University of Virginia Library

The Draft

Curtis Tarr Explains The Possibilities

By Curtis W. Tarr

Director Selective Service

Copyright 1970 By Campus
Exclusives International, Ltd.

When I meet with college age
young men, among the first things
they ask me is how long do I think
the draft will last.

The question is hard to answer
because it is impossible at this time
to give any exact date or time
period that can expire when such a
move is possible, and that is, of
course, the answer they are seeking.

Congress is the sole authority in
establishing or ending the draft and
any feelings that I may have as the
Director of Selective Service, while
they may be considered, will not be
the primary factor in determining if
and when the draft will be
eliminated or if it will be extended.

As most of you are aware, the
power of the Selective Service
System to induct young men into
service must be reestablished on or
before June 30 of 1971. Between
now and then, Congress must vote
and the President must sign into
law, the authority to extend the
draft. If not, the draft system as we
know it now, would die for lack of
official authority.

World Conditions

World conditions more than
anything else will determine if our
country can consider a zero draft
call each month. Events of this
summer in Vietnam have indicated
that the military authorities feel
that a Vietnamization program in
Southeast Asia is working with a
certain degree of success and that,
in the waning months of this year,
we were able to substantially
reduce draft calls. This year's draft
call of 163,000 is the lower
number of draftees being inducted
in he six years since the buildup in
Vietnam.

I am not able to predict what
will happen in the next 12 months
as far as the world situation goes. I
do know, however, that if the draft
authority is not extended, our
country must be prepared to fill
our large world-wide manpower
commitments from an all-volunteer
military service.

The concept of an all-volunteer
service is not new to this country,
as all services with the lone
exception of the Army, rely
primarily upon volunteers to carry
out their missions. The Marines and
The Navy have used only minor
increments of draftees in the past
six years to meet needs for their
roles in Vietnam, and the Air Force
has never drafted.

In all the armed services, the
draftee is very much a minority,
making up only 12 per cent of all
the men in uniform today.

Reluctant

The Department of Defense is
reluctant to operate without
draftees because it knows that the
volunteers have been eager to enter
those services which have been
traditionally offering the good
training, the best jobs and the best
opportunities for a relatively stable
career.

The Army MUST train certain
numbers of its men, whether
volunteer or draftee, to place in its
fighting units, whether it be
infantry, armor or artillery. Figures
from the Department of Defense
show that up to 70 per cent of the
men drafted into the service in any
given year, end up in one of these
basic units. Volunteers who, under
several recruitment programs and
because their stay in the service
amounts to a period from three to
six years, have a certain choice of
job assignment and training and are
often not among those troops
assigned to a combat unit.

A volunteer today is motivated
by several things, not the least
among them the fact that if he does
not volunteer, he very likely will be
drafted and end up with the other
70 per cent in a combat unit.
Therefore, the fact that the draft
does not exist, it is a matter of
conjecture just how effective a
volunteer program would be.

Special Commission

A special commission headed by
former Secretary of Defense,
Thomas S. Gates, Jr., has
recommended that an all-volunteer
service, with higher pay and good
career incentive, replace the draft
system as early as July 1, 1971, the
day the Selective Service System
outlives its current legal authority
to induct.

President Nixon has concurred
with the basic conclusions
contained in the Gates report, but
is reluctant to carry out the
recommendations while troop
strength must be maintained in
Vietnam.

This country considered an
all-volunteer concept in the 18
months between late 1946 and
June 1948. World conditions in
that time dictated to the United
States Congress that it must
maintain the largest peacetime
Army ever. Those were the years
when this country shed completely
its former isolationist attitudes and
embarked upon a period of heavy
internationalism. You will recall
that these were the years when we
were forming and shaping the
policy of the United Nations and a
strong Western Europe. We became
committed to programs of military,
technical and economic assistance
to nations in Europe, the Middle
East and the Far East. These
nations were attempting to
rehabilitate themselves from a
horrible war and at the same time
needed protection from an
aggressive communist Russia.

Strong Desire

At this time, there was a strong
desire on the part of Congress and
the people in general, to end forced
conscription. Selective Service did
not induct men after April 1946
and the most expensive and
appealing recruiting campaign this
country had ever been witness to
was undertaken.

The campaign was received
enthusiastically be everyone except
the young man who was to consider
the Army for his career. In spite of
new uniforms, and promises to do
away with time worn and
meaningless traditions, in spite of
financial benefits for former service
people, the Army found that it
could not maintain its desired
peacetime manpower quota of 1.5
million, and the Selective Service
function was put back into use in
1949.

All-Volunteer

This is not to say that today's
plan for an all-volunteer service
cannot be successful. Certainly the
people of our country would be
required to pay a great price for
this project-something between 2
billion and 2.7 billion annually-and
the Gates commission recommends
specifically that a "standby"
conscription be maintained in case
of any sudden manpower needs.

An all-volunteer force, I think,
would not differ significantly from
the current forces we have. I don't
see an elite corps nor do I see a
corps of mercenaries. Men who
volunteer for these forces will be
very much like the 250,000 men
who volunteer today. They will be
interested in good pay, good jobs
and a good living. They will be
patriotic and will have a certain
amount of pride in the decision
they have made to serve their
country.

I am hopeful that events in the
next several months will be such
that I will be without a job in
Selective Service. But until the
incentive to our young people is
directed to a career in the service
and until our country's role as a
world leader can be maintained by
a draft free volunteer service, I
believe this country's best interests
are served by a fair and equitable
draft system.