Vietnam’s Famous “DRAFT DODGERS” Who AVOIDED Service! 

Vietnam’s Famous “DRAFT DODGERS” Who AVOIDED Service! 

Multiple famous personalities became known for dodging the Vietnam draft. On the contrary of Elvis Presley, who served his military duty in the Army from 1958 to 1960, and baseball legend Ted Williams, who served as a Marine pilot in both World War II and Korea, there are several famous personalities who avoided to serve during the war in Vietnam through various legal and questionable means.

 In this breakdown, you’re going to know how these deferments and exemptions worked, what justifications were used, and who the famous faces were that never set foot in Vietnam despite being draft eligible during the war years. Donald Trump received a medical deferment for bone spurs in 1968 that kept him out of military service during the Vietnam War.

The deferment came after he’d already received four student deferments while attending Forom University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The timeline of Trump’s draft status shows the pattern clearly. Born in 1946, Trump became draft eligible in 1964. He received his first student deferment that year and continued receiving them through 1968 as long as he remained in college.

 Student deferments were common among middle class and wealthy young men. They allowed college attendants to postpone military service indefinitely as long as you stayed enrolled. The bone spur diagnosis came in 1968 after Trump graduated from Wharton. According to available records, a podiatrist diagnosed Trump with bone spurs in his heels, bony growths that can cause pain when walking or standing.

 The diagnosis resulted in a one-Y medical deferment, meaning Trump was available for service only in the event of national emergency. In 1972, when the draft ended, his classification changed to 4F, permanently disqualified from service. The controversy around Trump’s deferment centers on questions about the legitimacy of the diagnosis and whether family connections influence the medical evaluation.

 In 2018, daughters of the podiatrist who diagnosed Trump told the New York Times that their father had provided the diagnosis as a favor to Trump’s father, Fred Trump, who was the podiatrist’s landlord. The podiatrist himself died in 2007 and couldn’t confirm or deny this account. The medical records that would definitively prove or disprove the bone spur diagnosis have never been released publicly.

 Trump’s personal physician during his presidency stated he couldn’t find any documentation of the condition in Trump’s medical history. Without the original diagnosis documentation, establishing the legitimacy of the deferment from historical distance is impossible. The bone spur deferment was one path among many that draft eligible men used to avoid Vietnam service.

Medical deferments were granted for various conditions, some legitimate and some questionable. The system created opportunities for those with resources and connections to obtain deferments that might not be available to poorer draft eligible men who couldn’t access sympathetic doctors or afford thorough medical examinations.

Bill Clinton’s draft history during the Vietnam War era is complex and involves student deferments, ROC arrangements, and a high lottery number that ultimately made his draft status irrelevant. Clinton received his first draft notice in 1968 while at Oxford University as a road scholar. He requested and received a deferment to finish the academic year.

 When he returned to the United States, he enrolled in the University of Arkansas Law School and joined the ROC program in August 1969. ROC enrollment provided a deferment from the draft because ROC participants would eventually serve as officers after completing their education. The controversy centers on what happened next.

 Clinton never actually enrolled in law school that fall. Instead, he returned to Oxford to continue his road scholarship. He withdrew from the ROC program in October 1969 after receiving a high lottery number 311 that made it unlikely he’d be drafted. The draft lottery system introduced in 1969 assigned random numbers to birth dates. Numbers above 195 were unlikely to be called.

 So Clinton’s 311 made him relatively safe from the draft. A letter Clinton wrote to the director of the Arkansas ROC program in December 1969 surfaced during his 1992 presidential campaign. The letter thanked the director for saving me from the draft and discussed Clinton’s views on the war and the draft system. The language’s letter suggested Clinton joined ROC specifically to avoid the draft rather from desire to serve as a military officer.

 Critics argued this showed he used ROC cynically to avoid the draft without intending to fulfill the service obligation. Supporters noted that once his high lottery number made him draft safe, there was no reason to continue with ROC. Clinton himself has stated that he opposed the war but struggled with the moral question of whether to serve.

 The letter to the ROC director expressed anguish about the decision and discussed his internal conflict between opposing the war and feeling obligated to serve. Whether this anguish was genuine or rhetorical remains a matter of interpretation depending on political perspective. Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the military in 1967 became one of the most famous and controversial draft resistance cases of the Vietnam era.

 His stance cost him his boxing career at its peak and made him a symbol of anti-war resistance. Ali was reclassified from 1 Y unqualified to 1A available for service in 1966. He’d previously been classified one Y after failing the armed forces qualifying test, the military intelligence exam that determined if recruits had sufficient mental capability for service.

 When the military lowered its standards to meet Vietnam war personnel needs, Ali’s earlier failing score became acceptable and he was reclassified as eligible for the draft. The reclassification put Ali in an impossible position. He’d publicly stated his opposition to the Vietnam War on religious and moral grounds.

 He was a member of the Nation of Islam and claimed conscientious objector status based on his religious beliefs. When ordered to report for induction in Houston on April 28th, 1967, Ali refused to step forward when his name was called. The consequences were immediate and severe. Ali was arrested that same day.

 Within hours, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his heavyweight title. Other boxing commissions followed. At age 25, at the peak of his abilities, Ali was banned from professional boxing and facing criminal prosecution. The trial happened quickly. Ali was convicted of draft evasion in June 1967 and sentenced to 5 years in prison plus a $10,000 fine.

 He remained free on appeal but couldn’t box professionally. The appeals process took four years during which Ali couldn’t fight and earned no income from boxing. His prime earning years as a champion were lost. The legal battle reached the Supreme Court in 1971. In Clay versus United States, the court overturned Ali’s conviction on a technicality.

 The Justice Department had failed to specify which of three possible grounds justified denying his conscientious objector status. The anonymous decision freed Ali from criminal liability and cleared the way for his return to boxing. Ali’s case was distinct from other draft avoidance because he didn’t hide or use technicalities to escape service.

 He openly refused induction, accepted the legal consequences, and used his platform to articulate why he wouldn’t fight in Vietnam. The cost was enormous. Years of his athletic prime, millions in lost earnings, and criminal prosecution. George W. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 to 1973, a form of service that kept him from Vietnam deployment while technically fulfilling military obligations.

 The Guard service has been controversial because National Guard units were rarely deployed to Vietnam, making guard service a way to avoid combat while still claiming to serve. Bush applied for pilot training with the Texas Air National Guard in May 1968, just weeks before his student deferment was set to expire upon graduation from Yale.

 His application was accepted despite a waiting list of other applicants. Questions have persisted about whether family connections influenced his acceptance. His father, George HW Bush, was a congressman at the time with connections to Texas political and military leadership. The pilot training itself was legitimate and demanding.

Bush attended flight school and trained to fly F-102 fighter jets, a process that took nearly 2 years. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and fulfilled his flying duties through 1972. The controversy isn’t about the quality of his service while in the guard, but about whether guard service was deliberately chosen to avoid Vietnam and whether connections facilitated his acceptance.

 Thousands of draft eligible men sought guard positions for exactly this reason. The waiting lists were long and some guard units had yearslong backlogs of applicants. Bush’s quick acceptance raised questions about preferential treatment. The second controversy involves the final years of Bush’s guard service. Records show gaps in his attendance at drills during 1972 to 1973 when he was working on a political campaign in Alabama.

 The question of whether Bush fulfilled his complete service obligation or received favorable treatment regarding incomplete attendance has never been definitively resolved. The relevant records are incomplete, either through loss or destruction, making full accounting impossible. Bush received an honorable discharge in 1973, 8 months early to attend Harvard Business School.

 Early discharge for education was permitted under guard regulations, so this was within proper procedures. Whether his service fully met the obligations he incurred when joining the guard depends on interpretation of incomplete records and testimony from people with varying credibility and political motivations. Dick Cheney received five student deferments between 1963 and 1966 that kept him out of military service during the Vietnam escalation.

 The deferments were legal under the draft system that existed before the lottery system was implemented. Cheney was born in 1941, making him draft eligible before major Vietnam escalation began. He received his first deferment in 1963 while attending the University of Wyoming. He continued receiving deferments as long as he remained a full-time student.

 The system allowed men to defer service indefinitely by staying in school. Undergraduate, graduate school, and doctoral programs all qualified for deferments. The critical deferment came in 1966. Cheney married Lynn Vincent in August 1966. In October 1966, the Selective Service changed regulations to eliminate deferments for childless married men.

Before this change took effect, Lynn Cheney became pregnant. Their first daughter was born in July 1967. Men with children received 3A deferments, deferment based on dependence. The timing suggests deliberate planning to obtain a marriage and family deferment before the regulatory window closed. Cheney has stated in interviews that he had other priorities in the 60s than military service, a quote that became controversial because it appeared to dismiss the importance of service during wartime. By the time the lottery system

was introduced in 1969, Cheney was too old to be drafted. He turned 28 in 1969, and the draft called men only up to age 26. The five deferments represent maximum use of the draft systems legal loopholes. Student deferments for undergraduate and graduate work, followed by a marriage deferment timed perfectly before regulations changed, followed by a dependency deferment based on fatherhood.

 Each step was legal, but the cumulative effect was avoiding any possibility of service during the entire Vietnam War period. Cheney went on to a political career that included positions as Secretary of Defense and Vice President, roles that involved military policy decisions and commitment of troops to combat.

 Supporters noted that many political leaders of his generation avoided Vietnam service and that legal use of deferments wasn’t morally equivalent to draft evasion. Joe Biden received a medical deferment for asthma that classified him one Y available only in national emergency. The deferment came after he’d already received four student deferments while attending the University of Delaware and Syracuse University Law School.

 Biden was born in 1942, making him draft eligible in the mid 1960s as the war escalated. He received student deferments from 1963 through 1968 while completing undergraduate and law degrees. These deferments were standard and legal under the system that existed before the lottery was introduced. The asthma diagnosis that led to his medical deferment came in 1968 after he’d completed law school.

 According to available records, Biden had asthma as a teenager and the condition recurred or was documented sufficiently to qualify for a medical deferment. The one Y classification meant he wouldn’t be drafted under normal circumstances, but could be called if national emergency required expanding the draft to previously deferred men.

 The asthma deferment has received less scrutiny than some other political figures draft avoidance, partly because Biden has been more forthcoming about his draft status and partly because medical conditions are harder to question retrospectively than decisions about student or occupational deferments. Biden played football in high school and was a lifeguard, activities that seem inconsistent with severe asthma.

 Critics have questioned whether the asthma was genuinely disqualifying or whether it was a convenient diagnosis to avoid the draft. Without medical records from the time, which Biden hasn’t released, establishing the severity of his asthma in 1968 is impossible. Jimmy Hendrickx presents an unusual case. He didn’t avoid the draft, but ended up serving only briefly before receiving an early discharge.

 This wasn’t draft dodging, but rather an example of how the military discharged people it deemed unsuitable for service even after they’d enlisted. Hendrickx enlisted in the army in 1961 before the major Vietnam escalation to avoid jail time after being caught twice riding in stolen cars. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

 He completed jump school and became a qualified paratrooper. His military service appeared normal on the surface, but Hrix struggled with military discipline and structure. The official discharge came in 1962 after approximately one year of service. The stated reason was that Hrix had injured his ankle during a parachute jump and was unable to continue as a paratrooper.

 However, documents that emerged later suggest the injury narrative might have been a convenient excuse for a discharge that was happening regardless of medical issues. Letters Hrix wrote from Fort Campbell show he hated military life. He found the discipline oppressive, the routine boring, and the entire experience incompatible with his personality and interests.

 He spent his limited free time playing guitar and thinking about music rather than focusing on military duties. His commanders noticed his lack of commitment to military service. Billy Cox, Hendricks’s fellow soldier and later his bass player, provided accounts suggesting the discharge was more about Hrix’s poor performance as a soldier than any injury.

 The official injury explanation provided official cover for a discharge that the army wanted regardless of medical reasons. The military had the option of reassigning injured paratroopers to non-jump positions, but they chose to discharge Hrix instead. This suggests the army saw him as more trouble than he was worth and use the injury as justification to remove someone they didn’t want.

Hendrickx’s case shows that draft dodging wasn’t the only way to avoid Vietnam service. Unlike actual draft dodgers, Hrix can’t be accused of avoiding service. He served and was discharged whether through genuine injury or through being identified as unsuitable for military life. Bruce Springsteen failed his draft physical in 1968 due to a motorcycle accident concussion and other medical issues.

Unlike some cases where medical deferments are questioned, Springsteen appears to have been straightforward and uncontroversial. Springsteen was called for his physical examination in 1968. According to his autobiography, Born to Run, he had sustained a concussion in a motorcycle accident.

 He also failed portions of the physical and psychological examinations. The combination of documented head injury and test failures resulted in 4F classification, permanently disqualified from service. Springsteen has spoken about his draft status in interviews and his autobiography without apparent embellishment or evasion.

 He stated that he was opposed to the war and wouldn’t have wanted to serve, but that his medical disqualification was legitimate rather than manufactured to avoid service. The concussion from a motorcycle accident is the type of medical issue that would clearly disqualify someone from military service without raising questions about legitimacy.

Unlike bone spurs or asthma, where severity can be debated, a documented head injury with lasting effects is straightforward grounds for medical disqualification. Springsteen’s later music included commentary on Vietnam veterans and the war’s impact on workingclass communities. Songs like Born in the USA dealt explicitly with Vietnam veterans experiences.

 His willingness to address the war and its impact in his art while having avoided service himself has generally not been controversial, partly because his medical disqualification was clear, and partly because his artistic treatment of the subject showed respect for those who did serve. Ted Nent’s draft avoidance story comes primarily from Nent’s own accounts and interviews, which have varied over the years and are difficult to verify from official records.

 The most detailed account comes from a 1977 High Times interview where Nent claimed he deliberately failed his draft physical. According to Nent’s account, he stopped bathing for weeks before his physical examination and defecated in his pants during the exam. He claimed he acted insane and threatened violence to convince draft examiners he was unfit for service.

 The examiners classified him 4F, permanently disqualified, and he avoided the draft. This story has significant credibility problems. Nent has told different versions at different times. In some accounts, he claimed student deferments kept him out. In others, he’s minimized or denied the deliberate physical failure story.

 Draft records that would confirm or deny the story aren’t publicly available. Further complicating Nent’s account is that he received a student deferment in 1969, suggesting he was never actually classified 4F or that the timeline of his stories doesn’t match reality. If he received a student deferment, the physical failure story might be fabrication or exaggeration.

Nent later became politically conservative and supported military intervention and hawkish foreign policy positions. Critics pointed to the contradiction between his alleged draft dodging and his later support for military action. Nent has responded to these criticisms inconsistently. Sometimes defending his draft avoidance and other times claiming the stories were exaggerated or jokes.

 Without documentation, Nent’s draft story remains uncertain. He either deliberately failed his physical through disgusting behavior or he received student deferments like millions of other men. or he’s fabricated or exaggerated stories over the years. The shifting accounts make establishing truth from this distance impossible.

The draft avoidance strategies used by these famous individuals represent the range of methods available to draft eligible men during the Vietnam era. Student deferments, medical deferments, National Guard Service, ROC enrollment, marriage and family deferments, conscientious objector status, and outright refusal.

 Each was used by thousands or millions of men, not just famous personalities. The common thread across most cases except Ali, was use of legal loopholes that were available primarily to men with resources and education. Student deferments required college enrollment and the money to pay for it. Medical deferments often required access to sympathetic doctors and the knowledge to document disqualifying conditions.

 National Guard positions were limited and often went to men with connections. The system created class-based inequity where wealthy educated men avoided service while poor and workingclass men were drafted at much higher rates. The approximately 2.2 million men drafted during Vietnam represent a small fraction of the draft eligible male population.

 Estimates suggest over 15 million men were draft eligible during the war years. Through various deferments, exemptions and simple random chance of the lottery numbers, over 13 million avoided service. The famous individuals covered here used the same methods millions of others used. They’re notable because their later fame made their draft avoidance public knowledge rather than because their methods were unique.

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