Between 1963 and 1972, roughly 150,000 young men filed for and received I-O conscientious objector (CO) status, exempting them from military service as pacifists. Among them were an unprecedented number of religious and secular CO’s not raised in pacifist religions, an increase commonly attributed to the unpopularity of the war and the liberalization of CO law. This talk challenges that reasoning by arguing that any explanation must also contend with the beliefs of the conscientious objectors, detailed in the applications they filed with the Selective Service System. this talk interrogates the ideas, influences, and experiences that led so many young men to embrace pacifism and reject military service amid the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

Sponsored by the War in Society and Culture Program