Class Divisions: Then and Now

Looking at the soldiers who fought the Vietnam war we see a pattern of class division in the American military. We can see this by examining the demographics of the average soldier in Vietnam. The war was fought by the new generation of baby boomers who were just ending their teenage years, as a result the average age of a soldier in Vietnam was 18. By contrast the average age of a soldier in the second world war was a whopping 26 (Appy). These young men were the sons of blue-collar working-class citizens, with disproportionate numbers of soldiers coming from working class backgrounds, those who had not completed a high school education. The glaring example of this demographic amongst the soldiers is the statistic which shows how 8 percent of the armed force in Vietnam were from small hamlets and towns while only 2 percent of the American population resided in such areas (Appy). Whereas only 20 percent of the armed force was made up by those who came from white collar backgrounds which included low paying jobs such as cleric thus boosting the size of the American middle class and skewing the statistic. Appy argues that the disproportionate nature of soldier demographics in the Vietnam war was a result of class divisions rather than geographical factors. The disproportionate numbers of those from farm families being soldiers further emphasizes the fact the war was a working-class war.

The harsh conditions of Vietnam were to break the morale of those who were sent to fight the war. While the fear of death and yearn for survival meant those who saw frequent combat were able to cope better than those who did not. The guerilla warfare meant booby traps were the cause of eleven percent of deaths and seventeen percent of injuries, as well as the tropical diseases and climate were primary reasons behind a loss of morale. The fear of these factors was too effect those in base camps far more as compared to the frontline soldiers with drug abuse and indiscipline being prevalent. The corrupting anxiety of being sent to the frontline caused soldiers to desert en-masse reaching a peak of 73.5 percent per 1000 soldiers in 1971(DeGroot). Low morale did not means soldiers turned on one another with soldiers forming strong emotional connections with fellow squad-mates. These squad-mates were the only family soldiers knew while on the frontline; fighting for each other’s survival rather than any notions of patriotism or duty. While officers bore the brunt of soldiers rage towards their being in Vietnam, becoming the targets of underground publications encouraging soldiers to kill their commanding officers rather than desert. Today the American military still has more middle class recruits, but class division is at a minimal level in comparison to the time of the Vietnam war. With the US military publishing numbers showing the demographics of the military we can see that the divisions are minimal today with the modern American military containing a diverse group of soldiers from all classes ethnicities, races and genders. Perhaps these numbers are skewed by income disparity as a majority of soldiers are still recruited from the middle class with 64 percent of the armed forces