Aside: There was something a little unfair about how this

Aside: There was something a little unfair about how this system worked. In that era a lot more white kids went to college than black kids. Thus, the draft rolls were disproportionately biased toward poor black kids. I suspect that the ‘butcher’s bill’ from Viet Nam was also biased in the same manner.

The common thinking at that time was that once a young man finished his bachelor degree, he would either volunteer or be drafted unless he could get a coveted grad school deferment.

In the 1964-1968 period the truth about the horrors of Viet Nam were filtering back to the US and there was intense civil unrest about Viet Nam (along with the civil unrest about racial segregation). There were campus demonstrations, burning of draft cards and the exit to Canada to avoid the draft.

At Rice we were pretty heads down and I don’t recall any on campus demonstrations. Of course, I was taking a full course load (19-22 semester hours) while working part time to support myself. I did not have time for the ‘foolishness’ of demonstrating against the US government.