A fact of life for generations of American men, the military draft is dormant if not dead. Nobody's been drafted in 21 years.
But President Clinton decided last week that the government should keep registering young men for Selective Service, as a just-in-case hedge and a signal of U.S. resolve against potential enemies.It's an oddly mixed message, on an awkward topic for Clinton, who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War. Now he's in charge of it.
In recommending that draft registration continue, Clinton called it a low-cost insurance policy against unforeseen threats, even though "tangible military requirements alone do not currently make a mass call-up of American young men likely."
He also stressed the symbolism of draft registration, saying that to end it right now "could send the wrong signal to our potential enemies who are watching for signs of U.S. resolve."
That token is not going to placate Clinton's foreign policy critics, who accuse him of indecision and drift in responding to problems abroad. "The lesson of history is as clear and consistent as it is cruel," Rep. Robert Michel of Illinois, the House Republican leader, said in a commencement address the other day. "A loss of credibility in the field of policy is the prelude to the loss of lives on the field of battle."
Clinton also said that draft registration maintains a link between the all-volunteer military and society at large. "The armed forces must also know that the general population stands behind them, committed to serve, should the preservation of our national security so require," the president said.
To that end, he urged congressional approval of $23 million to finance the Selective Service System next year.
Last Monday, the House voted 273-125 to continue registration of 18-year-olds for the draft. The vote was part of a debate over a $262.7 billion defense spending bill.
The House voted a year ago to drop the whole operation to save money on what critics called a dinosaur anachronism, no longer needed now that the Cold War is over.
But that was reversed, and Congress decided to keep collecting names and data on young American men as they turn 18. There are more than 14 million names on the Selective Service lists of 18- to 25-year-olds.
While military leaders don't want the draft back, registration does provide a roster of potential enlistees for military recruiters. And there have been suggestions that the system might be useful for other purposes; a Pentagon study mentioned civilian national service as a possibility.
Along with the last renewal, Congress ordered the Defense Department study, which concluded that revival of the draft was highly unlikely and that registration could be dropped without irreparable damage to national security. Clinton then had the National Security Council do its own study and said when he recommended continued registration that he was following those recommendations.
The latest installment on the draft was handled routinely, with scant attention.
That wasn't the case when conscription was real, and the draft became a symbol of resistance to the Vietnam War. Nor was it so when the first peacetime draft was imposed, in 1940. The draft continued until 1973, with only one postwar year off before Cold War threats led to its renewal. The current registration process dates from 1980.
There'll be a dramatic reminder of a different era when Clinton and the leaders of the World War II allied powers commemorate the D-Day invasion at Normandy on June 6, the invasion's 50th anniversary. More than 10 million American men were drafted to fight World War II.
The military service of prewar draftees was extended by a one-vote margin in the House in 1941, a scant four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That galvanized U.S. opinion, divided until then.
"John McCormack used to tell me how they gimmicked up that one vote," said Rep. Sam Gibbons, D-Fla., who parachuted into Normandy early on D-Day and will be Clinton's special representative at anniversary ceremonies. McCormack was majority leader in 1941, and later, speaker of the House.
Gibbons, now 74, said McCormack told him that he and Speaker Sam Rayburn knew they were short of the votes to keep draftees in the service. Roll-call votes back then were just that - roll calls - before the electronic voting system the House now uses.
Rayburn told the House clerk to keep him advised of the count, while McCormack rounded up votes in favor of the extension. "As soon as they got one vote ahead, old Rayburn just slammed the gavel down," Gibbons said.
The draft was on.