“The Wrong Man in Uniform”: Antidraft Republicans and the Ideological Origins of the All-Volunteer Force, 1966–73

This paper tells the story of how antidraft Republicans convinced the Nixon administration to abandon the draft and move to a volunteer military in 1973. Beginning in the mid-1960s, a growing number of younger members of the Republican party developed a robust critique of the draft, not in 1968 or ’69, when the war was becoming politically untenable for politicians on both the right and left—but as early as 1965 and ’66, when Americanization of the war effort was just beginning. They honed arguments that would ultimately appeal to Republicans: conscription was antithetical to liberty, and the draft constituted a "hidden tax" on thousands of young men, crippling their chances of success in the civilian economy.

The conservative arguments that were used to critique the draft were rooted in the same ideological concerns over the growing welfare state, but nurturing these ideas were broader concerns, felt by many Americans, about the family, the status of the breadwinner, and the meaning of manhood. Within this context, conservatives argued that the draft placed an enormous burden on young men who might not be ready to make consequential life choices—to go to school, to marry and have kids, to enlist rather than be drafted according to the needs of the military, or to go into a draft-exempted career. Conversely, for those who were drafted it meant putting off school, or vocational training, or on-the-job experience, for two years—meaning a loss of potential wages and time gaining experience and seniority in a job. These conservatives, in the media and through key positions in the Nixon administration, convinced the president that this constituted a "hidden tax" on young American men. The free market, not military service, was the proper arena for making men better providers, husbands, and productive members of society.