The Draft in the Vietnam War
(U.S. Army photograph, "Search-and-destroy
patrol in Phuoc Tuy province")
The Vietnam War was fundamentally a political war between communist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam. When the Unites States entered the Vietnam in 1964, our involvement naturally became a subject of dispute throughout the country. Disunity was certainly a common at the time. When President Johnson sent over ground troops to Vietnam to assist South Vietnam, draft calls skyrocketed. Starting at 100,000 in 1964, these calls went up in 1966 to about 400,000. That is quite some increase. Of the total 8.7 million enlisted in our Armed Forces during the Vietnam War in 1964, roughly 1.9 million men were draftees (Raymer, n.d). By 1969, about 88% of infantry riflemen consisted of draftees. Because these men were infantry riflemen they represented more than half of battlefield deaths (Tracey, 2006).
In order to provide this type of manpower, in December of 1969, the first draft lottery since 1942 was held in our country. Above is a picture of Congressman Alexander Pirnie drawing the first capsule for the draft. The initial lottery drawing for the Vietnam War determined the order in which the men were inducted who were born anywhere between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950. 366 Blue plastic capsules were spun in a large glass container that and had birth dates in them were randomly chosen. These dates were announced on radio broadcast and live television for everyone to see or hear. September 14 was the date that was first drawn, which assigned first priority for call to duty for all men born on that date from 1944 to 1950 (Selective Service System, 2012). This process of drawing each capsule went on until each one had been assigned a number. Next, they conducted a lottery to establish the order of priority for each birth date. They used the 26 letters of the alphabet for this draft because the priority was by last name. Following, a lottery was held in 1970, 1971, and again in 1972 to add more men to our Armed Forces (Burzi, 2007).