Draft To Be Maintained

May 8, 1965 - A yearlong Defense Department study of military conscription concludes that the draft must be continued when the current law expires in 1967. 

The results of the study indicate that the draft will have to be maintained for the foreseeable future if the size of the armed forces, now totaling 2.6 million, is kept at this strength.

However, the analysts who contributed to the study made certain recommendations for changes in existing practices. These included:

— The draft of younger persons. At present, the average draft age is 22 to 23 years, as draft boards consistently call up the oldest eligibles.

— A widening of deferment possibilities. Deferments are based on occupations, educational activity, and family status for reasons of national interest or personal hardship.

— Increases in military pay and fringe benefits as an incentive to enlistment and re-enlistment.

The study was ordered by President Johnson last year after a flurry of published criticism of inequities in the draft.

Subsequently, during the election campaign, Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate, advocated abolition of the draft. 

The draft has prompted various criticisms. It has been said that young men with enough money to get married or enter college have an advantage over those who must go to work immediately upon leaving high school.

In addition, the sometimes erratic way in which the draft has been carried out by various local draft boards has brought complaints. A youth drafted in one town might be spared in another.

The Army’s rejection as a draftee of Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, the heavyweight boxing champion, has never been explained to the satisfaction of many observers.

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