Word: mcnamara
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...point McNamara even skimmed daringly close to saying that the U.S. has no moral or legal obligation to defend such beleaguered regimes as that of South Viet Nam. "Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the U.S. is, should or could be the global gendarme," he said. "The U.S. has no mandate from on high to police the world and no inclination to do so. There have been classic cases in which our deliberate nonaction was the wisest policy of all. Where our help is not sought, it is seldom prudent to volunteer. Military force can help provide...
Though every word rang true emotionally and intellectually, McNamara's speech struck cynics as a public-relations ploy to replace the celebrated ice water in his veins with good old O positive blood, the universal type. The depth-and warmth-of his message even triggered talk that he might be presenting his public credentials for Secretary of State...
Price & Premium. Nevertheless, the section of McNamara's speech that caught most of the headlines was far closer to his proper bailiwick-the draft. Said he: "Our present Selective Service System draws on only a minority of eligible young men. It is an inequitable system. We could move toward remedying that inequity by asking every young person in the U.S. to give one or two years of service to his country-whether in the Peace Corps or in some other volunteer development work at home or abroad...
...explosive a nonmilitary proposal as any that McNamara has yet offered. Both the White House and the Defense Secretary went to pains the next day to make it clear that the Johnson Administration had no intention of offering new proposals to change the Selective Service System...
Encouraged nonetheless by McNamara's "concrete proposal," South Carolina Democrat L. Mendel Rivers, House Armed Services Committee chairman, called a committee session to hear Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey's opinions on current draft procedures. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson suggested that a bipartisan committee begin a study of the system...