- Aug 23, 2009
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I'm still trying to figure this one out 8 years after the point was raised the first time. How does having a war with an all volunteer military allow a war but forcing people to go to war prevent one? Wouldn't that be reversed? If people were so against the war wouldn't they refrain from signing up to go?
I was in Navy boot camp in 1967. No one was drafted into the Navy, it was all volunteer (granted, by not volunteering we might have been drated in the Army, and for a while into the Marine Corp).
During basic we were indoctrinated by non-coms on the justification for the conflict in SE Asia. The program lasted about 15 minutes, the instructors where met with boos when they attempted to re-write history, and dozens and dozens of hands went up. The few called on asked questions demonstrating their lack of support for our involvement and the Domino Theory, and the threat Vietnam represented to the United States - all questions were met with huge applause.
Did the draft end that war?
Opposition to the draft did.