The call to arms cannot always be ignored. I would hope that I would have "jined up" in 1938. Or in 1918 -- dunno. Maybe in 1862-4 as well. I like to believe that I would have and did, in the War of Independence.

But you need (unless you are bent) some deep and compelling reason to take up weapons against human beings who have the same dynamic needs and concerns as you do, no matter where their cheekbones are.

In 1968-9, no-one presented me with such a rationale and I had been exposed to enough McCarthyism red-scares to treat that issue with deep skepticism.

I do not believe you should ever place your whole life at the disposal of another's persuasion, no matter what hat he or she is wearing. And the issues that faced us in 1968 were in no manner enough, to me, to inspire me to join a war and take up killing for a living. So I did not.

I regret not having been there to possibly save a few lives (of course it would have been by taking a few other lives) before I caught my piece of hot led and bled to death in a wet rice field.

But on the whole I am entirely at peace with my choice because I believe--I am sure of it -- that I did more good by staying than I could have done by going.

A