H-Net Discussion Networks - Domestic Casualties of the Vietnam War [Moise]

View the H-Diplo Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-Diplo's October 2012 logs by: [date] [author] [thread]
View the Next Message in H-Diplo's October 2012 logs by: [date] [author] [thread]
Visit the H-Diplo home page.

From: "Edwin Moise" <eemoise@clemson.edu>
List Editor: "H-Diplo [AK]" <h-diplo@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Editor's Subject: Domestic Casualties of the Vietnam War [Moise]
Author's Subject: Domestic Casualties of the Vietnam War [Moise]
Date Written: Tue, October 23, 2012 7:23 pm
Date Posted: Fri, 25 Oct 2012 20:06:06 -0400


Someone looking for a research topic, in the general area of domestic
casualties of the Vietnam War, might want to consider the following:

Did young men who had gotten very bad numbers in the Selective
Service birthday lottery of December 1, 1969, numbers that seemed
almost to guarantee that they would be drafted, behave more
carelessly than their peers during the following months?

I was acquainted with two men who got what might be called "Finger of
God" numbers in the first birthday lottery.  One had birthday number
1 out of the 366 days of the year, and the other had birthday number 2.

Within six months after the lottery drawing, one had ridden his
motorcycle into the back of a truck and been killed; the other had
suffered permanent injury (not too bad, but with worse luck it could
have been very bad) through careless use of a woodworking machine.

If someone could locate a data base containing the birth dates of the
drivers of vehicles in fatal accidents around this time, a
correlation with the birthday lottery numbers might produce
significant results.

Edwin Moise
Professor of History
Clemson University

Humanities & Social
Sciences Online