<P> The 1972 to 1975 lottery numbers were used to call some men born 1953 to 1956 for physical exams . The highest number called for a physical was 215 (for tables 1970 through 1976). </P> <P> The reason for the draft of 1969 was to add more much - needed military personnel towards the Vietnam War . After World War II, Japan left Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai as the head of the country . Ho Chi Minh, another Vietnamese leader who was communist and sought immediate independence for the whole of Vietnam, saw this as an opportunity to strike (knowing Bao Dai had little support from the general population as he was widely regarded as a Japanese - installed puppet - leader) and successfully took over Hanoi and most of northern Vietnam . Ho Chi Minh then set up the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the DRV, or North Vietnam) by the beginning of 1946 . Emperor Bao, still in power in the southern half of the country, set up the State of Vietnam, with support from the returning French colonial rulers, with Saigon as its capital . Ho Chi Minh based his political structure and government off of other communist states such as Soviet Russia, while Emperor Bao Dai wanted a Vietnam that was modelled after the West, like the United States, with a democratic and free government . </P> <P> Both Ho's DRV (with support from the Soviet Union and China (after 1949)) and Bao Dai's State of Vietnam (with strong French military support) began open armed conflict against one another until the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 ended with the communist Viet Minh forces as the victor . Afterwards at the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was decided as to be split along the 17th Parallel (N). There was supposed to be a nation - wide reunification election held in 1956 to determine which side would take over running the whole of Vietnam but another leader took over Bao Dai in the South . Ngo Dinh Diem took over leadership of the State of Vietnam (soon known as South Vietnam) and Diem, who took a very harsh opposing stance against communism, was entirely opposed to reconciliation with the North and against the elections of 1956 to be held at all . </P> <P> In other parts of the world, the Cold War was intensifying between Soviet Russia and the United States . The U.S. was becoming more rigid in its policies with the communist allies of Russia . President Dwight D. Eisenhower started supporting the South Vietnamese who were also against the communist north . </P>

Who was eligible for the draft during the vietnam war