USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Draft-card burning became one of the most iconic forms of protest during the war. It was a gesture made by young men who wished to buck the system but were not comfortable with more extreme measures such as going to Canada, participating in riots, or destroying induction centers.

Detailed explanation-2: -The act of draft card burning was defended as a symbolic form of free speech, a constitutional right guaranteed by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court decided against the draft card burners; it determined that the federal law was justified and that it was unrelated to the freedom of speech.

Detailed explanation-3: -Protests bringing attention to “the draft” began on May 5, 1965. Student activists at the University of California Berkeley marched on the Berkeley Draft board and forty students staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States.

Detailed explanation-4: -This was an act of solidarity with Catholic pacifist David Miller who became the first U.S. war protester to publicly burn his draft card on Oct. 15, 1965, in direct violation of a recently passed federal law forbidding such acts.

Detailed explanation-5: -On Sept. 24, 1968, 14 people removed 10, 000 draft files from the Milwaukee draft board and burned them with home-made napalm. They were inspired by a similar action by the Catonsville Nine on May 17, 1968. They were arrested and went to trial.