Gallery: The Draft

During the Vietnam War, about two-third of American troops were volunteered, the rest were selected for military service through the drafts. In the beginning of the war, names of all American men in draft-age were collected by the Selective Service System. When someone’s name was called, he had to report to his local draft board, which was made up of various community members, so that they could begin to evaluate his draft status. By this manner, local draft boards had an enormous power to decide who had to go and who would stay. Consequently, draft board members were often under pressure from their family, relatives and friends to exempt potential draftees.

As American troop strength in Vietnam shot up, more young men of call-up age sought to avoid or delay their military service and there were some legal ways to do that. Men who had physical or mental problems, were married, with children, attending college or needed at home to support their families might be granted deferments. It is worth noticing that many men received deferments were from wealthy and educated families.

In response to criticism of the draft’s inequities, on December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System conducted two lottery drawings – the first draft lottery since 1942, at its headquarter in Washington to determine the order in which men of draft-eligible age (born 1944 to 1950) were called to report for possible induction into the military in 1970. 

The draft lottery was based on birth dates. There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates (including February 29) placed into a deep glass container. The capsules was drawn by hand, opened one by one and then assigned to a sequence number started from “001” until “366”. The first date drawn was September 14 followed by April 24, which was assigned to “001” and “002” respectively. The drawing process continued until each day of the year was assigned to a lottery number. The lower the number was, the higher probability men with the corresponding birthday would be called to serve.

The draft lotteries were conducted again in 1970, 1971 and 1972. However, draft numbers issued on February 2, 1972 for men born in 1953 was never used due to the abolition of the draft in early 1973. With the Paris Peace Accords signed on January 27, 1973, the end of active U.S. ground involvement in Vietnam and subsequently the draft saw the the last men conscripted on December 7, 1972.