<P> On October 15, 1965 the student - run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam in New York staged the first draft card burning to result in an arrest under the new law . </P> <P> In 1967, the continued operation of a seemingly unfair draft system then calling as many as 40,000 men for induction each month fueled a burgeoning draft resistance movement . The draft favored white, middle - class men, which allowed an economically and racially discriminating draft to force young African American men to serve in rates that were disproportionately higher than the general population . Although in 1967 there was a smaller field of draft eligible black men--29 percent versus 63 percent of draft eligible white men--64 percent of black men were chosen to serve in the war through conscription, compared to only 31 percent of eligible white men . </P> <P> On October 16, 1967, draft card turn - ins were held across the country, yielding more than 1,000 draft cards, later returned to the Justice Department as an act of civil disobedience . Resisters expected to be prosecuted immediately, but Attorney General Ramsey Clark instead prosecuted a group of ringleaders including Dr. Benjamin Spock and Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Jr. in Boston in 1968 . By the late 1960s, one quarter of all court cases dealt with the draft, including men accused of draft - dodging and men petitioning for the status of conscientious objector . Over 210,000 men were accused of draft - related offenses, 25,000 of whom were indicted . </P> <P> The charges of unfairness led to the institution of a draft lottery for the year 1970 in which a young man's birthday determined his relative risk of being drafted (September 14 was the birthday at the top of the draft list for 1970; the following year July 9 held this distinction). </P>

In 1965 the united states decreased the number of us troops serving in vietnam