University of Virginia Library

What Are The Chances For Civilian Service?

By Mike Russell

Mr. Russell, a former University
student and past Monday Edition
Editor of The Cavalier Daily, is
currently involved with draft
opposition groups, and co-founded
the Charlottesville draft resistance.

Lobbying forces in Washington
D.C. are aligning themselves for one
of the most significant
Congressional debates in
twenty-five years. On June 30th the
Selective Service Act of 1967
expires, and groups opposing
conscription are claiming that they
now have the Congressional
influence to prevent the draft's
Renewal.

For the past four years draft-age
men have been voting against
Selective Service directly; massive
numbers are refusing to report for
induction, countless young men are
failing even to register. So strong
has the resistance movement
become that National Churches
provide sanctuary. Federal
indictments and courts are years
behind in their case processing, and
in many areas more that 50 per
cent of all men called for induction
fail to report.

Basic Questions

The directness of resistance
activities has led many citizens to
ask the basic questions about
conscription; "Can a free society
draft an Army?" They've
answered no; from Barry Gold water
to George McGovern to the
President's own "Blue-ribbon"
Gates commission. Unfortunately
they continue to underestimate the
desperation of the military and its
capacity to transfer this desperation
to the Executive branch.
Conscription will continue after the
30th of June.

Most people are unaware that
Curtis Tarr is also Colonel Curtis
Tarr formerly of Undersecretary of
Defense Roger Kelly's office. Or
that Selective Service has
traditionally attempted to control
more than the numbers of men
being inducted (read the classic
government blueprint on civilian
control "Channeling"). Or that
"National interest", the prime
factor in determining civilian
alternative service, is defined by the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Military Bureaucracy

What has developed since John
Kennedy became President is a
military bureaucracy which has
continually increased its influence
on civilian life; first through the
channeling function of Selective
Service, and more recently through
the direct approach of inducting as
many people as possible and
recruiting numerous others in their
Reserve Officer programs. The
continued prominence of the
military in this country depends on
their ability to influence and
control the lives of the male
citizens.

Edward Kennedy and his Senate
"Liberals" are presenting the
conscription blueprint deemed
most likely to succeed. An
extended draft that will end
student and ministerial deferments,
make alternative service a more
lengthy and less desirable
alternative, and thus "equalize" the
draft.

Proposals

The Pentagon and the Offices of
Selective Service are playing around
with other ideas. They proposed
last fall a test study of national
service which placed all men who
were not ready to volunteer for the
military into civilian alternative
service in "the national interest"
(Please recall that it is the Military
agencies which determine what
"national interest" is). All men who
were unemployable would be
"trained" in civilian service camps,
which are recently renovated WWII
Japanese internment camps. That
idea was shot down by blacks and
religious leaders who said that the
tacit addition of the Military was
that the camps would primarily
consist of young black and brown
and poor white read untrained
and unskilled — the Pentagon says
they've dropped the idea.

Presently there are several bills
in congress which propose National
Service, all variations on a basic
theme: Volunteer for the military or
spend from two to six years doing
some work, at slave wages, in the
"National interest". All National
Service Proposals seem equally
unlikely until the power claims of
the various Congressional pressure
groups are measured against each
other.

Volunteers

Selective Service extension act
will probably pass in the House of
Representatives if the House Armed
Forces Committee decides to wait
until June; they've already tried
once to pass a temporary extension
act on the Kennedy model. Equally
likely is the probability the Selective
Service will be rejected by the
Senate as a continuing inequity no
matter what the form.

With the conflict suspended
between the House and the Senate
some compromise will occur, one
that will insure the creation of a
volunteer army, and yet insure that
everyone serves the country. A
compromise which will be most
acceptable to the military since it
will allow them to continue to
coerce men into the military and
also influence the civilians through
alternative service. That alternative
has already been mentioned —
National Service. Out of the
conflict between a House almost
sure to continue the draft and a
Senate almost sure to reject it, will
come the least acceptable plan for
maintaining any semblance of free
choice in this country.

The major rationale for
rejecting Selective Service is a
subsidiary of those debated in
Congress. The question is not how
you decide who serves, but whether
that decision even belongs in the
realm of a "Democratic"
government.

Kennedy Plan

National Service may not be
introduced quite as bluntly as I've
suggested. There is a high
probability that Edward Kennedy's
plan will be accepted with some
modifications. All men will become
equally draftable, at the same time
all guidelines for granting C.O. status
will be removed. Essentially any
man who would apply for a
Conscientious Objector's status
would have the request granted,
and would be expected to do
alternative service for at least three
years. Without college deferments it
would become incumbent upon the
registrant to apply for C.O. on his
eighteenth birthday.

With the tight job market and
lack of funds for most
philanthropic activities, the
likelihood is that many new C.O.'s
would be unable to obtain jobs, but
be drafted into alternative service
anyway. Where would they go, why
to the camps, of course!

No Distinction

My prognosis is obvious, the
military plans will succeed in
increasing its power and control
over the "draftable" population by
presenting a "voluntary civilian"
option to participation in the army.
Please remember, as I've
emphasized throughout this article,
that there is presently no
distinction between the Defense
Department and the Selective
Service System; that the agency
(National Security Agency) which
decides civilian priorities is made up
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
Vice President, the President and
anyone the President deems
helpful, and their priorities are
unquestionably pro-military.

Having presented my diagnosis
and prognosis. I wish to present a
cure, as well as a factor in the
Congressional deliberations largely
ignored (but well understood by
the Pentagon). Resistance to the
military option in this country is
greater now than ever before.
Government agencies cannot handle
the levels of noncooperation
already extant, and continuously
growing.

Stopping the Machine

The military structure will not
be halted or diminished by
accepting a civilian service program,
which is nothing of the kind; it will
not be stopped by allowing
Congressional "leaders" to continue
playing games with our lives. We
have a chance of halting the
machine which is presently out of
control only by refusing to let
ourselves by used by it, and we do
this by not co-operating with it in
any way, and making that
noncooperation a public statement
of our feelings.

Finally a word to those who've
read this article and discounted the
information contained within.
Room prevents me from listing the
incidents and conversations which
provided the source material. My
information comes largely from the
former director of the National
Council to Repeal the Draft,
Thomas Reeves; from NCRS'S
current director Stuart Kemp, a
member of the aforementioned
Gates Commission; from members
of the Midwest Committee for
Draft Counseling who've been
directly approached by members of
the Defense Department; from
Delegates to the Conference on the
Test Study of National Service, and
my Statistical facts which described
the level of noncooperation were
compiled by Bob Freeston of the
Chicago Area Military Project.