What Did You Do in The War?

If Sullivan or Finnigan ever study American history and ask questions about the Viet Nam war I hope they read the following story.
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The United States lost the Viet Nam war. We deserved to lose. We were, for the most part, among the bad guys in that war. I never figured out who the good guys were.

The war in Viet Nam was a civil war between people in the south end of the region and people in the north end. People in the south thought their government and economy should be organized in one way (democracy and capitalism) and the people in the north thought it should be organized in a different way (communism). People on both sides thought the other side was morally corrupt, manipulated by outsiders, and bad for their country's future. From what I could tell they were all pretty screwed up on both sides. 

But it was their country, their war, and their problem to figure out. Unfortunately, because a neighboring country, China, gave weapons and support to people in the north end, the USA (on the other side of the damned planet) decided that we had to give weapons, money, and eventually thousands of our own soldiers to support people in the south end. Most historians recognize this as the dumbest foreign policy decision in American history. Over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam Nam war. I don't think  anybody knows how many Vietnamese people died.

In those days our government forced its citizens to join the army to fight our wars. The system was called involuntary conscription, a.k.a., the draft. I know it sounds crazy, but all 18-year-old guys had to register with a local draft board and then wait for a letter to arrive in the mail ordering us to report to the army. At that point we became, more or less, property of the government. For many young Americans that meant about six months of mandatory training and then a long trip to Viet Nam to fight strangers.

Many of our soldiers in Viet Nam did not have a clear sense of purpose other than to be one of the survivors. The other side did have a clear purpose. They knew why they were fighting. They wanted to kick our asses out of their country. That is why they won.

Many young Americans in those days, including me, thought the war was bogus. We refused to participate in it. Some people moved to Canada with the understanding that if they ever returned home they would be sent to prison. Some people just chose to go directly to prison. Others joined the National Guard which meant they were committed to the military part-time for six years but, at least, they would not go to Viet Nam.

I was absolutely certain that I was not going to participate in the Viet Nam war but I was unsure about how I was going to avoid it. I had a student deferment in college. So for those four years all I needed was an acceptable GPA to postpone the problem. 

As college graduation approached I considered a few other creative alternatives. I visited a liberal theological seminary in Chicago because seminary students got an extended deferment. Seminary was an interesting idea but it would have required me to adopt religious beliefs that were out of the question. I also applied for status as a conscientious objector even though I was told that my local draft board had not granted C.O. status to anybody during the Viet Nam war era. In case you don’t already know, conscientious objectors were people who were against all wars. They were pacifists who refused to fight under any circumstance. In retrospect, I did not deserve C.O. status but I sure respected their point of view.

During the first week of May, 1971 I got a notice from my draft board ordering me to report in thirty days for a physical examination. The physical exam was a prerequisite for the draft. As I read that notice I made a decision. I could not rely on others to solve this problem. I was going to have to solve this myself. I decided that I would lose enough weight within the next thirty days to flunk the physical examination. 

There was a draft counseling service in the city that gave free advice on ways to avoid military service. I met with them the same day that I got the notice for the physical. They explained that losing weight was a risky strategy because sometimes the examiners would pass skinny people regardless of their weight. You had to be significantly under their minimum weight requirements to be safe. They told me that for my height I would need to weigh less than 107 pounds. At that moment I weighed 130.

Over the next thirty day period I just ate a lot less and exercised a lot more. During the first week I limited myself to one small meal each day. I ate mostly salad. It was difficult for the the first week. After that my appetite disappeared. Each week I focused on eating less and less. I monitored my weight loss very closely. I also ran each day around a track at Bellarmine College wearing heavy clothes that I thought would make me sweat more. During the last week a doctor at the draft counseling service gave me a prescription for diuretics. The medicine caused me to pee excess fluid from my body and helped me lose the final few pounds to get under the limit. When I reported for the physical I had trouble standing up but I weighed 106 pounds. Bingo.  

The good news was I had failed the physical. The bad news was that they told me that I would be called in for another one in six months. So six months later I had to repeat the entire damned process. The second time I reported for the physical weighing 104 pounds. They told me that I would be called back again in a year. I am not sure I could have done it again. Fortunately, they did not call me back. By then the USA was giving up on the war in Viet Nam. I was glad that I had nothing to do with it.

This experience occurred about 44 years ago. I am still thinking about it because it was so important to me. It was the first time in my life when I took charge of my future and refused to go along with a bad idea. Opportunities to do this sort of thing are rare but I hope you will look for them while you are young. The value to you might echo for a lifetime.