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Milton Friedman on The draft and the volunteer army

Military service is now demeaned, treated as a necessary but degrading duty that men have to be dragooned into performing. A voluntary army would restore a proper sense of pride, of respect for the important, dangerous and difficult task that the armed forces perform.

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. Here he names, among the military advantages of a volunteer force, its effect on morale.

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. 12546
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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. 12546. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/voluntary-army-restore-proper-sense-of-pride-1967

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He also said

  1. A voluntary army would preserve the freedom of individuals to serve or not to serve. Or, put the other way, it would avoid the arbitrary power that now resides in draft boards to decide how a young man shall spend several of the most important years of his life—let alone whether his life shall be risked in warfare.

    Context. From a paper he gave at a conference on the draft at the University of Chicago in December 1966, arguing that the United States should move to an all-volunteer armed force. His case is for peacetime: in the same paper he grants that “for a major war, a strong case can be made for compulsory service.” This is the second of the advantages he lists, under the heading “Individual freedom”.

    Why Not a Voluntary Army?
    Journal article, 1966, Paper for the conference on the draft held at the University of Chicago in December 1966, sponsored by the Ford Foundation and chaired by Sol Tax; reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, House, March 9, 1967, pp. 6098 to 6100, inserted by Representative Donald Rumsfeld among four conference papers on a voluntary army., Congressional Record, March 9, 1967, p. 6098
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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. A military draft is undesirable and unnecessary. We can and should man our armed forces with volunteers—as the United States has traditionally done except in major wars.

    Context. The opening of the column. He quoted these two sentences himself in a later Newsweek column on the draft, giving the date as December 19, 1966.

    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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