Black casualties were disproportionately high
An ongoing myth is that poor urban blacks were drafted while middle class whites received college deferments and used other means to avoid being drafted. Those who subscribe to this theory claim that the number of blacks sent to Vietnam and the number who became combat casualties there were out of proportion compared to their percentage of the overall population. This is false. Combined fatalities in Vietnam suffered by the American military reveals that 12.5% of all those killed in Vietnam were black. This was at a time when black men of age suitable for military service made up about 13% of the population.
All persons entering the armed forces, regardless of branch of service and whether they were a draftee or volunteer, were subject to a battery of tests. These tests revealed aptitudes and skill levels which the military needed to assess the fitness of individuals for specialized jobs. The US Army dragged a heavy logistics tail in Vietnam. Highly specialized jobs were filled by both draftees and volunteers, and were far removed from combat. These jobs included aircraft maintenance, construction, clerical jobs, communications, transportation, and so on. Draftees that scored highly on tests were offered training in these areas.
Draftees who did not score sufficiently to receive specialized training were not necessarily sent to Vietnam either. About 25% of the troops who were sent to Vietnam were draftees. The US military had (and has) bases scattered around the world and across the United States. The need to maintain manning levels everywhere was one reason the draft was instituted. It was not in the interest of any of the branches of service to have a skilled air traffic controller, for example, serving in the jungles of Vietnam when his services were needed elsewhere.
The vast majority of those serving in country in Vietnam were volunteers who either enlisted in the armed forces or attended officer training before being shipped overseas. Of the roughly 2.6 million personnel who served in Vietnam about 1 million served in roles in which they were not exposed to combat. Of this total about 25% were draftees, the rest were volunteers. Of the total less than eleven percent were black. Just over 1.7 million men were drafted during the years of the Vietnam War, and just over one third of those men actually saw service in Vietnam or its environs.
The myth of Vietnam being a white man’s war fought by drafted black men stemmed from the civil rights movement during the mid to late 1960s. It was perpetuated by many of the civil rights movement’s leaders, including Martin Luther King. It was untrue then and it is untrue now. Throughout the Vietnam War the military took steps to open opportunities for all races within its ranks, and although the latent racism of some of its members was present, as it still is in many cases, it was not official policy. Almost ninety percent of those who died in Vietnam were white.