Boomers: Part 2 (two)
2.2 million men were drafted during the Viet Name war. 57,939 names of killed or missing in action are inscribed on the Viet Nam War Memorial on the Washington D.C. Mall. Which comes out to around 25% +/-.
As opposed to 10 million during World War II. 420,000 American men were killed in that war. Which appears to be +/- 50%.
Now the more in depth question(s) would be how many enlisted v. how many drafted?
All in all, the country as a whole seemed to understand that Hitler and the Nazis had to go. And, that Japanese control of basically the entire eastern hemisphere could not be allowed to happen. So there was a national support for the war effort of WW II. Even though men of color were segregated into separate units. Very, very few men of color were in the officer corp of any of the Armed Forces.
Pretty much everybody, except for a few heavy-duty War Hawks opposed our combat efforts in Viet Nam. The military by that time was fairly integrated, but the officer corp was still pretty whitey-white. In short as a generation boomers were forced, by one means or another, to fight in a war that most people knew was not only morally unsupportable but just really stupid.
The front lines in Viet Nam were primarily poor, dark of hue and, it could be said generally, the least educated (since college deferments were in place for much of the conflict). And, upon returning from service to our country we were spit on, denigrated as baby-killers and the probably dumb.
At the same time, the female boomers were fighting very hard for Equal Rights, burning their bras (yeah? As though the bra was a symbol of male oppression? … I never quite understood that one.) But, anyway a good number of men chose prison over being drafted into a war they opposed. A good number took off for Canada and were vilified for that.
A very large per centage of Boomers marched to end the war. Marched to end segregation. Marched for Women’s’ Rights. We fought bigotry in all forms, including Gay Rights. The overall social awareness that Boomers pushed for, fought for and were even shot right on American soil for seems to pass unrecognized by later generations. Our bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic and religiously tight-assed parents were still called “The Great Generation”?
What we refer to these days as “woke” is due almost entirely to the Boomer generation efforts to not continue and/or repeat the sins of our fathers. And, many many of us suffered for that. Suffered greatly. Now in our old age we are still held responsible for the many continuing ills in our country.
I simply cannot understand why this is.
Maybe, there will be a “Boomers – Part Three”.
