Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR VOLUNTARY ARMY I have recently been intrigued by the enthusiasm shown in liberal circles for a "voluntary army." Lawrence Grauman Jr. ("Prospects for the Draft," NL, March 27) now...
...Prospects for the Draft," NL, March 27) now suggests that we could field a wholly voluntary army, eliminate the draft, draft boards, and draft-card burnings, and liberate the children of the middle-class from angst, all for less than $3 billion a year in military pay increases...
...however, neither can a stateside post, a desk job, or even European duty in the Army be comparable to fighting in Vietnam...
...How fair is it to choose by lottery those who must be subjected to "involuntary servitude...
...Perhaps most of all, they lack the greater opportunities that exist and are increasing in America...
...however, does not go much farther in discussing the problem than to say that many experts believe "their countries should move toward controlling and directing . . . immigration", while others believe the "brain drain may have to be controlled through amendments to the new [U.S.] immigration laws...
...The notion is perhaps worth considering, but there is an alternative Grauman does not seem to have considered...
...Howard Anderson BRAIN DRAIN In his article, "Fighting the Brain Drain" (NL, February 27, 1967), John Fried poses the acute problem of the technological gap betn^ accelerated largely by the flow of brains from foreign countries to the U.S...
...John P. Roche Special Consultant to the President I was puzzled by Lawrence Grauman's summary rejection of both universal military service and a national service plan...
...Fried, The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...Then, too, other countries suffer from encrusted traditions and ancient institutions that resist social and economic change, as well as the dearth of capital to generate research and development...
...Chicago, HI...
...Washington, D.C...
...Military service by definition is highly regimented, and any form of compulsory service is obviously a form of "involuntary servitude" (and probably as much an infringement of the 13th Amendment as universal service would be...
...I agree that forms of alternative non-military service do not abolish the inequities of the draft because civilian service cannot be comparable to military service in combat...
...As the expects say, Europe is seized with the idea of technological revolution, but not by the revolution in management techniques...
...There is also the intangible side of the technological gap...
...Why not revert to the Civil War system and let individual affluent draftees hire a substitute...
...Among these are the continual weaknesses in educational systems around the world...
...The widening technological gap is caused by multifarious and deep-rooted problems that can't be solved merely by applying a tourniquet to immigration...
...The trick is to work out the fairest system of conscription within the limits that any system naturally imposes...
...In fact, many of the Army's "soft jobs" are probably a good deal less comparable to combat hardships than some of the Peace Corps or even vista posts...
...There is such a thing as the "totalitarianism" of chance...
...Louis, Mo...
...is 40 per cent, compared with France's 15 per cent, the U.K.'s 10 per cent and West Germany's 7 per cent...
...Europe, for example, while behind the U.S...
...Would it not be more just to reduce the term of service for everyone, and ask everyone to serve...
...Today the percentage of college-age population going to college in the U.S...
...Britain, in fact, pioneered the computer years ago and developed the swing wing principle for aircraft, but America put them into practice...
...This would have the same effect, but it would cut down on public expenditures in the military sector and require no elaborate reshaping of the system...
...John Timmins...
...in aviation development, transportation, metallurgy and plastics...
...in such fields as the manufacturing of computers, communications and microelectronics, is ahead or abreast of the U.S...
...As Emerson said, *'If you can"t be free, be as free as you can...
...Since justice in reality is an approximation, some form of national service work does deserve consideration as a viable alternative to military service????especially within a system of universal conscription...
Vol. 50 • April 1967 • No. 9
