Remembering the Greats: Marciano’s Letter on Ali’s Vietnam Decision

Back in the late 60s, Muhammad Ali alienated himself from most of America and his boxing peers when he refused induction into the United States military to serve in Vietnam. Floyd Patterson promised to redeem the title by defeating him (and received a humiliating beating for his efforts), while retired greats like Joe Louis, Gene Tunney and Rocky Marciano spoke out against The Greatest in the press. As flippant as the below letter sounds, Ali and the Rock became close friends after their filming of the mock superfight between them in early 1969. Marciano would die in a plane crash in August of that year. Later, Ali would say he became closer to Rocky than any other white fighter despite their generational and ideological differences.

Ironically, one of the only name fighters to defend Ali’s decision and religion in the press was future rival Joe Frazier. Of course, a lot of that had to do with Smokin’ Joe wanting to face Ali in the ring, but it’s still an important distinction in history. Note how in this letter, neither Marciano nor Louis can deny or counter Ali’s argument of being a second class citizen in his own country. And sadly for Joe Louis, his service to his country (militarily and in doing free exhibitions for troops during World War II) did not prevent the IRS from ruthlessly hounding him in his later years for unpaid taxes.

I think I’m going to start including a drawn picture of my face with all my future letters. Brilliant, Rocky!

Many thanks to DonBoxer of eastsideboxing.com for unearthing this gem.