‘The Danger Lies in the Future’: Student draft deferment and the atomic cloud over US higher education

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the postwar decision to defer college students from selective service. The understanding within both the US government and the general populace that the Second World War had been won with science spurred increased federal interest in the organisation and delivery of university-level education in the early years of the Cold War, alongside an acute need for scientific manpower. Patriotic duty was no longer measured only in terms of military service, but also in scientific advancement. This widespread acceptance that college students were central to the achievement of national goals paved the way for an increase in governmental involvement within the tertiary sector and, by the outbreak of the Korean War, came to impact the understanding of the national ‘value’ of a degree.