79-14-B3
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The Draft[edit]
Transcript[edit]There's a lot of talk about the draft these days. The question really entails three different proposals: universal national service, military draft, and registration for use in the event of a future draft. Frankly, I'm opposed to universal national service. The idea rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. Though voluntary service should be encouraged, the job for determining who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where, and how, in our society, is the job of the people involved - children, parents, religious institutions, and teachers-and not the government. The individual shouldn't be reduced to the level of a statistic to be manipulated by social engineers. I am also opposed to a military draft in peacetime. The issue here is a basic philosophical one. Only in a national emergency does the nation have a legitimate claim to the mandatory service of its young people for the military. Another issue is a mare practical one -- is the volunteer army working? I believe it is. Test scores and statistics show no significant decline in the quality of today's soldiers, and when I visited some of the troops in Germany last Winter, I found them to be well-informed on current events -- in fact, probably better than many civilians back home. Their morale was also surprisingly good. In addition, the volunteer army ended 1978 some 2,000 members over strength, due to the fact that more soldiers stayed in than had been predicted. When a volunteer organization's dropout rate declines, it must be doing something right. A more serious worry is the state of the reserves and the National Guard, most of whose units are below strength. Yet the problem here is that the reserves and National Guard have not been made sufficiently attractive to young people. Therefore, the solution is to make such service more attractive. This brings me down to the final point-registration. I oppose the institution of a stand-by registration system. First, the word "registration" to young people is code for "draft", an idea that evokes painful memories of Vietnam for many and an idea that has always seemed alien in a democratic society during peacetime. Second, and more important, stand-by registration would not greatly speed mobilization in time of an emergency. One defense manpower specialist I talked with said that registration would perhaps reduce mobilization time slightly, from 110 to 90 days-but at a great cost. It seems to me that it makes more sense to put those millions of dollars into program improvements and promotion to make the reserves more attractive to volunteers. Voluntary support and participation have had a lot to do with the greatness of our nation. We should continue to rely upon it in the future. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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