The+Draft

"September 14th wins the lottery." This is the headline that ran in many newspapers around the U.S. after the first Draft Lottery for the Vietnam War on December 1, 1969. Many civilians' blood ran cold as they heard their winning numbers called from a ticket they had never bought and could possibly have to pay for with their lives. media type="youtube" key="Op4xCixZrOs" width="10" height="3" If you were between the ages of 18 and 26, then you were given a number that represented your birthday; if your number was pulled, then u would be expected to go to war. **//[|Look here to see if you would be one of the lucky ones, or if you would be suiting up for war.] //** __**Responses:**__ Many people were opposed to the idea of the war. They didn't understand the why we were fighting, or what we were fighting for. This, in turn, led to a shortage in soldiers to fight in the war. The president had no choice but to turn to drafting people.

This term became popular during the Vietnam war. Many people fled to Sweden, Canada, and Mexico to avoid the mandatory conscription. In Canada these young men became concentrated in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. They were at first assisted by the Student Union for Peace Action, a campus-based Canadian anti-war group with connections to Students for a Democratic Society. This was led by campus chair Matthieu Charette in the United States. Canadian immigration policy at the time made it easy for immigrants from all countries to obtain legal status in Canada. By late 1967, dodgers were being assisted primarily by several locally based anti-draft groups (over twenty of them), such as the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme. As a counselor for the Programme, Mark Satin wrote the //Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada//, in 1968. It sold over 100,000 copies in six editions. The influx of these young men affected Canada's academic and cultural institutions, and Canadian society at large. These new arrivals tended to balance the "brain drain " that Canada had experienced. While some draft dodgers returned to the United States after an amnesty was declared in 1977 during the administration of Jimmy Carter, roughly half of them stayed in Canada. Estimates of how many Americans settled in Canada to avoid service vary greatly. Canadian immigration statistics show that 20,000 to 30,000 draft-eligible American men came to Canada as immigrants during the Vietnam era; estimates of the total number of American citizens who moved to Canada due to their opposition to the war range from 50,000 to 125,000 This exodus was "the largest politically motivated migration from the United States since the United Empire Loyalists moved north to oppose the American Revolution" Major communities of war resisters formed in the Slocan Valley and on Baldwin Street in Toronto. __**Deserters:**__
 * __Draft Dodgers:__**

Distinct from draft dodgers, there were also deserters of the American forces who also made their way to Canada. There was pressure from the United States and Canada to have them arrested, or at least stopped at the border. The deserters have not been pardoned and may still face //pro forma// arrest, as the case of Allen Abney demonstrated in March 2006. Another similar case was that of Richard Allen Shields: He had deserted the U.S. Army in 1972 after serving a year in Vietnam. Twenty-eight years later, in 2000, when he traveled to the U.S. he was arrested and jailed in Washington State. Another similar case is that of Michael Shaffer: Many deserters were faced with problems such as these of Michael Shaffer. __**Conclusion:**__ The Vietnam war led people to have to face many challenges. The Draft being a major one of them. They were afraid to go to war and yet they were afraid not to go. Tim O' Brien is a great example of this,which you can learn more from his book [|The Things They Carried]. Which talks of many of the soldiers' hardships. The Draft led many people to risk their lives for a war they had never believed in, and still never understood when it was over.
 * Michael Shaffer - "After six months in the Army, my application for CO status was denied and I was told that I would be going to Vietnam. I refused to draw my weapon and was ordered court-martialed. On Labour Day 1970 I was able to escape and cross into Canada....During President Ford’s Clemency Program in 1975, I went to Fort Dix seeking the “Undesirable Discharge” offered to deserters who turned themselves in. The Army decided that I wasn’t eligible and court-martial proceedings were resumed. With help from the ACLU, I was released and two years later a Federal Court ordered the Army to discharge me Honourably as a Conscientious Objector....I remained in Vancouver"