vietnam draft facts
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Draft evasion in the Vietnam War was a common practice in Australia and the United States. Those men came overwhelmingly from poor, low-status backgrounds. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam. 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. Let's look at the facts, starting with who actually served in Vietnam. The highest draft number called for induction from the 1969 lottery was 195. Korean Turtle Boats This allows a draft to be activated if needed, as was used during the Vietnam War. Draft Lottery results for the Vietnam War in 1969 1969 Draft Lottery during the Vietnam War Vietnam draft lottery focused on 19 year old men December 1, 1969 was the first draft lottery held since 1942, during World War II. Overall, an estimated 60% of potentially eligible men escaped the draft in the Vietnam years, mostly by qualifying for exemptions of many different kinds. There are two statistics that tell a lot about who went to Vietnam and who avoided the war: Harvard College, that symbolic bastion of the American elite, had 19 alumni who died in Vietnam. Even though the draft was abolished in 1973, men of draft age (between 18-25 years) still have to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of the 18th birthday so a draft can be readily resumed if needed" (Valentine). But as far as I can tell, he never apologized, in the book or anywhere else, for Project 100,000 or for draft policies that were applied so unequally to different classes of Americans — policies that were almost certainly one precursor of the social and cultural divides that split our country a half-century later. The draft was abolished in 1973. Comments/Questions may be directed to Wes Abney, wabney@vietnamwardraftlottery.com. The draft determined the “order of call” for 1970 for all men of draft age, which included all men born in the years 1944 through 1950. Significant draft avoidance was taking place even before the U.S. became heavily involved in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was one of the many wars in the 19th century that had a draft, but it was the last war to ever have a draft implemented during that time period. How I Got Out of the Vietnam Draft — And Why That Still Matters The Sept. 9, 1974, issue of TIME reports on the amnesty proposal, which was issued on Sept. 16, 1974. Later statistical studies of the supposedly random selection process indicated that the later dates of the year received disproportionately low draft numbers, due possibly to insufficient mixing of the capsules. Selective Service could have raised standards during the Vietnam War because the draft pool, born in the Baby Boom, was so large. In other words, as Gregory (a Vietnam veteran himself) points out, after drafting clearly unsuitable men, the military sent them back to society permanently stigmatized for being unsuitable for conscription. The first birth date drawn that night, assigned the lowest number, “001,” was September 14. It could have set a higher minimum grade on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test, the basic intelligence test, and still easily met military manpower needs. The capsules were then drawn out and opened, one by one, and assigned sequentially rising numbers. The table below the lottery numbers, by birth date, for the US Selective Service lotteries held from 1969 to 1972 (during the Vietnam war). For CHARTS OF ALL THE LOTTERY DRAWINGS, list of draft classifications, Vietnam troop levels year-by-year, and other information, click on the LINKS tab. Korean Turtle Ships served with the Korean navy for centuries, first coming... 3. In 1940 Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act which created the first peacetime draft and established the Selective Service System as an independent federal agency. During those years, the Selective Service used a lottery to determine the order in which draft age men would be called up for duty, usually in Vietnam. The military is surprisingly strict about the medical conditions of those … The full story of Project 100,000, as that program was known, is told in an exhaustively researched and deeply disturbing book called McNamara’s Folly, by Hamilton Gregory. [Westmoreland] Approximately 70% of those killed were volunteers. Website owned and maintained by Wesley Abney. 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975. Although only 25 percent of the military force in the combat zones were draftees, the system of conscription caused many young American men to volunteer for the armed forces in order to have … If the one drafted casualty on the Harvard list took that route, it means that through the entire war period, not a single Harvard man who died was a typical — that is, involuntary — draftee. [McCaffrey] Many men volunteered for the draft so even some of the draftees were actually volunteers. (Note: 18 year olds required to register for the draft were issued “draft cards” and were required by law to carry that document with them at all time. Instead it lowered that requirement. Origins. Other Facts 1954 - North Vietnamese begin helping South Vietnamese rebels fight South Vietnamese troops, thus BEGINS the Vietnam conflict. Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a short series before the documentary series The Vietnam War (directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick) premieres this Sunday. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. Lower numbers were called first. The way the draft works is as follows. The next lottery, held in 1970, applied only to men born in the year 1951; the lottery of 1971 covered men born in 1952; and the final lottery in 1972 applied to men born in 1953; however, men born in 1953 were not drafted due to abolition of the draft in 1973. During the Korean War, the Selective Service began the policy … Volunteering to be drafted was a get-it-over-with option for men who decided not to wait to be called but chose to be inducted out of turn, without seeking reclassification or some other way to avoid serving. 366 blue plastic capsules contained the birthdays that would be chosen in the first Vietnam draft lottery drawing on December 1, 1969. It was officially called the "Conscription Act" and was initiated by the Confederacy. The U.S. held its first draft lottery on Dec. 1, 1969, giving young men a random number tied to their birthdays. Do not miss Part I. However the results of the lottery were not changed. The image of those who fought in Vietnam is one of poorly educated, reluctant draftees -- predominantly poor whites and minorities. Selective Service could have raised standards during the Vietnam War because the draft pool, born in the Baby Boom, was so large. The majority of the 15.4 million draft deferments given out during Vietnam were student deferments. To many, the draft was a death sentence. The draft in the United States began with the Civil War in 1863. When the Unites States entered the Vietnam in 1964, our involvement naturally became a subject of dispute throughout the country. The highest lottery number called for this group was 195; all men as… Until 1973, American men were drafted to fill the needs of the country’s armed forces that could not be met by volunteers. Approximately 850,000 men were affected by the 1969 draft lottery. LIVE VIDEO coverage of the 1969 draft lottery by CBS can also be accessed from the LINKS page. The Harvard casualty list includes just one draftee (one of only two men on the list who were not officers). Vietnam Draft. The highest draft number called for induction from the 1969 lottery was 195. N69gives the results of the lottery held on December 1, 1969, for men born from 1944 through 1950. That was the last time the draft was used in the 20th century Who Has to Register? Not only did those under-qualified men take disproportionate casualties in Vietnam, but of those who came home, more than half left military service with less than honorable discharges. Dundalk High School in Maryland, attended largely by steelworkers’ kids and with a male student body a sixth of Harvard’s, lost 23. For those born in 1950, however, being drafted in 1970 was a very real prospect. The name itself shows a non-native understanding of … It meant being sent to a war and fighting for a cause that many people did not believe in. A second lottery was also conducted for the 26 letters of the alphabet, to determine the order of priority (by last name) for each date of birth. Conscription during the 1960s took place under the legal authority of the peacetime draft, because the United States never formally declared war on North Vietnam. The purpose of this site is to collect and share the stories of American men who were subject to the Vietnam war draft lotteries in the years 1969 through 1972. However, according to a remembrance on his high school class website, that young man volunteered for the draft, which he quite possibly could have avoided if he’d tried (just ask Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, or Rush Limbaugh). Long after the war, in his book In Retrospect and elsewhere, McNamara expressed regret for his role in shaping the U.S. intervention and its military effort in Vietnam. The military draft brought the war to the American home front. On December 1st, 1969, America's first military draft lottery since World War II was held. A need for more manpower upon America’s deeper involvement in the Vietnam war in 1965, made President Johnson bring in conscription. Legal authority for a peacetime draft came from the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in order to mobilize American civilian-soldiers in anticipation of entry into World War II. Under rules promoted principally by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara — to the opposition of most military leaders — local draft boards across the country were required to call up scores of thousands of men with IQ scores below the minimum standard. Even then, the law created a public outcry, because many believed that compulsory service was an infringement on personal liberty. Instead it lowered that requirement. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. The lottery of 1969 was conceived to address perceived inequities in the draft system as it existed previously, and to add more military personnel towards the Vietnam War.The war had arisen from a series of conflicts dating back to the early stages of French colonialism and Japanese occupation of Vietnam in World War II.In 1963, South Vietnamese generals seized power in Saigon in a coup. ] many men volunteered for the draft in the age group subject the. 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