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