Conscription, World War II
The draft, or more accurately, selective military conscription, was the primary means by which men were inducted into the American armed forces during World War II. The Selective Service Act of 1940 established the first peacetime military conscription in the nation's history and provided the blueprint by which men were drafted for the next thirty years.
Debates Surrounding Peacetime Draft, 1940
When first proposed in 1940, pre-war conscription was extremely controversial. The push for draft legislation came from a small group of leaders that had been in the pre-World War I "Preparedness" movement. Led by attorney Grenville Clark, the Military Training Camps Association (MTCA) started a lobbying campaign for compulsory military service in May. On June 20, 1940, Senator Ed Burke (D., NE) introduced a modified version of the MCTA bill in the Senate with Congressman James Wadsworth (R., NY) introducing similar legislation in the House. The fall of France on June 22, combined with President Roosevelt's appointment of Henry L. Stimson as the Secretary of War, tilted the political balance towards passage.
Opponents included organized labor, major religious groups, the peace movement, most of the educational establishment, and Republican isolationist legislators. Some argued that the draft was unconstitutional, because in 1918 the Supreme Court had upheld conscription only in wartime.
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