ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the questions, Whom should the government recognize as conscientious objectors, in what circumstances, and on the basis of what beliefs? It addresses them from a different direction than the other authors. The chapter suggests that, as a matter of practical public policy, people already have several possible answers, and that none is particularly attractive or palatable. It focuses on instead, on a different, but very much related, dimension and describes the nature and significance of the challenge. A postscript by Basker and W. Strauss, who worked on President Ford's Clemency Board, suggested that alternative service was something less than advertised. The only real alternative, apart from abolishing the exemption entirely, is to focus on the other side of the equation. In 1939, the American Friends Service Committee sponsored a project in upstate New York intending to demonstrate to the Roosevelt Administration that conscientious objectors would serve in a productive nonmilitary capacity should war come.
