actually a “cover and deception” piece.

Without this “watered down hit piece,” Mitt would be facing federal felony charges or would be listed among the pardoned draft dodgers from 1977.

Either way, his political career is saved, particularly when the seeming attack comes from a highly deniable site like Counterpunch famous for running interference for Julian Assange when he was caught partnering with the New York Times and the Mossad.

Lenin’s quote applies here:  “If you want to control the opposition, be the opposition.”

Additionally, this sounds good with one exception, there is no record of this decision or any legal precedent supporting it.  It is just a story, no more, one  passed on but not supported.

Every effort is made to make Romney look like something other than a felon, some articles admit political strings, some refer to illegal deals. But what we don’t find is any support in the form of an entry in the Federal Registry nor  any court challenges which would have most certainly been filed by the ACLU, SPLC, NAACP and other groups who would have immediately gone to court if a “whites only” church had been offered a special privilege.

Wikipedia on Mormon racial policy during the period covered by the Romney fairy tale:

 …before the Civil rights movement, the LDS policy went largely unnoticed and unchallenged. Beginning in the 1960s, however, the church was criticized by civil rights advocates and religious groups, and in 1969 several church leaders voted to rescind the policy, but the vote was not unanimous so the policy stood.

In 1978, church leaders led by Spencer W. Kimball declared they had received a revelation instructing them to reverse the racial restriction policy

During the middle of the civil rights era, when the selective service was accused of filling Vietnam with African Americans, a deal could be cut like this and the country not explode?  Rewrite history to cover the behind of another cowardly frat boy?

It was 1978 when the first African America was allowed to become a Mormon.  The American Nazi Party opened membership before that, the Klan did too.

We have two proofs, lack of proof and lack of obvious response.  What we do have is lots of cash, lots of privilege and an interesting story with several versions.

Why is it always the embarrassing photos like those above, demonstrating for a war Romney refused to fight and then wanting us to turn over a generation of our kids or grandkids for him to send off to Iran.

Is this all because Sheldon Adelson is trying to buy Romney the presidency with proceeds of gambling (forbidden for Mormons) and claims of prostitution, for which Adelson has been accused but has spent millions to keep silent through lawsuits.

Thus we will amend that to “alleged prostitution.”

What can we say about Romney?  Alleged coward and hypocrite? No “alleged about it.

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Addendum:  The History of Mormon Racisim, Why the IRS Didn’t Designate Their Church Status Until 1978

(How was the KKK and Mormon Church Different?  Answer:  They weren’t)

God is That You? Or the IRS?

So which was it? A direct message from God to the President of the Church of Latter Day Saints? Or – and far more likely – a direct message from the Internal Revenue Service by way of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter threatening to revoke their non-profit status if they continued to discriminate against blacks?

In order to go forward with this discussion, we must first learn the origins of this discrimination against all people of dark skin in the world by Mormon’s founding fathers. They call it the Curse of Cain…and there are writings from the founder Joseph Smith, Presidents and Apostles for decades supporting the belief that blacks are born of an evil seed and are not worthy of co-mingling with, let alone allowed in their church.

“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be” (ibid., 10:110; emphasis added)

“But let them apostatize, and they will become gray-haired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 332

Had I anything to do with the Negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 270; History of the Church, 5: 218; emphasis added).

These are strong and definitive statements without leaving any room for equivocation. A Mormon member asked the question as to whether the Church’s position on banning blacks from the priesthood was opinion or doctrine and he was answered by the leadership through an official statement” stating in part….

“From the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith even until now, it is has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel.

Furthermore, your ideas, as we understand them, appear to contemplate the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now.

God’s rule for Israel, His Chosen People, has been endogamous [meaning ‘marriage within a specific tribe or similar social unit’]. Modern Israel [the Mormon Church] has been similarly directed.

We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in this are, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine. “

Faithfully yours,

[signed]

George Albert Smith

J. Reuben Clark, Jr.

David O. McKay

The First Presidency

Summary of the Curse of Cain Doctrine and Priesthood-Ban Policy

For 130 years (1848-1978), Mormon Church leaders taught the following:

• All human spirits were born sons and daughters of God and one or more of His wives, on the planet that God lives on, which is near a star named Kolob (koe-lawb)

• Adam and Eve were white people, living in the Garden of Eden in what is now Jackson County, Missouri, who looked like Anglo-Saxons (like 19th century Mormons).

• Cain was a white man until he killed Abel, so God changed him into the first Negro.

• Also, the “seed of Cain” would also inherit his “cursed” and “mark” and also they would be deprived of the Priesthood until the LORD removed the Curse of Cain sometime after Abel was resurrected, had children, and all of Abel’s male descendants received the Priesthood first, then the Curse of Cain would be removed.

• The Mark of Cain was a black skin, flat nose, and kinky hair. Cain, a white man, is “changed” by the LORD instantly into the first Negro.

• Cain married his sister, and she became the second Negro ever because the Lord also “changed” her from a white Anglo-Saxon looking woman into a Negro.

• All the spirits who fought for Jesus against Lucifer in the War in Heaven, before this Earth was formed, but who were “less valiant”–were punished by being born into “the lineage of Cain” as Negroes, and thus “deprived of intelligence”, with “mis-shapen” and “ugly” bodies, and destined to be “servants” of the white man, their superiors, until the Curse of Cain was removed by the LORD sometime after the Millennium was over.

• Canaan and his descendants went into Africa, and a few to India and Australia and New Guinea.

• All Negroes inherit the “Mark of Cain” which is a black skin, flat nose, and kinky hair.

• Negroes are banned from the Temple and the Priesthood until the Curse of Cain is removed by the Lord sometime after the Millennium (1000 year reign of Christ on Earth) is over.

• This doctrine was known as The Curse of Cain Doctrine. Because of this doctrine, all black Mormons, and anyone with “one drop of Negro blood” was banned from the Mormon Temple and the Mormon priesthood. All male Mormons over the age of 12 hold the Priesthood, and they must have it in order to get into the highest heaven. All Mormons must be “Endowed” and “Sealed” in a Mormon Temple in order to get into the Celestial Kingdom (highest heaven). Without the priesthood and Temple endowments and sealings, a Mormon male can, at best, become a sexless and eunuched “eternal servant” of the Gods in the Celestial Kingdom.

Weyrich in an interview in the early 1990s said, “What changed their mind was Jimmy Carter’s intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation.”

What caused the [Religious Right] movement to surface,” Weyrich reiterated,”was the federal government’s moves against Christian schools.” The IRS threat against segregated schools, he said, “enraged the Christian community.”

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

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