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Who benefited most from college deferments during the Vietnam War?
Executive summary
College and graduate students — especially men from more affluent backgrounds who could afford continued schooling — gained the clearest, largest advantage from Vietnam‑era student deferments; deferments could be extended through graduate school or converted into occupational/dependent statuses, and by 1971 reforms came too late to reverse much of the effect [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary accounts and later studies argue these deferments produced a measurable class skew in who served: college‑educated men were far less likely to see combat than those without college, and educational deferments comprised a large share of legal draft avoidance [4] [5].
1. College deferments were an official, widely used escape hatch
During most of the Vietnam War, a man enrolled full‑time and making satisfactory progress in virtually any college program could qualify for a student deferment that postponed or effectively eliminated his draft liability while he remained in school; this policy was altered only by reforms in 1971 that narrowed college deferments [6] [3].
2. Who “benefited most”: wealthy and college‑bound men
Scholars and commentators conclude that deferments primarily benefited young men who could afford to enroll in college — often from more affluent families — because they could use undergraduate and then graduate enrollment to delay service until they aged out or obtained other deferments [1] [2] [4]. The Chicago Tribune op‑ed summarizes the empirical pattern: college graduates were roughly 6.5 times less likely to serve in Vietnam than their contemporaries without college, while high‑school dropouts were about twice as likely to serve [4].
3. Deferments turned temporary delays into de facto exemptions
Researchers note a pattern where a temporary student deferment frequently led to longer escape routes: enrollment in graduate school, pursuit of certain occupations, acquiring dependent status (e.g., fatherhood), or simply outlasting the draft through age — meaning the initial college pause often became a near‑permanent avoidance of service [2] [1].
4. Not everyone with means avoided service; the picture is mixed
Although enrollments and deferments skewed service away from the college‑educated, available sources note complexity: many who served were volunteers, and some affluent men still served or were drafted despite access to deferments [4] [5]. Wikipedia points out other deferment routes and that not all forms of avoidance were foolproof [5].
5. Policy change and its limits
Congressional reform in 1971 limited student deferments, and the draft lottery later that year changed how order of call was determined; by the time college deferments were capped, draft calls were already falling and Nixon ended draft calls in 1972 — reducing the eventual impact of reform on who avoided service earlier in the war [6] [3].
6. Quantitative and academic backing for the claim
Multiple academic studies find draft avoidance raised male college enrollment during the Vietnam era and that the deferment system had long‑lasting effects on educational decisions; researchers use enrollment and completion data to tie draft avoidance behavior causally to higher male college attendance in cohorts at risk for the draft [1] [2] [7].
7. Competing perspectives and implicit agendas
Journalistic pieces emphasize the class‑inequality narrative — that “fortunate sons” used education to escape combat — framing deferments as legalized privilege [4]. Scholarly work focuses on behavioral incentives and long‑term educational consequences [1]. Both perspectives imply a political agenda: critics highlight injustice and social stratification, while academics stress policy incentives and unintended effects. Wikipedia’s broader coverage includes cultural and political examples of draft evasion and the uneven effectiveness of different avoidance routes [5].
8. Limitations and what sources do not say
Available sources do not provide a full demographic breakdown by family income, race, or region for deferment recipients in this set; nor do they settle how many individual lives were directly altered beyond higher enrollment rates. Detailed statistics tying individual socioeconomic status to outcomes are not present in the provided excerpts (not found in current reporting).
Conclusion: The record in both scholarly studies and contemporary commentary converges on a clear result: college and graduate deferments disproportionately benefited men who could get and remain in higher education — typically the more affluent — producing a significant class skew in who bore the burdens of Vietnam service [1] [4] [2].