13 January 2012 18:24 | By Francis Whittaker
Muhammad Ali - His life in pictures

1966-1967: Vietnam War controversy

1966-1967: Vietnam War controversy (© David Fenton/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
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  • 1966-1967: Vietnam War controversy (© David Fenton/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
  • 1971: The Fight of the Century (© AFP/Getty Images)
  • 1974: Rumble in the Jungle (© AP Photo)
  • 1975: Thrilla in Manila (© AP Photo)
  • 1978: Fights with Spinks and third title (© Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images)
  • 1981: The Drama In The Bahamas (© AP Photo)
  • 1984: Diagnosis with Parkinson's (© AP Photo/Mario Cabrera)
  • 1996: Lighting the Olympic torch (© AP Photo/Doug Mills))
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David Fenton/Archive Photos/Getty ImagesShow Thumbnails
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Despite failing the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test in 1964, Ali was reassessed in 1966 and drafted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali publicly refused to serve, saying that he was conscientious objector and famously remarking: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me n*gger". As a result, he was arrested, banned from boxing and stripped of his titles in 1967. The conviction was not reversed until 1971.

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