Western Front - 1980 February 1

              VOL. 72, NO. 7 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY I, 1980
The Front gets mail:
MILITARY REGISTRATION
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
OFFICE OF MEDIA LIAISON
THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS OFFICE
January 24, 1980
As the President announced, he will submit
legislative and budget proposals to the Congress
next month to support a revitalization of the Selec­tive
Service System, and will thereafter resume
registration. The specific age groups to be involved
has yet to be determined; we have not decided
whether or not women will be included. Actual
registration will take place at the more than 34,000
local post offices throughout the country, with the
assistance of postal employees and under a
cooperative agreement with, the U.S. Postal
Service. Details of registration will be announced
and fully publicized Well in advance.
Q. What is the status of the Selective Service
System today?
A. Selective Service has been in a "standby"
posture, with skeleton staffing of fewer than 100
people at headquarters and in 6 regional offices.
This staff would be augmented in time of emer­gency
by 715 assigned military reservists and
members of the National Guard, but this small,
organization \s obviously a bare minimum. Last
fall, the" President asked tfie new' Director of Selec­tive
Service (Dr. Bernard D. Rostker) to review the
organization, staffing, and plans of the Selective
Service, and to make recommendations which
would lead toward improved readiness. Those
recommendations will be the basis for the
announced legislative and budget proposals.
Q. What sort of recommendation?
A. They involve such matters as staffing, data-processing
support, and cooperation with other
Pederal agencies—such as the U.S. Postal Service,
as noted above. Specific details will be included in
the President's recommendations.
Q. Who will be required to register?
A. The Military Selective Service Act creates a
window of eligibility between the ages of 18 and 26;
whether all in that group will be called upon to
register, or whether it will be only a portion, will
depend upon our assessment of the pool needed to
meet requirements.
Q. What is involved in registration?
A. Registration is a straightforward
administrative process; the registrant merely fills
out a form, giving name, address, date of birth and
parents names and addresses. Registrants do have a
continuing responsibility to inform the Selective
Service of any change of address, but that is also a
simple administrative process.
Q. How many people will need to be added to
the Selective Service staff, and how much will all of
this cost?
A. Staffing and funding will in part be
predicated orithe size of the manpower pool to be
created; and that has yet to be determined. The
costs are estimated at $10 million in Fiscal 1980 and
$10 million in Fiscal 1981.
Q. What ebe is involved in the draft?
A. Should the President determine that addi­tional
measures should be taken, they would
include classification and examination, whereby
the size of the pool actually ready and available for
induction would be determined. It would be at this
point that individuals would have the right to ask
for a change in classification, or to petition for
exemption or deferment. The President has called
only for registration, to create the pool from which
inductions could be made on relatively short notice
at some time if needed. This is not a
"reinstitution" of the draft, merely a resumption
of registration.
Q. Does the President need permission of the
Congress for this move?
A. The President .has the authority to resume
registration, including classification and examina­tion
if he deems such to be necessary. Any subse­quent
power to induct would have to come from
the Congress. While the President does not need
the "approval" of the Congress, there are
budgetary considerations in which the Congress
will play a role, and the President obviously seeks
the support of the Congress in'this move.
Q. Why is the President taking this step at this
time?
A. That was implicit in the tone and content of
the State of the Union message.
Q. Isn't this just the first nail in the coffin of the
All Volunteer. Forces, and the first step toward a
resumptioni of apeijicptifnf; drjtft? ^ -j"^ ;';" • ^'
A. As the President stated, he has faith.hvthe
AVF concept; resumption of registration is not
linked to any shortfalls in AVF recruiting, but is
intended to increase the readiness of the Armed
Forces to respond to a major emergency situation.
When the AVF was created, it was never intended
to stand alone in time of crisis; it would be
augmented .by military reservists and, as soon as
practicable, with draftees.
Q. How long would it actually take to draft
someone? We've heard statements that put the
time as long as seven months. .
A. The actual time required to induct someone
would depend upon the circumstances, including
of course how much work had been done in ad­vance—
such as this first step of registration. The
bulk of that seven months figure would involve the
processing and training of the individual once in
the Armed Forces.
Q. DOD has stated that their requirements are
to have the first inductees report by the 30th day
after mobilization, 100,000 by the 60th day. Are
those figures current, and can those deadlines be
met by the standby Selective Service?
—2-
A. Those requirements were set several years
ago; there may be some changes contemplated but
There is no immediate information on that. Selec­tive
Service ability to meet those deadlines has been
a matter for concerii by the PreSideHt arid the Con­gress,
and that concern prompted the review
spoken of earlier. By resuming the registration pro­cess,
the President is directly increasing the
readiness of Selective Service to not only meet, but
possibly exceed, those deadlines.
Q. How will registration be enforced? What
. penalties will, be imposed on those who refuse to
register?
A. To be determined. s
Q. Will local draft boards be re-instituted?
A. Registration per se does not involve local
draft boards. We plan to select and train local
board members for availability in any subsequent
mobilization emergency, and we are developing
specific plans to do this.
Q. Do you really need the "added readiness?"
How many days or weeks are you really buying, if
you can really, register a lot'Of'people in just a
matter of a few days?:
A. The registration process obviously involves
advanced planning and a number of follow-on
actions which extend well beyond a few days, and
we obviously will have more confidence in an
operating system than in a contingency plan. .
Q. Must resident aliens register for the draft?
A. Yes.
Q. When do you plan to start registration?
A. We expect to begin registration within the
next several months.
Q. Does the President presently have the legal
authority to register women?
A. No. This would require Congressional
action.
Q. How would the registration system work?
A. Details are still being worked out. However,
there are several options. For example, our pro­posed
system will utilize, existing government
resources. We are working with the Postal Service
procedures by which young men will go to their
local post office and register. Under current law
men between 18 and 26 years" of age can be
registered. We may, however, decide lo register
only specific age groups in order to create a pool
sufficient to meet anticipated requirements. We do
not anticipate registration cards. Nor will physicals
be given. We already have the forms that will be
needed, calling for name, address, date of birth,
and parents names and addresses.
Q. Was the President's decision on registration
a hurried, last-minute decision?
A. No. It is accurate to say that the invasion of
Afghanistan, a sovereign nation, by the Soviet
Union, and the subsequent threat to vital oil supply
lines in the Persian Gulf precipitated this move to
increase our readiness. However, we have been
reviewing the Selective Service for several months
and a report—begun months before the
Afghanistan invasion— is nearly completed. The
report will be presented to the President by
February 9.
Q. Could you recap exactly what it is the Presi­dent
has called for?
A. President Carter has ordered that we start
the process of registration—that is, to have young
men identify themselves to Selective Service and
keep Selective Service informed of their current
addresses. The President has not ordered that we
examine or classify those individuals for the draft.
In addition, he has not asked the Congress for the
power to draft people. He does not consider these
additional steps necessary at this time. Should they
become necessary, however, the availbility of cur­rent
registration data.will obviously speed our
ability to augment the military forces.
Vietnamese student
would defend U.S.
Ex-South Vietnamese air corpsman,
Long Van Nguyen, will not hesitate to
defend America against the Soviets.
In seven months, Nguyen, 26, will
have been in the United States five
years and will be qualified for American
citizenship. He said he wants to be a
citizen and considers himself a prime
candidate for the draft.
"1 fight communist all my life!
Because I don't want the communist in
me," he said. "The world is like the
piece of paper. The communist is like
the oil. When you dip the paper in the
oil, the communist run in. You can't
wash it out. You have to burn it out."
Nguyen said he believes the Soviets
are determined to dominate the world.
He lost his country to the Soviet-backed
North Vietnamese, who have
since toppled the Cambodian govern­ment
and now threaten Thailand.
He said he expects all of Indo-china
eventually to fall to communist Viet­nam
unless the free world intervenes.
He said he sees Afghanistan as
another example of the Soviet master
plan. It also will require military action
from America and its allies.
Luck rescued Nguyen from Vietnam
the day before the North Vietnamese
sacked Saigon April 30, 1975.
He had spent 24 hours at the Tan
Son Nhat airbase during a day-long
shelling by the communist North. See­ing
a C-47 on the runway, he ran out to
meet it. He and the Vietnamese pilot
managed to get the place off the
bombed-out runway and flew to Con
Son Island and safety.
Nguyen said he likes his freedom in
America and will fight to protect it.
He said he doesn't understand draft
resisters.
—Mike Brotherton
John Birch Society
long wary of Russia
If most Americans were surprised by
the recent flexing of Soviet muscle, the
John Birch Society was not.
The Birchers, as rhferiibers are known,
are regarded as being to the far right of
the political spectrum and believe that
Afghanistan is no different than the
invasion of Hungary, 1957; East Ger- .
many, 1961; and Czechoslovakia, 1968.
The society is named after an Ameri­can
soldier killed by the communist
Chinese at the end of World War II. He
is regarded by members as the first cas­ualty
of the Cold War.
The organization was founded in
1958 by its current president Robert
Welch, as a non-profit group to educate
people on communist strategies and
purpose.
"All we ask of our members is that
"they have'jCQmmbn sense of character,"
said Bob McBride, Seattle area coordi­nator
for the society. "We don't dis­criminate.
We have blacks, Jews, .
women and other minorities."
Each area is divided into chapters
that provide education on political and
economical issues such as inflation, to
make people more aware of what they
can do, McBride said.
The society has come out strongly
against the United Nations and the con­cept
of a world government.
Alger Hiss, who was an (alleged)
communist, spy, was the founding father
and first temporary Secretary-General
of the United Nations, McBride said.
"All the other Secretary-Generals,
including Dag Hammarskjold, U Thant
and now Kurt Waldheim are Marxists
of the first order," McBride said. "Their
writings speak for themselves."
McBride said he believes the United
Nations is more than just a debating
society; it.is an attempt to create a
world government because of the per­manent
employees working there, he
said.
Not all members of the John Birch
Society favor reinstatement of the draft
at this time.
"I don't believe society right now
believes in the reinstatement. I do, but I
know some of-our members don't,"
McBride said.
He said he is opposed to drafting
women.
The United States should develop all
available resources in this country to
lessen dependency on foreign resources,
McBride. said:
"I don't believe for one minute, how­ever,
that our continued use of Mideast
oil would get us involved in a war with •
Russia," he added.
Another area of concern in the recent
crisis with the Soviet Union is whether
the United States should boycott the
summer Olympics in Moscow.
"Many members are in favor of the
boycott. It should have been boycotted
a long time ago." McBride said.
"Our American athletes are hard­working
amateurs and they are going
over there (Soviet Union) to compete
with professionals because the Soviet
athletes are supported by the state. .
"These Olympicsare going to show
the world what a beautiful 'wonderland1
the Soviet Union is, when in reality it is
not," he said.
NBC has invested millions to give the
Soviets the greatest propaganda coup
in history, McBride said. The whole
world will be tuning in and get a false
impression, he added.
The society does not endorse or sup­port
candidates for president nor do
members endorse candidates in the
name of the society.
"Even if one of our members was to
become a candidate, we wouldn't
endorse him," McBride said. "Instead,
we are active on the congressional level,
especially in the lower house where the
power is the greatest.
"The representatives are voted in by
the people every two years and through
them all legislation must go through,"
he said. "The president doesn't have the
power to veto it until after it goes past
the House completed."
The society does not have any lobby­ists
to "wine and dine" congressmen,
McBride said, but if does send letters to
the politicians to make them aware of
the society's opinions on various topics.
The society operates the American
Opinion Bookstore, publishes a
monthly news magazine, The Bulletin,
runs a syndicated column in more than
250 American newspapers and produces
filmstrips for distribution.
—Mick Boroughs
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