You Fight and Die But Can't Drink

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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.