I’ve been watching these video’s about history, and things that took place from each year. There’s one for every year. They are 6-9 minutes. This one is 1973.
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That actually looks interesting.
I’ve learned a lot. Although I lived in those years, I either forgot or wasn’t paying attention. The 60’s & 70’s made a lot of changes. Like in 1969 the month of June was made gay pride month. Never heard anything about it until recently in 2023. Could it be because politicians have decided to campaign on woke and get people riled?
Anyhow the video’s refreshed my memory on how divided the country was during the war and hippie generation. I found out President Carter pardoned all the draft dodgers, I didn’t know that either lol.
He also abolished registering for the draft. It was reimplemented about a year or so later, but men born in my birth year (1957) never had to register for the draft. When it was reintroduced, My group was “grandfathered” (despite being less than 20 years old) under the abolition.
Does this sound familiar from 1980 with today? I learned this on one of those video’s and looked it up on wiki.
In late 1978 and early 1979, Billy Carter visited Libya three times with a contingent from Georgia. He eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government and received a $220,000 loan, The New York Times reports belief[18] that only $1,000 was repaid.[19] However, Edwin P. Wilson claimed he had seen a telegram showing that Libya paid Billy Carter $2 million.[20] This led to a Senate hearing on alleged influence peddling which the press named Billygate.[21] A Senate sub-committee was called To Investigate Activities of Individuals Representing Interests of Foreign Governments (Billy Carter—Libya Investigation).[22]
“I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future.”
— Jimmy Carter, August 4, 1980[23
I was very young, but I remember Billy being a huge embarrassment for Carter and Carter being up front about it.
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No, he did not. Ford ended it in 1975. Carter reinststed it in 1980.
Selective Service System - Wikipedia.
My bad. Still, guys my age didn’t have to register when it was reinstated. Kind of odd being grandfathered at 20
It really didn’t matter in the end. It would take an act of Congress to reinstate the draft. That was not going to happen then and is not likely now either.
I registered when I was 18 and then had to deal with the ongoing ordeal of never knowing what might happen. Later in life, I ran into a couple of high school buddies. They had never been drafted and never gone to college. I asked them how they avoided being drafted and that both said that they never registered.
Do they actually check?
I registered in 1965-66, in Detroit, when it was more difficult to track everyone, especially in major city… I has cousins in a small town in Kentucky and they knew everyone on the local draft board and the board knew them. Also, the draft started quickly winding down in 1970-71, so someone who didn’t register 5 years previous wasn’t likely sought out.
Today, I presume the SSS could check because everyone gets a S/S before age 18. I don’t know if they do or not, or if they are even charged with doing so vs. relying on compliance.
Not sure about now, but when I applied to college, you couldn’t get financial aid without having registered.
I just started down a rabbit hole and saw that, but I could still see the light above and climbed out!!
Thanks for posting this. I checked it out on youtube and it’s pretty interesting. I’m watching from my birth year forward to see what I have lived thru.
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Is the video necessary?
Or could I listen to it on the way to work like a podcast?
Not really. I’s mostly still photos
I may give it a try
They do not and can not. In a previous assignment with the military reserves I was assigned to the Selective Service System. One point they made was that privacy laws precluded them from getting information from either the IRS or SSA. Otherwise, they could just get their information from one of those sources and not go through the hassle of having to maintain their own separate database where they have to get eligible people to register.
When I was there one of their pushes was to get states to pass laws whereby all males are automatically registered with the Selective Service System when they receive drivers licenses. That did wonders for their registration numbers in the states with those laws. They tried to get a law like this passed in California during my time there. You can guess how far that got.
In a case like that you would have to prove you registered. I had my paper registration confirmation when I applied. These days you can get your registration number and date online.