Avoiding The Vietnam War Draft

During the Vietnam War draft, there were many men who were willing to do anything they could to avoid being drafted. They were trying to evade the draft. Some men fled, some faked a physical or mental illness, and some even found connections that gave them a way out. Resisting the draft kept them from fighting in a war that they did not want to participate in and also was a way for men to protest the war and take a stand against it. Of course there were many other ways that they protested the war, but this was one of the main ones that they found most effective.

In the case of Charlie Diamond, he fled to Canada to avoid being drafted. He lived in Connecticut. At the time, war did not have much support from either country. Many men in the United States were even burning their draft cards. The men who fled were actually accepted by the Canadians. Around 50,000 men chose this way of avoiding the draft. Today, about half remain. They stayed in Canada because they felt at home.

Other men chose the path of lying about a physical or mental illness. According to an article on Helium, some men often convinced doctors into getting them out of the draft with medical excuses. If the men could not find a doctor that would do it for them, they would fake an illness or purposely fail an exam. For example, some would try to lose weight so they would not meet the weight requirements and some would even shoot their own foot so they would become physically disabled. Men even faked mental illnesses and some even convicted felonies so they would not be drafted.

Some men were lucky enough to find connections to get out of being drafted. George Bush was an example of this. He used his dad as a way to avoid the draft. His father was a congressman at the time. He joined the Texas Air Guard so he would have service in the military and not have to be drafted. Bush was one of the most famous ones for doing this, but there were also many others.

Men who were opposed of the war were willing to do almost anything to avoid being drafted. Some might believe this is a cowardly thing to do, but there are some that would also disagree and say it was a brave thing for standing up for what they believe in. I can see where both of these can be debatable. Either way, most people had there own reasoning for making the choice that they did.