Nation: Dubious Privilege

There was one area of protest on which a wide array of Americans could agree. In October, Selective Service Director Lewis Hershey advised the nation's 4,081 draft boards to strip deferments from students and others who interfere with the draft. Since then, Congressmen, judges and university presidents, including Yale's Kingman Brewster and Columbia's Grayson Kirk, have protested the decision. Kirk even suspended on-campus recruiting by the armed services pending a reversal of Hershey's harsh decree. Massachusetts' Senator Edward Kennedy last week said the new procedure would make draft boards "both judge and jury," and it was not surprising that young people...