Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The military draft and vietnam

For more than 50 years, Selective Service and theregistration requirement for America's young men have served as a backup systemto provide manpower to the U.S. Armed Forces. President Franklin Rooseveltsigned the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 which created thecountry's first peacetime draft and formally established the Selective ServiceSystem as an independent Federal agency. From 1948 until 1973, during bothpeacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armedforces which could not be filled through voluntary means. Early in the VietnamWar, you could get a deferment, which essentially got you out of the draft, forgoing to college. Coincidentally, there was a large increase in the number ofmen going to college in the mid-1960s. Many of those who couldn't afford college went north to Canada.



http://usmilitary.about.com/od/deploymentsconflicts/l/bldrafthistory.htm

9 comments:

  1. Mohamed, can you tell us more about the ones who went to Canada? When did the United States allow these citizens to come back to the US?

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  2. It would be crazy to be forced to fight a war that you didn't want to. Being forced to go against your own will would be tough stuff. I can see why more people started going to college and fled to Canada.

    Harmony:)

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  3. they seen war is not the only way to get a solution, they want to have a peace and education.no more fighting in Vietnam.

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  4. Well, it was the American soldiers but they were not all of them they were some of them whom escapade to Canada. I think when the United State allow them to come back, i guess it was after the war.

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  5. I think ti is crazy that our government took our own people against their will to fight a fight that not all of the people where behind

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  6. From the book, the author attempted to go to Canada after knowing that he was being drafted to the war. He was a scholarly person that was against the war. People shouldn't be forced to fight a war if they did not support it.

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  7. It seems to me, the people want to have peace in their country, and to stop fighting.

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  8. I'm definitely glad it doesn't work that way anymore. I can't imagine being forced to fight in a war I didn't agree with from the start.
    WHY DON'T PRESIDENTS FIGHT THE WAR? WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR?! -Surge

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  9. I would have ran to Canada if i was alive this time!

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