Pacifists in Chains: The Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War

Epilogue

Epilogue Washington Adds Civilian Option in World War II At the onset of World War II, it appeared as if the United States had failed to learn from its mishandling of conscientious objectors in World War I. When the Germans invaded Paris on June 20, 1940, Congress began deliberating a draft measure. Lawmakers assumed that pacifists would serve in the military as noncombatant soldiers. But the pacifist denominations lobbied with a more unified voice than they had managed in the previous war, determined to remind officials of the flaws in that earlier conscription system. Apart from any moral considerations, the government had practical reasons to strike a compromise with the church leaders this time around. From the military’s perspective, conscientious objectors had created problems far out of proportion with their numbers in World War I. In a far-reaching concession, the draft measure approved by Congress in September 1940 allowed for conscientious objectors to be assigned to “work of national importance” under civilian direction.1 Civilian Public Service emerged as an alternative to military camps, financed in part by the participating churches. During the war, CPS men built dams, fought forest fires, planted trees, constructed roads, served as guinea pigs for medical research, and cared for the mentally ill. More than twelve thousand men served in the civilian programs (even so, about five thousand objectors went Epilogue 221 to prison during the war, the majority of whom were Jehovah’s Witnesses who had declined to seek conscientious objector status). The number of objectors grew during the Korean War and then the Vietnam War, including one remarkable year, 1972, when more registrants were classified as conscientious objectors than were inducted into the army.2 The nation’s military draft ended in 1973, a year after the United States and South Vietnam signed a cease-fire with North Vietnam and the Vietcong. Every Man Must Register In 2013, federal law still requires nearly every male residing in the United States to register with the Selective Service System when he turns eighteen.3 Registrant information goes into a database of eligible men, cataloged in case a draft should be ordered to supplement the current all-volunteer armed forces (now fighting a single war, in Afghanistan). Men remain in the active registry until age twenty-six. If a draft were to follow the procedure in place during the Vietnam War, men would be conscripted according to a lottery pegged to their date of birth; they would undergo a medical screening; and then they would report to a local Selective Service board, or draft board, which would decide whether the men qualify for an exemption or deferment of military service or whether they should be inducted into the armed forces. One question certain to arise in a new draft is whether women, who until recently were barred from front-line combat positions, should be forced to serve as well. Representative Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, has repeatedly called for a reinstatement of the military draft as a way to make the armed services representative of the American public at large, drawing more evenly across racial and economic lines. With little public support for a draft, let alone the latest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the prospects of reinstating it appear dim at best (the House rejected one measure 402–2 in 2003). Conscientious objectors must also register with Selective Service at age eighteen. If a draft begins and they are called to serve, they would have the opportunity to file a claim for exemption from military service (there is no “check box” for conscientious objectors on the registration enrollment 222 Pacifists in Chains form). The government defines a conscientious objector as “one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles.” Unlike the policy in place through much of World War I, objectors do not have to belong to a religious group to qualify for alternative service. A registrant would have to appear before a local draft board to explain his or her beliefs, which could be supplemented by a personal written statement and testimonials from people who can attest to an applicant’s sincerity. The local board would then decide whether to grant conscientious objector classification . The military has in place a dual-track form of service. As in World War I, men can choose to serve...