The Week

Hubert H. Humphrey, lately a hexagenarian and worried about it, has decided to enter the Democratic race for the Presidential nomination—just as soon as there is one. “I do not intend to be a zilch,” he insists. Well, at least your rhetoric is sharp, daddy-o.

For the first time in 24 years the nation is without a draft law. The House won’t approve the Senate’s version of the draft-extension law because of the Mansfield Amendment, which calls for a complete U.S. troop withdrawal in nine months if North Vietnam agrees to release all American POWs. The Senate won’t pass the law without the Mansfield addition. The Administration isn’t all that upset. It wants a draft law, but doesn’t want to be tied to the nine-month limit of the Mansfield Amendment, especially now when there seem to be some developments in Paris. Meanwhile nobody is being drafted and the Services are forced to rely on the higher enlistments that occur after June graduation. A fine opportunity to elide into voluntary arrangements.

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Hubert H. Humphrey, lately a hexagenarian and worried about it, has decided to enter the Democratic race for the Presidential nomination—just as soon as there is one. “I do not intend to be a zilch,” he insists. Well, at least your rhetoric is sharp, daddy-o.

For the first time in 24 years the nation is without a draft law. The House won’t approve the Senate’s version of the draft-extension law because of the Mansfield Amendment, which calls for a complete U.S. troop withdrawal in nine months if North Vietnam agrees to release all American POWs. The Senate won’t pass the law without the Mansfield addition. The Administration isn’t all that upset. It wants a draft law, but doesn’t want to be tied to the nine-month limit of the Mansfield Amendment, especially now when there seem to be some developments in Paris. Meanwhile nobody is being drafted and the Services are forced to rely on the higher enlistments that occur after June graduation. A fine opportunity to elide into voluntary arrangements.