Presidential Pardon

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:00:00

PRESiDENTIAL PARDON

Fritz Efaw speaks at the 1976 Democratic National Convention photo: Rolling Stone

Thirty years ago this weekend, President Jimmy Carter issued a blanket amnesty for everyone who had resisted the Vietnam War draft.

Today, Dick talks to Dick talks to Fritz Efaw. Fritz was at the center of the campaign to pressure Carter into issuing unconditional amnesty for all war resisters.

Remember the movie "Born on the 4th of July"--the scene where the Tom Cruise's character, Ron Kovic, is about to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 1976?

At that convention, the real Ron Kovic was about to nominate an indicted draft evader to become vice president. That man was Fritz Efaw.

Dick talks with Fritz about how he went from draft dodger to vice presidential nominee.

Fritz Efaw is now a professor of political economy at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. He says that the principled opposition to the war in Vietnam has made it easier for people to criticize the war in Iraq today.

See photos of Fritz Efaw at the 1976 convention, as seen in Rolling Stone Magazine

Music heard in the show: I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag by Country Joe & The Fish for the album I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die

Add to story

NOTHING IS EVER AS IT SEEMS

Juana Poloma, photo: David Spear

David Spear was a newspaper editor when at the age of 50 he decided to do something new. He thought about painting, but once he tried photography, he was hooked.

His first book, "The Neugents," featured an intimate view of a rural family. After that book was published, David moved to Mexico on a whim. His latest book, "Visible Spirits," is inspired by his new life in Mexico.

David talks to Dick about girls cradling fish, youngsters holding ravens and other near-mythical stories from Mexico.

A 1992 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, David's photographs are now in the permanent collections of museums across the nation, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston.

See photos David and Dick discussed
Find out more about David's books "The Neugents" and "Visible Spirits"

Add to story

The Story from American Public Media - Presidential Pardon

Presidential Pardon

PRESiDENTIAL PARDON

NOTHING IS EVER AS IT SEEMS