Three Myths About the Vietnam War Most People Still Believe

Let’s clear these up once and for all

“The Three Soldiers” statue, Washington, D.C. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Next January will mark the 50th anniversary of the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War. In addition to remaining one of the most unpopular conflicts in U.S. history, the history of the war has been the victim of some key revisions over the past five decades, all of them erroneous. Three in particular have taken firm hold and need to be corrected.

The first myth is one that I personally believed forever, and one that even reputable historians will often present as fact, but contrary to popular belief the majority of American soldiers who served in Vietnam were not draftees. I know this runs counter to every Vietnam War movie ever made; in films about the conflict, all of the soldiers are draftees except for the one lunatic, gung-ho redneck who actually volunteered. In reality, draftees only made up around 25% to 30% of the soldiers who served in the war. By contrast, over 60% of Americans who fought in World War II were drafted. Statistics also show that approximately 70% of those killed in action in Vietnam were volunteers.

A second persistent myth is the commonly held belief that the poor and uneducated made up the bulk of the American fighting force in Vietnam. It’s easier to understand why this myth took hold, given…