cover image Evasions: The American Way of Military Service

Evasions: The American Way of Military Service

Philip Gold. Paragon House Publishers, $0 (182pp) ISBN 978-0-913729-05-2

This is essentially a wide-ranging discussion of the serious mismatch between America's military commitments and the human resources needed to fulfill them on short notice. Gold, history professor at Georgetown University, warns of the inherent danger of relying on reservists for the bulk of our forces in time of war. At the core of the treatise is a study of the philosophical and historical basis of conscription, arguments for and against, and possible forms a new draft might take. The book includes a blunt examination of what the author calls ""the destruction of the concepts of military claim and obligation as legitimate aspects of citizenship'' during the Vietnam War and the draft-versus-voluntarism debate that followed it. Gold argues that we have ``substituted money for thought'' in our current defense program. (March)