Did Ali intentionally dodge the draft and use the war as an excuse?

If you read the account of how his appeal was handled by the Supreme Court he missed going to prison by inches.

 

I think he was genuinely a contentious objector. He doesn't exactly strike me as a coward -- plus, it's not like Ali wouldn't be familiar with recent history. He'd have known he'd never have been in danger and would have spent his service putting on boxing exhibitions to entertain troops, giving boxing lessons to troops, etc. Same exact thing Joe Louis did.

The inconsistent thing with Ali here is that since he'd have KNOWN this is how his service would have gone, why'd he talk about not wanting to be sent to shoot people? He wouldn't have been shooting anything. He'd have been helping the morale of the guys who were doing the shooting.

 

I think he was just being dramatic and put up to it by the NOI.

 

It was probably the NOI IMO… like you say why the hell is he talking about shooting people? He knew he’d be on an exhibition tour, it was all over the papers it was a chance for publicity… I’m not Ali but that’s how I sort of feel.

 

My Grandfather was A World War II veteran, who served under General Patton, and saw plenty of war action. He said he really did not care about Muhammad Ali's views on war or the draft. He was interested in Ali's boxing career, not his politics, or his reasoning behind his actions. He ranked Muhammad Ali as the greatest heavyweight of all time. If Ali's position on the draft and the war did not bother my Grandfather then I see no reason for it to bother me.

 

Beautiful.

 

I have four siblings who served, three of whom were officers. My pops joined Uncle Sam's Army at the ripe old age of seventeen. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Korea and again in Vietnam. He had no problem with Ali's stance.

 

Vietnam was different, they needed everyone they could get, Ali very much would have seen combat, in fact there were some NFL guys iirc that were heralded as being absolutely savage marines, using their strength to hold an enemy soldier off his feet against the wall of a foxhole and disemboweled them with a knife

 

It was obviously his way of making known that he did not agree with the justification for the war that the American government was selling. He might have known he wouldn't personally be doing the shooting, but he also knew he'd be used as a mascot for the ones who were. Hard thing to stomach if you're against the war in the first place.

 

No if Ali didn't have a problem with the war there would have been no motive. He wasn't actually going to fight he was going to be used for morale purposes like Louis and Lesnevich were. There were all sorts of ways he could have avoided actually fighting if that was the issue. No the issue was he'd be used to promote a conflict he didn't believe in.

WW2 was the most morally cut and dry war this countrys ever had there was really no motive to pull an Ali. Also the USSR was involved in that meaning your left leaning people were all on board. Ideologically divisive wars are ideologically divisive.

 

i agree. i think saying that was more about what young men in general were being sent to do.

 

Hey Shay did Mr Djanders ever explain how he ended up on the set of Marciano vs Ali?

 

He'd have been promoting a cause he didn't believe in. Not literally shooting people doesn't change he doesn't believe in the cause and didn't want to support the cause. And helping the morale of guys fighting would have been doing just that. Its very hard to see a Joe Louis role as anything other than an endorsement of the mission. Thats what that PR work amounted to and theres really no way to reconcile that with opposing what you're promoting.

 

Looking back at Vietnam the USA fighting a war some 10,000 miles or so away from home was Ali not in fact proved right?
All those young fellas giving up their life and for what?
WW2 i think could be described as a just war and i think people would have had a real problem with Ali avoiding that.