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Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army

As a member of the President’s Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force (chaired by Thomas Gates, former Secretary of Defense), I was repeatedly impressed with this attitude on the part of the high military officers with whom we met. They finally accepted a volunteer armed force only with great reluctance and only under extreme pressure from President Richard Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, both strong supporters of a volunteer force.

Context. From a 1979 Newsweek column answering a new campaign to restore the draft, six years after conscription ended, written as a former member of the Gates Commission on an all-volunteer armed force. “This attitude” is the one he has just described: that the upper echelon of the military never fully reconciled itself to the end of conscription.

Don’t Draft GI Joe
Column, 1979, Newsweek, April 16, 1979; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 24, 1979, p. 8489, introduced by Representative Ron Paul of Texas under the header “[From the Newsweek magazine, Apr. 16, 1979]”, Congressional Record, April 24, 1979, p. 8489
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Milton Friedman, “Don’t Draft GI Joe” (Newsweek, April 16, 1979; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 24, 1979, p. 8489, introduced by Representative Ron Paul of Texas under the header “[From the Newsweek magazine, Apr. 16, 1979]”, 1979), Congressional Record, April 24, 1979, p. 8489. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/gates-commission-officers-accepted-volunteer-force-reluctantly-1979

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He also said

  1. As a longtime proponent of an all-volunteer armed force, I regard the end of the draft as one of President Nixon’s and then-Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird’s finest hours. No other measure has done so much to end the divisions that were threatening to tear this nation apart. No other measure has done so much to reduce the real cost of defending the nation.

    Context. From a 1974 Newsweek column answering press reports, a year after conscription ended, that the all-volunteer armed force was failing.

    Volunteer Armed Force: Failure or Victim?
    Column, 1974, Newsweek, February 11, 1974; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, February 27, 1974, p. 4572, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger of Wisconsin, who cites it as appearing “in the February 11 Newsweek”, Congressional Record, February 27, 1974, p. 4572
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  2. As a member of the President’s commission, I was much impressed by the emergence of unanimity out of initial disagreement. As our deliberations proceeded, and especially as our knowledgeable staff developed a growing body of factual evidence, it became ever clearer to all of us how superficial are most arguments in favor of conscription and how inefficient conscription is both as a method of taxation and as a method of recruiting manpower.

    Context. Friedman served on the President’s Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force (the Gates Commission), which unanimously recommended a plan to let conscription end on June 30, 1971, when the existing draft authority expired, keeping only a standby draft for emergencies.

    The End of the Draft?
    Column, 1970, Newsweek (1970); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, March 20, 1970, p. 8443, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger as one of “two recent articles on the volunteer army which were published in Newsweek.” The bracketed header “[From Newsweek, Mar. 23, 1970]” stands above the Stewart Alsop column printed first; this column carries no date of its own in the reprint, Congressional Record, March 20, 1970, p. 8443
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  3. 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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