How I Learned to Love the Draft

You’re saying that Vietnam could have been fought with volunteers?

If it was a war worth fighting - and I always thought it was - how many volunteers would there have been after ‘68?

Had dinner last night with a draftee who spent ‘69 in the Central Highlands. I KNOW he never would have volunteered, but he did his obligation and is still proud of it.

So you say my “theory” won’t work..but it was the “theory” from WWI all the way to March of ‘73. What changed?

And I will tell you what changed: the level of Communist propaganda in the U.S. and willful disinformation about what would happen in the aftermath of the “agrarian revolutions” of Southeast Asia. It’s nauseating that the world had to witness the Khmer Rouge massacres and the North Vietnamese “re-education” camps but there is no one now who can credibly say these things won’t happen in the aftermath of a Communist takeover.

And if the U.S. is filled with people who think that such things are acceptable in lieu of a commitment by us, then there isn’t much to defend, is there?

I think it was more “everyone will oppose it as unjust”.

I believe in the draft. I was RA twixt Tam Ky and Danang, and all points west. I believed we could have kicked their asses in three days had our political leadership decided that’s what they wanted. But they didn’t.

But I will always be proud of my service, and the men I served with there, US, RA, NG, whatever.

“Your analysis of the congressional draft proponents is why I don’t trust it now — they view military as way of: spreading social welfare dependency (first) and tearing down society (if available through war).

WWII as Democrat President war I would take issue with, given Germany declaring war on us first and Japan doing so via an actual attack.

Of course, there is the argument that FDR staged the whole thing...

but that is another thread for another day... ?

In 1967, I was coasting thru college, getting C’s. At that time the military was an inevitability. A friend and I agreed to sign up for the voluntary draft which advances your name to the top of the list. Instead of accepting the draft and carrying a rifle for two years, I joined the Navy for 4 years. That was the best decision I ever made in my life. I came out a much better person. I returned to college which was a piece of cake after learning how to apply myself (courtesy of the military). I graduated. I got a job with one of the best companies in the U.S. Now I’m retired with a very comfortable IRA and I’m sneering at people who crap on the military experience.

Some people, perhaps you, consider that sort of experience as foolish. I travel all over the world. My house is mostly paid for. I am free to speak my mind about politics but nevertheless, I’ve never suited up with the LA Dodgers. And that’s ok with me.

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