Vietnam War: annual number of U.S. military personnel conscripted 1964-1973

The United States military conscripted approximately 1.9 million service personnel into their ranks over the course of the Vietnam War. Commonly known as the draft, conscription had been conducted in the U.S. through the Selective Service System (SSS) since 1917. Initially, the draft was conducted using a random ballot by the SSS. When a person was called up by the draft, they had to report to their local draft board to evaluate their draft status. The various exemptions which draft-eligible men could use to avoid service, such as still being in university education or being medically unfit, were thought to allow better-connected and middle class men to evade the draft more easily than working class or minority men. The SSS responded to criticism of the draft system by conducting draft lotteries beginning in 1969. These draft lotteries were conducted based on birth dates, with the probability of conscription being higher for those men with birth dates which were selected earlier in the lottery. The lotteries were televised events, with millions of Americans tuning in.

Opposition and the end of the draft

Conscription fueled anti-war attitudes among the public in the United States, particularly among young men eligible for service and student protesters on university campuses. Anti-war student groups began to organize events where students were encouraged to burn their draft cards in an act of defiance. Resistance to the draft grew throughout the conflict, with more people filing as conscientious objectors to the war in 1972 than actual inductees via the draft. Some of those who could not evade being drafted through the various exemptions available chose to flee the United States to countries such as Canada. Recent estimates suggest up to 100,000 men left the U.S. during this period for this reason. Due to the draft's role in driving anti-war sentiment, civil disobedience making its use untenable, and growing evidence that an all-volunteer military would be more effective, Richard Nixon campaigned in the 1968 presidential election to abolish the draft. The draft was finally ended in 1973, with the last conscripted men entering the U.S. military on June 30 of that year.