The Vietnam Draft Lottery, Military Experience, & Congressional Decision-Making

• In Event: The Politics and Influence of Military Service

Abstract

Past research finds mixed evidence regarding the influence of military experience on elite decision-making in the U.S. Congress. Yet, these studies fail to consider how self-selection into the armed services may impact these findings. In this paper, I address this problem of endogeneity in two ways. First, I use the birth dates of congresspersons in the U.S. House of Representatives and vulnerability to the Vietnam draft lottery to compare the voting records of Congressmen who were born in years eligible for the draft who served in the armed forces to those who were eligible according to their birth year but did not serve. Second, I consider whether the experience of veterans and non-veterans is unique to the experiences of the Vietnam War by examining cohort effects. Accordingly, this paper presents a thorough examination of the impact of military service on roll call votes in the House of Representatives from the 94th to 113th Congresses, with a special focus on foreign and defense policy issues. In doing so, this paper addresses scholarly debates on the impact of military service on elite decision-making and foreign policy and how the backgrounds of legislators influence their policy preferences.

Author

• Danielle Lupton, Colgate University