Dear Grandpa,
I am writing to you so share with you my reasons for not being conscripted to serve in the Vietnam War and why I don’t believe in conscription. I would like to explain my reasons for not wanting to be conscripted, I hope you take these reasons into serious consideration and understand why I am standing by my thoughts.
Australia entering this war, was not too fight and protect our country, but to help our allies America to stop the spread of Communism through South-East Asia. The South Vietnamese government, the Ngo Dinh Diem were the ones to request Americas help which then followed with its allies.
I know your belief in conscription is a big thing but in a way it is a cruel thing. Against someone’s will sending him or her away to fight in a war that they may not believe in in the first place. Conscription in a war where fighting for your country is a good cause however fighting for someone’s beliefs is completely different.
Many Australians reject the idea of conscription to an overseas war, and believe conscription should be used here as a home defense, for exampl...
..., the draft ended and the U.S. converted to an All-Volunteer military. Many people were not in high spirits about the Vietnam War, and thought we should not be involved in it. Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, laments “[w]e are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves” (Vietnam-Facts.info). There is a popular picture of a draft protests sign displaying the words “hell no, we won’t go.” I do believe Americans should have a right to choose to go to war or not. Many young men lost their life fighting a battle they didn’t even have faith in. Many soldiers endured personal hardships, loss of income, and leaving family behind. Most of drafted soldiers complied with the draft and served; however, many middle to high-class young men found ways to avoid combat.
Australia (as a counry) felt a loyalty towards the 'mother country', Britaain and that the war would be a good opportunity to improve Ausrtalia's international reputation. Many individual Australians also joined the war for a variety of reasons. Some felt a strong loyalty to Britain who had supported Australia, and now, they felt, was the time for them to 'do their bit'. Others enlsted simply to prove they were brave enough to fight, but some enlisted because their friends had. Some simply enlisted because they needed a job, pay, and regular meals, but many enlisted in the army for an adventure, not knowing the true horrors of war. Private A.J. McSparrow (former railway worker from Parramatta, NSW), was one of the many men whwo enlisted because he felt that it was his duty to support the 'mother country' ..."I have (enlisted) ... and I don't regret it in the very least. I believe that it is every young fellow's duty" and "... we are the sort of men who should go."Private Antill enlisted because he needed the money, clothes and food and also because it was easier work than cabinet making ..."I tell you what I have just joined the Australan army ... it's not bad money here 5/- a day and clothes and food that's nearly as good as cabinet making and not half as hard."Lieutenant D.G. Armstrong (former bank clerk from Kyneton, Victoria), thought that the war would be great opportunity to prove his strength and to show that he was not a coward..."I am going to have a try for the war ... I think I ought to go, they want all they can get and ... I think it's the greatest opportunity for a chap to make a man of himself, those that come back from this war will be men of the right sort that anybody would be proud of.
The men rushed to enlist. In the first two weeks 7000 Victorian men volunteered for the first Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and 10,000 in Sydney.” It was a man’s duty to go to war. Most people who lived in Australia felt an obligation to England. England was at war, so Australians wanted to go and help them.
Thesis: During World War 1, the amount of Australians enlisting decreased due to the realisation that war was not as it was portrayed to the public
But in 1980, President Carter reinstated the draft in a way, stating all men born after January 1, 1960 were require to register with Selection Service, but this was not reinforced after about he of 1986. Today, the question is debated about whether or not we, as Americans, should reinstate the draft. Those in favor of reinstating the draft argue that our country would be safer, those drafted would learn important lifelong lessons and build characteristics that today’s generation has lost, and Americans would learn to appreciate more, something our society has forgotten. Those who oppose the draft argue that there would not be many, if any, families that are not military based and have to worry about loosing people in their family. Reinstating the military draft is
Engaging in the Vietnam War was essentially a preemptive measure on Australia's part, as many Australians at the time feared the arrival of the 'Red Terror' on their homeland (the spread of
Australia is a relatively young country; only becoming a unified nation in 1901 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). A young country is no different from a young person; identity is an issue. Questions of who am I and where do I fit in the world are asked, and unfortunately not often answered until a tragedy occurs. National identity is a sense of a nation and its people as a connected whole. This feeling of cohesiveness can be shaped by many events in a nation’s history but none more so than war. War is a stressful, traumatic affair that changes forever, not only the people that go to it but the nation as a whole. Many consider the Great War Australia’s tragedy where we became a nation (Bollard, 2013) with our own modern identity.
Australia has involved itself in four wars where it has suffered substantial life loss and casualty. Those wars included World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and Vietnam. Did Australia have to involve itself in these wars? Did the lives of these young Australians have to be taken?
To each and every person, war means something different. For some, it is against the things they believe in, but for others it is everything that they believe in. In America, the men and women have the privilege to determine whether or not they are a part of serving this country by going into: the marines, navy, national guard, air force, etc. Previous to this choice being available, they had what was called the military draft. The military draft is where men from the ages 18 to 25 years old legally have to register with Selective Services where you could potentially be chosen to go to war. The inadequacy to register into the draft could result in the forfeiture of the rights and privileges that are given to the average American. With
“First, conscription doesn’t save much cash. It costs money to manage and enforce a draft- history demonstrates that not every inductee would go quietly. Conscripts serve shorter terms and reenlist less frequently, increasing turnover, which is expensive. And unless the government instituted a Czarist lifetime draft, everyone beyond the first ranks would continue to expect to be paid” (Forbes). Even though “The military not only provides training in a range of specialties; it also offers educational benefits for veterans-- including many from underprivileged back grounds-- that might not be available under a mandatory
During the First World War, Britain announced conscription which meant that it was compulsory for men aged between16 to 19 to join to war, which made the Britain army massively increase in power. However some people refused the war for to join, reasons being that they were pacifists or religious objectors who followed the words of bible as it says in the bible “thou shall not kill” so were against the idea of shedding blood of their own kind. These people were own as conscientious objectors or short for conchies, conchies had a bad reputation within the eyes of to the government and general public as, general public saw conchies as criminals and tarter of their country, which resulted in segregation from general public. Furthermore, the government saw conchies as unpatriotic and cowards for not standing up or the country also throw biased opinions towards conchies as the government was blinded with the idea of being victorious in the war so feared that they would lose the war if men opposed against joining the war as around about 16,800 men went against joining the war. Moreover the government made life hell for conchies as government enforced tribunals which consisted of ex- military officials who purposely gave biased judgements which leaded to conchie getting prison sentences in which harsh treatment was done to provoke fear so conchies stop embracing the optioning they had and become patriotic.
Over forty years has passed since the United States inducted the last draftee through the Selective Service System. The Selective Service System is an independent agency of the United States, which gives the President the right or power to conscript men for military service. There have been different Acts passed by congress since 1917 that require men of various ages to register for service. Although, the name of each Act and the age requirements of the registries changed, the Acts were all similar in nature. They all gave the President the right to call men to war when he deemed necessary. In January 1973, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced the creation of the all-volunteer service, retracting the need for the draft (GAO.gov). Under current law, all men between the ages of 18-25 must register within 30 days of their 18th birthday, however this information is used mostly for recruitment purposes and in case of any future crisis. There has been much controversy over this matter since the Vietnam War, when people started to realize the draft was unfair due to loopholes and draft exemptions making the draft unfair for working men. At one point in time the military draft may have been necessary, but today’s all-volunteer military has eliminated the need for a draft.
Australian forces played a small yet often vital role in the Vietnam war yet regardless of their impact it was a role that did not change the course of the war and ultimately led to the withdrawal of Australian forces and defeat at the hands of a forceful enemy. If Australian forces were not sent to Vietnam, then today’s world could possibly be communist. The reason for why Australian soldiers were sent to Vietnam is due to two reason which consisted of primarily assisting the American forces, due to the ANZUS treaty and also to stop the threat of communism coming to Australia. The role which Australian forces played in the Vietnam war was to help the Americans contain and or defeat communism within Vietnam. The way the Australian’s did this was by military involvement. After World War II Australian forces had gained some beneficial experiences in jungle warfare, this was due to the continuous battles with Japanese in the jungles and forest of Papua New Guinea. The Australians mainly developed their ways of attacking the Vietnamese in Malay Emergency and in Borneo. If it wasn't for these two scenarios, Australia would have faced a lot more casualties.
The Vietnam War tore some families apart (Olson). Some families were getting divorced. Being gone for so long can be hard on families and soldiers. The War lasted up to at least 15 years with United States involved. Loved ones were gone and not being able to take care of their families and loved ones. The deployment of loved ones was hard to comp with some families (Logan). Children were sad to see their dad have to leave and not knowing if he will come back. During the war many terrifying images were being showed (Friedman). The images made families and loved ones worried and scared if their loved ones had died (Friedman). The families with soldiers that had lived had to deal with their loved ones having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Logan). Not only do the families have emotions during the war so do the soldiers. Soldiers who had lived were feeling guilt over them living and their friends dying (Friedman). Soldiers were wishing it was them that had died and not one of their brothers. Some soldiers had committed suicide years after war had ended because of the guilt they had felt for living. (Fallstrom). The soldiers didn’t only have emotions after war they had some during war. A war veteran had said “every time I pull the trigger, I was killing a little bit inside me. “ (Friedel).Even knows he wasn’t physically killing a little bit of himself, mentally he was.
Generally, reinstating the Constitutional draft would solidify the meaning of being an American citizen. Often, wealthier and more privileged people are able to ask for exemption from serving, which makes representation of soldiers in combat composed of less-privileged citizens. With compulsory conscription, all American citizens, men or women, ages 18-26 are subject to be recruited for the armed forces. In fact, only 4 members of the 107th Congress who voted in favor of the Iraq war had children serving there. Politicians would know how it feels to have loved ones in a war, instead of freely speaking about wartime without experiencing it in any way.1 Moreover, Americans feel that public support for war in foreign countries is not strong because the soldiers fighting are p...