President Ford announced plans for an earned amnesty program in an address at the 75th annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 19, 1974.
During the first week of the Ford administration, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger had suggested that doing something about the some fifty thousand Vietnam War draft evaders and deserters would be a way to hasten the healing process. Former Secretary of Defense Mel Laird and the President’s three sons agreed. President Ford asked his staff to coordinate with the relevant agencies to put together a conditional amnesty program. “I stated my strong conviction that unconditional blanket amnesty for anyone who illegally evaded or fled military service is wrong,” he said in his speech at the VFW convention. “But all, in a sense, are casualties, still abroad or absent without leave from the real America. I want them to come home if they want to work their way back…In my judgment, these young Americans should have a second chance to contribute their fair share to the rebuilding of peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
About a month later President Ford signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Clemency Board, which administered the earned amnesty program over the next year. Many of the applicants completed alternative service assignments before receiving their pardons.
Image: President Gerald R. Ford Delivering a Speech Regarding Amnesty at the 75th Annual Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Chicago, Illinois, 8/19/1974 (National Archives Identifier 7462088)
