The Vietnam War was a great tragedy that impacted the American psyche for a multitude of generations. The lasting impact of this foreign debacle has informed foreign policy decisions in the half-century since first involvement. However, while elites in the Foreign Policy establishment have pushed this rhetoric, they were not the ones who sacrificed their lives in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia.
These battalions of freedom fighters were made up of working-class boys from small towns. While elites could defer their deployment or buy their way out of it, the working class could not. Not only were the soldiers poorer and poorer, but they were also the youngest group of soldiers that America had ever sent. These two factors made things really tough for the soldiers who were trying to survive in awful conditions in the jungle. The lack of experience was also not very helpful for these soldiers, as this war needed the experience but did not have it.
Troops became demoralized because of the conditions as was already mentioned but also because they would hear about the domestic unrest at home. However, this shared experience really helped the soldiers stick together. They were able to bond over their shared experience and create friends for life.
Today I see a similar divide between the people sending soldiers off and those who actually are the soldiers. Whatever you think of his qualifications or ability to run the Department of Defense (I am skeptical), Pete Hegseth is on to something when he mentions the need for warriors in the army again. With the rise of the military industrial complex and secretive state, there are people whose job is to be professional paper pushers. Using the Department of Defense as an example the elite professional class is making the decisions, while the sons and daughters of the working class fight in the wars. So in a sense I do believe there is a class divide still in the military.
Will Wright 