The Draft: Late 1960s and early 1970s anti-Vietnam war protests, social and political background notes

by James K. Sayre

The draft was used by the United States government to force young adult men into uniform to fight the raging war on Vietnam. However, among many college age men and among some young working men, there was a growing resistance to the draft and to particularly serving in the Vietnam War theater of operations. Resistance at first was scattered, but as the war heated up and as anti-war protests grew more organized in the middle of the 1960s, a formal anti-draft movement called, The Resistance, made its appearance. There were mass anti-draft rallies on the campuses of many of the more elite colleges and Universities including Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard University, Columbia University and University of Michigan. Draft cards, which were official documents issued by the Selective Service System, an agency of the U. S. government, were burned en masse at these public rallies. It was excellent political theater, although there probably were only a few thousand participants across the country. Some of the draft resisters were charged, convicted and sentenced to prisons of up to five years, although most received lighter sentences. Most draft resisters were never even charged with any crime, for a wide variety of reasons. : Background sketch

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