>>Autre temps, autre moeurs. These wars were fought with conscript armies.
>>Ditto for Vietnam, with similar effect (fragging).
>
>Philip Carter and Owen West write that "[v]olunteers outnumbered
>conscripts by a 9-1 ratio in the units that saw combat during the
>[Vietnam] war's early days in 1966" ("Iraq 2004 Looks Like Vietnam 1966,"
>Slate, December 27, 2004). Altogether during the Vietnam War, "1,728,344
>men were drafted. Of the forces who actually served in Vietnam, 648,500
>(25%) were draftees. Draftees (17,725) accounted for 30.4% of combat
>deaths in Vietnam" ("The Draft and Historical Amnesia," VFW Magazine,
>March, 2003). In short, conscripts were a minority during the Vietnam War.
I think the problem with that number--and I think some military honcho pointed this out himself (back in the early 70s) [1]-- was that people often felt impelled to join before they got drafted. My wasband's older brother, for instance, joined to avoid being drafted and, thus, to get a better post. It was rumored that, if you joined, you'd get 'cushier' billet.
Carrol said the same rumor was popular during the Korean War, which is why he joined -- IIRC -- to get a better chance at a safer assignment.
There is a subtle difference in attitudes, I'm sure, but I suspect that, when the going got tough, VN era soliders felt just as trapped as they could be.
The conscript army of today, to which Woj refers, takes that point seriously. He was, afterall, describing our volunteer army as "conscripts".
[1] too lazy to hunt it down at the mo' but it was a famous diatribe about the state of the military which placed the blame on the draft (and if memory doesn't fail [bad assumption!]), he also pointed out that even volunteers weren't wholly volunteers. At any rate, can anyone remember the General's (?) name? I've even posted it here in the past, but I'm completely blanking out on the name.
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