What deferments or medical classifications did Joe Biden receive during the Vietnam draft and why?
Executive summary
Joe Biden received five student deferments while in college and law school and, after a physical exam on April 5, 1968, was given a Selective Service medical classification of 1‑Y because of a history of asthma; the 1‑Y classification made him eligible for service only in a national emergency and effectively disqualified him during the Vietnam War era [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary fact‑checks and reporting emphasize that the five deferments were granted for student status, not initially for medical reasons, and that later medical review produced the conditional 1‑Y rating tied to his teenage asthma [1] [4].
1. The documentary record: five student deferments, then a medical classification
Archival documents and campaign disclosures show Biden registered with Selective Service in 1961, received successive student deferments while enrolled at the University of Delaware and later at Syracuse Law, and accumulated five deferments in total before his 1968 physical [2] [5]. After that physical exam on April 5, 1968, Biden was classified 1‑Y; campaign spokesmen and multiple news outlets reported the 1‑Y finding was based on a history of asthma from his youth [2] [3] [6].
2. What 2‑S, 1‑Y and other draft codes meant in practice
The deferments Biden held as a student were recorded under the Selective Service rules that allowed temporary postponement for enrolled undergraduates and graduate students (commonly coded 2‑S or similar), while a 1‑Y medical classification denoted limited availability — eligible only in a national emergency — rather than immediate induction, effectively keeping someone out of the active draft under ordinary wartime circumstances [1] [6]. Reporters and fact‑checkers note that those technical classifications, not a single “medical dodge,” explain how many men of that era avoided induction while in school or with disqualifying conditions [1] [4].
3. Timeline: how the deferments and medical review played out
Biden’s student deferments began during his undergraduate years in the early 1960s, continued into law school, and the final student deferment was recorded in January 1968; a month later he completed a physical examination that produced the 1‑Y determination in April 1968 [1] [2]. The Selective Service’s administrative records and contemporaneous campaign statements anchor that sequence: student deferments first, medical classification later [2] [5].
4. Public dispute and the charge of “draft dodging”
Critics have contrasted Biden’s recounting of an active youth — lifeguarding and playing football — with the asthma explanation and have used that contrast to allege opportunism, a line of attack revived repeatedly in political cycles [1] [7]. Major fact‑checking outlets and news organizations have pushed back on simplified claims that he received five deferments “because of asthma,” clarifying that the deferments were student‑status based and that the asthma‑related 1‑Y classification came after the deferments [1] [4]. Reporting from 2008 and later cited campaign spokesmen who stated the 1‑Y arose from teenage asthma, and journalists noted Biden’s memoir does not dwell on the condition [2] [6] [7].
5. Limits of the public record and common points of confusion
Available reporting documents the deferments and the April 1968 1‑Y classification, but public summaries do not publish the full medical file or a contemporaneous clinical narrative of symptoms, so detailed medical context about the severity of his asthma in 1968 is not in the released record cited here [2] [4]. Additionally, media shorthand and partisan framing sometimes collapses “five deferments” and “asthma classification” into a single claim, which fact‑checkers have flagged as misleading because it obscures the chronological and legal distinctions in Selective Service codes [1] [4].
6. Bottom line
The verifiable administrative facts are straightforward: Biden held five student deferments while in college and law school and, following a 1968 physical exam, received a Selective Service 1‑Y classification tied to a history of asthma, a status that made him non‑available for regular induction absent a national emergency; assertions that he used asthma as the reason for all five deferments misread the record [1] [2] [4]. Where judgments about motive and fairness appear, reporting shows sharply divided political interpretations, but the documentary sequence and the legal import of the classifications are supported by the cited sources [2] [5].