The weakness of the anti-war movement

[Michael Hoover]

> >>> pms <laflame at mindspring.com> 05/23/99 03:21PM >>>
> BTW, I wonder who started the push for a draft back then?  Could they have
> considered that that would be the beginning of the end?  Of course, they
> couldn't have considered Henry Kissinger's career ambitions.
> ((((((((((((((((((((((((
> Charles: Laflame, I think they had had the draft since at least WWII. The 
> change was when they got rid of it.
> Charles Brown

first draft absent declaration of war (so-called 'peacetime draft') 
in 1940 & 1941 under legislation signed by FDR...with onset of Cold 
War under Truman, Congress passed 1947 Selective Service Act and 
there were 'peacetime draft' inductees every year between 1948 and 
1973 (involved 100,000 plus men most years with peaks during Korean 
and Vietnam wars)...

despite fact that no one has been drafted since 1973, the 1947 Act is 
still on the books...Prez Ford followed Nixon's decision to stop 
inducting with suspension of registration in 1975...Carter renewed 
registration in 1980 (Congress authorized funding for registering 18 
yr old men after a fairly heated debate)...in 1983 (I think), Congress
passed a bill prohibiting higher ed financial assistance to males 18
and older who have not registered...

opposition to draft registration continues to exist among some members 
of Congress - mostly conservative Republicans - who favor affirming 
the worth of the military as a vocation...they prefer career airborne 
and ranger units...   

on a related matter, the 1947 Selective Service Act was amended in 
1965 making it a crime to destroy a draft card...US Supreme Court
upheld this law in *US v O'Brien* (1968)...   Michael Hoover