You Fight and Die But Can't Drink

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Text on Button YOU FIGHT & DIE BUT CAN'T DRINK AT 18
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Curl Text HIP PROD. 153 NORTH, CHGO.
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Resentment transpired towards United States involvement in the Vietnam War when the U.S. conducted its first draft lottery since World War II. The draft became a driving force for protests across the country as it compared the drafting age to legal drinking and voting ages. Men were drafted to war as young as eighteen, meanwhile, the legal voting and drinking age was 21. Protestors criticized the fact that 18 to 21-year-old men were old enough to fight and die for their country yet not old enough to vote or drink in it.  

The slogan “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” became popular during the Vietnam War era and was used similarly in the argument to lower the legal drinking age. In 1971, the 26th Amendment lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18. Around the same time, 29 states lowered their legal drinking age to anywhere between 18 and 20. However, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984 and forced states to raise the legal drinking age to 21, or they would lose integral federal highway funding. The argument of being able to fight and die in war but not being able to drink continues to persist well into the 21 century.

Sources

National Minimum Drinking Age Act. (2024, August 21). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 24, 2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act 

National Youth Rights Association. (n.d.). The national minimum drinking age act. https://www.youthrights.org/issues/drinking-age/legislative-analysis/ 

Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. (2024, August 17). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 24, 2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_United_States_involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War 

Tietjen, D. (2014, July 17). Why 21? A look at our nation’s drinking age. Boston. https://www.boston.com/culture/health/2014/07/17/why-21-a-look-at-our-nations-drinking-age/ 

Catalog ID CA0938