HOW
THE DRAFT HAS CHANGED SINCE VIETNAM
If
a draft were held today, it would be dramatically different
from the one held during the Vietnam War. A series of reforms
during the latter part of the Vietnam conflict changed the
way the draft operated to make it more fair and equitable.
If a draft were held today, there would be fewer reasons to
excuse a man from service.
Before
Congress made improvements to the draft in 1971, a man could
qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a
full-time student making satisfactory progress toward a degree.
Under the current draft law, a college student can have his
induction postponed only until the end of the current semester.
A senior can be postponed until the end of the academic year.
If
a draft were held today, local boards would better represent
the communities they serve.
The changes in the new draft law made in 1971 included the
provision that membership on the boards was required to be
as representative as possible of the racial and national origin
of registrants in the area served by the board.
A
draft held today would use a lottery to determine the order
of call.
Before the lottery was implemented in the latter part of the
Vietnam conflict, Local Boards called men classified 1-A,
18 1/2 through 25 years old, oldest first. This resulted in
uncertainty for the potential draftees during the entire time
they were within the draft-eligible age group. A draft held
today would use a lottery system under which a man would spend
only one year in first priority for the draft - either the
calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended.
Each year after that, he would be placed in a succeedingly
lower priority group and his liability for the draft would
lessen accordingly. In this way, he would be spared the uncertainty
of waiting until his 26th birthday to be certain he would
not be drafted.
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