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A Campus Mobilized for Deferments: Using ROTC To Avoid the Korean War Draft at the University of Kansas
Oswald, Jason Paul
Oswald, Jason Paul
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Abstract
During the early 1950s, University of Kansas officials urged their students to join the various branches of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) on campus to avoid the ongoing draft for the Korean War. This was done openly, without questioning the appropriateness of urging their students to avoid the draft. One of the many stated reasons why a KU student would volunteer for military service as an officer was that it was perceived to be much better than being a draftee in the Army. Nearly half of all men on campus would be deferred through enrollment in ROTC by the end of the war. With many university officials having been commissioned officers during the Second World War, those like Chancellor Franklin Murphy saw this avoidance of the draft as the patriotic duty of college-aged men. These beliefs would lead to stiff resistance to any attacks on the ROTC deferment scheme, especially in the case of star football player Henry “Bud” Laughlin whose ROTC deferment was revoked unduly. While the use of ROTC to avoid the draft would dramatically decrease after the Korean War due to unfulfilled promises, the institutional support for getting draft deferments for students is an important prelude to draft avoidance in the Vietnam War.
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Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors
Date
2024-04-25
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Department of History, University of Kansas