RIPPLE SALVO… TO BE, OR NOT TO BE–DRAFTED… but first….
31 MARCH 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOMEFRONT … A partly cloudy and fair Thursday in the Big Apple — rainy in Washington… Page 1 NYT: “Eight Fathers Charged with Buying Immunity From Draft for Sons”... charged with trying to buy immunity from military services for their sons…The FBI reports that in the Met area alone a total of 38 arrests in the last six weeks. Fathers are paying from $1500 to $5000 for forged DD-44 forms to mail to their local draft boards indicating that the young men were serving satisfactorily in the armed forces reserves. These men were then reclassified from 1A to 1D, exempting them from the draft…. (see Ripple Salvo for a cogent explanation of the draft)… On page 7 the war highlights included a piece on the escape of 200 trapped GIs from a North Vietnamese trap set at the base of a mountain north of Pleiku. The “air war” report from Saigon: March 30 activity…4 U.S. planes down and 432 sorties flown in ops in RVN…losses: 2 Army helos downed by enemy ground fire with minor injuries to air crews, an aircraft was downed supporting troops in the Mekong Delta and a C-130 nosed into the ground at Pleiku killing 3 of the 5 man crew. No names in the summary. This was the first crash of a C-130 in supporting the war…. In Washington (on the eve of Rolling Thunder 50…the new target list) the President was having dinner with business executives. LBJ had time to tell reporters …”…he had absolutely not made up his mind whether tax increases were needed to combat inflation.” Estimates of national inflation rates were between 5-7%…
31 MARCH 1966… ROLLING THUNDER… Bad weather with token air ops …No aircraft losses or unusual activity…
RIPPLE SALVO… Fifty years ago “the draft” was a cloud attached to every day of every young male and his family’s lives. Uncertainty reigned. The obligation of every young male to give the country two years of military service was understood and accepted without backlash following World War II and by and large the requirement to fill the ranks with physically fit and mentally awake young men was met by volunteers. The Vietnam War required more enlistments than the volunteer rate of flow could satisfy. Therefore the number of draftees required each month began to increase and adverse public reaction among the draft eligible population began to rise. I have found no better explanation of the American Selective Service — draft — than a short essay by Colonel Gil Coronado, USAF, retired, the ninth Director of the Selective Service System, in a small book compiled by Jan Scuggs (the driving force behind the initiation of “The Vietnam Wall” on the Mall in Washington), titled “Why Vietnam Still Matters.” The untitled essay is quoted in its entirety because of the importance of this issue in determining the state of American resolve in pursuing the Vietnam War. War requires POWER, POSITION AND RESOLVE, the will to fight and win. The Vietnam War came down to a struggle of wills and we lost. Did the draft have a role in the outcome of the war?… Gil Coronado wrote (in 1996):
“The Selective Service System is a federal government agency. It is independent of the Department of Defense, but its job — unchanged since 1940 — is to provide men for involuntary service in the armed forces in case of a national emergency. There has been no actual draft since 1973, but all men in the United States that are between the ages of 18 and 25 are required, by law, to register. In a crisis, the Congress and the President could direct the system to bring forth the steps that would lead to induction.
“During the Vietnam War, even though resistance to the draft grew to significant proportions, the resistance was not pervasive. The vast majority of young men registered. Between 1964 and 1973, nearly 1.8 million young men were found qualified, accepted induction, and served honorably. Further, the American public — since the inception of a national draft in World War I and the creation of the Selective Service System in 1940 — has long supported the concept of the obligation for involuntary service when world events threaten U.S. security and national interest.
“Until 1965 — when large-scale intervention by American combat troops began in South Vietnam — the draft was not regarded as a problem. In 1963, when the 1951-vintage draft law had come up for renewal in Congress, only 22 percent of men serving in the Army were draftees. Induction numbered about 100,000 men per year, but the pool of 19 to 25-year old men had grown from 8 million in 1958 to 12 million in 1964. The abundance of registrants had led President Kennedy to increase the number of men deferred — more students and more married men. Only small numbers of non-volunteers were called to serve and there was no public clamor about the inequities.
“The situation changed dramatically as the Vietnam conflict flared. To sustain the strength of the military, President Johnson hiked draft calls, going from 16,000 per month to 40,000 per month. For the following three years, induction was three times what it had been in the era before the American commitment in the Southeast Asian conflict.
“As the conflict escalated and the draft call remained high, public resistance to the draft increased. Even those without serious objections to the war doubted the fairness of the draft system. Much iniquity was perceived as class bias, with unfair occupational and student deferments allowing the rich to avoid service and forcing the poor into uniform.
“Arguments about the structure of the Selective Service System centered on the make-up of Local and Appeal Boards, the uniformity of quotas and classification actions, and the uncertainty for the individual man of enduring eight years of ‘vulnerability.’ The Boards had existed — and functioned very well — since Selective Service began. Aside from staffs at state and national levels, the only paid, full-time employees o the System were the secretaries and clerks who worked in hundreds of offices spread throughout the nation. A Local Board, typically served the population of an entire county or city. The Board members, the people who actually considered and decided on problems and classification, deferment or exemptions, were uncompensated volunteers from the community — neighbors, who in good conscience, decided the fate of young men who were their neighbors. Problems in structure were symptoms of fact that the Vietnam War was an undeclared conflict — and when stressed by unplanned demands, the old ways broke down.
“Recommendations for reform came from several commissions by either the President or the Congress between 1967 and 1970. In 1969 Congress granted the President authority to conduct a lottery drawing in selecting young men for induction, rather than the prevailing systems which took the oldest available men first. Under new regulations implementing this lottery system, registrants would spend just one year in the first priority group available for induction, and within this group their birth dates openly ranked the likelihood of being called to service. In the next two years more changes followed: most deferments were abolished; a uniform national call was instituted; and legislation was enacted that set new regulations for Local and Appeals Boards.
“Then in 1971, legislation provided that the Selective Service would continue to exist — in a ‘stand-by status’ — even if induction ended. Induction ended in 1973. The requirement for men to register ended in 1975. In 1980 President Carter reinstated registration only without a draft. Today, men must register when they reach the age of 18 years; there is no draft. However, in a national crisis, the law provides for quick restoration of the steps of classification, examination, and induction. A sudden threat to national security of a magnitude beyond the capabilities of the small existing active and reserve military force could again make the draft a reality for young men (and women?). Selective Service remains true to its purpose of providing America with the manpower the armed forces may deem necessary, through a fair and equitable process.”
SALVO… Fifty years ago serving in the armed forces of the United States was a possibility for every young man coming out of high school. If he enlisted voluntarily he had more choices than if he took his chances on being drafted, a fate that probably resulted in duty in the jungles of Vietnam. The dilemma was a maturing experience for the youth of America. An experience no longer available, or anything to be concerned about. Free of any obligation to serve the country every young American is free to pursue self-interests and ignore her or his responsibility to contribute to the common good and the survival of the nation. The 1973 elimination of a mandatory and universal requirement to “do something for your country for all the good your country has done for you” has permanently changed our culture. The nation is much worse off and more vulnerable as a consequence. National service of some kind should be a requirement for citizenship in the United States…That’s my opinion, what’s yours?
Lest we forget, Bear
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