Comics Flash Thompson and the war

[Traveller]

Obviously, I don't really know anything about the American army system, but I'd like to know something about The Amazing Spider-Man #47.
Why that Flash Thompson had to go to the Vietnamese War but Peter and Harry hadn't? They are the same age, as I know.

 

[Cosmic]

Flash was not drafted (conscripted) into service. He voluntarily enlisted in the Army. Also, the US draft was brought to an end in 1973. It's an all-volunteer military.

 

[iloveclones]

When this issue came out (April 1967...a month before I was born!) the draft was still in effect. So Peter, Harry, and Flash would all have to register for the draft (as I did when I turned 18). Flash did enlist. Harry and Peter could have been drafted, but probably got a deferment since they were in college. (Or as Dick Cheney put it...I had other priorities.)

 

[Traveller]

I see, thanks. But Flash was in college, too. In fact, he was a great football player. They drafted great sportsmen, too or the college football is not so great to Flash could slip the draft?

 

[iloveclones]

He would have had to register for the draft (called the Selective Service), but that didn't necessarily mean that he would be drafted. It was a lottery system. Since he was in college, he probably could have applied for a deferment, but, as Cosmic pointed out, Flash volunteered to go.

Although the draft was always seen as heavily weighted towards the poor (primarily because they couldn't afford to go to college), there were a few high profile cases. Elvis Presley (pre-Vietnam) was drafted into the Army. He actually was leaving Germany as my Dad was being posted there. Cassius Clay (Mohammed Ali) applied as a Conscientious Objector famously saying "I Ain't Got No Quarrel With The VietCong...No VietCong Ever Called Me ******" (Sorry for the language...it's a quote...oh, nevermind, I guess that's a no-no word for the censors)

 

[Traveller]

It's clear now, thank you. Bruce Lee was one of Objectors, too.

 

[iloveclones]

Bruce Lee, according to an article I found online, took a physical for the Draft Board, but had a condition the made him unfit for service...an undescended testicle

Don't know if that's true or not, but I couldn't find anything about him being a Conscientious Objector.

 

[Traveller]

You're right. He was draft but some weeks later Lee could go home because disobedience, as I read it. That undescended testicle could be a pretext.

 

[ScottishFogg]

Maybe the simple answer is because they didn't want to write a comic book about Spidey in the Vietnam War, but it'd be okay to send one of the supporting members away?

 

[iloveclones]

They were going to send Aunt May, until her famous quote: "I don't care if the VietCong never called me an Old Biddie, I'm still goin' over and kickin me some VC ass......."

 

[iloveclones]

So wait, ****** is censored but ass isn't?

 

[mre]

Ass is used on TV all the time.
****** is still a sensitive issue. Same with ******.

I hope those get censored.

 

[iloveclones]

Frankly, although I was pretty offended by it in my youth, that particular word lost all it's power to me once it became the equivalent of 'the' in bad rap.

I am curious what your second word is, though.

 

[mre]

It's funny because they are the same amount of letters. And the vowels and consonants are in the same spots.

 

[iloveclones]

Now, I feel like I'm on a Seinfeld episode....Mulva?

 

[mre]

The short form of the word is also the word for cigarettes in England.

 

[mre]

BTW, great Seinfeld reference.