A Shameful Government Scheme
When President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed office following JFK’s assassination in 1963, America had 16,000 troops in Vietnam. In 1964, the figure grew slightly to 23,000. In 1965, however, in response to requests from American commanders in Vietnam for ever more troops, the figure mushroomed to 185,000. By 1966 America was stuck in a quagmire, as the troop count more than doubled from the preceding year to 385,000. The insatiable demand for ever more American troops put the government in a bind.
Specifically, the administration had to figure out where to get more troops, without a public backlash. The answer was to cut corners – drastically so – to send unfit draftees to Vietnam. The way the draft system was set up back then, college students got deferments. An end to student deferments would furnish enough bodies to meet the military’s manpower shortage. However, college students were predominately the kids of the middle and upper classes. That is, the people whose opinion counted the most with Congress and the media.