ABSTRACT
Americans have often passionately, sometimes even violently, resisted personal participation in combat, and have used various means, including political influence, to avoid circumstances that could require such participation. The Vietnam experience suggests that such techniques are decreasingly effective; it now appears that nothing short of a dire immediate threat to national survival will arouse popular commitment to serve in the ground combat forces. Historically, the most efficient short-run circumstance offsetting the long-run trend against American willingness to serve in the military has been some shocking catalytic event which at least temporarily outrages other American values and provokes or galvanizes the American public into support for national military responses. Significant but less strong inhibitions would deter the substantial use of other forms of military capability. Some short-run circumstances, such as a temporary shortage of jobs in the civilian economy, could make somewhat larger numbers of Americans willing to serve in the military.
