Roger W. Smith, ‘An Open Letter Concerning the Draft’

The open letter posted here as a PDF file was written by me in circa October 1968 and was handed out by me in front of an army induction center in Boston, Massachusetts where I underwent a physical on the same day.

— Roger W. Smith

  November 2015

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Addendum, February 2024

I realize now, many years later, that this letter, while reflecting sincere feelings that I had at the time, was a mistake.

I did, in fact — in the end — accept conscientious objector status and comply with the requirements by performing alternative service in hospitals for over two years.

My letter to the draft board, which I handed out at the induction center on the day of my physical, ended with the words “and the people, I am confident, will not let it survive.”

My mother, with her marvelous ear for language, commented that this ending struck a false note. (She was right.) It sounded bombastic.

I impulsively dropped the letter in a mailbox right after writing it — late at night — and went home to bed. That night or the next, I had nightmares about being arrested and carted off to jail.

I was afraid of jail (for draft resistance). but — it is hard to explain — I wanted, perversely, to be a martyr; the state of my mind then was in this respect “unbalanced.”

There were unresolved psychological issues not related to the actual issue of the war and the draft (an issue of deep concern to many draft age men at the time) that I was tormented with at the time. To “clear” these issues — to sort of wipe them out — I did something impulsive and not in my best interests. It was not warranted by the circumstances, or how my draft board had treated me.

I am proud that I did take a stand against the war and sought a lawful way to address the issue.

It may seem irrelevant to mention this, but I would add that (I passed my physical), I had resolved that, if drafted, I would have served.