I was Regular Army in the '60s at a time when the ranks were filled with draftees most of whom didn't want to be there.
What they gave the Army, instead of desire for a military career was a connection to the rest of America.
Different backgrounds. Different points of view. They had lives outside the military. Many in the ranks were well educated, successful with wives, parents and girlfriends who couldn't wait for them to get out and come home.
When drafted they answered the call and served with honor; but they never compromised their view that there was more to life than the military. They were true "citizen soldiers" in the footsteps of Cincinnatus.
In the '50s and '60s every young man had to face the possibility of conscription - and so did their parents. Those who could afford to go to college got a deferment. Those who couldn't had to deal with the eventuality that they would receive the dreaded "The President of the United States sends greetings" letter.
So long as the United States was at peace parents had little to worry about. Those who fought in WWII and Korea were in their late 40s and early 50s and for a young man a stint in the military was viewed as part of growing up.
Vietnam changed all that.
Conscription could now mean the death of your son. Conscription makes you think about war. Conscription is personal.
Those that could stay in college did so. Those with influential families obtained slots in the reserves and guard units which were not being deployed. Poor kids got drafted.
The perceived unfairness of conscription and the feeling of many that Vietnam was not worth the death of tens of thousands of young men eventually brought about massive war protest, the dreaded draft lottery and then the abolition of conscription entirely.
With the end of conscription the anti-war movement faded away. It seemed that people would only get off of their couch to oppose war if they had to fight it. Once they were disconnected from war it was no longer their primary concern.
My family has lived in this country for a century and served in every war from WWI to Vietnam. Today I don't know anyone in the military. My children, nephews or nieces never faced the draft. None of my friends have children in the military. I don't know any kid anxious to join up. War doesn't affect me or my family or my friends at all. And there are tens of millions like me.
It seems from the outside that the volunteer army is comprised mainly of those from military families (Daddy was an Admiral) or kids with poor economic prospects back in Flint, Michigan. Would it surprise anyone to learn that West Virginia suffered the highest rate of casualties per capita in the Vietnam war? What we now have is akin to a mercenary army, the enabler of empire and permanent war. It is a military with its own distinct culture.
The military can now be sent anywhere at the direction of the President. Congress hasn't issued a Declaration of War since FDR. Now it simply passes a Gulf of Tonkin style resolution and the President does what he likes. It is the imperial Presidency that now makes war enabled by a volunteer army and the lack of connection between war and the vast majority of Americans.
Today we are in our tenth year of the Afghan war / occupation. Afghanistan was a non-issue in the last elections. We see no graphic reports from the battlefield on the 6 O'clock news. We see no caskets. No funerals. No bodies. It seems to be a nicely sanitized war. Media propaganda from "in-bed" journalists. We will all go to the mall or barbecue this coming Memorial Day weekend.
Now its easy to be a war hawk. You don't have to worry about your kid. He won't be drafted, given 4 months training and dropped in Kandahar. We don't even have to pay a war tax. Sure there's a war going on but it doesn't affect us. It doesn't affect me or mine.
War is for other people. War is for those who volunteered.
SSG. E-6 Toritto
11/18/63 - 11/17/67
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I have often wondered how much righteous outrage against Vietnam there would have been by those bright young college students had there been no draft and they were not threatened with the possibility of maybe ending up over there.
You were connected to the military and remain connected. Tens of millions have no connection. You are right about Vietnam. The anti-war movement died among college kids AND their parents when conscription was abolished. Ten year wars would not be possible if the draft was still in place. If wars directly affected everyone we would think much more carefully about whether a war was worth it. Thanks for commenting.
"It seemed that people would only get off of their couch to oppose war if they had to fight it."
What a very interesting statement.Hadn't thought of it that way, but you are right. Thank you sir for the service you gave to our country.
Congratulations on the EP!!!!!
CPT, RA, O-3 Brassawe, 6/7/1969 - 8/7/1973
There are also reasons for a professional army in terms of its efficiency, although you are right to worry about the implications for limited government.
As for the appeal of a professionalized force, the more technology advances, other things equal, the more you are drawn to using specialists to use capital intensive forms of warfare. That intensive use of capital is why the United States can exert so much military power with such a small standing force relative to its politcal committments, although there are limits to that, and problems as well.
As you say, the more professionalized a force becomes, the more divorced it becomes from civilian life, since it operates in its own highly efficient universe, until they make a mistake because they are in their own universe, or come to be dangerously contemptuous of civilians, which has happened other places before, like at the end of the Roman Republic.
That was supposed to be checked by the Reserves and Guard, although they are now bot very much integrated into the regular Armed Forces, because of a real problem with a professional army: the expense of individual member training.
The human capital accumulated in a professional Army is very expensive, and when you add on the expense of the capital they are trained to use, then you can't have as many people working, which weakens the Armed Forces potential function as you pointed out as a socializing element for a large portion of the population, as well as a training function for as many people with relatively poor economic opportunities as compared to if there were more people and less capital-machines, and less training per member in terms of human capital embedded in the force, although in combat, such a force would suffer significantly higher casualties.
We have become the British Empire and these wars will take us down as a nation. The poor have nothing to lose but it's a real pity the middle class has to go down.
I would also note that the volunteers seem to come overwhelming from smaller towns that have taken the biggest hits in the modern service economy.
Nicely, artfully argued.
In the 60's there was a huge anti-draft movement. OK, drafts are not for free societies (it's a temporary form of coerced labor), so we get rid of the draft.
Then, after the military becomes very efficient with an all volunteer force, there is a complaint that the military doesn't provide the same societal representation function as it did when there was a draft and wars can be fought by people who like war (face it, there are people who want to be in the military and fight). And worse, volunteers are accused of being mercenaries for joining and receiving pay for doing so.
There's no winning here. Drafts are bad. Volunteers are bad.
Isn't the real issue that you oppose a war (or wars) more strongly than most Americans who grudgingly support or at least tolerate the wars we are fighting?
But to your point, I am pretty certain that if the Afghanistan War was going far worse in terms of casualties, the public would oppose it, whether they knew people in the military or not.
Lastly, I actually consider it progress that we are able to exert force in ways that has little impact on our society. It means that we can defend ourselves in ways that our adversaries cannot. It means our deterrent is better than theirs.
Yes I probably oppose war more than most but I am not totally opposed to any war. Just the ones we've been fighting during my lifetime.
A war is not worth fighting if the people will not fight it - not support the war if OTHERS fight it. That's too easy. If it's not worth fighting yourself its not worth fighting.
When one's own may fight it then you think much more carefully about whether or not it is worth it. It becomes personal.
As far as calling the military "mercenary" it seems quite true that most young people who join up have little in the way of choices - it not (a) should I go to Harvard or (b) join the Army.
I jointed in 1963 because I was 21, wanted to stop relying on my relativly poor family and a sick Dad for support and saw no other way. My job didn't pay enough for me to live on my own, Not much has changed.
Why don't we just push aside the curtain and look at the facts.
Are the Hessians still available?
Thanks again for the comment.
I attend a group in Tallmadge, Ohio called the Warriors Journey Home. It's mostly Vietnam vets like me and their family members who had to deal with the loss of a family member. And there are also former soldiers and family members from the current wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are even veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War who attend.
It's helped me great deal to finally have some closure with my war.
So there are good things that have come out of the war. Some of the Vietnam vets in the group went to Vietnam last October on a peace and healing journey. I can see how it has helped the old grunts to revisit old battle sights, talk with their former enemies and meet with the Vietnamese people who suffered so much. The reaction from all the Vietnamese they encountered during the trip was basically: it's over, we have had to move on, and it's time for you Americans to move on with your lives. The Americans were welcomed with open arms wherever they visited, and they also buried personal artifacts of soldiers wounded or killed in Vietnam.
I just wanted to share this with all of you, because it has made a great difference in my life. There is also a homeless shelter called Freedom House affliated with the WJH near where I live in Stow, Ohio. And the daughter of a homeless veteran, Cassie Schumacher, has a website called www.wheels4change.org. She is a bicycle racer and through her competitive races she raises funds for the group and a new homeless shelter being built this summer near the VA clinic in Akron, Ohio. It's for a good cause. Summa Health Care and wheels4change are raising money for a mediation room in the new shelter. Ground breaks on June 22nd of this year.
since then i have lost hope for america. it will continue on its path to destruction, much as rome did, but rather quicker. the character of modern america you have outlined is uncannily like that earlier empire.