President Trump’s avoidance of the war in Vietnam is neither new nor unique. Each of the two baby-boomer presidents who preceded him — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — worked the system to keep from having to fight in a war that quickly became seen as, at best, a horrible mistake. But Trump’s success at avoiding the draft is remarkable in part because of the contrast that can be drawn between his rhetoric on the military and veterans and the way in which he managed to avoid service — an effort that a new report from the New York Times helps flesh out in fuller detail.
It seems that two favors, two years apart, made almost all of the difference.
Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946. When the Vietnam draft lottery began in 1970, he was 24 and out of college, seemingly positioned to be quickly added to the ranks of those being shipped to the expanding conflict. But that didn’t happen.
View the complete December 26 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.