"I weighed my responsibility to help preserve my community in war-time; I considered in what manner I might effectively rationalize killing; I questioned whether I could subordinate myself to the authority of the state in making moral decisions; I considered the financial and emotional consequences of my decision for those personally close to me and for myself; I consulted the teachings of Christ and Augustine and the writings of Franz Jaegerstadter, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Franziskus Stratmann, O.P. [Dominicans]. I weighed all these considerations--shot off my mouth about each of them several times to friends and advisors and often got shot down--and finally I decided. I applied for CO status."

This account of intellectual struggle exemplifies the individualism and sophistication which characterize conscientious objection by Harvard students. As one draft counselor in the Square said, "We don't get many around here who say, 'I'm a CO because God told me not to go.'"

Whether for individualistic or orthodox reasons, more and more persons in the United States are deciding to seek CO status. The number of CO's who have obtained their I-O status and are embarking on the required alternative service each month is 400--twice as many as two years ago.

It is impossible to tell if there is a parallel increase in conscientious objection at Harvard because there are no statistics. But Stephen Hedger, a staff worker at the American Friends Service Committee Draft Information Service in the Square, said that five to ten Harvard students a week contact the AFSC for information on conscientious objection. He estimated that about a third of those go on to file a CO form, but other observers believe the number is considerably less.

Few, if any, Harvard CO's are members of religious sects traditionally opposed to war--Quakers, Mennonites. Jehovah's Witnesses, Brethren, and Seventh Day Adventists, for example. Few, if any, base their conscientious objection on any orthodox creed. Few, if any, have an orthodox conception of God. These are by no means insuperable drawbacks. However the selective service system's attitude toward unorthodox CO claims is probably best characterized as highly suspicious. Harvard CO's must make up for their lack of orthodoxy with the clarity, consistency, and sincerity of their thoughts. And that's where the struggle begins.

The Challenge

One Harvard CO expressed the challenge this way: "SSS Form 150 requires you to do in ten days what most people haven't done in a life-time--decide your ethics and the implications your ethics have for the conduct of your life."

Selective Service System form 150 is the questionnaire which must be filled out and sent in to the local board (within ten days of receipt) to claim CO status. It is only the first step in the classification procedure for CO's. Draft boards usually require CO's to come before them for questioning before deciding on classification. If the draft board denies him the status he seeks, the CO then begin the appeals procedure which usually entails another hearing before his draft board, Justice Department hearing, and a non-criminal FBI investigation. If after running the gamut of appeals within the Selective Service System, the CO is still denied his status he can take his case to the courts.

The thorough investigation by the government, which every CO anticipates, puts a real premium on a thoughtful handling of the difficult questions and moral and logical problems which Form 150 poses.

The first dilemma posed by 150 is whether to seek I-O or I-AO status. I-O status exempts the CO from all service in the armed forces. The CO classified I-AO is eligible for non-combatant duty and usually serves as a medic. It is much easier to get a I-AO than a I-O because I-AOs count toward fulfilling local boards' quotas. Draft boards often bargain with CO's seeking I-O status and try to get them to settle for I-AO. A stock question which draft boards pose is "Would Christ help civilians and refuse to help soldiers?" The implication is that the I-A-O medic is an independent agent of mercy on the battle-field.

Most CO's reject this interpretation. A sophomore CO pointed out that the Army Field Manual describes the primary duty of the medic as no different than any other soldier--to contribute to the victory of the command. "If I were a medic," he continued, "I'd feel obliged to aid the most seriously injured first, regardless of whether they were friend or enemy. The army doesn't allow that." Another CO said, "If I patch someone up just so he can go back and kill some more, I might as well do the killing myself."

The CO who decides to seek I-O classification signs a statement on Form 150 which reads in part: "I am. . . .conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form." The absolutism of "war in any form" poses another big problem for many Harvard CO's. Some Harvard CO's are unabashedly opposed only to specific wars. One junior stated, "I will go to jail before I'll go to Vietnam, but I would have fought against Hitler." Another admitted that he can conceive in theory a just war which he would support.

But the law does not recognize select objection as a valid basis for a CO claim. Consequently, these Harvard CO's try to state their objection to war in terms absolute enough to satisfy the draft board while preserving enough of their situational ethic to satisfy their own integrity. This is a trick which involves sophistications of logic which most draft boards won't appreciate.

Several CO's have hit on a common approach, though. They privately interpret "war in any form" to mean "war in any form that it can take, given the international environment while I am eligible for the draft." They proceed to note that the nuclear stalemate makes World War II situations out of the question. The nature of war has changed. The only type of warfare conceivable under present circumstances is in guerrilla or counter-guerrilla intervention, which they say is by nature unjust. If the only possible type of war is the Vietnam form, the reasoning goes, one who objects to that form, for all practical purposes, objects to "war in any form."

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