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The poor and the working class (America was a country full of Blue Collar workers then) were paying the price in a big way while the middle and wealthy classes were able to avoid most of the loss. The truth about America during that war is that if you were unlucky enough to have a brother/son/yourself sent to fight or eligible to be drafted then the war consumed your family.

If the draft had been fairer and the burden spread around more, do you think that it would have changed how you and your neighbors thought about the war?

If the war had been fought by a larger army of enlistees and volunteer reservists, without recourse to the draft, do you think it would have been seen differently by your neighbors?

At any one time, U.S. Army troops in theater never topped about 520,000, plus less than 100,000 Navy and Air Force -- basically the same size force President Bush was able to put together for the Gulf War, with a volunteer military and a reservist and National Guard rear echelon. He amplified the U.S. effort with allied contributions adding up to about 200,000 men, but the U.S. level of effort was about the same as that for Vietnam, and it lasted about six months to a year. The U.S. was engaged at or near those levels for about two years in Vietnam, and another four years, maybe, with troop levels about half that.

The current limits on the size of the military are mostly budgetary and limited only by the willingness of the Crusterati to pay the taxes to pay for it. It's a lot smaller than it was during the Gulf War.

If the draft had been fairer and the burden spread around more, do you think that it would have changed how you and your neighbors thought about the war?

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Absolutely, even more so in neighborhoods that were not upper middle class, especially the urban areas. The sons of the rich were safe. The closer you got to the Projects level of society the more vulnerable you were.

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If the war had been fought by a larger army of enlistees and volunteer reservists, without recourse to the draft, do you think it would have been seen differently by your neighbors?

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Moot point. They never would have gotten enough volunteers, that's why they had the draft.

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As to your last reference, apples and oranges. The enemy was different. If Saddam's army had been as dedicated and disciplined as Ho's our recent history would not be what it is. Think Tet in '68 and then imagine the insurgents pulling off anything near that scale.