Angeles area alone, ten dentists willingly performed orthodontic work for
anyone who could pay a $1000-2000 fee. Wearing braces was a common
last-minute tactic for registrants who faced immediate call-up."44
According to Baskir and Strauss, men who were knowledgeable about
the system and had the means to press a claim had a 90 percent chance of
receiving a physical or psychological exemption even if they were in good
health. Draft lore such as Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" has made
famous some of the more bizarre efforts at draft avoidance-loading up on
drugs before the physical, fasting or gorging to get outside the weight
requirements, feigning insanity or homosexuality, or aggravating an old
knee injury. There is no telling how many men tried such things, but the
majority who received medical exemptions through their own efforts
probably did so in a far less dramatic fashion by simply fmding a profes-
sional to support their claim.45
That the men who were most able and likely to seek professional help in
avoiding the draft were white and middle class is not surprising. On many
college campuses students could find political and psychological support
for draft resistance along with concrete advice on how to get an exemp-
tion. In working-class neighborhoods, the myriad ways to avoid the draft
were not only less well known, they had little, if any, community support.
Avoiding the draft was more likely to be viewed as an act of cowardice
than as a principled unwillingness to participate in an immoral war.
The onus of responsibility for claiming exemptions fell, except in ob-
vious cases, on the individual registrant. Even those exemptions that
were especially aimed at the poor, such as those for "hardship," were
often ineffectual for men who were unaware of them or lacked the where-
withal to demonstrate their claim to the Selective Service. Much de-
pended on the discretion of local draft boards. Though the national head-
quarters of the Selective Service provided the general framework of
guidelines and regulations, the system was designed to be highly de-
centralized, with authority largely delegated to the 4,000 local boards
across the country.
Draft boards were comprised of volunteers who typically met only once
a month. With hundreds of cases to decide, board members could give
careful attention to only the most difficult. The rest were reviewed by a
full-time civil service clerk whose decisions were usually rubber-stamped
by the board. One study found that the civil servant determined the
outcome of 85 percent of the cases. Under this system, the advantage
went to those registrants who were able to document their claims clearly
and convincingly. What was persuasive to one board, however, might not
be to another. There were, in fact, significant variations in the way dif-
Occupational deferments, for example, often de-
simply on what local boards determined to be "in the national
, safety, or interest."46
While local discretionary power produced a number of anomalies, 47 most
boards administered the system in ways that reinforced the class
underlying the broad national system of manpower channel-
In fact, the decentralized system probably gave an added advantage
with economic clout and social connections. Draft boards
by conservative, white, prosperous men
A 1966 study of the 16,638 draft board members
nation found that only 9 percent had blue-collar occupations,
than 70 percent were professionals, managers, proprietors,
officials, or white-collar workers over the age of fifty. Only 1.3
48 Until 1967 , when Congress revoked the prohibition,
"feared they would be embarrassed when a physical question
deferment was the most overtly class-biased feature of the
, system. Census records show that youth from families
than those from families earning under $5,000.50 Also,
boys who did go to college were far more likely to attend
working. This distinction is crucial because deferments
by working their way through school a few courses at a time.
unsuccessful students with low class ranks could lose their
The grades required to keep a student deferment varied
to the practice of local draft boards, but in 1966 and 1967 the
Service sought to weed out poor students systematically by
a million students the Selective Service Qualifying Test.
:Sl:ured poorly were reclassified and drafted. The irony, of
who were among the least
test. 61
part-time students were "draft-bait," success-
immunity by going on to
school. Those who were trained as engineers, scientists, or
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