[kenberg]

I grew up with the draft as a fact of life. This means that I treated it as part of my decision making process. I was ok with this.

In 1956, the year of my hs graduation, it was my expectation that at some point I would be spending a couple of years in the military. I considered joining the Navy but with the help of a scholarship I went on to college. There were student deferments in college and in grad school, but I was in college because that was my first choice, it wasn't some scam to avoid the draft (no war, in the late 50s). In 1966 I was still finishing up my thesis, and pretty much all deferments were canceled . I took my physical and was re-classified 1A. I recall someone asking what I intended to do. The answer for me, as for most, was obvious: If I get drafted I go but I am not volunteering.

I don't recall "duty" ever being part of my vocabulary when I thought about this. I can be quite simple minded, a quality I am not embarrassed about. My thinking was along the lines of "I am an American, we are at war, we fight wars by drafting people, I'm no better than the other guy, if I get drafted I go." Many, many guys saw this in essentially this way. I never got drafted but I am as certain as I can be that I would not have changed my views if I had been. Canada is a great place, but I was not going up there to avoid the draft.

[blackshoe]

Actually, I would have preferred the Navy - but the local Navy recruiter operated out of White Plains - the New Rochelle office, which was closest to where I lived, was a satellite, and he was never there. This in spite of the fact that I spoke to him on the phone three times, and he promised to meet me in New Rochelle three times. Three times he didn't show up. The Army recruiter was there all the time, so I went Army. I was pretty sure I was going to be drafted, and I just wanted to have some choice over what I did in the Army - which the recruiter assured me I would get if I enlisted. He was lying, of course, but I didn't know that at the time.

At time I didn't think of the draft as a good or bad thing, it was just a thing.

"We fight wars by drafting people". Do we? Ideally, the young men (and women, now) we send to die in the mud (or sand or whatever) volunteer, because they believe the war is the right thing for the country to do. In WWII, as I understand it, the draft was a means of organizing the introduction of a very large number of volunteers into the military - in most cases there was no need for coercion. In Vietnam, the draft was a means of forcing young men to participate in a war that nobody except the military-industrial complex and the hawks in Washington wanted and that, in hindsight, we could have avoided altogether if we had given Ho Chi Minh the (diplomatic) help he asked for against the French.

The draft, as a means to force young people into the military, is evil.

Quote

The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion...Is this, sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, sir, indeed it is not...Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty? -- Daniel Webster (December 9, 1814 House of Representatives Address)

[barmar]

Many people will agree that it's the duty of citizens to protect their country. The problem with the draft during the Viet Nam War isn't necessarily a disagreement about this duty, but whether that war itself was necessary in the first place. If you don't believe in the war, then you won't believe that it's your duty to fight in it. In that case, being forced to do so is morally wrong. The problem is that the law permitting the draft necessarily assumes that the government's decision to go to war is appropriate.

[Winstonm]

 kenberg, on 2014-January-30, 08:19, said:

I grew up with the draft as a fact of life. This means that I treated it as part of my decision making process. I was ok with this.

....My thinking was along the lines of "I am an American, we are at war, we fight wars by drafting people, I'm no better than the other guy, if I get drafted I go." Many, many guys saw this in essentially this way. I never got drafted but I am as certain as I can be that I would not have changed my views if I had been. Canada is a great place, but I was not going up there to avoid the draft.

Ken, I can assure you that by 1969, the year I graduated, the go or no go decision had become much more complicated.