Ted’s father was now growing old. Shortly after Susan and Ted started teaching they received a letter from him. A letter from him was rare and unexpected. Dear Ted, I think I should inform you that there was a little mix-up yesterday. Your draft board thought I was you, and I had to go down. No need to worry though. I took care of it for you. I told them where you was and that you were in the Peace Corps. And they asked me a whole lot of other questions. Like I said, I think they was satisfied. Love, Dad P.S. I heard the other day that Alan Campbell chose to go to Canada. I think he’s a coward…
There was nothing more in the letter. Ted assumed his father did what he said. That he took care of everything. There would be Ted’s age that they would have to consider. He was close to the age when his age would keep him from being drafted. But Ted’s father’s reaction to Alan choosing Canada over the draft bothered him: his father had been a Marine during WWII and had already tried to get Ted to signup. So much for peace in the family.
There was no immediate reaction from his draft board, which meant to Ted they weren’t after him and that he and Susan could relax. Some of his buddies from high school who hadn’t gone to college were serving in Vietnam. They hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Alan was the only friend he had who chose Canada.
Ted tried to be philosophical about it, but he knew one thing. He said to Susan…though he admired his father and had bragged about him having been a Marine…”I don’t know what I would do, if they decided to come after me. You know I considered enlisting right out of high school. I considered all of my options. Susan said, “They wouldn’t want you. You’re nearsighted. That would keep you out.” He thought, “Let her think that. I’m nearly too old. Even if they’re after me, it will take them a while to catch me. I’m quite sure of one thing. I don’t want to go to Vietnam, and that’s for sure. Carry a gun and be willing to kill people? No.”
Now in his office at the University of the Philippines Ted wondered how he could face the anti-American demonstration forming in front of his building. Now that he understood that in his father’s eyes he was a coward, he knew he didn’t have to worry about being a standard-bearer. But…much to his surprise…he felt he needed to defend his country. He couldn’t forget that he was an American, a member of the Peace Corps with a mission, and his assignment was on that campus.
But he still wasn’t willing to die for his country. But there could come a time when he still would have to choose, though he thought as a Peace Corps Volunteer he was for sure exempt. You would think that. His status and his age should guarantee it. The long hand of his draft board seemed far, far away, and with an ocean between them and him he felt reassured. It now pleased him that he and Susan had made it through training without being deselected and that after serving two years they will be able to go home having won the gratitude of their country. All he had to do now was face an angry mob of demonstrators, students, who acted as if they hated his country, the country that sent him, and the question that he couldn’t get out of his mind was would he have to take the brunt of their fury. The Little Red Book contained a little bit of their ideology: a book Ted finally managed to read.
And that was what, whenever he walked on campus, Ted Johnson, the volunteer who joined the Peace Corps to avoid the draft, with no idea what he would do if his draft board came after him, except that he knew he wasn’t willing to die for his country, and yet would willingly face anti-American demonstrations, thinking he thought his father thought he was a coward and that in spite of that he could always go to Canada, (was what he) faced when he armed himself with Mao’s pocket-size book and left his office.
Randy Ford
