University of Virginia Library

Hershey Practices Selective Coercion

By Michael Russell

Most Americans take it for
granted that they live in the most
prosperous, the strongest, and the
most free country in the world.
Their faith is of such great depth
that they rarely question the activities
of the government, and even
less often question the doings of
the lesser governmental organizations.
Many people, especially students,
may be sorry that they
didn't investigate the Selective Service
System.

Students might begin wondering
just what the limits of their freedom
are. What alternatives do students
have? They can attend college
for four years and maintain a II-S
classification until they graduate. If
they don't want to enter the army
at this point they can go on to an
approved graduate school. But what
happens to American males, between
the ages of 18 and 26 who
don't feel that the present educational
system is their place, who
aren't interested in a technical apprenticeship,
and above all who
aren't interested in a technical apprenticeship,
and above all who
aren't interested in the military?
Their alternatives are limited. If
they leave the college, they can
certainly expect to be inducted
some time in the near future. To
avoid induction they can enlist. But
the student who just wants to take
some time off; whether to pursue
his own dreams, or to do research
outside of the academic environment,
or just to wander around this
great country, meeting people and
enjoying the beauties of the land,
has no alternatives. He either submits
to the military, or leaves the
country. The number of students
fleeing the country has been estimated
as being close to 25,000.

25,000 Americans

A free country, in which the
individual has the right to decide
what course his life is going to take,
certainly shouldn't force 25,000
future Americans (many are still
disenfranchised youth) to leave the
country. As a matter of fact, this
country is not all that free. General
Hershey, Director of the Selective
Service System, remarked in a radio
broadcast in New York "We in a
Democracy, have fewer choices
than we think we have."

On the surface this might seem
to be a rather neutral, restatement
of the basic fact that all governments
limit the freedom of the
individual. Large portions of the
American public are content to
listen to the phrase, reflect on its
alleged "context" and then forget
it, without ever questioning
whether Mr. Hershey might mean
more than he has said. And indeed
Mr. Hershey means a great deal
more than he says.

Department Of Coercion

Selective Service has taken upon
itself the duty of being the United
States department of coercion, and
General Hershey will gladly admit it
anytime, and any place.

In fact, the Selective Service
people have oven developed an entire
system within their system to
force (coerce) Americans to do
what Selective Service wants them
to.

Channeling has become an intricate
part of the total services
offered to the American people by
Selective Service. It is defined by
the Selective Service in a public
information pamphlet called
"Channeling."

One of the major products
of the Selective Service
classification process is the
channeling of manpower into
many endeavors, and occupations;
activities that are
in the national interest. This
function is a counterpart and
amplification of the System's
responsibility to deliver
manpower to the armed
forces in such a manner as to
reduce to a minimum any
adverse effect upon the national
health, safety, interest,
and progress. By identifying
and applying, this
process intelligently, the
System is able, not only to
minimize any adverse effect,
but to exert an effect beneficial
to the national health,
safety, and interest.

The line dividing the primary
function of armed
forces procurement from the
process of channeling manpower
into civilian support is
often finely drawn. The process
of channeling by not
taking men from certain activities
who are otherwise
liable for service, or by
giving deferment to qualified
men in certain occupations,
is actual procurement by inducement
of manpower for
civilian activities which are
manifestly in the national
interest.

Selective Insights

A second reading of this passage
provides interesting insights into
what is really being said. Selective
service has gone beyond its traditional
purpose of supplying men for
the army during a national emergency
and is now involved with
playing the "national interest
game." They still maintain the original
power granted to them by the
Congress, that is, deferring men who
are in essential occupations at the
time of an emergency. They have,
however gone one step further by
granting deferments to men who
intend to go into occupations that
are in the national interest.

A distinction must be made here
between the terms "essential occupations"
and "national interest."
Essential occupations are those occupations
which contribute directly
to the maintenance of the war
machine of the economy, during a
national emergency. It is the term
used by Congress to keep the draft
from taking those men who were
employed in essential occupations.
National interest, however is a far
different concept, and one which
Selective Service was never intended
to deal with. It indicates,
that part of the activity of the
System is to be directed into deciding
what occupations are in the
national interest. The term does not
refer to deciding who can't be
drafted from an essential occupation,
but to what occupations can
influence the total national economy.
By saying "national interest"
Selective Service can manipulate
the national economy, by manipulating
men - free men.

Student Deferments

At the House Armed Service
Committee in June 1966, General
Hershey replied to a question of
student deferments by saying,
"specialists are going to have to be
deferred, first of all to make them
specialists. I think you should keep
a string on them so if you want to
use them you can and you can
compel them to stay where you
want them because you have a
string on them and if they don't
stay where they should, then you
put them where you can be sure
that you can use them."

Channeling was fairly creditable
while it dealt with deferring men
who were in essential occupations,
or facilitating deferments for men
who planned to go into a field
which was determined to be in the
national interest (the origins of that
concept are equally as interesting to
investigate, who decides what is in
the national interest, and how
much effect on the economy have
the levied through the draft?).

The last statement by Mr. Hershey,
only hints at the deeper extent
of channeling, for in its present
manifestation, it takes on a even
uglier appearance. For Selective
Services has not limited itself to the
two forms of channeling listed
above, but have again altered their
legal purpose to further limit the
freedom of the individual. Selective
Service now takes it upon themselves
to tell people what they are
going to do with their lives, and
uses the draft to enforce the decisions
that they make - all in the
national interest.

Hershey's Carrot

Once again, General Hershey has
defined the purpose of the deferment
by saying, ". . . the deferment
is that carrot that we have
used to try to get individuals into
occupations and professions that
are said by those in charge of
government to be the necessary
ones.

". . . we are deferring individuals
so they would be more valuable to
the government, and we intend to
use them as we need them, rather
than letting go to college merely
because they care to themselves."

Channeling thus becomes something
odious to most free thinking
Americans, especially when Selective
Service states, again in a public
information pamphlet that their
purpose is, "deciding what people
should do rather than letting them
do something of their own
choosing. . ."

Rejected Patriotism

The Selective Service justifies
channeling by talking of patriotism,
and the rejection that occurs in a
students life when he is turned
aside by his draft board. The fact
that this rejection makes it impossible
for the board to persuade him
to do what they want him to makes
them shy away from rejecting him
until he has been coerced into the
field that they choose.

The less patriotic person they
say is interested in doing what he
wants to do, even if it doesn't
benefit his country. The whole concept
of channeling can be summed
up by the words of General Hershey,
"I do not want to go along on
a volunteer basis. I think a fellow
should be complied to become
better and not let him use his
discretion whether he wants to get
smarter more healthy, or more
honest."

Disgusting as all this may seem,
the fact that General Hershey is
senile does not mean that the
people of the United States should
humor him. People, day in and day
out, are confronted with the fact
that part of the government of the
United States of America is forcing,
coercing, compelling, and "prodding"
free independent Americans
to do things against their will. And
they do not limit this compulsion
to the observance of laws, which no
one disputes the need to obey, they
compel people to enter occupations
that they don't want to enter.

Life On The Line

They put the man's life on the line
to insure that he will cooperate
with the Government in the "national
interest." No one ever tries
to find out who is deciding what is
in the national interest, or where
they derive their right to coerce
Americans against their will.

Students, and others who are
liable at the present time to the
Selective Service System, are going
to wake up one day and find that
they have no alternatives, but to do
what the government tells them. By
then it will be to late to raise their
voices in protest.