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Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army

The military coup just engineered in Greece was by an army manned by conscripts. So was the recent military takeover in Argentina. Napoleon and Franco rose to power at the head of conscripts. Britain and the U.S. have maintained freedom while relying primarily on volunteers; Switzerland and Sweden, while using conscription. It is hard to find any relation historically between the method of recruiting enlisted men and the political threat from the armed forces.

Context. From a May 1967 New York Times Magazine article, written as Congress weighed renewing the draft, arguing that the United States should end conscription and man its armed forces with volunteers. He is answering the objection that a volunteer army would endanger political freedom. The danger is real, he says, but it comes from large armed forces and the industry that supports them, not from how enlisted men are recruited; free institutions are not made safer by filling the ranks by compulsion. “The military coup just engineered in Greece” is the colonels’ coup of April 1967.

The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer Army
Column, 1967, The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1967; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1967, pp. 12546 to 12548, inserted by Senator Gaylord Nelson., Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12548
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Milton Friedman, “The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer Army” (The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1967; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1967, pp. 12546 to 12548, inserted by Senator Gaylord Nelson., 1967), Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12548. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/coup-in-greece-army-manned-by-conscripts-1967

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He also said

  1. There is a real danger, but it arises from a strong armed force not from the method of recruiting enlisted men. Napoleon and Franco both rose to power at the head of a conscript army. However we recruit, the essential need is to maintain close links between the officer corps and the body politic.

    Context. His answer to the first of two objections to a volunteer force: that a “professional” army endangers political freedom.

    A Volunteer Army
    Column, 1966, Newsweek (December 19, 1966); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Senate, January 22, 1969, p. 1438, under the heading “From Newsweek magazine, Dec. 19, 1966”. Later collected in An Economist’s Protest (1972)., Congressional Record, January 22, 1969, p. 1438
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  2. The voluntary method provides a continuing referendum of the public at large. The popularity or unpopularity of the activities for which the armed forces are used will clearly affect the ease of recruiting men. This is a consideration that will be regarded by some, including myself, as an advantage of the voluntary method, by others as a disadvantage.

    Context. From a May 1967 New York Times Magazine article, written as Congress weighed renewing the draft, arguing that the United States should end conscription and man its armed forces with volunteers. He is answering the objection that volunteer forces lack the flexibility of the draft. The flexibility conscription provides, he says, has another side: it lets the Administration and the military, at least for a time, commit U.S. forces fairly arbitrarily.

    The Case for Abolishing the Draft—and Substituting for It an All-Volunteer Army
    Column, 1967, The New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1967; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, May 15, 1967, pp. 12546 to 12548, inserted by Senator Gaylord Nelson., Congressional Record, May 15, 1967, p. 12547
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  3. These are the grades for which the draft has provided recruits—either conscripts or “reluctant volunteers,” i.e., men induced to enlist by the threat of being drafted.

    Context. From a September 1971 Newsweek column on the House-Senate conference report on the bill to extend the draft and pave the way for an all-volunteer armed force, written while the Senate had yet to vote on it. “These” are the lowest enlisted and officer grades in the column’s table of proposed pay, the ones that first-termers serve in. He goes on to say that because of the draft first-termers have been consistently shortchanged, earning not much more than half what they could as civilians, and that this is a major obstacle to recruiting volunteers.

    The Draft Uncompromise
    Column, 1971, Newsweek, September 6, 1971; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 8, 1971, p. 31094, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger of Wisconsin under the header “[From Newsweek Magazine, Sept. 6, 1971]”, Congressional Record, September 8, 1971, p. 31094
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