Draft

The draft made the war a personal threat to young men and their families. Students provided networks through which opposition could become organised protest. Television and newspaper reporting brought the violence of the war to a much wider audience.

The draft compelled eligible men to serve, but college deferments and other exemptions allowed many middle-class young men to avoid being drafted. African Americans faced a disproportionate burden of military service and deaths. This connected opposition to the war with wider arguments about racial and economic unfairness.