University of Virginia Library

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.