Abstract

Needed: A Citizens' Army

The controversy over peace-time conscription has forced into the background the more crucial issue, of whether the U.S. is going to have a citizen or a professional army? Consideration of conscription as a self-contained issue is a dangerous reversion to the pre-war idea that the smaller the army the better. The problem is not one of military semantics but of a durable peace. Many of those who oppose conscription are for a peace settlement fully implemented with enforcement machinery. The immediate job ahead is building the right kind of post-war army. The citizen army is a better bulwark against fascism and militarism than just "no conscription." A citizen-reservist army helps to keep military affairs in the right political perspective.