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Seeking to heal the country, Jimmy Carter pardoned men who evaded the Vietnam War draft
President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy, along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House following his inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 1977. On the following day, he issued a pardon for people who had evaded the Vietnam War draft.
Suzanne Vlamis/AP
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Suzanne Vlamis/AP
President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy, along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House following his inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 1977. On the following day, he issued a pardon for people who had evaded the Vietnam War draft.
Suzanne Vlamis/AP
When President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977, he wasted little time fulfilling one of his most controversial campaign promises: pardoning those who evaded the Vietnam War draft.
Carter issued Proclamation 4483 on his first full day in office, less than two years after the end of what was then America’s longest war.
The new commander in chief was hoping to heal the divisions left by the conflict, but the move also drew criticism from some who believed it was too lenient toward the men who had sidestepped military service during the war.
It’s one of the defining presidential moments for Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at age 100.
Anti-war activists had urged pardons for draft violators
Carter himself had served in the armed forces before entering political life. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 and rose to the rank of lieutenant.
But during the Vietnam War — and especially as public sentiment turned against the conflict — young men made efforts to avoid the draft.
There were legal ways to avoid the draft, such as going to college or having a medical condition that exempted you from military service. And there were illegal ways, such as fleeing to another country.
Absconding abroad required money. The majority of enlisted men who served in Vietnam came from working-class backgrounds.
As America’s involvement in the war wound down, the public was faced with the issue of what to do about those men who had eluded military service and were now in legal limbo.
Curtis W. Tarr, then the director of the Selective Service System, turns one of the two Plexiglas drums during the fourth annual draft lottery on Feb. 2, 1972. Inside are capsules containing birth dates and orders of assignment for men born in 1953.
Charles W. Harrity/AP
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Charles W. Harrity/AP
David Kieran, a professor of military history at Columbus State University who has written about the Vietnam War, said Americans were divided on the question of whether to punish draft evaders for violating the law or forgive them to help the American public move on from the war.
“Were these people who had not lived up to their civic duty … and had failed to serve their country when their country called?” Kieran said. “On the other hand, there were people who argued these were people who had taken a moral stand against an unjust war.”
During the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter said it was critical for the country to unite after the war and vowed to pardon all the men who had evaded the draft.
“I think that now is the time to heal our country after the Vietnam War,” he said during a televised debate.
His Republican opponent, then-President Gerald Ford, didn’t support an across-the-board pardon. During his time in the White House, Ford started a program granting amnesty to some men who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War in exchange for 24 months of public service.
Carter made good on his promise — and got flack from both sides
Carter won, and after he was inaugurated he issued a pardon for certain people who “violated the Military Selective Service Act by draft-evasion acts or omissions committed between August 4, 1964 and March 28, 1973.”
Protesters against the United States’ participation in the Vietnam War are seen outside the national headquarters of the Selective Service System, which oversees the draft, on May 3, 1971, in Washington, D.C.
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The pardon meant that the thousands of men who skirted military service and either went underground or fled abroad to countries such as Canada and Sweden wouldn’t face criminal charges. It didn’t apply to people who had begun military service and then deserted.
The move was pilloried by members of the military and conservative politicians, who said it was an insult to those who had gone to Vietnam. Sen. Barry Goldwater, a Republican from Arizona, said the pardon was “the most disgraceful thing that a president has ever done,” The Washington Post reported at the time.
Yet others said Carter’s action didn’t go far enough.
The American Veterans Committee praised the pardon but said it should have also included deserters and those who were given less-than-honorable discharges, categories that were disproportionately represented by “minority and less advantaged groups in our society.”
In the years that followed, Kieran said, conservatives continued to view liberals as apologizing for the Vietnam War, with Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan declaring in 1980 that America had fought for a “noble cause” in the country.
But decades later, Carter still defended the pardon as “the right thing to do” and saw it as an extension of the partial amnesty program undertaken by the Ford administration.
“I think, in that sense, [Carter] is seen as having made a good-faith effort,” Kieran said, “to address an issue that had been a fairly significant one in American life for nearly a decade by the time he becomes president, and really sought to find a way to help the country heal after Vietnam.”
An explosion and fire drew a large emergency response on Friday to a lumber mill in the Midcoast region of Maine, officials said.
The State Police and fire marshal’s investigators responded to Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, about 72 miles northeast of Portland, said Shannon Moss, a spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Mike Larrivee, the director of the Waldo County Regional Communications Center, said the number of victims was unknown, cautioning that “the information we’re getting from the scene is very vague.”
“We’ve sent every resource in the county to that area, plus surrounding counties,” he said.
Footage from the scene shared by WABI-TV showed flames burning through the roof of a large structure as heavy, dark smoke billowed skyward.
The Associated Press reported that at least five people were injured, and that county officials were considering the incident a “mass casualty event.”
Catherine Robbins-Halsted, an owner and vice president at Robbins Lumber, told reporters at the scene that all of the company’s employees had been accounted for.
Gov. Janet T. Mills of Maine said on social media that she had been briefed on the situation and urged people to avoid the area.
“I ask Maine people to join me in keeping all those affected in their thoughts,” she said.
Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, said on social media that he was aware of the fire and explosion.
“As my team and I seek out more information, I am praying for the safety and well-being of first responders and everyone else on-site,” he said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Crime scene tape surrounds a bicycle in front of St. Lukes Episcopal Church in Atlanta on May 14, 2026. (SKYFOX 5)
ATLANTA – The woman stabbed to death on the Beltline has been identified as 23-year-old Alyssa Paige, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner.
The backstory:
Paige was killed by a 21-year-old man Thursday afternoon while she was on the Beltline. Officials confirmed to FOX 5 that the stabbing happened near the 1700 block of Flagler Avenue NE.
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said the department was alerted around 12:10 p.m. that a woman had been stabbed just north of the Montgomery Ferry Drive overpass. She was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital where she later died. Another person was also stabbed during the incident, but their condition remains unknown.
According to officers, the man responsible attacked a U.S. Postal worker prior to the stabbing before getting away on a bike. He then used that bike to flee the scene of the stabbing as well.
The suspect was arrested near St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Peachtree Street in Midtown around 5:25 p.m.
What we don’t know:
While officials haven’t released an official motive, they noted the man may have been suffering a mental health crisis.
The Source: Information in this article came from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office and previous FOX 5 reporting.
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.
The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.
Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.
The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.
The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.
Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.
The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.
“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”
The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.
Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.
“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”
Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.
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