Michael Douglas admits he exaggerated back condition to dodge Vietnam draft

Actor Michael Douglas says he exaggerated a spinal condition to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War, and that his father, Kirk Douglas, helped.

The 82-year-old Oscar winner describes the episode in his new memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” published Tuesday by Grand Central Publishing. Entertainment Weekly reported details of the account Saturday.

Mr. Douglas writes that doctors diagnosed him with spondylitis during his draft physical. He described his condition as involving a missing portion of his vertebrae and a curvature of the spine. The doctor gave him a letter to show draft officers, but it described the condition with words like “mild” and “slight,” which Mr. Douglas viewed as a problem.

That is where his father stepped in. Mr. Douglas says Kirk Douglas asked the doctor to send a new letter without the qualifiers. By the next time his lottery number came up, Mr. Douglas writes, he showed up wearing a large white brace that belted from the front.

A sergeant told him to remove the brace, he recalls, and he answered that he would fall if he did. Mr. Douglas says he was then classified 1-Y, a designation meaning he would be called up only in a dire national emergency.

Mr. Douglas, then a college student protesting the war, writes that he did not want to fight in a conflict he opposed. He says he and his father were on opposite sides politically, even as Kirk Douglas served as a goodwill ambassador promoting American values abroad.

Mr. Douglas says he was far from alone in looking for a way out, and that others considered fleeing to Canada or acting erratically at their physicals. He wrote, “I’m not proud of this story. I am just being honest.”

His first major film role came in 1969’s “Hail, Hero!,” a drama set during the Vietnam War about a young man who visits his estranged family before reporting for military duty.