Word: drafting
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Dates: during 1960-1960
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...closing week of his campaign, Senator Kennedy promised to press for a "Peace Corps"-a program for U.S. youth service abroad, as an alternative to the draft. While suggestive of a "New Frontier" in foreign affairs, the idea had been in the air since last January, when Representative Reuss (D., Wisc.) asked Congress to sponsor a study of a "Point Four Youth Corps." Although $10,000 was appropriated for research, the proposal got little further notice until Senator Humphrey (D., Minn.) introduced a bill to establish immediately a "Peace Corps," the phrase that Kennedy later used...
Under the Humphrey plan, selected young men and women would spend a year learning the language and background of a region, then two years working in an "emerging nation," probably teaching. Men would be excused from selective service requirements. In order to screen out draft-dodgers, however, the Senator proposed that peace corps members (1) get low pay and no veterans' benefits, (2) serve three years instead of two, (3) fulfill reserve commitments upon return from work abroad, and (4) be drafted if their peace corps work proved unsatisfactory...
Nevertheless, when Kennedy announced his support of the "Peace Corps" idea, vice-President Nixon swiftly charged that it would provide a "haven for draft-dodger." But since the Senator endorsed the idea in the face of such criticism, a Kennedy "Peace Corps" bill is probably slated for the first "100 days" of legislation...
...doubts whether a government program would be accepted as an alternative to the draft. Yet, curiously and ambiguously, he extends the hope that the government would declare his program "an acceptable substitute for military service...
...Chairman of the steering committee, Melady asked the Princeton conference to accept a report empowering a "permanent committee" to undertake a pilot project in one or several of the new Asian or African states, draft immediate plans for such a project, and seek appropriate financial support." This report was rejected, however...