On January 21, 1977, President Carter issued a pardon to Vietnam-era draft dodgers who did not commit violent acts. One of the controversies to this pardon was whether or not this pardon included deserters. Republicans assumed Carters original plans were to grant pardons to both "draft dodgers and deserters," but the Democrat-dominated Virginia House of Delegates approved a Republican-sponsored resolution on February 3, 1977, urging President Carter not to grant a "blank pardon" to Vietnam-era military deserters with a 52 to 29 vote, with virtually no debate. .
Republican Delegate, George W. Jones, was a chief patron of the resolution and addressed to the house that they did not in anyway address the controversy over Carters pardon itself, but only gave recommendations on what Carter should do about military deserters. Jones himself was not in support of the actual pardon. The American Legion was also not in agreement with the resolution. They thought the pardon was divisive instead of being "healing" as Carter promised during his campaign. The American Legion was seeking to expel Carter from the veteran's organization because of this pardon. Amnesty advocates expressed disappointment that Carter did not broaden his pardon to include deserters. Louise Ransom, affiliate director of Americans for Amnesty, said she believed the problems with the draft resulted from the way it was conducted. "There seems to be a myth that because you once went into the army, there's some kind of esprit that you have accepted or believed in," Ransom said. "Well the truth of the matter is that so many of the draft-eligible young men legally avoided the draft that . all the services took their people predominantly from poor and minority people in this country, took them right out of high school before they had the opportunity to even examine whether they were conscientious objectors." .
Tip Marlow, of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization, said Carter did too much by allowing those who evaded the draft to come home without fear of prosecution.
