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Their actions were criminal offences and once they had left the country draft dodgers were unable to return or they would be arrested. This changed in 1977 when President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential pardon to all the draft dodgers.
The motivations for draft dodgers were diverse. Those in support of the war often argue they were simply cowards lacking in patriotism, but most draft dodgers had philosophical objections to the Vietnam War, which many at the time saw as an unjust war. About 100,000 draft dodgers fled abroad during the war. Another large group hid within the United States.
The largest group of draft dodgers, about 20,000 to 90,000 fled to Canada. They were accepted as simply immigrants and no separate records of the number of draft dodgers were kept. Accepting them in Canada was at first controversial, but the Canadian government eventually decided to welcome them. It also later decided to also welcome deserters from the American forces. While many of the draft dodgers returned home to the United States after they were granted a pardon in 1977 many others stayed in their adopted country. Sociologist John Hagan estimates that there were 50,000 draft dodgers who settled in Canada. This influx of young educated left-leaning people had a large effect on Canada. It was a boon to Canada's arts scene and to academia. They also helped push Canadian politics further to the left. A number of notable Canadians were draft dodgers such as Jay Scott, William Gibson,
In recent years the term draft dodger has been used often in American politics to attack candidates. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Howard Dean have all been accused of being draft dodgers, even if none of them were by the 1960s definition of the term.
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