The Draft was around for some considerable time before the Vietnam War, Richard, but it didn't become hugely unpopular until it was being used to draft many middle class white people into a hugely unpopular war. It was the fact that the draft was affecting EVERY class of people that made that war politically unsustainable. If it had only been affecting the poor, you wouldn't have seen very much organized opposition.

And that is the main point. Henry is quite correct that if we still had a Draft in the USA, the last 2 administrations would not have been able to keep their Middle Eastern wars going. Public opposition would have been too strong.

As I say, they were clever to move to a volunteer army...and a further army of hired private industry fighters and contractors (mercenaries). They dodged the risk of a huge antiwar movement by doing so.

Corporations have think tanks who constantly analyze the best way of manipulating and controlling the general public so as to achieve a corporate objective. They do it in peace, they do it in advertising, they do it in propaganda, and they do it in war. Discontinuing the Draft has worked very much to their advantage by keeping public opposition to the so-called "War on Terror" quite muted.