History of mandatory military service in the United States
Young men registering for conscription during World War I in New York City, on June 5, 1917
Conscription
1780 caricature of a press gang
Related concepts
Alternative civilian service
Civil conscription
Conscientious objector
Conscription crisis
Draft evasion
Impressment
Military service
National service
War resister
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In the United States of America, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The fourth incarnation of the draft came into being in 1940, through the Selective Training and Service Act; this was the country's first peacetime draft.[1] From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the U.S. Armed Forces that could not be filled through voluntary means. Active conscription in the United States ended in 1973, when the U.S. Armed Forces moved to an all-volunteer military. However, conscription remains in place on a contingency basis; all male U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, residing within the United States, who are 18 through 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System.[2][3] United States federal law also continues to provide for the compulsory conscription of men between the ages of 17 and 44 who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, U.S. citizens, and additionally certain women, for militia service pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution and 10 U.S. Code § 246.[4][5][6]
^Holbrook, Heber A. (July 4, 2001). "The Crisis Years: 1940 and 1941". The Pacific Ship and Shore Historical Review. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 14, 2006.
^"Registration > Why Register". Selective Service System. Archived from the original on March 16, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
^"Who Must Register". sss.gov. Archived from the original on May 7, 2009.
^"10 U.S. Code § 246 – Militia: Composition and classes".
^Stentiford, Barry M. (2002). The American Home Guard: The State Militia in the Twentieth Century. Texas A&M University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-58544-181-5.
^Freeman, Harrop A. (Spring 1971). "The Constitutionality of Direct Federal Military Conscription". Indiana Law Journal. 46 (3) 2.
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