National Affairs: Graduation Date

The Pentagon saw its duty—and backed into it. Ever since Korea, the military planners had known that some type of universal military service was the only fair answer to a long-term U.S. armed force of 3,500,000 men. Last week, while it talked cautiously about amendments to the present leaky draft law, the Department of Defense gingerly proposed what amounted to the nation’s first U.M.S.

It was something of a makeshift, but the effect was the same for U.S. youth. The generals wanted permission to draft all able-bodied young men right after high-school graduation, or at 18, on a “substantially universal basis.” (The law now requires registration at 18, forbids induction until 19, and provides a school year’s deferment for those already enrolled in college.) Those who graduate from high school at 17 would be allowed to volunteer, with their parents’ consent, so they could serve their hitch before starting college; in no case would they be allowed to linger in high school beyond 19.

Though the new proposal would still not touch the estimated 20% of the 18-year-olds who are physically unfit for service, it followed closely along the line laid down by Harvard’s President James B. Conant, who wanted to draft all teenagers without exception (TIME, Dec. 18). In addition, the Defense Department hoped to raise the term of service from 21 months to somewhere between 27 and 30 months, and to plug some of the deferment loopholes which had all but depleted the 19-to 26-year-old group of potential draftees.

On Capitol Hill, hard-bitten old Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the Pentagon to stop talking and get its bill up to Congress so he could begin his hearings. If the U.S. was finally to get a draft law with teeth in it, he was anxious to get started.