Draft Dodgers and Anti-War Protests

Draft card burning

Protesters publicly destroy draft cards to challenge the legality of the war.

Kent State Shooting

Violence erupted at Kent State as the war reaches America.

Americans were split between patriotic duty and moral outrage.

The draft turned the Vietnam War into a personal crisis for American families while exposing a massive class divide. Because college students could receive deferments (exemptions), the burden of fighting fell disproportionately on the working class and minorities, leading to the criticism that it was a "rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight." Looking at the protest movement, it’s clear it wasn't just about peace; it was a fundamental challenge to the government's moral authority. When students at Kent State were killed by the National Guard, it proved that the war's violence had officially followed the soldiers home, marking the war as a failure on the domestic front.

This era was incredibly difficult for my grandpa. He carried a deep sense of survivor’s guilt for the rest of his life, haunted by the fact that he was safely testing missiles in the U.S. while his coworkers and friends were shipped off to the jungle. He lived with the heavy burden of knowing they died in combat while he was able to go home to his family every night--a reality that made his own safety feel like a betrayal to the people he loved.

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