The final third enlisted because they expected to be drafted soon. Another third were drafted into the military. Many of these men were career soldiers or recent graduates of military academies. One-third were volunteers who had chosen to join the military. The ten percent of the draft-age generation that ended up serving in Vietnam consisted of three groups of relatively equal size. The rest remained in the United States or served on bases in Europe. Of the 40 percent that did serve in the military in the late 1960s and early 1970s, only about 2.5 million went to Vietnam.

About 60 percent, or 16 million, of these draftable men avoided service in legal ways. Altogether, 27 million American men came of draft age during the Vietnam War years. For example, young men who had physical problems, were enrolled in college, worked in an industry that was vital to the war effort, were needed at home to support a family, or joined the National Guard might be granted deferments. There were some legal ways to avoid or delay military service. In this way, many young men ended up serving in Vietnam whether they wanted to or not. There, he would either qualify for a deferment (an official delay of military service), or he would be inducted into the armed forces. When a man's name was drawn, he was required to report to his local draft board for evaluation. A government agency called the Selective Service collected the names of all American men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six. During the Vietnam War, however, at least one-third of the American troops were selected for military service through an troops withdrew from Vietnam, Americans who have served in the U.S. As the overall situation for American troops became worse, race relations within the U.S. Some used drugs or alcohol to help them cope with their experiences. Some American soldiers reacted to their situation by lashing out violently against the Vietnamese, while others took out their anger on U.S. The tense atmosphere and frustrating nature of the war eventually caused a significant decline in the motivation and performance of American forces in Vietnam. 'How can you defeat an enemy who knows the land intimately, who has every reason to regard it as his own backyard, and who has fought for decades, even centuries, to rid it of foreign invaders?' Christian Appy writes in his book Working-Class War. As a result, many American soldiers became increasingly frustrated with the war and the U.S. They knew that the enemy was all around them, but their main form of contact came through traps or ambushes rather than large-scale battles. combat troops experienced constant fear and anxiety during their frequent patrols of the villages and countryside. In fact, some South Vietnamese civilians (people not involved in the military, including women and children) actively helped the Viet Cong guerillas (small groups of fighters who launch surprise attacks) that the Americans were fighting against. Instead, the local farmers and villagers usually viewed the Americans with distrust or even hostility. soldiers expected the South Vietnamese people to greet them as heroes. Their feelings of vulnerability were increased by strained relations with Vietnam's rural communities. This unfamiliar environment made their jobs more difficult and unpleasant. Upon arriving in Vietnam, American soldiers found themselves in a strange land of watery fields and dense jungles. troops consisted of African American men from the inner cities, the sons of immigrants from factory towns, and boys from rural farming communities. But many others were poor or working-class teenagers who enlisted or were drafted into the military right out of high school. Some of these men were career military officers. More than 2.5 million American men served in Vietnam during the war.

When did among us come out