The Draft System
History: Cambridge International GCSE The Twentieth Century (Option B), topic 5.3.15
The Draft System
Reasons for the growth of opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
The draft
- Men over 18 (and usually under 26) could be drafted into compulsory military service at any time, and sent to Vietnam to fight with only basic training.
- People felt this was unfair as they were too young and would be more likely to die without proper training.
- Drafting also unfairly targeted poor, black men.
Lottery system
- The government tried to make it fairer by turning the draft into a randomly chosen lottery system in 1969 which added more men between the ages of 25-31.
- This made over 26 million men eligible for the draft.
- However, only 650,000 of the 2.6 million men who fought in Vietnam were draftees.
Exemptions
- 15 million men avoided the draft through various methods:
- College students, those working in the Church and some government and industry workers were exempt.
- The physically and mentally unfit were also exempt.
- If you could prove that joining up would leave your family in a position of ‘hardship’, or that you were the only son, you could be exempted.
COs
- If your religious or moral beliefs meant you couldn’t fight, you could become a Conscientious Objector, but would be required to do other war work like working in weapons factories.
- There were about 17,000 COs in total, although nearly 20 times that many applied for CO exemption.
Avoiding the draft
- You could live or work abroad, but this was only really an option for the wealthy.
- Around 50,000 men left the USA illegally or went into hiding.
Test yourself on The Draft System
Why was there opposition to the draft?
How many men avoided the draft in America?
Who was exempt from the draft?