Most Americans sent to Vietnam were chosen by the draft. The Selective Service
System, as it was called, favored the middle and upper classes. College students could avoid service, as could those in “critical” occupations, such as teachers and engineers. As the war escalated, the draft was changed so that some students were called up through a lottery system. Still, those who knew the medical requirements might be able to produce a doctor’s affidavit certifying a weak knee, flat feet, or bad eyes—all grounds for flunking the physical. Of the 1200 men in Harvard’s class of 1970, only 56 served in the military, and only 2 of them in V The poorest and least educated were also likely to escape service, because the Armed Forces Qualification Test and the physical often screened them out. Thus the sons of blue-collar America were most likely to accept Uncle Sam’s letter of induction. Once in uniform, the sons of Hispanic and black Americans who had fewer skills were more often assigned to combat duty. The draft also made it a relatively young man’s war. The average age of soldiers serving in Vietnam was 19, compared with the average of 26 for World War II.
Most American infantry came to Vietnam ready and willing to fight. But physical and psychological hardships took their toll. An American search-and-destroy mission would fight its way into a Communist-controlled hamlet, clear and burn it, and move on—only to be ordered back days or weeks later because the enemy had moved in again. Since success could not be measured in territory gained, the measure became the “body count”: the number of Vietcong killed. Unable to tell who was friendly and who was hostile, GIs regularly took out their frustrations on innocent civilians. Officers counted those victims to inflate the numbers that suggested the Americans were winning.
Most Americans assumed that superior military