We Need a Peace Time Draft

Our nation is facing a national security threat: there are not enough military age people joining the U.S. Armed Forces. Yet, the world is still a threatening place, necessitating a robust American military. Democracy is being tested in Ukraine. China is a looming threat over another democracy, Taiwan. The United States must be ready to answer these and other potential challenges. A peace time draft can help solve this problem. At the same time, drafting politically polarized Americans can help bring the American people back together through a shared sacrifice and a sense of patriotism that military service fosters while simultaneously ensuring the political engagement of modern youth. 

To combat this trend, in 2022 the U.S. Army created two “prep-courses” that recruits can attend prior to Basic Training. One 90-day prep-course helps recruits meet body fat standards. The other course helps recruits achieve higher scores on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test. The U.S. Navy recently announced that it has raised its age limit to 41 years, the oldest of any service (thus far).  

This is sounding alarm bells. The recruiting pool is getting shallower.

Bring back the peace time draft. 

In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt pushed the Congress to do something never tried before in American history: a peace time draft. The resulting expanded military, although limited in its use by Congress, provided a foundation when the United States entered World War 2 in December 1941. Despite achieving victory in 1945, the U.S. Government continued the draft until 1973. The world had changed, or at least Americans’ role in it. A near-permanent era of crisis had set in – the Cold War. Having a strong military at the ready became an important facet of American strategy and diplomacy.  

Three decades later, due to the internal tensions regarding the war in Vietnam, the military became an all-volunteer force as the United States ended its part in the hostilities in Southeast Asia. Since then, the United States has been able to sustain its global dominance through this professional force despite the near-permanent state of crisis continuing. 

But this experiment in an all-volunteer force has come with a price, a price we are now being asked to pay. An entire generation of servicemembers fighting the Global War on Terror found themselves deployed multiple times, with relatively short “dwell times” between deployments. Exhaustion of personnel and their families set in, not to mention an exhaustion of equipment. Yet the general public was woefully unaware of much of this. By having an all-volunteer military, Americans have essentially contracted their war-making to a small caste of their fellow countrymen. Out of sight, out of mind.

This must end.

It is time for all Americans to share the responsibilities that come with enjoying the benefits of living in a democracy. The founders of this nation knew this, hence their use of militias to augment the small numbers of professionals during times of crisis. Citizen soldiers had been a hallmark of American history until 1973, only serving when needed, for however long it took to quell the crisis. Between 1940 and 1973, in an era of near-permanent crisis, the citizen soldier answered the call by either volunteering or mustering through the draft board for a few short years of service. Military service was almost accepted as routine – almost every American had a veteran in the family or knew someone whose family member had served. It was considered a patriotic duty. 

This is what is missing in today’s military age youth: patriotism. A shared American identity. A July 2021 Pew Research Center study is revealing. Among Americans aged 65 or older, the last generation to be drafted, only 10% believed that other countries are better than the United States. In contrast, 42% of those aged 18 to 29 believed that.  

In one sense, this is understandable, as the culture wars have led to open talk of a civil war between conservatives and liberals. Bringing back the citizen soldier today, through a new peace-time draft, offers an opportunity to address this issue, beyond its immediate goal of safeguarding the nation by filling the ranks. Since President Truman ordered racial integration, the military has also been a social laboratory. Race in the late 1940s. Sex in the 1970s, when women were fully integrated into the military. A silent integration of sexuality in the 1990s with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that became explicit in 2011. Currently, there is debate regarding transexuals. In each case, the predictions of doom prophesied by some never came to fruition. Another form of integration can be added to this history: political belief and social class. 

The military reflects the nation. Liberals and conservatives serve together, with politics rarely interfering with completing the mission. Throughout American history, servicemembers have often reported that they do not care who is next to them – just as long as that person does the job. Furthermore, shared military service is a conduit for members of a diverse population to interact regularly. Those from “blue” coastal areas interact with those from “red” interior areas. With shared military service comes mutual understanding, respect, and trust.  It is not a coincidence that a bipartisan group of veterans serving in the House of Representatives formed the For Country Caucus. Perhaps this group can serve as a model to remedy some of today’s political polarization. 

But such integration can go beyond the polarized political parties. We can restore the lost experience of social classes working together in common cause. This could be an important bridge in an era of resentment and hostility between the classes. During World War Two, the “Greatest Generation” serving in the military included both the wealthy and poor. Hollywood elites like Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Clark Gable all served. Even politicians’ families served. All of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and six of his seven grandsons served in the war. So did their cousins: all of FDR’s sons served, despite being the sons of the sitting president. Millionaires or their children went to war, too. A prime example is the Kennedy family, one of whom was killed while the other, long before becoming President, was injured while serving as a PT Boat skipper. Today’s military also includes millionaires, but they are the notable exceptions. But when the rich and powerful serve alongside the poor, the entire society benefits. That same “Greatest Generation” went on to establish the world order that many now believe is crumbling. They did it out of a sense of shared sacrifice and communal effort that military service teaches and demands. This is why any new peace time draft should not provide any educational deferments, which favors the wealthy. Furthermore, all medical deferments should come exclusively from military doctors, with no input from civilian doctors that the wealthy can afford but the poor cannot.  

A final reason for a new draft comes from the Vietnam experience. Americans, even young people, were politically engaged because they knew that they or their family members could be drafted. They demanded the war’s end, ending Johnson’s presidency and forcing Nixon’s hand. When citizens must personally face the consequence of their elected leaders’ decisions, they hold those politicians accountable. When someone else faces those consequences, such as in an all-volunteer military consisting of less than 1% of the population, people are less engaged and demand less accountability.  

Military service binds a diverse citizenry and protects democracy. It is time to bring back the peace time draft. 

Michael Szalma is a retired U.S. Army officer, having served in the Active Army, the Army Reserves, and the Army National Guard, deploying with each to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, respectively. He is currently a professor of history at Valencia College in Central Florida.