Arguments Against The Vietnam Draft

In 1955, tensions between the political stance of the democratic South Vietnamese versus the communist Northern Vietnamese rise. Because of this, the United States of America enters the war to keep political democratic interests within Vietnam and fighting off the red communist terror. However, the United States lacked a consistent amount of voluntary troops, so president Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act. This act would pick men between ages eighteen to twenty-five and conscript them into the army during times of peace and war. However, controversy over the effectiveness of the draft was put into question, and there are many points that suggest why, such as draft-dodgers, protesting, draft card burners, and exemptions. Firstly, many conscripted men fled the draft and were known as, “draft-dodgers.” Draft-dodgers were actually a common occurrence and as much as up to forty-thousand Americans fled to Canada. The reason for this, was because Canada did not diplomatically participate in the Vietnam war. Despite this, the government tried to punish leavers by jailing “disloyal” Americans trying to flee . However, draft-dodgers had an easy time fleeing because most …show more content…
The major opposition the movement posed against the Vietnam draft was the amount of men it demanded, netting about “forty-thousand men each month”. To support this, taxes had also been raised up to a total of “twenty-five billion dollars.” A major outset for protesting in the war was when “one-hundred thousand” protested at the Lincoln Memorial, and “thirty-thousand thousand”, then went on to riot at the Pentagon. Similar to this, war veterans who were physically scarred or disabled were shown on live television throwing medals away, telling terrifying war stories to discourage volunteers, and generally showing the grotesque side of war, winning more protesters to the protesting movement each