Biden says Vietnam motivated him to stop wars... 60 years after he dodged the draft: How Joe used FIVE student deferments then teenage problems with asthma to avoid joining the millions of Americans who served

Joe Biden declared he hopes his legacy is that he reduced the chances of war and said he was motivated to do so 'because of Vietnam'.

Biden, 81, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, when the Vietnam War was raging and hundreds of thousands of Americans were  being conscripted into the military.

He himself never served in the conflict, instead receiving five student deferments and then a disqualification on medical grounds.

The disqualification was for having suffered asthma as a teenager, although he was a student athlete.

Asked about his legacy during an interview with Univision on Wednesday, the President said: 'Well, I hope the legacy is that I kept my word, that - I said that the reason I was running was to help the life of ordinary people and reduce the prospect of war and...because of Vietnam.'

President Biden in an interview with Univision said he first ran for office to 'reduce the prospect of war... because of Vietnam.' He said he hopes his legacy after more than 50 years of public service is that he kept his word

President Joe Biden at the age of 25. Biden went to University of Delaware as an undergraduate and then Syracuse for law school. He received five student draft deferments and one medical exemption 

Biden as newly-elected Democratic Senator of Delaware in December 1972

He went on: 'The secret you’ve got to ask yourself is, what are you willing to lose over? You figure out what you’re willing to lose over, you’ve got an idea of what you should be doing. And so, I hope my legacy is that I was honest, straightforward, and did what I said.'

Biden's comments about the Vietnam War revived scrutiny of his own decisions and positions at that time.

Democrats have frequently criticized Donald Trump for not serving in Vietnam, but Biden did not either.

In 1972 he ran for the Senate on a platform of opposing President Richard Nixon's escalation of the war and said the U.S. should have left Vietnam years earlier.

Biden had already received five student draft deferments, first as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, and later as a law student at Syracuse University where he graduated in 1968.

A month after undergoing a physical exam in April 1968, Biden then received a '1-Y' classification, meaning he was available for service only in the event of national emergency. 

In 2008, officials with the Obama campaign released Biden's Selective Service records to the Associated Press as a then-vice presidential candidate. 

An Obama spokesperson at the time said the exemption was 'because of asthma as a teenager.'

It came despite him stating in his own book that he was a star athlete in high school and in college and often mentioning his time as a lifeguard in the summer. 

Biden's Selective Service System registration card from 1961. After getting a draft card, Biden received five student deferments and a medical exemption to avoid serving in Vietnam 

While he opposed the war during his first Senate campaign he was also not one to attend anti-Vietnam War protests. 

Biden once said in a press conference by the time people were marching and carrying banners, he was in Washington voting against the war and before that he was in law school and married.

'I’m not a joiner... I was out of sync with, by the time the war movement was at its peak, when I was at Syracuse, I was married. I was in law school. I wore sport coats. I was not part of that,' Biden said in 1987.

Donald Trump at the New York Military Academy in 1964. He received five deferments and a medical exemption during the Vietnam War

Former President Donald Trump, who was born in 1946, also did not serve in the Vietnam War, unlike many members of his generation.

The ex-president received four draft deferments while an undergraduate at Fordham and then University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating in 1968, he received a medical exemption. The reason was bone spurs in his heels.

It gave him the same '1-Y' classification as Biden. 

Trump told a newspaper in 2016 the bone spurs were 'temporary' and 'minor.' He also said he could not recall when he was no longer bothered by them.

Former President Bill Clinton also came of age during the Vietnam War but also did not serve.

He received educational deferments as well and then received permission to join the ROTC at the University of Arkansas law school.

That allowed him to go to Oxford University and he did not serve in the ROTC. 

President George W. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968, enlisted in the Texas Texas Air National Guard and did not go to Vietnam.