Draft Increased Interracial Integration

Using Vietnam draft‑lottery variation and administrative voter records, a new NBER working paper finds that coerced military service raised interracial marriages (about 20% of cohort effect), increased residential integration, and shifted party identification among Black and Native American veterans—effects concentrated in the South and absent for white veterans. — If compulsory national service meaningfully promotes cross‑racial social ties and political convergence, debates over policies like universal service gain a new empirical argument and risk–benefit profile.