The All-Volunteer Army at 50 – Does Milton Friedman’s Case Still Make Sense?
By Michael Mai
July 01, 2023
On July 1, 1973, America instituted the All-Volunteer Force, capping off a tumultuous decade of debate and ending the longest uninterrupted period of conscription (23 years) in our nation’s history. The transformation was a triumph particularly for 1976 Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, whose analytical arguments and towering intellectual presence on President Nixon’s Gates Commission surmounted the significant institutional inertia favoring the status quo. But, as the military, and Army particularly, wrestles with the most severe recruiting shortfall over the past fifty years, is it now time to re-look Friedman’s underlying assumptions and the state of volunteer military service, especially in light of the existential military threats from peer competitors like China and Russia?
In the 248 years since the U.S. Army was formed on June 14th, 1775, the nation has used conscription only sparingly. As detailed in Bernard Rostker’s (RAND Corp.) 2006 book, I Want You! The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force, up until 1950, the U.S. employed volunteers for all conflicts outside of the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World Wars I and II. Conscription was so roundly unpopular, it was not attempted for other wars, even those that required fairly significant manpower and spanned multiple years, such as the Mexican-American War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War. During the first 175 years of America’s existence, conscription was used for less than 18 years total.
The Selective Service Act, passed four days after the U.S. entered WWI in 1917, helped prevent the riots and bounties common during earlier drafts by using a lottery system that was viewed as more equitable. When the draft endured after the Korean Armistice in 1953, opposition was low, as some 90% of men received deferments. The House of Representatives even voted 387-3 to extend the authority as late as 1963. Multiple Federal entities studied the issue during the 1960’s, all concluding that an all-volunteer force was infeasible. However, opposition was building.
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