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National service

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National service is a common name for mandatory (and sometimes voluntary) government service programs (most often focusing on military service). (Compulsory military service is more often known as conscription.) National service was common in the 20th century, and many young people spent one or more years of their emerging adulthood in such programs. Compulsory military service typically requires all citizens, or all male citizens, to participate for a period of a year (more in some countries) during their youth, usually at some point between the age of 18 and their late twenties.

The term National Service is still currently used to describe compulsory military service programs in countries including Austria, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Israel, Malaysia, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

History of national service in the United States

The militia debate

Thomas Jefferson is the father of the American concept of national service. He lobbied heavily to ban a professional, standing army, and pushed for the creation of a universal and classified militia system that obligated every physically capable male to render service. Though he failed to have such a clause written into the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights, Jefferson continued to push for a universal and classified militia until his death in 1826.



Opposition from the Federalists

Led by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists believed that a professional, standing army under the control of the federal government was necessary.

Successs for the Federalists

THe Federalists won the debate, in part because of circumstances beyond their control. The first of these circumstances was Shay’s Rebellion. The uprising was triggered by veterans of the American Revolutionary War who were losing their farms to unscrupulous lenders and regressive Massachusetts taxes that heavily burdened small farmers to repay the war debt from the very war they fought in. Individuals unable to pay were often thrown into debtors’ prisons. The various local militias that comprised Shay’s "Regulators" went from town to town, shutting down Debtor’s Courts and tax collection. They were eventually defeated by 4,400 mercenaries hired by Governor Bowdoin in cooperation with Boston financiers. The political spin from the incident was that militias could not be relied upon and controlled, despite the exceptional circumstances that caused some of the Massachusetts militiamen to rebel in the first place.

The second circumstance was the Battle of Wabash River (Fort Recovery, Ohio) in the Northwest Territory War in 1791. A force of 1,000 Miamis, Shawnees, Buckongahelas, and Delawares massacred a militia-heavy US Army under the control of General Arthur St. Clair. The Native Americans inflicted a 97% casualty rate on St. Clair’s force, making it one of worst losses in US military history. In response, President Washington and Congress raised the American Legion, a professional combined-arms brigade of cavalry, artillery, and infantry under the control of one of Washington’s old subordinates, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne. The Legion defeated the Northwest Territory Tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, thus affirming the place for a federally-controlled, standing army in the new country, ostensibly to fight Native Americans on the Frontier.

The door was closed on the issue with the Militia Act of 1792. The 1792 Act codified the responsibility of all Americans in providing for the Nation's defense and mandated that every phyically capable male between the ages of 18 and 45 be available for military service. Unfortunately, the 1792 Act did not classify the militia (set service requirements according to age, i.e., 18 to 21 year-olds perform active service, 21 years and up perform voluntary or contingency service), or make the provision for select units (active-duty units that might serve alongside the regular Army), or provide uniform and detailed regulation throughout the States. Lastly, it did not provide financial ways and means to bring a National Milita into being.

In essence, the Militia Act of 1792 was a compromise between all parties. The Federalists would not have to pay for the militia, which was always a concern. Also, many of the Anti-Federalists did not want the Federal Government meddling in the regulation of their states' militias. They regarded it as an improper extension of federal power.

Washington and Jefferson remained skeptical. Both wanted a classified or select milita, and they predicted the inadequate results of the 1792 Act. In 1805, Jefferson attempted to improve the system as President, but his efforts did not gain the support of Congress. In many states, the militias gradually devolved until existing almost exclusively on paper by the 1840s.

The creation of the federal draft

During the War of 1812, President James Madison and United States Secretary of War James Monroe sought a military draft, but Congress vehemently opposed it. Conscription continued to remain the domain of the States through levies to form militias. The federal draft was first applied in the American Civil War, though on a very limited basis with only 2% of the Union Army being draftees. It was reinstated again for World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917.

American Red Cross

In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. Originally a teacher, Clara worked tirelessly as a nurse and aid worker during the Civil War. In 1869, she retreated to Europe under the advice of physicians. While there, she became involved with the International Red Cross while providing aid during the Franco-Prussian War. The experience motivated her to establish the Red Cross in America.

The end of the militia era and creation of the National Guard

After witnessing numerous problems with the Militia during the Spanish-American War, President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War, Elihu Root, pushed for a reformation of the old Militia System into a dedicated National Guard Bureau within the United States Department of War. The resulting Militia Act of 1903 (also known as the Dick Act due to it sponsorship by Senator Charles Dick from Ohio), classified all American males between the ages of 17 and 45 as either part of the organized militia (the National Guard), or a member of the unorganized militia (just living your life and completely unaware that by law you're part of the unorganized militia). Though being part of the unorganized militia entails no legal responsibilities, to this day it is still the law of the land.

The Great Depression and World War II

The Great Depression and World War II created the modern, American ethos for national service. First, the challenges of the Great Depression brought about large-scale, government-sponsored work programs to help rehabilitate the economy. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, and other "Alphabet Soup" agencies provided employment opportunities for millions of Americans while they performed a type of National Service. The results of these programs created most of America’s modern infrastructure.

With the anticipation of war in Europe, Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (Burke-Wadsworth Act). The 1940 Selective Service Act was significant because it was the first time in US History that conscription was enacted in peacetime. The Act also contained a provision allowing for conscientious objection. This clause was a distinct departure from the World War I era when many Conscientious Objectors were jailed. Under the 1940 Act, all males between the ages of 21 and 35 were required to register, with draftees being selected via lottery. Draftees were to serve for no more than 12 months, and their service was to be limited to the US or US territories only. The 1940 draft was not a popular program, but public sentiment changed with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. To further conscription during the War, the draft age was lowered to 17.

During World War II, US participation was invoked at virtually every level of American society. Over 16 million men and women served in uniform, over 12% of a population of 130 million. Additionally, over 400,000 gave their lives; the largest sacrifice in any American war with the exception of the Civil War. Those Americans not involved in the fighting made direct contributions in other ways: rationing, price controls, purchasing war bonds, civil defense, and working in war industries. With the creation of the War Production Board, War Manpower Commission, Office of Price Administration, Office of War Mobilization and other agencies, capitalism was virtually suspended to support the War. One statistic that clearly portrays the level of American commitment to the War is the production of automobiles. In 1941, US manufacturers produced three million automobiles. Following that year, only 139 automobiles were produced for the rest of the War (figure from Ken Burn's Documentary, "The War").

Post World War II: the question of universal military training

The downsizing of the US military after World War II, without proper regard to future threats, left America's forces ill-trained and poorly manned and equipped for the Korean War. Following World War II, US Army end strength dropped from 8 million in the spring of 1945 to 684,000 by 1 July 1947, a reduction of 89 divisions to 12. Over the next year it was reduced again from 12 to 10. Spurred by tremendous public pressure to “bring the boys home,” Congress had little interest in a “Who’s next?” mentality. Besides, with the advent of the nuclear era, all future wars would be fought with airplanes and atom bombs. Demobilization, in turn, was conducted without much forethought to its effects on readiness. In Germany, as veteran American units were disintegrated, the remnants were rolled up into the ad hoc Constabulary Force. In Japan, the 1st Cavalry Division was at 25% manning its first year of occupation duty, with minimally trained teenagers as its only replacements. The Army had dropped its basic training requirement from 13 weeks to eight, and in November and December of 1946 only four weeks were required. By 1950, the four divisions that remained in Japan were at 48.8% strength, with their combat service support units only at 25.9%. Lastly, of the three divisions sent to Korea in 1945 to prevent Soviet incursion there, two were deactivated and the third sent to Japan in 1948. These forces were further derelict in the absence of logistics and combat training. Between 1945 and 1950, the Army procured nothing except food, clothing, and medical supplies. No new weapons, vehicles, equipment, spare parts, or ammunition was thought necessary. Combat training was equally nonexistent.

“Immediately following the end of World War II, General Jacob Devers, Chief of Army Field Forces, suspended all unit live-fire training even though the Army had a well-developed, wartime tested series of live fire exercises for squads, platoons, and companies. His rationale, and that of his successor, General Mark Clark, was simple: safety. Safety was a greater concern to the Army’s peacetime leaders than training readiness.”

To offset the rapid disintegration of the Army, General Marshall hoped President Harry S. Truman and Congress would enact Universal Military Training (UMT), requiring all young men to receive one year of military training so the Army could expediently ramp up in time of war. This never happened, but when Army end-strength fell to a dismal 538,000 soldiers in June 1948, Congress begrudgingly passed the Selective Service Act of 1948. Budget conflicts, though, resulted in adding only 100,000 new soldiers. Nuclear deterrence aside, America's occupation of Germany and Japan during this time was made possible by the absence of any insurgency, or a Soviet invasion.

General Marhsall ordered the War Depratment to produce a Universal Military Service pamphlet in 1944. General Marshall’s staff considered the pamphlet too controversial, so it was never disseminated. The pamphlet survived only in the archives at the Library of Congress.

Despite General Marshal’s unsuccessful promotion of Universal Military Training immediately following World War II, he would get another opportunity when he became the 3rd Secretary of Defense in September 1950. In the Summer of 1950, the initial actions of the Korean War (including Task Force Smith) painfully demonstrated the US military’s lack of preparedness. In response, US military end-strength was increased from 1,460,000 to 3,250,000 by the Summer of 1951. Though the immediate problem was addressed, Marshall sought a permanent solution for national defense, and pushed strenuously for UMT. President Truman had been considering such a program for several years. Their combined efforts resulted in the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951.

The Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951 set the statutory terms of service for the military at a minimum of 8 years, lowered the draft age from 19 to 18½, increased active-duty service time from 21 to 24 months, and contained a provision obligating all young American males to UMT. There was one catch in the legislation though. The UMT clause had to be activated by further legislation for it to go into effect. Despte successive attempts over the next several years, such legislation was never passed.

President Eisenhower took office in 1953 and ended hostilities in the Korean War. The Army and Marines were once again allowed to languish with minimal concern to future threats. Eisenhower’s "New Look" defense policy shifted back to a reliance on airplanes and atom bombs, and with it the elimination of any serious consideration of universal military service. Ironically, Eisenhower’s emphasis on the technological enhancement of the military helped to create the blessing and the curse that is the modern Military-Industrial Complex.

The early 1960s

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to provide assistance to developing nations. President Kennedy stated, "The wisdom of this idea is that someday we'll bring it home to America." Since that time, over 187,000 Americans have worked in 139 countries.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson created VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), to assist in the War on Poverty. VISTA originally included the National Teacher Corps, the Job Corps, and the University Year of Action. The organization is now a part of AmeriCorps.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War significantly damaged America’s national service ethic. The ‘search and destroy’ approach to counter-insurgency degraded the fighting to virtual attrition warfare. In turn, soldiers were placed in exceedingly difficult circumstances that maximized hazards and multiplied provocations for misconduct and breaks in discipline. Citizen-Soldier morale and public opinion followed suit. The unfortunate reaction of the military (particularly the Army), was to scapegoat the institution of conscription, rather than focusing on the ineffective strategy that lost the War. Seeking to insulate future military operations from the ups and downs of American public sentiment, military leaders looked to examples like the Israeli 1967 Six-Day War as proof that all future conflicts would move so fast that there would be no time to train conscripts. Combined with the gaining influence of the Military-Industrial Complex, the country was gradually sold on the virtues of a technologically-driven, professional military. In 1973, President Richard Nixon allowed the draft to expire, and the all-pro force was born.

In 1974, President Gerald Ford granted amnesty to all draft evaders, and terminated the Selective Service Act (started in 1917) with Proclamation 4360, March 25, 1975.

The Selective Service System

President Jimmy Carter reinstated the Selective Service System with Proclamation 4771, July 2, 1980. According to current Selective Service regulations, all American males between the ages of 18 and 26 are eligible for service. Failure to register within 30 days of a person’s 18th birthday may result in five years imprisonment or a $250,000 fine. Despite numerous court challenges to Selective Service, the Supreme Court has always upheld the sovereign right of the federal government to conscript.

City year: volunteer national service blooms

In 1988, social entrepreneurs Alan Khazei and Michael Brown formed City Year in Boston. City Year enlists high school and college graduates to perform a year of community service and tutoring in K-12 schools. City Year became the model for AmeriCorps.

The birth of AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service

In September 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, creating AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service. AmeriCorps provides volunteers opportunities in over 2,000 non-profit organizations, including JumpStart, Habitat for Humanity, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Since its inception in 1994, AmeriCorps has had over 400,000 members, all providing improvements in health, the environment, education, and public safety in various communities across the country. Combined with its sister organizations, Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America, over two million Americans provide community service each year under the direction of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Post 9-11 attempts at national service

On January 7, 2003, Senator Ernest F. Hollings (South Carolina) introduced the Universal National Service Act of 2003 (S. 89 / H.R. 163). The measure failed in the United States House of Representatives in 2004 on a vote of 2–402.

On February 14, 2006, Congressman Charles Rangel (New York) introduced the Universal National Service Act of 2006. The bill never made it out of committee.

On January 10, 2007, Congressman Charles Rangel (New York) introduced the Universal National Service Act of 2007 (H.R. 393). The bill never made it out of committee.

On September 10, 2007, Time Magazine published a full issue dedicated to promoting National Service, signaling the beginning of a new public debate on the issue.

In January 200], various military, civic, education, and social justice leaders, including R. Sargent Shriver (founder of the Peace Corps), Alan Khazei & Michael Brown (founders of City Year), and Shirley Segawa (1st Director of AmeriCorps), in conjunction with dozens of private organizations, initiated the Service Nation Campaign. The stated goals of Service Nation are to convince the next President and Congress to pass into law a comprehensive Volunteer National Service Act by the Fall of 2009, and to set America on a trajectory to become a nation of universal national service by 2020.

National service in the United Kingdom

Wartime conscription was used by the United Kingdom government during the latter part of World War I, but ceased at the termination of hostilities.

However, as a result of the deteriorating international situation, Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of War, persuaded the cabinet of Neville Chamberlain to introduce it in a limited form on 27 April 1939. To sweeten the pill, only single men in a restricted age group were liable to be "called up", and were known as 'militiamen', to distinguish them from the regular army. (To emphasise this distinction, each man was issued with a civilian suit in addition to a uniform.) The original intention was for the first intake to undergo six months basic training before being discharged into an 'active' reserve (being recalled for short training periods and an annual camp). This was overtaken by the outbreak of war, and the first intake was absorbed into the army.

Conscription was progressively extended to include virtually the whole of the able bodied male population. In addition to those rejected for medical reasons, exceptions were made in other cases. Those engaged in vital industries or occupations were 'reserved' at a particular age, beyond which no-one in that job would be enlisted. (Lighthouse keepers were 'reserved' at the age of eighteen.) Later in the war, some conscripts were actually directed into the coal industry, the so-called 'Bevin Boys'. Provision was made for those with moral scruples. Those who were prepared to help the war effort, but were not prepared to bear arms, were enlisted into non-combatant roles or units. (Quakers, for example, often served in the Medical Corps, and some performed acts of gallantry under fire.) Those who refused to help the war effort had to justify their position to a Tribunal.

By 1942, all male and female British subjects between the ages of 18 and 51 who were resident in Great Britain were liable to call-up. Only a few categories were exempted:

  • British subjects from outside Great Britain and the Isle of Man who had lived in Britain for less than two years or were students
  • Persons employed by the government of any country of the British Empire except the United Kingdom
  • Clergy of any denomination
  • Mental patients and mentally defective persons
  • Blind persons
  • Married women
  • Women who had living with them one or more children under the age of fourteen (including their own children, legitimate or illegitimate, stepchildren, and adopted children, as long as the child was adopted before 18 December 1941)

Pregnant women were liable to be called up, but in practice were not. Britain was the only country in World War II to conscript single women.

Persons under the age of twenty were initially not liable to be sent overseas, but this exemption had been lifted by 1942. People who were called up before they were 51, but who passed their 51st birthday during their service were liable to serve until the end of the war. People who had retired, resigned or been dismissed from the armed forces before the war were liable to be called back if they were under 51.

Britain never officially demobilised, as conscription continued after the war ended. Those men and women already in the armed forces still had to satisfy a National Service engagement of a fixed term, but were given a release class determined by length of service and age. In practice, releases began in June 1945, and the last of the wartime conscripts had been released by 1949. However, a special class of urgently need men (particularly those in the building trades) were released in 1945, although some restrictions on their immediate employment were supposed to be enforced. All women conscripts were released at the end of the war.

The system of wartime conscription during World War II, between 1939 and 1948, was officially called National Service, but is usually referred to as 'war service' in official documents relating to national insurance and state pensions.

Peacetime service

After World War II, peacetime conscription was used by the government between 1949 and 1960. In the United Kingdom, it is this period of peacetime conscription that is usually referred to as 'National Service'. It remains the only period of peacetime conscription in UK history, apart from the periods immediately before and after World War II.

National Service as peacetime conscription was formalized by the National Service Act 1948. From 1 January 1949, every healthy man between the ages of 17 and 21 was expected to serve in the armed forces for 18 months, and remain on the reserve list for four years thereafter. Men were exempt from National Service if they worked in three 'essential services', which were coal mining, farming and the merchant navy. In October 1950, in response to the Korean War, the service period was extended to two years, although the reserve list period was reduced by six months to compensate. National Servicemen who showed promise could be commissioned as officers. To fulfill the reserve list requirement, men in the National Service joined reserve forces like the Territorial Army. Thus, such forces expanded considerably between 1949 and 1963. Almost every town had units, and many had full regiments or battalions.

National Service formally ended on 31 December 1960. The last man called up for National Service, Private Fred Turner of the Army Catering Corps, was discharged on 7 May 1963. However, the last National Serviceman was Lieutenant Richard Vaughan of the Royal Army Pay Corps, who was discharged six days later on 13 May 1963. When National Service ended, many National Servicemen continued serving voluntarily. The British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy are now — once again — voluntary organizations. Occasionally, some call for a return to compulsory conscription.

In the UK, the end of National Service coincided with the rise of Pop culture, and the dawn of Beatlemania from around Christmas 1963. There was much public discussion at the time about "falling standards" and "long hair" as worn by The Beatles, the The Rolling Stones, and others. This (mild) controversy was epitomised in a satirical Pop Music recording Call up the Groups made by The Barron Knights, released in 1964, which suggested that such Pop Groups should be sent back on National Service to tame their wild ways - in fact John Lennon and Ringo Starr avoided national service by only a few months. The song satirised recent Pop hits by, respectively, The Searchers, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Rolling Stones, The Bachelors, The Dave Clark Five, and - inevitably - The Beatles.

Effect

Post-war National Service had a significant effect on many citizens, and on society and culture as a whole. Some National Servicemen went on to become famous. Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones played rock and roll while stationed in West Germany. Authors like Leslie Thomas, David Lodge and David Findlay Clark wrote books based on their experiences (The Virgin Soldiers, Ginger You're Barmy etc). Actor Oliver Reed, comedian Tony Hancock, and Hancock's writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson developed their talents while doing their National Service.. Legendary DJ John Peel also became fascinated by the radio from listening to early rock-n-roll on Armed Forces Radio while stationed in North Wales.

On the other hand, National Service interrupted some men's careers, for example; John Clark, a former child actor, was tired of ubiquitous recognition and feared mockery in the armed forces, so he worked in the merchant navy on a Silver Line freighter for over 3 years. He quit early and, to avoid being called up, emigrated in November 1953 to Canada.

Singapore

National Service was introduced in Singapore in 1967 to meet the critical need of defending Singapore following independence in 1965 and the anticipated withdrawal of British forces. A conscript system was implemented drawing on elements of the Swiss and Israeli conscription systems. Besides the military, national servicemen also serve in the police and civil defense forces.

References

  • You and the Call-up: A Guide for Men and Women, by Robert S. W. Pollard, 1942 - on conscription in Britain in World War II

See also

External links



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