Mitt Romney was a strong supporter of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, going so far as to counter demonstrate at an anti-war demonstration. Go here for a picture of young Mitt holding a picket sign against the demonstrators at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration. Mitt Romney loved Vietnam draft he purposefully avoided He's so clean cut.
A picture taken on May 20, 1966, clearly shows a 19-year old Romney, whose father was at the time Michigan’s governor, standing with pro-war University president Wallace Sterling. To the young Romney, anti-war activists hoping to end the draft — and the senseless deaths of nearly 60,000 young American men — should not sit-in, they should sit down and shut up in preparation for potential deployment.
But as BuzzFeed reported Wednesday, Romney had no chance of being sent overseas because he was already a registered missionary, and apparently religious proselytization was more important than an able-body.
The photo at the time in the papers was titled "Governor's Son Pickets the Pickets." That Mitt. This is probably a year or so after holding a gay kid down and cutting his hair for being different.
Romney found ways to make sure it was the little people who killed and were killed in that war. Yes, a chickenhawk. He had multiple student deferments and then 2 years in France as a missionary kept him out.
"He didn't have the courage to go. He didn't feel it was important enough to him to serve his country at a time of war," said Jon Soltz, who served two Army tours in Iraq and is the chairman of the left-leaning veterans group VoteVets.org.
Critics note that the candidate is among three generations of Romneys — including his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, and five sons — who were of military age during armed conflicts but did not serve.
msnbc
But when running for President in 2007, he falsely claimed that he had wanted to serve in Vietnam:
But during his political career, Romney has flip-flopped on whether he actually wanted to serve in Vietnam. In 2007, Romney — a supporter of the war in Vietnam during the late-1960s — said he had wished he had served:
“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
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But the frustration he recalled in 2007 does not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, “I was not planning on signing up for the military.”
“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.
But in seeking 4 deferments, Romney did in fact take actions to remove himself from the draft. In 1970, Romney eventually became eligible but by that point, the United States had begun reducing the number of troops in Vietnam ...
Think Progress
Another of the literally 1000s of Romney lies that can be documented. If you thought Nixon was dishonest, Romney has him beat.
He received his first deferment for "activity in study" in October 1965 while at Stanford.
As Soltz notes, the younger Romney was under no obligation to seek a college-related deferment.
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After his first year at Stanford, Romney qualified for 4-D deferment status as "a minister of religion or divinity student." It was a status he would hold from July 1966 until February 1969, a period he largely spent in France working as a Mormon missionary.
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His 31-month religious deferment expired in early 1969. And Romney received an academic studies deferment for much of the next two years. He became available for military service at the end of 1970 when his deferments ran out and he could have been drafted. But by that time, America was beginning to slice its troop levels, and Romney's relatively high lottery number — 300 out of 365 — was not called.
msnbc
This is a foul, dishonest man.