could now be sent into combat. Protests broke out, including a draft-card burning demonstration outside of Holt's home. In late June 1966 with President Lyndon B. Johnson listening, Holt spoke in Washington, D.C. in support of American policy. In his speech he closed by saying that Australia was a "staunch friend" of America, willing to go "all the way with LBJ". This statement was widely criticized in Australia. Marxist writer and draft-card burner Andy Blunden said in July that, "by following America into Vietnam, Holt's Australia is playing the role of Mussolini's Italy." In December the government bolstered the Vietnam presence with 1,700 more troops. John Gorton took the Prime Minister position in January 1968. In June 1968, the government doubled the penalty for the burning of registration cards. In 1971, the government committed to a gradual but total withdrawal from Vietnam—following both Australian opinion and America's new policy. In 1972, all troops including the advisory team were ordered home from Vietnam. Draft resisters in jail were freed. The final birthday lottery was held September 22, 1972. US court cases Early cases On October 15, 1965, David J. Miller burned his draft card at a rally held near the Armed Forces Induction Center on Whitehall Street in Manhattan. He spoke briefly to the crowd from atop a sound truck and then tried but failed to burn his card with matches—the wind kept blowing them out. A lighter was offered by the crowd and it worked. Miller was arrested by the FBI three days later in Manchester, New Hampshire, while setting up peace literature on a table. The 24-year-old pacifist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement, became the first man convicted under the 1965 amendment. In April 1966 with his wife and breast-feeding baby in attendance, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The case was argued in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in June. Miller's attorney held that "symbolic speech is protected by the First Amendment; burning a draft card is a most dramatic form of communication, and there is a constitutional right to make one's speech as effective as possible." The court did not agree. The case was decided later that year in October: Miller's conviction was confirmed and his sentence upheld. Loudon Wainwright Jr. wrote in Life magazine that Miller, "without really knowing it, might be embarking on a lifelong career of