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Making the Voluntary Draft Mandatory for all 18 year olds
Erin Weitzel
English 100
Professor Bradley A. Waltman
December 4, 2016
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For my final essay, I am choosing the topic of “Making the Voluntary Draft
Mandatory for all 18-year olds”. This is a topic that sparks many different emotions for
the country and its people. First we will look into the history of the draft. Then I will
delve into looking at how it can help and unite the people under the banner of the
American flag. Furthermore, I will also give a look at other countries around the world
that have decided to make military service mandatory and what effects it has had on the
population, both economically and socially. Finally, we will look at a hypothetical future
of America under this new policy and what outcomes it may have.
Conscription, or its more commonly known name of ‘the draft’ started back in the
earliest days of the nation. It was imported from England during the colonial days of the
thirteen colonies. Back then, each colony was almost its own country, with their own
laws, elected and appointed officials. Each colony even had their own currency! So it
should not be a surprise that each colony also had their own military force. The name
of this force was called a militia. Militia comes from Latin and literally is the word for
‘military service’. Each colony was tasked and responsible for creating and raising their
own militia from the ranks of able bodied men that lived within their borders. It was a
mandatory amount of service from each male so that they would learn basic survival
and military training. It was not until later in 1778 that the Continental Congress
recommended that states send their militia members to serve in the newly formed
Continental Army, which essentially is the precursor to the modern day national army.
The first time that we saw the draft being used on a country wide scale was
during the Civil War. Although most of the soldiers volunteered, there was a greater
shortage of soldiers in the Confederation. The Union also resorted to using the draft
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and it became immensely unpopular on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. This was
in sharp contrast to the next war in which the draft was used, which was World War I.
The first use of wartime advertising, otherwise known as ‘Propaganda’, began to be
used to rally the men of America to join and fight for their country. Patriotism and the
sense of the great adventure was what motivated many of the young men to join the
ranks of the Army. It was also the first time that blacks and immigrants were specifically
targeted to join the ranks of the military.
This continued on throughout World War II, until a very difficult time came with
the arrival of what would be known as the Vietnam War. In sharp contrast to the
previous global engagements America was involved with, many people were at odds
with the war in Vietnam and felt that we shouldn’t be there. This led to widespread
