University of Virginia Library

Letter To President

When Draft Knocks...

What would you do if you were
calmly watching TV and two men
walked briskly in-one from the
Secret Service, the other from the
campus police? Or suddenly learn
they've been following and checking
up on you for days?

Willard (Skip) Fox I, junior at
Bowling Green State University,
kept his cool, the B-G News reports.
He asked the men, "What
brings you around?"

They produced a letter he had
written to President Johnson a
month ago. It said: "I demand
immediate withdrawal from Vietnam.
Realizing you won't get this
communication for a few days I
am giving you until Dec. 24 to
withdraw all troops...or else."

Also asking the President to legalize
marijuana, the letter continued,
"If you do not comply with those
wishes, I can only judge you either
are totally incompetent or do not
wish to comply with wishes (which
would be very foolish indeed)."
The letter involved no personal
threat, Fox said.

Reclining on a bed, Fox
answered the officials' questioning.
"What do you mean about demand?"
they asked. His reply:
"As a supposedly free citizen I
can demand anything I want."

Questioning continued for a half
hour: "What organizations are you
in? What's your draft status? Have
you ever been in a mental institution?
("Not yet.") And then:
"Did you go to Pennsylvania over
Thanksgiving vacation and ate
dog food as a protest against famine?"

Fox said yes, that he had gone
with the international director of
WHIP. "You should have seen
them sit up and demand, 'What's
WHIP?' " He told them it was
the World Health Instead of
Poverty group.

"The men were very polite,"
he said. "They had a thick folder
of papers about me. They probably
knew more about me than I do.

No action was taken against
Fox. But what did he mean about
"or else" in the letter? He
laughed when the officials asked
him. "Or else I won't vote for
Johnson," he said.