On 2018-12-12 11:28 a.m., Janet wrote:
> In article >,

>> I knew a couple guys who enlisted to go to Vietnam, and they were
>> Canadian. A former neighbour's son was killed over there.
>
> Comparing the records of rejection of conscription suggests a big
> shift of attitude between the generation called up to WW2, and the one
> conscripted to Vietnam.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_evasion#Vietnam_War

Conscription can be a political hot potato. My mother in law said that
conscription into a peace time army never did anyone any harm. A lot of
Americans did their time and have relatively good memories of it. It
wasn't so pleasant when the peace time army went to war.


Conscription was a major issue in Canada during both world wars. When
Britain went to war Canada went with them and men signed up. Actually,
it was English speaking men who signed up. French Canadians were not
interested joining the fight that they viewed as an English war.
Enlistment was about ten times higher in the rest of Canada than it was
in Quebec, and enlistment was mainly in Montreal and the eastern
townships, which were mainly English.

When the losses mounted in the early years of the war losses mounted and
we needed more replacements than were signing up, so the government
brought in conscription, which led to a political crisis. The scenario
was repeated in WW II.