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McNamara's Boys: Lost Innocence in Vietnam

Conflicted: A History Podcast

CHAPTER

Dodging the Draft to Avoid a Viet Nam Conflict

Rich parents secured bogus medical deferments for their kids or just straight up bribed government officials to let their children off the hook. People who did not have the power of the purse got creative by faking mental illness or setimes gaining so much weight that they were undraftable. All o this avoidance and lack of volunteers presented the administration of president lindenby johnson with a problem. For every draft of oider, some one else was made to serve in order to meet the military quotas. That some one else might very well have been killed in viet nam.

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