Here is an interesting closeup look at draft resistance during the Vietnam War. While our collections have a lot of footage of anti-war demonstrations and many undigitized stories about the draft resistance movement, this story is a special case. In this 1968 WHDH piece, we see from multiple angles how a young man’s decision to resist the draft affected him and those around him. Mr. Howard Marston, Jr., the resistor, and Mr. Howard Marston, Sr., his father, both speak articulately about his reasons for resisting the draft, and why his family and neighbors have come to support him. The focus of the story on one particular person, rather than the whole movement, makes it possible to delve beyond the (very interesting and wholly worthy of attention) idea of counterculture youth burning draft cards and escaping to Canada. There were surely many other draft resisters, some who had different reasons for objecting than Howard Marston, and just as I relish the specificity of this story, I’d love to be able to hear their experiences as well. It’s possible we have more stories with this level of specificity in our collection. If you’re interested in figuring out if more films like this one exist, take a look through our records, and contact us about sponsoring the preservation of a specific item. more
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