The Vietnam Era Deserter: Characteristics of Unconvicted Army Deserters Participating in the Presidential Clemency Program

摘要

The Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) was requested to prepare a report describing the Army participants in the Presidential Clemency Program. This report describes the men who participated in the Army portion of the Program, comparing them with deserters in general and eligible non-participants in particular. The sources of data included the Enlisted Record Center pre-desertion records, Program records, and interviews with the men by Army mental health staff. Tables present the percentages of that part of the participant sample with a given characteristic (e.g., percentage of participants entering the Army at age 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 or 23, or 24 and older) for a variety of descriptive categories at the time the men entered the service, the time of last absence, during absence and during the Program. A distinction is made between participants who had been apprehended and those who entered the program voluntarily, for better comparison with previous research on deserters. Participant data were also contrasted with available data on known deserters who did not participate in the Program and on several small samples of anti-war protesters.