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Rough Draft : Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance / Amy J. Rutenberg.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Description: 1 online resource (276 p.) : 10 b&w halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501739378
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 355.22363097309045 23
LOC classification:
  • UB343 .R88 2020
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Selective Service Classification Chart (1951–1973) -- Introduction -- 1. “Digging for Deferments”: World War II, 1940–1945 -- 2. “To Rub Smooth the Sharp Edges”: Universal Military Training, 1943–1951 -- 3. “Really First-Class Men”: The Early Cold War, 1948–1953 -- 4. “A Draft-Dodging Business”: Manpower Channeling, 1955–1965 -- 5. “The Most Important Human Salvage Operation in the History of our Country”: The War on Poverty, 1961–1969 -- 6. “Choice or Chance”: The Vietnam War, 1965–1973 -- Conclusion -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index
Summary: Rough Draft draws the curtain on the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers' idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college educated men could protect the nation from the threat of communism more effectively as civilians than as soldiers. The availability of deferments for this group mushroomed between 1945 and 1965, making it less and less likely that middle-class white men would serve in the Cold War army. Meanwhile, officials used the War on Poverty to target poorer and racialized men for conscription in the hopes that military service would offer them skills they could use in civilian life.As Rutenberg shows, manpower policies between World War II and the Vietnam War had unintended consequences. While some men resisted military service in Vietnam for reasons of political conscience, most did so because manpower polices made it possible. By shielding middle-class breadwinners in the name of national security, policymakers militarized certain civilian roles—a move that, ironically, separated military service from the obligations of masculine citizenship and, ultimately, helped kill the draft in the United States.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501739378

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Selective Service Classification Chart (1951–1973) -- Introduction -- 1. “Digging for Deferments”: World War II, 1940–1945 -- 2. “To Rub Smooth the Sharp Edges”: Universal Military Training, 1943–1951 -- 3. “Really First-Class Men”: The Early Cold War, 1948–1953 -- 4. “A Draft-Dodging Business”: Manpower Channeling, 1955–1965 -- 5. “The Most Important Human Salvage Operation in the History of our Country”: The War on Poverty, 1961–1969 -- 6. “Choice or Chance”: The Vietnam War, 1965–1973 -- Conclusion -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index

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Rough Draft draws the curtain on the race and class inequities of the Selective Service during the Vietnam War. Amy J. Rutenberg argues that policy makers' idealized conceptions of Cold War middle-class masculinity directly affected whom they targeted for conscription and also for deferment. Federal officials believed that college educated men could protect the nation from the threat of communism more effectively as civilians than as soldiers. The availability of deferments for this group mushroomed between 1945 and 1965, making it less and less likely that middle-class white men would serve in the Cold War army. Meanwhile, officials used the War on Poverty to target poorer and racialized men for conscription in the hopes that military service would offer them skills they could use in civilian life.As Rutenberg shows, manpower policies between World War II and the Vietnam War had unintended consequences. While some men resisted military service in Vietnam for reasons of political conscience, most did so because manpower polices made it possible. By shielding middle-class breadwinners in the name of national security, policymakers militarized certain civilian roles—a move that, ironically, separated military service from the obligations of masculine citizenship and, ultimately, helped kill the draft in the United States.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024)