The idea of reinstating the military draft keeps popping up. Sometimes it’s anti-war reverse psychology: Politicians won’t start wars if their kids have to fight them. Others think it’s unfair that fewer than one percent of us actually fight America’s wars while the rest of the country would just as soon change the channel.
My military career, active and reserve, spanned the Vietnam-era draft and the transition to today’s all-volunteer force. The likelihood of being drafted was one of the reasons I joined the Navy after college, and many of my shipmates were there for the same reason.
The military I joined in 1964 was the product of 25 years of the draft and included many veterans of World War II and Korea. Some were draftees, or draft-motivated enlistees, who had made the service a career. I served with a diverse group of people who represented every region, economic class and political opinion.
But the Vietnam-era draft was neither universal not fair. The educated and affluent found it easy to avoid the draft or, if conscripted, to land a rear-echelon billet. Those inequities, combined with the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, led to the draft’s demise in 1973.
In the years that followed, I watched a growing divide between the Armed Forces and the rest of America as an active reservist from 1968 to 1992. Part of this was the result of public opposition to the Vietnam War. When I served in the Pentagon in the early 1970s we wore civilian clothes to avoid being harassed on the streets of Washington. Even after the war ended, many Americans continued to resent the military.
The feeling was mutual. Military people and their families retreated onto their bases and disengaged from the civilian community. On my reserve weekends I grew accustomed to hearing disparaging remarks about civilians from career military people. As recently as 1990 I encountered senior officers who still thought most civilians were longhaired hippies.
Geographic representation also changed. ROTC disappeared from many universities, including most of the Ivy League. Anti-military attitudes in many parts of the country prompted the services to concentrate their recruiting in the South and West. The composition of today’s military (apart from racial integration) would look familiar to Robert E. Lee.
Political diversity also diminished among service people. When I attended the Naval War College in 1984, my seminar instructor noted that the classes of two-week reservists had more varied opinions, and livelier policy discussions, than our active-duty counterparts. A more ominous sign is that voter participation among military people has declined and absentee ballot problems disenfranchise many service members.
The military-civilian divide is likely to get worse as the Armed Forces continue to shrink. The latest trend is that a growing number of new recruits come from military families, which suggests that a military caste is evolving apart from American society.
Reviving the draft could reverse this trend over time. But it would have to be much different than the traditional Selective Service system. It would have to include women and would produce many more recruits than the armed forces need.
What could work is some sort of national service with the military as one of many options. The challenge is to make it truly universal for everyone from Harvard graduates to illegal immigrants, with ways to accommodate single parents and budding criminals.
It would be a massive exercise in social engineering but could produce a variety of social benefits. Something like the 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps, for instance, could perform useful work and prepare unemployable youth to enter the work force. The most important benefit, however, is the idea that everyone has the obligation to serve his or her country.
Universal national service eventually could break down the military-civilian divide and make the services look a little more like the country they serve. And in a democracy, it’s a good idea to have a certain number of people in uniform who do not want to be there.
Bring back the draft?
The idea of reinstating the military draft keeps popping up. Sometimes it’s anti-war reverse psychology: Politicians won’t start wars if their kids have to fight them. Others think it’s unfair that fewer than one percent of us actually fight America’s wars while the rest of the country would just as soon change the channel.
My military career, active and reserve, spanned the Vietnam-era draft and the transition to today’s all-volunteer force. The likelihood of being drafted was one of the reasons I joined the Navy after college, and many of my shipmates were there for the same reason.
The military I joined in 1964 was the product of 25 years of the draft and included many veterans of World War II and Korea. Some were draftees, or draft-motivated enlistees, who had made the service a career. I served with a diverse group of people who represented every region, economic class and political opinion.
But the Vietnam-era draft was neither universal not fair. The educated and affluent found it easy to avoid the draft or, if conscripted, to land a rear-echelon billet. Those inequities, combined with the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, led to the draft’s demise in 1973.
In the years that followed, I watched a growing divide between the Armed Forces and the rest of America as an active reservist from 1968 to 1992. Part of this was the result of public opposition to the Vietnam War. When I served in the Pentagon in the early 1970s we wore civilian clothes to avoid being harassed on the streets of Washington. Even after the war ended, many Americans continued to resent the military.
The feeling was mutual. Military people and their families retreated onto their bases and disengaged from the civilian community. On my reserve weekends I grew accustomed to hearing disparaging remarks about civilians from career military people. As recently as 1990 I encountered senior officers who still thought most civilians were longhaired hippies.
Geographic representation also changed. ROTC disappeared from many universities, including most of the Ivy League. Anti-military attitudes in many parts of the country prompted the services to concentrate their recruiting in the South and West. The composition of today’s military (apart from racial integration) would look familiar to Robert E. Lee.
Political diversity also diminished among service people. When I attended the Naval War College in 1984, my seminar instructor noted that the classes of two-week reservists had more varied opinions, and livelier policy discussions, than our active-duty counterparts. A more ominous sign is that voter participation among military people has declined and absentee ballot problems disenfranchise many service members.
The military-civilian divide is likely to get worse as the Armed Forces continue to shrink. The latest trend is that a growing number of new recruits come from military families, which suggests that a military caste is evolving apart from American society.
Reviving the draft could reverse this trend over time. But it would have to be much different than the traditional Selective Service system. It would have to include women and would produce many more recruits than the armed forces need.
What could work is some sort of national service with the military as one of many options. The challenge is to make it truly universal for everyone from Harvard graduates to illegal immigrants, with ways to accommodate single parents and budding criminals.
It would be a massive exercise in social engineering but could produce a variety of social benefits. Something like the 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps, for instance, could perform useful work and prepare unemployable youth to enter the work force. The most important benefit, however, is the idea that everyone has the obligation to serve his or her country.
Universal national service eventually could break down the military-civilian divide and make the services look a little more like the country they serve. And in a democracy, it’s a good idea to have a certain number of people in uniform who do not want to be there.
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