Flowerjoy...thank you for the reminder that "registration is not the draft"....my point I was attempting to make is that the fact that all men are required to register makes for a pool of men the gov't has to draw from should our nation ever find ourselves in a national crisis requiring a larger fighting army. I have NO doubt, despite public "outcry" that I am sure would ensue, that if needed, the draft would be started once again.
Regarding your question as to whether I would have wanted my sons to go to Vietnam, I will not answer that question. For one thing, this board does not look too kindly on a person spouting their personal political views. And any discussion regarding my views on the draft/registration, or the Vietnam War would end up a political one. I'm just not going there. In addition, due to the fact that that war polarized my parents at opposite ends of the political spectrum, and along with the Civil Right Movement, was a loud, argumentative topic of conversation EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AT THE DINNER TABLE.....and in the end was a cause of the only home I ever knew being destroyed.....well, I have spent the whole of my adult life studying the Vietnam War trying to understand what happened in my childhood. For myself, I am at peace with what I have finally resolved about both that war, and the Civil Rights Movement. But I consider those "resolutions" private, and will not discuss them with anyone but my husband.
Thanks for the discussion....