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Hershey is an intensely practical, no-nonsense man, without any delusions about the draft. He admits the system is unfair, inequitable, and coercive, but justifies sticking with it because he lacks a better one that works. Although he originally opposed a random-selection draft system, he new favors it and views with dismay those Congressmen "too set in their old ways to accept a new idea on its merits." He is disappointed that the Marshall Commission's reform package was "broken up by Congress and left a grotesque thing that doesn't make sense...
...cause of the current imbroglio is politics: Congressional and Presidential. Last March, the Marshall Commission recommended a random-selection draft system, as did President Johnson four days later in the Selective Service legislation he sent to Congress. Senator Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was initially opposed to the measure, but Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) convinced him of its merits. The bill the Senate passed allowed the President to institute a lottery on his own initiative without consulting Congress...
...conference committee was set up, and Russell, as chairman of the Senate conferees, asked Johnson to submit a specific random-selection system to the committee since no one on the Hill had yet seen a fully-detailed plan. The White House was silent. After waiting several weeks and still not receiving a plan from the President, the committee approved a compromise version of the bill that included the added restriction of mandatory Congressional approval of any random plan before it could be implemented. The Senate and House approved the compromise several days later...
...President himself knows why he chose to remain silent. If he had submitted a specific plan, Russell probably would have gotten it included in the compromise version. Throughout the summer, even after the bill had become law, Russell offered to give any specific random system "expeditious" hearings before his Senate committee. Still, the President remained silent, except to express his displeasure at the lottery...
...order the drafting of 19-year-olds first, working up to the older men in ascending age-sequence. The law requires inducting the oldest men first within each age-group. The Defense Department has devised infinitely variable systems to achieve the desired age mix, all of which are un- random and penalize men born early in the calendar year, fiscal year, month, or season...