I don’t have to imagine it, I lived it (but at age 22).
My brother had no deferments, but something must’ve been watching out for him. He never got drafted.
I had a low number but they stopped the draft that year. After seeing the news lead off with Viet Nam every night for the past 8-10 years, I was not disapointed.
Based on his age info that posted in another thread, there was little to no draft going on when he turned 18.
I think I mentioned before, a friend of mine, Vietnam Vet, wrote a book profiling vets from our area. It talked about the decisions people had to make, get drafted, volunteer, etc.
My dad never had his number picked but also he would have never been drafted. His vision was so bad, he would have been DQ at MEPS.
I used to laugh at his glasses. I asked why he wore safety glasses all the time. He said those were his thin lenses.
My uncle served in the national guard during Vietnam.
My dad attempted to enlist in 1944, but was rejected due to his poor eyesight.
Mine was 98. I think the 1970 draft reached over 200. I took the draft physical and got a temporary physical deferment, no other info given. Within a year, all temporary physical deferments were made permanent as draft numbers declined rapidly from there until Carter ended the draft.
It’s amazing how bad your vision has to be to be rejected.
My dad admitted he would have went if drafted but he wouldn’t join as he didn’t believe the war was being fought right and didn’t even believe in the war.
It was a topic my parents avoided. My mom said she could go through her yearbook and point out the people who died in Vietnam
Your dad was right. The war was not being fought to be won, and a whole lot of us didn’t think that was a good reason to die in the jungle. I’ve walked the wall in DC a couple of times and recognized a few names from my youth, and am very happy to know more men that came home.
I remember the draft and the protests, but not that it was a law that they had to carry their draft card at all times and could be criminally charged for burning or tearing them up until this thread took me to Wiki. Nixon is the one who stopped the draft in 1973 according to wiki.
On October 15, 1965, David J. Miller burned his draft card at a rally 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. The crowd offered a lighter, and it worked. Miller was arrested by the FBI three days later in Manchester, New Hampshire, while setting up peace literature on a table.[5] The 24-year-old pacifist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement, became the first man convicted under the 1965 amendment.[20] In April 1966 with his wife and breast-feeding baby in attendance, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.[20][21] 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.”[22] The court did not agree. The case was decided later that year in October: Miller’s conviction was confirmed, and his sentence upheld.[23] Loudon Wainwright Jr. wrote in Life magazine that Miller, “without really knowing it, might be embarking on a lifelong career of protest.”[24] Miller remained free on bail until June 1968 at which time he served 22 months in federal prison.[5]
Draft-card burning - Wikipedia
My dad said in ww1. The goal was to take Berlin. I’m ww2 the goal was to take Berlin.
In Korea and Vietnam we didn’t have a Berlin to take.
I have read some commentary asserting the war against the Chinese in Korea was so bloody and difficult that the US was unwilling to do what was necessary in Vietnam due to a fear that the Chinese would actively join the Viet Cong in the fight. After reading a couple of books on the Korean War, I can understand that fear.
The problem is we didn’t take Korea as seriously as we should have. We fought a conflict and not a war.
Had we treated it like ww2. We would have won.
The battles were bloody, we were outnumbered but we killed a lot more of them. Had we been properly equipped and more troops. We would have done better but we were afraid of ww3.
I think a larger show of force would have stabilized the world better. It was a UN action. It would have made the UN more credible
Kind of what we Are doing now, huh?
Just to clarify, the draft ended in 1973 under Nixon. Carter brought back Selective Service System registration.
Nothing similar at all. Last time I checked, we didn’t have a draft or troops on the ground. If anything this is like the Cuban missile crisis.
Carter also did the amnesty program. My dad was against amnesty at the time. He felt if your country called, you showed up.