Do you think the Vietnam War would have gone differently if the draft had been fair?

Question

One of the factors that contributed to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War and not having as many troops as was needed was the unfairness of the draft. There were many ways that people could get out of it, such as being in college and marriage.

In these senses the draft targeted lower class people.

During the drafts in World War I and II, these exemptions didn't exist.

Even if you supported the war, you still have to admit it was unfair that only certain people be required to fight it. The draft exemptions basically said that a person's life was worth less than another's.

Answer 1

lavadog is right, there were sufficient troops. you are right that the system of deferments was not fair. in spite of all of the stupidity exhibited by our government our troops performed loyally, honorably, and admirably. we should have picked a better dictator than diem and his little brother (they were ineffective morons). these guys made ho chi minh and the communists look like a reasonable choice (even though they were a**holes) to the peasants in the south.

Answer 2

You're giving too much credit to public sentiment about that war. Within two months of the Tet Offensive in February of 1968, the Viet Cong were finished as an effective fighting force. From that time to April of 1975 it was North Vietnamese regulars who were fighting against U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. The plug was pulled in the Autumn of 1974 when Congress voted to cut off all funding to South Vietnam.
As for troop strength we had about 2.5 million men and women on active duty. So, we had the troops. But, the management of conscription was unfair. It also led to a lot of historical myths. Most of those Army names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall were regular army, not draftees.
Of the 8.7 million men who served during the Vietname Era, only 2.7 million were stationed in Vietnam.
Another myth is that of education and economic standing of those who served in that war. Throughout the Vietnam Era the median educational level of enlisted men was 13 years. That's high school plus a year of college.
The business about the poor is defective as well. Belmont Massachusetts, Chevy Chase Maryland and Great Neck Long Island had a per capita death rate from Vietnam that was higher than the country as a whole. And those are three very wealthy communities.
The problem we have with understanding Vietnam comes from two generations being taught by educators who have merely passed on the myths.

Answer 3

There were many factors going on at the same time. THe Draft has never been popular. See the depiction of the civil war Draft riots in NYC in the movie "Gangs of NY."
Actually I'd say it was not that different from Korea or WW2. However Johnson failed to use his reserves & Guard units as much. 'Nam also had to compete with defence needs of Germany & Korea. So We had to spread the wealth. The thing that would have changed things is to loose the restrictions & bombing halts. It's easier to bomb a ship full of SAM's then trying to kill them on the launchers for example.

Answer 4

If anything we had too many troops in Vietnam. It should have been limited to Regular Army troops, no US or draftees unless they volunteered. Todays all volunteer force shows just how resilient it could be. A force of 250,000 would have been adequate. Remember that while US forces were present the worst day in Vietnam was better than any day in Iraq.

Since US Combat troops had been gone for two years before Saigon fell it is irrelivent. People like Bush, Cheyney and Clinton will never serve, and who would want them in the same bunker. That's why Gore and Kerry were shocking, they could have stayed home but didn't.

Answer 5

I think that the vietnam war draft wasn't fair, and I don't think any draft is really fair. But as for the part about having less troops, I think the United States had enough troops to fight with, but they were just not used correctly and the strategy was bad.

Answer 6

the draft in WWII had exemptions it depended on what your profession was. if you had a war essential job you could not be drafted. although many of those people volunteered. no draft can be totally fair because you have to have exemptions for critical factors. i don't think going to college qualified as one of those things. but then again i wasn't the one making that decision. do i think that is the reason that the war in Viet Nam took the course that it did no. place the blame on the politicians in Washington d.c, and the brass in the pentagon where it belongs.

Answer 7

Except, 90% of those who protested the war, had extemptions to the draft.

So they weren't worrying about the unfairness of the draft.

If you read history, you will notice, as soon as the draft was ended, all protest stopped.

Plus, most people don't realise, only 30% of those who went to vietnam,

And only about 10% of the eligible males were actually drafted.

Answer 8

Oh, the draft targeted lower class people? You mean like Bill Clinton, who would have been drafted had he not enrolled in an ROTC program he never attended?

How about a friend of mine, who got his draft notice about the time he graduated Law School? Was he lower class?

How about the fellow I knew who quit school in the 10th grade and joined the National Guard to avoid being drafted? His father was a sharecropper with a sixth grade education, were they elite in some way that escaped my notice?

Yes, there were ways to avoid the draft, but they weren't passed out to the upper class, they went to people that planned ahead. Not a great system, but certainly less deliberately unfair and slanted toward the upper class than you've painted it.

Answer 9

Half a million + of ANY group of Americans wouldn't have won that war, even if all of them were upper-class people. We learned then (and subsequently forgot, recently) that long-distance guerrilla wars against a determined enemy are almost impossible to win. Ask the Brits, the French, or the Russians, to name a few.
Your simplistic position fails to mention people like me, who got college exemptions until graduation, and then served in the military, in my case for 5 years.

Answer 10

No, I don't think it would have made any difference. In fact, I think one of the main reasons we lost was because most of the guys there (myself included) didn't want to be there. Our mission was staying alive until we could cycle out. It wasn't about victory or defeat. We couldn't see either one anywhere on the radar screen. The damned war had been going on before we got there, and it was gonna be going on after we were gone. It was just a question of who when home alive or in a body bag. Not a great moral builder that! I don't think the rich kids would have been any more gung ho than us poor boys!