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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica?
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To: Janice Shell who wrote (2578)1/27/1998 8:48:00 PM
From: Diana  Read Replies (2) of 20981
 
Janice: Three important points need to be added to your post for the benefit of those readers who were not around and of draftable age during the Vietnam War:

1. There was the possibility earlier on of escaping the draft by virtue of being a college student. College and post graduate studies were very popular at that time, for obvious reasons. But as the war continued, it became harder to use these deferrals.

2. The randomness of the pulling of the draft numbers, the "lottery", was a horror and occurred once each year. The poor guys literally had their lives on the line.

3. Finally, your comment that >>there were innumerable ways of not having to do so<<, may have been a truer comment for you and those intelligent/rich enough to attend the Seven Sisters/Ivy League. Those in the state universities (or, god forbid, those who were in trade school or working after high school graduation) were much more vulnerable when they faced the draft boards. Although the war inspired few of the draftees to go happily or willingly, these young men rarely "skipped the country" because they did not want to spend the rest of their life unable to come home to America. There was no volunteer army then. There was no amnesty then. . .not even the hope of amnesty. This was a gut-wrenching decision for the young men. Not a few of whom lost their lives, as we see on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall.
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