Military Draft Vietnam War Essay

The draft was last used back in the Vietnam War to provide more men to fight in the war against the communist North, leading to problems back at home (Moody). While some say the draft was patriotic and brought the country together, the draft was unconstitutional, weakened the military, and weakened the economy. With the Constitution being the law of the land, forcing fathers and sons to leave their families to fight a bloody, insect-infected, swampy war or any other war they did not want to fight violates every citizens personal liberties (National Constitution Center). In other words, the draft imposes on citizens basic rights. The draft has been also unfair to low income families as “high-income families who could avoid being drafted by going to college or finding a slot in a stateside National Guard unit” (Moody). The

The draft brought “a flood of people who do not want to be there and who may not be committed” (MacNeil/Lehrer). With a large majority of people not wanting to be in the military and being forced to be there, most men would just want to go home leading to a large majority of them to have terrible morale, be selfish, and have horrible discipline on the battleground (Michaels). Or in other words, soldiers would just want to survive and would try anything not to die. With a large section of men out at war, many children, women, and elderly people would have to take over jobs so that the economy could still function leading to items and materials to possibly lower in quantity and increase in price (Moody). Basically forcing men into the armed forces would “be a big drain on labor resources” (MacNeil/Lehrer). Another issue would be the loss of nearly a whole generation of men if a huge war were to break out like World War 1, causing the economy to fall into a depression like the Great Depression in the 1930s