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How to desert the US Army in three steps
Broadcast Date: Feb. 21, 1970
Bill Spira is a man in demand. Every day, he fields calls from dozens of draft dodgers and deserters seeking advice, lodging and counselling. Spira himself is a transplanted American who fled his homeland because of the McCarthy communist witch hunt in 1953. Accordingly, he has great sympathy for the nervous young men on the run. With a knowledge of the finer points of the law, he talks about loopholes and formalities in this CBC Radio interview.How to desert the US Army in three steps
• The Manual for Draft Age Immigrants, published by the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme, sold 65,000 copies to young men in the United States. The manual addressed issues including immigration law, Canadian history, geography and climate, and employment.• "On April 12, 1967, Gen. Mark Clark asked the Canadian Embassy in Washington to help return all the 'draft dodgers'. He was told that it would not be possible. Canada's extradition treaty with the United States lists the extraditable offenses one by one (see Appendix A); resisting the draft is not among them." – Introduction to the Manual for Draft Age Immigrants.
How to desert the US Army in three steps
Medium: Radio
Program: The Action Set
Broadcast Date: Feb. 21, 1970
Guest(s): William Spira
Duration: 8:31
Last updated:
May 11, 2004
Television
3:32
Draft cards are burning and antiwar protesers are marching. The war in Vietnam has polarized citizens in both Canada and the United States.
Television
2:49
Spot the beatniks, oddballs, bohemia and draft dodgers in this area of Toronto.
How to desert the US Army in three steps.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: May 11, 2004.
[Page consulted on Feb. 14, 2012.]