Universal Military Training

IN our time great gangster nations are on the prowl. To survive we must be strong.

Our thinking has come a long way since 1918.

After World War I we avoided strength- ening the League of Nations, hoping thereby to avoid being involved in any conflict. Instead of making ourselves and our friends strong in the 1920's we sank some of our own battleships. This was a futile gesture of our peaceful intentions. When World War II came we could have used those battleships. We tried every possible expedient to stay out of war but we failed to keep ourselves and our friends strong.

The Nye Commission in the 1920's tried to pin the responsibility of World War I on the big corporations because they made big profits. The theory then was that if people and corporations did not make big profits there would be no more wars. These tactics succeeded in intimidating some of the big manufacturing organizations so that there was some difficulty at the beginning of World War II in galvanizing them into production of munitions.

American citizens have duties under the Constitution, not merely rights. It is impossible for us to keep out of wars which affect us. This has been shown in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier has no validity now. We have duties of loyalty and service for those things which we cherish. It is easy for Dartmouth men to understand loyalties. Possibly the most distinguishing feature of our alumni is their great loyalty to Dartmouth. Loyalty imposes duties—duties to fight to hold those freedoms which are an inseparable part of our heritage.

In 1793 George Washington, in a treatise on the military policy of the United States entitled "Sentiments on a Peace Establishment," wrote:

"It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it... "

In accord with this idea, he and Secretary Knox presented to Congress in 1794 a plan of peacetime military training of citizen soldiers. It was to have been a universal plan of training.

Universal Military Training as proposed by the National Security Training Commission, of which I happen to be Executive Director, would start immediately. It would start at present on a small scale only; approximately 60,000 men are proposed for the first year, but it would be increased as rapidly as possible in view of the world situation. If the times become more peaceful, the draft with full military service could become smaller, and Universal Military Training could be made larger. Improvement in the world situation will permit a phasing-in operation and the present system of selection and induction can be reduced as it proceeds.

The cost of protecting the country during times of relative peace under Universal Military Training would be considerably less than if a large standing army were maintained. The regular army could be reduced in size, and trained reserves, all of them having had Universal Military Training, would supply the foundation of strength which would permit an early deployment of our regular armed forces to positions of hazard outside of the United States. The cost of a regular soldier fulltime for a year has been figured at approximately $6,000. The cost of training a young man of 18 for six months under Universal Military Training would be about $2,750 and it would cost less than $500 a year to give him training in the reserves thereafter, if he joined an organized unit, to keep his skills acquired in his basic six-months' initial training and to add to those skills. However, there will be a great bulk of UMT graduates who would not join organized units and many who would not need to take more training. These would be of no further cost. They would, however, be available for fillers and replacements.

The statement has been made that foreign systems of universal military training did not enable our allies to win in World War I and World War II and that we had to help them.

Military service for all their young men, who reached a certain age, enabled the French to hold in World War I until we made up our minds it was our war, and until we trained and rearmed. This military service was not universal military training in the strict sense used by us at the present time, but the military service gave the French a pool of trained soldiers.

True, the British without universal military training but with the English Channel to protect them were able to survive and to hold the bastions of the free world while we again made up our minds that World War II was our war and until we trained and rearmed, and fought our way back into Europe. We can never depend safely on this happening again.

Korea demonstrates that from now on we can seldom hold back and depend on others to fight the battle for the free world —to hold the lines for us to gain the necessary time to prepare and equip our forces for battle. Now we are the leaders of the free world. All nations not now dominated and controlled by Russia, look to us to protect and guard their way of life, and guard the rights of free men.

Our Nation stands for the very freedoms which men lost in Germany under the Nazis; freedoms which are dimly remembered by the older generation in the slavelabor camp regimes behind the Iron Curtain. The nations under Soviet domination look to us as the only hope of ever regaining their freedoms, because" if we keep the torch burning there is hope. If we fail, the light goes out all over the world.

Universal Military Training tends to equalize the distribution of the burden. It is a shameful page of history that we had to call our reserves who fought in World War II to serve again in Korea. We should have had a group of well-trained young men who had not fought before available for the Korean War. Never again should young soldiers who have already borne their full share of the burden of combat be put in double jeopardy of serving again, except in case of grave emergency.

Since we must be strong to survive, Universal Military Training offers a way of keeping that strength at minimum cost. It helps to equalize the burden of bearing arms. The willing should not have to endure all the hazards and hardships of military service. The democratic way is for all young men to fulfill their obligations of citizenship and their duties under the Constitution.

BRIG. GEN. HARRY H. SEMMES '13

General Semmes, the author of the following communication to the editor concerningUniversal Military Training, was recently recalled to active duty to serve as Executive Director of the National Security Training Commission. The five-man Commission, headedby former Senator Wadsworth of New York,was created by Congress last June and directed to draw up a specific UMT program.The proposals of the Commission are now before Congress for legislative action.