Reply #34: Revised draft laws ended the Vietnam "war."

[Another Bill C.]

"Before Congress made improvements to the draft in 1971, a man could qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a full-time student making satisfactory progress toward a degree.

"Under the current draft law, a college student can have his induction postponed only until the end of the current semester. A senior can be postponed until the end of the academic year."

http://www.sss.gov/viet.htm

When I was young, everybody in my lower middle-class neighborhood could figure on being drafted. It was between the Korean war and the Vietnam Police Action. None of our families could afford to send us to college. Many of us preemptively joined the Guard or the reserves. Those who didn't were likely to get drafted. Wealthier young men were exempted as long as they went to college, graduate school, or became teachers. It was pretty much that way until 1971.

In 1971, the exemptions were changed as above. We pulled out of Vietnam in 1973.