Democracy and the Conscript

...Perhaps this is what President Kennedy had in mind when he said that it was especially difficult for democracies to fight little wars against local insurgents—for these are inevitably also wars against civilian populations...

...nevertheless the example does serve to point up the difficulty of obliging men to fight in distant wars where even defeat entails no danger to their homeland...

...but such enlistments are hardly free choices...

...The draft itself probably sets some limits to peacetime military activity, limits less and less effective, however, insofar as American civilians accept the ideology of the cold war and come to disbelieve in the political and moral reality of peace...

...Nevertheless, recent experience both in this country and in France suggests that the greatest pressure for escalation comes not from frustrated or despairing civilians or from their political representatives, but from professional officers...

...Yet no popular movement seems likely to arise in the U.S...

...in the foreseeable future advocating the surrender of our hegemony or the creation of a new international order...

...Yet selective conscription has become an essential characteristic of the politics of modern warfare...

...American troops in Korea probably represented a sampling less "fair" than this...

...Waging little wars with an army staffed largely from the lower classes has one very important, in fact, politically crucial advantage for those who begin and lead the wars: domestic repercussions are delayed and muffled...

...The French Foreign Legion and the British Gurkha regiments are the most obvious examples...

...Many of the poor, of course, enlist, either because they know they will be drafted if they don't or because they think of the army as an escape from the intolerable conditions in which they live (which it is...

...And the American decision to use conscripts in Vietnam was a major escalation of the war, far greater than mere num bers would suggest, because it made it possible to envisage a longer and bigger struggle than even the French had fought...

...Drafted troops can only be used in an undeclared war (there have been no declared wars since World War II) if there is a peacetime draft, and a peacetime draft is probably not politically viable unless large numbers of young men, chiefly from the middle and upper classes, are exempted from its compulsions...

...its central goal is to require genuine popular support before a war can be carried on, to deny the army any sort of independence from the nation and the people...

...Coupled with a truly universal draft, it would go some way toward establishing a greater degree of popular control over modern warmaking...

...But the whole thrust of democratic thought is against professionalism...

...No subsequent adjudication is necessary, for no court can rule on the validity of this or that conscientious objection and all objections must be assumed to be conscientious (so long as certain formal criteria are met or certain formal procedures gone through...

...The only possible solution to this dilemma is to insist that the right of conscientious objection belongs to soldiers as well as to civilians: it is not a right which can only be exercised at a single moment in time or on the single ground of pacifism (which is not to say that it can be exercised at any moment or on any ground...

...This does not mean that a democratic decision must be made before a regiment of troops consents to go to Vietnam...

...And so the presence in the army of men in close touch with the home country, both mentally and socially, becomes a significant counterforce to militarist ambition...

...Its essential purpose is the defense of conscience...

...America has become, as the English journalist Henry Fairlie argued some months ago in the Sunday Times Magazine, an "imperial" power, and the maintenance of our hegemony is likely to require a considerable amount of fighting in the next several decades (at the perimeters of the empire, as Fairlie said), most of it on a relatively small scale, much of it against civilians, some of it costly and brutal...

...In recent discussions, the right to refuse to participate in a particular war has been confused with the right to refuse the draft altogether...

...Here is another reason why the recruitment of the poor increases the power of professional soldiers: the poor have no very interesting civilian careers to look forward to...

...We can hope at best for a kind of democratic "backlash" against a particular war...

...The second question must be answered by some of the citizens, alone: ought I to fight in a war I believe to be unjust...

...Similarly, a successful civil rights movement or a successful war on poverty would be a restraint, since it would give a voice to those whose sons are already dying and at the same time cut down the enlistment rates...

...A doctrine of conscientious acceptance is untenable: little wars would then be fought largely by psychopaths, mercenaries and true believers...

...Even today the advantages of a military career (free medical care, retirement after twenty years, etc...

...Why not insist that such wars be fought only by volunteers, who presumably believe in them...

...Today, little wars seem increasingly to be fought without regard to the procedures of democratic government (opinion polling is no substitute for public debate and legislative choice): all the more important, then, that they may be fought with democratic armies...

...I am certain that it will often be morally objectionable to a great many Americans and espe cially to American radicals...

...It will only interfere with military discipline when a particular war is highly unpopular, and then, one would think, interference is desirable...

...The first question must be answered by all the citizens together: is it just to require men to fight if neither their homeland nor the security of their nation is in actual danger...

...The defiance of governmental authority by embittered professionals is a far greater danger today than in a time of total war when the professionals can claim and are likely to receive total governmental support...

...The commitment of conscripts may well be a sign of national determination, but it is also an invitation to domestic protest...

...is going to continue to fight little wars...

...If, on the other hand, they refuse to enter the army, they are not merely declining to go to the Dominican Republic, they are refusing also to participate along with their fellow citizens in conventional deterrence and defense...

...These arguments have not figured much in recent American discussions about the draft, but they seem to me of enormous weight...

...This is the political value (there is a moral value as well) of the democratic principle of "equal sacrifice...

...conscripts were generally shielded from this particular sort of barbarism, in part, perhaps, because they would have been revolted by it...

...The loyalty of conscript soldiers to the Parisian government, for example, was an important factor in the failure of the Algerian army revolts of 1960 and 1961...

...This works two ways, of course, for it may be equally easy for opposition politicians to demand a quick victory (at whatever cost to the enemy) or a negotiated peace...

...The maintenance of secrecy is certainly one of the advantages of a professional army, but since secrets are kept not only from the enemy but also from the civilian population, and since these concern not only military affairs but also what may be called the politics of warfare, this is not necessarily a recommendation...

...But he ought to be able, at some prior point, to refuse to serve cn a firing squad...

...The individual right to opt out, to wait for some other assign ment, is something quite different...

...in part because they would have talked about it...

...One of the difficulties with arguments based on the Nuremberg trials and the legal right not to commit "war crimes," is that these do involve judicial decisions with regard to the substance of objections...

...Thus, Mendes-France threatened to send conscripts to Indo-China if no satisfactory solution were reached at Geneva in 1954, and probably won better terms as a result...

...Finally, a conscript army is similarly unreliable when it is used for purely political purposes, for the suppression of civilian populations, either at home or abroad...

...It seems clear, however, that at those moments when individual objection is possible, it is also sufficient...

...A genuinely universal draft would almost certainly be a major restraint upon peacetime warmaking, if only because it would mean that the sons of politically articulate and effective classes would die in greater numbers, though for no more significant purposes...

...In a democracy, the latter right simply does not exist—though special provisions may and certainly ought to be made for citizens who conscientiously assert the wickedness of all wars...

...Even after World War II, the Foreign Legion bore the brunt of the fighting in Indo-China and the Gurkhas in Malaya...

...The most popular politicians of the post-World War II period have been the peace-makers...

...one would like to think that it is...

...selective conscription apparently involves a kind of colonial recruitment at home...

...The use of draftees to fight "little wars"—colonial repressions, police actions, counter-insurgency operations— is relatively new...

...Before the first of these questions can be dealt with, there is an important preliminary consideration...

...This necessity is not only a matter of manpower, though the use of national troops clearly had to be stepped up as the colonies won independence and enlisted or drafted their own citizens for their own armies...

...But increasingly the Western democracies have found it necessary, or thought it necessary, to use drafted troops, if only in supportive roles—the English first in Malaya and later in Cyprus, the French in Algeria, the U.S...

...Probably this support is enhanced by the presence of civilians in the army: they and their relatives form a powerful pressure group with a real interest in opposing escalation...

...Such a reaction is more likely the more fully the impact of such wars is brought home at every turn to the American people...

...At any rate, this has been the hope of democratic theorists, and there are professional soldiers—for example, the political colonels of the French army—who would strongly agree...

...are quite extraordi nary, better than anything available at similar levels in civilian life...

...It is for this reason above all that conscientious objection has become an important issue in American life...

...Above all, it would open new possibilities for the effective registration of political discontent...

...When the war is deadlocked— and deadlock is a frequent outcome of wars fought under extreme political and military restraints—a democratic army becomes a permanent referendum, in which dead men vote for peace...

...How would American troops, for example, have responded to an order to wipe out rebel forces in Santo Domingo...

...A study of Korean war dead done in the mid-fifties by two Wayne University sociologists suggests that the Negro and poor populations of the U.S...

...And in time of war, even of little war, judges function largely as state agents...

...The political reasons against this seem to me very strong, but they make moral sense only if some way out is provided for men who actively object to a particular war...

...Secondly, the political repercussions of fighting an often bloody if "little" war are likely to be felt more quickly if the war is fought with civilian soldiers than if it is fought with professionals, and more quickly still, as has already been suggested, if it is fought with men of all classes than if with men of the lower classes...

...There are, in fact, historical precedents for the theory that conscription ought to be for defense only—and even that in a very limited sense...

...The people hope at first for some quick result, but then wait with greater and greater apprehension for the casualty lists...

...But draftees have another purpose: they have become a crucial token of national commitment and determination...

...The same principle applies also to the fighting of little wars, that is, there are moments when objection is possible and there are moments when one must obey...

...There ought to be legal procedures by which an individual soldier can "object" to a particular war which he believes to be unjust, just as there are at present procedures, more theoretical than actual, by which lie can object to a particular command which he believes to be illegal...

...Considerable time is spent in training camps breaking down civilian moral standards, but this effort is, in general, very far from successful, especially among draftees who continue to regard themselves as civilians and the army only as an interruption of a civilian career...

...It is obvious that the right of conscientious objection to a particular war ought to be recognized even if the war has the overwhelming and enthusiastic support of a vast majority of the people...

...III Political arguments for a democratic army do not, however, go very far toward establishing a moral obligation to serve nor a moral right to oblige others to serve...

...I don't think that all this fighting will neces sarily be unjust...

...If they enter the army, they are under military discipline and likely to pay a very high price if they subsequently refuse, say, to pack off to the Dominican Republic...

...suffered an extraordinarily disproportionate number of the losses...

...In World War II, for example, the Canadian government drafted men for home service and sent only volunteers overseas...

...I do not see how such decisions can ever be binding on conscience...

...Often entered into gradually, as a result of secret executive decisions, such wars might never arouse strong popular feelings were it not for the draft...

...This is true even in an age of close cooperation between civilian and military bureaucrats, precisely because distant and "dirty" wars strain the bureaucratic alliance...

...But like other human rights again, it must be protected chiefly against the state and the various agents who act in the name of the state...

...once he has agreed to serve on the firing squad, he must shoot whoever the military courts require to be shot...

...It is not clear that Kennedy's statement is true...

...Conscripts remain, however rigorous their training, less reliable than professional soldiers when it comes to the dirty business of war...

...A very strong case can be made that such rights and obligations arise only in wars which can plausibly be described as defensive, wars in which la patrie is in actual danger—a description obviously implausible with regard to most of the little wars recently fought by the Western democracies...

...Such armies are the only practical alternative to the draft—though opponents of the draft do not readily admit this—and there is no reason to think that a country as rich as the U.S., with as many wars to fight, with as many poor people to fight them, could not successfully recruit professional soldiers, offering very high pay and other prerogatives and cultivating a kind of military elitism...

...For the idea of peace is vital to the democratic theory of war: the best political arguments for universal military service and democratic warfare all involve the limits and restraints which an army of civilians, of peaceful men, impose upon professional soldiers...

...such decisions are not even made in Congress with regard to the army as a whole...

...Like all other human rights, it must be protected against popular tyranny, though majorities are free to attach whatever stigmas they choose to its exercise...

...All these are arguments, certainly not in any way conclusive, but to my mind very persuasive, against professional armies made up of men largely or entirely cut off from civilian life...

...The presence of drafted troops provides at least a minimum guarantee that little wars will not be accepted casually or passively at home...

...A doctrine of conscientious objection, however, is perfectly justifiable...

...in Korea and Vietnam...

...A conscripted private on a firing squad," Justice Robert Jackson told the Nuremberg Tribunal, "cannot expect to hold an inquest on the validity of the execution...

...And the latter sort of activity, •as I've said, can plausibly be called an obligation...

...and if these have often been generals—Eisenhower, DeGaulle—they have had massive civilian support against other generals...

...Thirdly, it is probably true that the presence of civilian soldiers is at least a moderate inhibition on war-time brutality...

...In Algeria it was the elite "paras" who used torture against FLN supporters...

...IV The whole of the previous argument rests upon the pessimistic assumption that the U.S...

...Before World War II, these sorts of wars were fought by volunteer or mercenary armies, often recruited from foreign or colonial populations...

...And at the same time we ought to defend the right of individual refusal, both as a way of making civilian opposition felt within the army itself, and as a protection for conscience if that opposition fails...

...In his book on the Algerian War, Joseph Kraft describes the conscripts sent to Algeria after March, 1956: "The new recruits represented a fair sampling of civilian France: fishermen from Brittany, metal workers from the Paris suburbs, dockers from Marseilles, peasants from the Jura, furniture workers from the Nord...

...Given the character of modern warfare, that distinction probably makes little sense (it had a great deal to do with Canadian domestic politics...

...Such things would have to be worked out legally, and I make no pretense of knowing just how that might be done...

...But it is not for us to talk of the obligations of the others...

...There is, in fact, no plausible argument in democratic theory for obligations which are not, in some sense, universal...

...Their careers, indeed, their persons, must be declared more valuable to the nation than are those of the men who are to be drafted...

...To that end we ought to urge a democratic draft and oppose every form of selective conscription and every grant of power and prerogatives to professional soldiers...

...There are a number of Republican politicians today who believe the first of these possibilities to be more popular than the second and are therefore willing to accept the risks of rapid escalation in Vietnam...

...Men who object not to war in general but to a particular war face an intolerable dilemma...

...Whatever its practical rationale, the use of conscripts in wars like the one in Vietnam poses two difficult questions for the citizens of a democracy and especially for those who oppose the wars...

...These are our domestic Gurkhas...

...I suppose he cannot...

...All of us who have benefited from such exemptions are grateful for them, even though we know, or ought to know, how nugatory our "value" is...

...At any rate, they would presumably not have been so brutally efficient as were the paratroopers who fought the "battle of Algiers" in the late 1950's...

...They believe that Americans would feel more comfortable with a fuller commitment and so they serve to illustrate a point often made by theorists hostile to democracy: that democratic governments cannot sustain those military restraints which are so vital if little wars are to remain little...

...First of all, a civilian army is a guarantee of civilian control, a defense against military adventurism...

...Modern warmaking is no more subject to independent legal control than it is to any significant degree of democratic political control...