With Vietnam over- taking much of the presidential race, we scouted the whereabouts of New York–area politicians during the war.
Senator Charles Schumer
Draft Status: His 1971 lottery number (182) was never called.
Wartime Activities: Schumer, head of the Harvard Young Democrats, negotiated with the administration after radicals took over a building.
Senator Hillary Clinton
Draft Status: Ineligible.
Wartime Activities: Clinton was the only future New York pol in harm’s way; at the ’68 Chicago convention, she was nearly hit by a protester-hurled rock.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Draft Status: Medical deferment (flat feet).
Wartime Activities: After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1966, Bloomberg got a job as an equities trader.
Governor George Pataki
Draft Status: Medical deferment (poor eyesight).
Wartime Activities: After graduating from Yale in 1967, Pataki went on to Columbia Law School.
Former mayor Rudy Giuliani
Draft Status: Special deferment via federal-judge clerkship.
Wartime Activities: A 1968 NYU Law grad, Giuliani went to work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1970.
Reverend Al Sharpton
Draft Status: Too young for the final lottery by one year.
Wartime Activities: Jesse Jackson appointed Sharpton youth director of Operation Breadbasket in 1968, when he was 14.
Former mayor David Dinkins
Draft Status: Ineligible (served in WWII).
Wartime Activities: Dinkins spent much of the era not filing personal tax returns, but he later settled with the government for $28,000.
Senator Jon Corzine
Draft Status: Marine Corps Reserves, 1969–1975.
Wartime Activities: While serving as a reservist, Corzine earned a University of Chicago M.B.A.
City Council Speaker Gifford Miller
Draft Status: Ineligible (born in 1969).
Wartime Activities: “I decided to join the Cub Scouts for a deferment.”