• TheChurn@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Towards the end, drafted troops would refuse to go on patrol, attack their officers with grenades (nearly 500 were killed this way during the war), and refuse deployment while still in the US. 50,000 troops deserted.

    The lesson the military learned from Vietnam is that drafts are counterproductive. The civilian protests helped set the tenor in Washington, but it was the collapse of morale within the military itself that ended the war.