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I’ve been watching it with interest since my age made me eligible to be drafted to fight in Vietnam. When I started college in the fall of 1965 I remember listening to a campus talk on why we should not be involved in Vietnam and at that time what was said made no sense to me. Like many Americans I trusted that if our government was involved our leaders must have studied the situation carefully and known it was the right thing to do. That sure changed! This loss of trust in our government by the general population was one of the results of this war. As time went on I certainly did not want to be forced against my will (because of the draft) in going over to fight what seemed to be a war with no end in sight and no clear way to win it. I assumed the communist governments of North Vietnam and China could send an endless supply of fighters to the south with little or no concern about how many men they lost. It seemed totally hopeless to me at the time. Eventually that became obvious to almost everyone.
I especially hated the idea of being forced into a job that required me to kill other people. No amount of training would have been enough to convince me that was okay. In September of 1969 I got my notice to get my physical in Detroit in preparation to join the army. I was taking a 5th year of college to get my Michigan state teaching certification. Part of my motive for a career in education was because the government deferred teachers from the draft. However the government only allowed for 4 years of college deferment so I was now eligible to have to go into the army. Because of luck or divine providence or what I thought were clever responses during the physical I didn’t pass. I was elated. That could have been a terrible day leading to many terrible days.
I remember a conversation I had in college whether anybody knew anyone that wanted to be in the army. Nobody could think of anybody. Remember we were the ones required (not asked or volunteered) to go over and kill people in a strange foreign country. At that time you could be drafted when you were 18 but were not qualified to vote until you were 21. Small wonder that there were a lot of campus protests against the war. Every single person I know that was drafted and sent to Vietnam is still messed up in some way today (some of them didn’t make it back). This is why I study carefully how to vote in every election. I vote for those that seem to have good judgement and against those that appear to run because it serves their own interests rather than what is best for all Americans.
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