Tony Sanchez , "The Frito Bandito" wearing the yellow tie

of a Vietnam Era draft dodger, before he wasted $80 million 

trying to buy the Texas Governor's office.

Tony Sanchez continues to lie about his manipulation of his draft board and consequent avoidance of military service during the Vietnam era.

It has taken me almost two years to accumulate the following data on Sanchez.  Until a few months ago there was an absolute refusal by Tony to even mention the subject of his dodging the draft from 1965 to 1969.

Tony Sanchez was born on February 3, 1943.  He begin college at St. Mary's in 1961 when he was eighteen and graduated in 1965 when he was twenty-two.

During the Vietnam conflict, one could get a II-S college deferment if one was in college working toward a degree and had not reached the age of  twenty-four.

Tony turned twenty-four on February 3, 1967, but he was not drafted.  Why?

On January 30, 1968, on the first day of the Tet (lunar New Year) truce, the Viet Cong launched their biggest offensive of the war. One thousand Viet Cong troops infiltrated the city of Saigon. The Communist troops captured the Citadel at Hue and seized part of the US embassy in Saigon. It took nearly two weeks to completely rout out the Viet Cong troops. The attack was a military disaster for the Communists: they lost over 10,000 men and do not manage to hold any of their objectives. Nevertheless, the offensive marked a military victory for the Viet Cong. For many Americans who had believed that the war was being won, the sight of Viet Cong troops holding the US embassy was a rude awakening, and forces them to question the US "true" position.

On February 16, 1968, two weeks after the Tet offensive began, President Johnson, terminated all graduate school deferments.

In November 1968, Tony Sanchez was classified I-A (eligible to be drafted).  Why did it take eight months to reclassify him after Johnson terminated graduate school deferments?.  What kind of deferment did he have from February 1967 to November 1968?   Tony appealed his I-A classification which was typical at that time for those who wanted to postpone induction for ninety days.  The appeal was denied in January 1969.

In January 1969, Sanchez became an intern for Ben Barnes who had just been elected Lt. Governor of Texas.  There is a question as to how he became an intern. There is a possibility that his father's political activities on the border had something to do with it.  And there is a question of whether Ben Barnes had something to do with Tony's draft status?

Sometime in 1969 Tony graduate from St. Mary's law school.

On December 1, 1969, the first draft lottery was held.  In this lottery, birthdays were drawn.  The first 100 birthdays drawn pretty much guaranteed that those individuals would be drafted.  Those whose number were greater than 150 were pretty much assured they would not be drafted.  Tony Sanchez birthday was drawn 297th.  Therefore, he would not be drafted.  Therefore, there was no need for any kind of deferment after December 1, 1969, for Tony Sanchez.

Tony is definitely hiding the facts regarding his manipulation of his draft board.  This is just another example of the lying that is inherent in his personality.  The Democratic Party could not have possibly chosen a worse candidate for governor.  But that is the power of money.  That is the power of corruption and drug money.  

For me to vote for Tony Sanchez would be for me a betrayal of 50,000 courageous and honorable men who died in Vietnam so that yellow Tony could try to buy the governorship of Texas thirty years later.

John WorldPeace
October 26,  2002

Dallas Morning News  October 25, 2002

San Antonio Express-News   October 25, 2002

Sanchez was asked about the draft deferment he received in the late 1960s while earning bachelor's and law degrees at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

According to records, Sanchez was reclassified 1-A in November 1968, making him eligible to be drafted. His appeal of that classification was rejected in January 1969.

He was asked by a reporter on the debate panel whether he would release his law school records to show why he lost his deferment.

"I had a deferment, as you can imagine millions of students all over the nation had student deferments," Sanchez said.

"When I got through with law school, I took my physical, I passed it. I was ready to be drafted. I was not called up. I don't think that my records have any bearing on that."

Asked why he lost his deferment, Sanchez said: "I don't recall."

******

The panel uniformly noted that Sanchez may have seriously undercut his credibility when he gave what Harrison called a "transparently false answer" regarding his draft status during the Vietnam war.

"I'm not sure that somebody's draft record is an important issue, but for Sanchez to say he didn't recall what happened was just not credible," Harrison said.

 

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