Draft-age young men were glued to the TV or the radio on December 1, 1969, where a lottery was taking place to determine who would go fight in Vietnam.
Writer Denis O’Neill was at Dartmouth College and on the ice playing hockey against Norwich Military Academy. He was the team captain but he says he couldn’t pay attention to the score because the more meaningful numbers were the lottery numbers his fraternity friends were shouting out as they listened to the radio.
O’Neill was belonged of those Dartmouth frats that became a model for the film “Animal House.” He remembers the reactions of that day, as he and his friends found out if they would be going to war when they graduated.
In an irony, O’Neill says the experience also made them understand that they had been privileged — for many young Americans, they had enjoyed deferment from the war because they were in college, an option that was not open to many in their generation.
O’Neill’s new book is ”Whiplash: When the Vietnam War Rolled a Hand Grenade Into the Animal House.” He joins Here & Now’s Robin Young.