13. The US Government Went Out of Its Way to Avoid Drafting Middle and Upper Class Children During the Vietnam War
The way the draft system was set up in the days of the Vietnam War, college students got deferments. Ending student deferments would furnish enough bodies for the draft and the ever-increasing manpower demands of the war. However, college students were predominately the kids of the middle and upper classes. That is, they were the children of people whose opinion counted the most with Congress and the media. Without their support, or at least acquiescence, America’s involvement in Vietnam could not continue.
Such support or acquiescence would not last long if middle and upper class kids’ student deferments were cancelled, and they were drafted and sent to fight and die in a far off country most Americans could not place on a map. Mobilizing reservists could also furnish enough bodies. However, it posed a similar dilemma: the reserves and National Guard were overwhelmingly filled with the children of the well-off and connected, and sending them to Vietnam would produce a fierce backlash. A different solution was urgently needed.