Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army
The answer, I believe, is simple. The upper echelon of the military has never been fully reconciled to the end of conscription, to the need to attract volunteers by offering conditions of employment competitive with private industry. How much easier to press a button and command a Selective Service Administration to round up a specified number of bodies, willing or not.
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. “The answer” is to his question why knowledgeable people who had the same data as Representative Les Aspin, showing the volunteer force meeting its strength, proclaimed one quarter’s shortfall of recruits a failure of the whole concept. His next paragraph, quoted separately, begins “The military do not take this attitude for ignoble reasons.”
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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/upper-echelon-never-reconciled-end-of-conscription-1979
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He also said
Compel 190,000 men per year to serve. Or improve pay and conditions of service to attract an additional 75,000 volunteers out of the 1.5 million who each year turn 19. These are the real alternatives.
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. He compares a mixed force of 2.5 million men, which needs about 440,000 recruits a year, at least 250,000 of them true volunteers even at the low first-term pay of the time, leaving 190,000 to be conscripted or induced to volunteer by the threat of the draft.
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. 8443Checked against the sourceRead the originalAs 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. 8443Checked against the sourceRead the originalThe often hysterical claims that an all-volunteer force is undesirable because it would be all black or all this or all that or because it would strengthen militarism or because … all these claims are contradicted by one simple yet overwhelmingly important fact: our armed forces today consist predominantly of true volunteers.
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 next paragraph puts true volunteers at “at least 60 per cent” of the armed forces.
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. 8443Checked against the sourceRead the original
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