Caleb
Sullivan
1101.01
English 1:30 MW
25
September 2018
The Draft
The draft
started in 1940 when 1.8 million American men were drafted to fight in the
Vietnam War. Almost 3 million American men fought in the war total. The total number
of men that fought in the war is equal to 10% of their whole generation. 2/3 of
the men fighting in the war volunteered. 1/3 of the men were drafted through
selective service. Men from age 18-25 were required to sign up for selective
service. An interesting statistic is the economic classes from which men were drafted in
the war. Many men who were drafted came from poor or working class families.
Twenty-five percent of the men were from poor families, fifty-five percent were
from the working class, twenty percent were from the middle class, and very few
were from the upper class.
Men were
genuinely afraid to go to war. 209,517 men illegally resisted the draft 100,000
men fled the country, and 30,000 fled to Canada to resist the draft. There were
also exceptions to the draft. The exceptions include: physical and mental problems,
being married, having children, attending college, or help needed at home for
duties around the house. On August 26, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ended the
marriage exception because draftees would fake a marriage or become homosexual
so that they could resist from being drafted. The source below is a New York Times article about a man that was drafted to go to Vietnam. He tells his story firsthand about what it was like to be drafted. If you really want an accurate description of the thoughts and feelings of a draftee check out the article!
Men taking oath after being drafted (1965)
Source:
Word count: 282 words
Its interesting that despite the several hundred thousands of men that resisted the draft, two thirds of the men who fought in the war were volunteers. This topic really shows the negative effective men thought about the draft during the Vietnam War.
ReplyDeleteIt was shocking to me that 2/3 of the men drafted were volunteers. This is much higher than what I expected. It is also strange how not too many rich men got drafted to the war. You sort of get the feeling that the rich didn’t have to worry about being drafted nearly as much as the underclass men. I doubt that this was a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteThe craziest part of this is that 2/3 of true men drafter were volunteers. It is not surprising that most of the men drafter were from poor or working class families. Then several hundred thousand men resisted the draft. It just goes to show how much the men did not want to go to fight. Shows what could happen if we did another draft.
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