The Working Class’s Loss of Faith of the American Government during the Vietnam War Young men fight and die for their country in every single war, and Vietnam was no different. However, U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, on average, were the youngest in American history. In previous wars many men in their twenties were drafted for military service, and men of that age and older would often volunteer. During the Vietnam War most of the volunteers and draftees were teenagers; the average age was nineteen. In World War II, the average American soldier was twenty-six years old. At the age of eighteen young men could join or be drafted into the army. At seventeen, with the consent of a guardian, boys could enlist in the Marine Corps. At the beginning of the war, hundreds of seventeen year old marines served in Vietnam. However, in November 1965, the Pentagon ordered that all American troops must be eighteen before being deployed in the war zone. The soldiers sent off to Vietnam can be divided into three categories: one-third draftees, one-third draft-motivated volunteers, and one-third true volunteers. As the war continued, the number of volunteers steadily declined. Almost half of the army troops were draftees, and in the combat units the portion was commonly as high as two-thirds; late in the war it was even higher. These were the majority of the people dying in the war, from 1966 to 1969, the percentage of draftees who died in the war doubled from 21 to 40. Those who could avoid the draft legally through deferments were the upper class, while those in the middle and lower class who didn’t want to fight in the war had to figure out ways to avoid the draft. Because the draft threatened middle and lower class males between the ages of 18 to 35, they united together through protests to oppose the draft by burning draft cards. Draft-card burning was a symbol of protest performed by thousands of young American men as part of the opposition to the involvement of United States in Vietnam. Beginning in May 1964, some activists burned this draft cards at anti-war rallies and demonstrations. By May 1965, draft-card burnings were happening with greater frequency. To limit this form of protest, in August 1965, the United States Congress enacted a law to broaden draft card violations to punish anyone who “knowingly destroys, knowingly mutilates” his draft card. From 1965 to 1973, very few men in the U.S were convicted of burning their draft cards. Some 25,000 others went unpunished. The reason why the government was so against draft-card burnings was because the image of draft card burning was a powerful and influential in American politics and culture. Draft card burnings had become so popular at some points that it appeared in magazines, newspapers and on televisions, which signaled a political divide between those who backed the U.S government and its military goals and those who were against any U.S. involvement in Vietnam. This also revealed the growing mistrust that the middle and lower class had in the American government as they were fighting in a war that they didn’t want to fight in. On October 15, 1965, the student-run National Coordinating Committee held a demonstration to End the War in Vietnam. During this demonstration, they held the first public burning of a draft card in the United States. Out of all of the 100,000 demonstrators, David Miller became the first U.S. war protestor to burn his draft card in direct violation of a recently passed law forbidding such an act, the 1965 amendment. After burning his draft card, he was arrested by the FBI. In his court case, his attorney argued that “symbolic speech is protected by the First Amendment; burning a draft card is a most dramatic form of communication, and there is a constitutional right to make one’s speech as effective as possible.” While the court didn’t agree with the argument, the act of draft-card burning was defended as a symbolic form of free speech, which is a constitutional right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Later on, the Supreme Court decided against the draft card burners; they determined that the federal law was justified and that draft cad burning was unrelated to the freedom of speech. This outcome infuriated protestors and was criticized by legal experts. In 1968, the draft was less of a fear for males between the ages of 18 to 35, because Richard Nixon ran for president on a platform based partly on putting an end to the draft. By choosing to end the draft, Nixon planned to undercut protesters who were burning their draft cards. The drafts continued for a couple more years, and in 1973, President Nixon ended the draft making the symbolic act of draft-card burning unnecessary. Ending the draft relived the middle and lower class by taking off the social pressure of choosing on whether or not one had to go in fight in the war. The fact that people had to resort to burning a draft card revealed that the people of this time were faced with a dilemma; should they do what they believed in and defy the law, or should they just accept that it goes against their morals and fight. It also showed how David Miller, and many others like him, did the right thing, no matter what the consequence. They did more than just burn their chance to be in the war, they also made a statement, and tried to make others see that they did not have to co-operate. The middle and lower class had to deal with the insanity of the time period and decided to take action against it. This is true bravery.

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[ 1 ]. Appy, Christian. "Excerpt from Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam." The Vietnam Era. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Student Resources In Context. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
[ 2 ]. Ibid.
[ 3 ]. Ibid.
[ 4 ]. Appy, Christian. "Excerpt from Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam." The Vietnam Era. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Student Resources In Context. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
[ 5 ]. Miller, David J. "Memoirs of a Draft-Card Burner." Reclaiming Our History, March 12, 2011.
[ 6 ]. Ibid.
[ 7 ]. Miller, David J. "Memoirs of a Draft-Card Burner." Reclaiming Our History, March 12, 2011.
[ 8 ]. Rader, Gary. "Draft Resistance". The New York Review of Books. March 29, 2011.