Vietnam Draft Lottery: Fate of a Lifetime 

Steve Fuchs

When your fate depends on your birthdate!

This installation is a part of Inside Voices: An Oral History Exhibition, showcasing multimedia projects and stories recorded by the 2016 cohort of Columbia University’s Oral History MA program. This event will take place at The Social Hall at Union Theological Seminary on April 27, 2017, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

An unpopular and escalating war. More men are needed. Congress institutes a lottery system and millions of young men are suddenly at risk for being called for action. Your birth date may be your fate. Will your number be called?

Steve Fuchs is returning to school after 38 years in the workforce, and is currently is the C.E.O. of True North, Inc., an independent digital advertising agency in NYC and San Francisco. His parents and family emigrated from Cuba in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and he grew up hearing many stories about life before and after Castro took power - oral histories from family members who experienced historic changes in real time. Perhaps this is where his interest in oral history began.

The website associated with this project can be found here. To hear a clip from Steve's recent projects, please visit our OHMA student website Oral History Works.