Word: drafting
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Select names for the draft at random or by lottery. One of the year's 365 days would be picked from a fishbowl. Thus, if April 1 were the date drawn, all men age 19 who were born on that date would be draftable. If there were not enough to fill the quota, another date would be randomly chosen and the process repeated. Among other things, this plan eliminates the burden falling unfairly on those born early in the year. Presently, they are the first to be called...
...frequent criticism of the present Selective Service System is the freedom it allows the nation's 4,000 local draft boards. A federally controlled lottery system would change this, and the President has called for a report on the draft boards to be delivered in December. Perhaps, as Senator Jacob Javits has suggested, the caprices of local-board autonomy could be eliminated by establishing area and regional boards. Data-processing equipment would take the place of subjective judgments by local board members...
Nixon's draft reform bill is not new. In 1967, Lyndon Johnson submitted an identical proposal and similar changes have been called for by Senator Edward Kennedy. The Kennedy version, however, contains a triggering device that would end college deferments in time of war. Mindful of Viet Nam, Kennedy defined "war" to exist when a certain percentage of draftees have lost their lives in combat. The Nixon bill does not attempt to define what constitutes...
Both Laird and Nixon believe that General Lewis Hershey, the crotchety septuagenarian who directs Selective Service, should be removed. An adamant opponent of the lottery draft system, Hershey's inveterate hawkishness has made him a symbol to the young of all that is wrong with the draft. For his part, Laird believes that a military man should not head Selective Service. Yet Hershey has some powerful friends on Capitol Hill, so Nixon is likely to wait at least until his bill passes through Congress, if it does, before easing the petulant Hershey into retirement...
...final phase of Nixon's draft plan is aimed at 1972, when he hopes to do away with compulsory service altogether. At that time, the Selective Service Act of 1967 expires, and Nixon hopes to create a military of volunteers. There are strong arguments on either side of the proposal. There are those opposed who warn that it could create an elite corps of killers, dangerously isolated from the rest of American society. Those in favor of the volunteer scheme, by far the majority, claim with considerable reason that it would help cut military waste and rekindle pride...