Recollections of Vietnam Draft Lottery

Elaine Woo’s “Lottery Rolled the Dice of Life for Draft-Age Men” (April 22) was an excellent overview of what faced young men who should have been deciding the course of their lives at a time when their lives were not wholly theirs to craft. Nov. 21, my birth date, came up No. 156 in that first draft lottery in 1970. And though many officials believed not more than 120 numbers would be called, No. 156 turned up for the June draft call; six months and almost half the numbers used up.

My life had been put on hold for six years (a first-year baby boomer who turned 18 a few months after the Gulf of Tonkin incident), and when that draft notice arrived for June 1970, I did the last thing available to me, short of refusing or fleeing to Canada: I enlisted in the Air Force and thus avoided serving in Vietnam. The key point in Woo’s article comes in a quote by Denny Freidenrich: “What’s important to understand is, this was life and death.” That was brought into crystal clarity on the day of my entry into the Air Force, sitting in the induction center and watching a group of scrawny young men forming ranks in the hallway. An Army sergeant told these young men to count off by fours and then told those who had called out four to take one step forward. “Congratulations,” the sergeant said. “You’re now Marines.”

In that moment, I realized there were no winners as far as the draft was concerned, merely lives placed on hold, forever changed and, in the case of some of the young draftees unlucky enough to be every fourth person in line, cut tragically short.

RICHARD E. LARSEN

Ventura

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The draft lottery was described as a random selection, but it was not. The balls representing the 366 birthdays were poured into the bowl starting with January and each month was added in order. Unfortunately, the balls were inadequately mixed so that those who were born late in the year were disproportionately chosen first. Their low draft numbers virtually guaranteed that they would be drafted.

Examining the draft list published with the story, the unequal distribution is clearly visible. While the draft lottery was fair in that it treated men with identical birthdays the same, it was far from random for those born late in the year.

DANIEL R. HAGER

Thousand Oaks

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As a former member of the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1968-69 I feel the true legacy of this tragic episode of American history has been largely overlooked. As a direct result of our country’s long involvement in this conflict and the flawed strategy behind this campaign, the military draft was eliminated. The all-volunteer concept is presently in disarray; in essence we have become a society of all rights and no obligations, as the concept of serving one’s country has been left largely to those at the lower end of our economic ladder.

I have read articles in your paper and others over the past few years that have identified shortages in combat-ready crews on active ships within the U.S. Navy, the further lowering of admission standards within various branches of the armed forces and an Army that is presently facing a crisis in the retention of qualified junior officers. Experts agree that our front-line military forces, in light of regional peacekeeping duties abroad, are stretched perilously thin.

Finally, this country purports to be the lone superpower and the defender of democratic ideals worldwide. Our current military forces, however, do not come close to representing a cross-section of our present democratic society. The word “patriotism” is rarely heard outside of the military.

MICHAEL C. JAROS

San Diego

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As someone who graduated from high school in 1969, received a lottery number, had a college deferment and had a brother in the SDS, I have read with great interest and emotion The Times’ series of articles on the war in Vietnam.

Coincidentally, I have been reading the selected works of Martin Luther King Jr., and these prophetic words, from “A Time to Break Silence,” King’s address at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned in 1967, still speak eloquently and viscerally today: “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit. . . .

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

TIM VIVIAN

Bakersfield

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Reading about the hell that young men had to go through at that time makes me wonder where the feminists were to fight for equal rights. They believe they belong in all-male cadet academies, but I’m sure that they wouldn’t tolerate women being drafted. The draft is just one injustice that men have had to deal with that hasn’t been addressed. When will society realize that men are just as human and worthy of their lives as women?

JOSEPH DELVAUX

Covina