Rough Draft draws the curtain on the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers' idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college educated men...
Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance
The book explores the impact of race and class on the Selective Service during the Vietnam War, highlighting how policymakers' views of middle-class masculinity influenced conscription and deferment practices. It reveals that college-educated men were deemed more valuable as civilians, leading to an increase in deferments for them, while poorer and racialized men were disproportionately targeted for military service under the guise of the War on Poverty. This analysis uncovers the systemic inequities that shaped who served in the Cold War army.