No changes were made in the seven Reserve components available under existing law, and the National Guard of the United States continued as part of the Ready Reserve.

B. The Standby Reserve, under the new concept, was to consist of "those members of the Reserve Forces that are not in the Ready Reserve." Under existing law, the categories of Standby and Ready Reserve forces were chiefly differentiated by their vulnerability for recall to active duty instead of their military preparedness for such service. Instead of the existing provision that units or members should be organized, trained, and liable for recall to active duty when adequate numbers of qualified Ready reservists were not readily available, the bill proposed that the Standby Reserve would become a nonorganized source of experienced men who could be called during the secondary period of a general mobilization. The bill also provided that the Selective Service System would determine whether or not Standby reservists could be ordered to active duty on the basis of criteria designed to keep a balance of skills between civilian and military needs. It was expected that the membership of 200,000 in early 1955 would increase by 1959 to approximately 2 million persons. C. The Retired Reserve.-H. R. 5297 continued the provision in the Armed Forces Reserve Act (sec. 212 (d)) that "Members of the Retired Reserve shall be in a retired status." Nevertheless, in time of war, or in a national emergency declared by Congress, members of Reserve components in a retired status could be ordered to active duty involuntarily if the appropriate Secretary determined that adequate numbers of qualified members of the Reserve Forces were not readily available.

D. Reserve enlistment with 2 years' active service. The National Reserve Plan offered additional choices to volunteers. One program, which was of special interest to the Navy, applied to men who had not yet received a notice to report for induction. They could volunteer in a Reserve component for 8 years with the understanding that within 2 years they would be ordered to active duty to perform 24 months of active training and service. Provision was made for deferment from active duty, e. g., for those who were still in high school and those who were participating in officer training programs. E. Six-month training program.-The 6-month training program for reservists was one of the features of the National Reserve Plan which made it possible for non-prior-service men to be inducted into the Reserves. Young men who had not reached 19 years of age, and who had not received an induction notice, could volunteer for a Reserve component and take 6 months of active-duty training followed by 7%1⁄2 years of training in the Ready Reserve. This program was limited by quotas which had to fall within a minimum if 100,000 and a maximum of 250,000 persons. The pay of trainees was fixed at $50 monthly and they were made eligible for death and disability benefits and reemployment rights. The trainees were to be deferred from the training and service provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act as long as they served satisfactorily as members of the Army National Guard, Air National Guard, or a Reserve component. The bill assured the Army National Guard and Air National Guard of sufficient personnel strength to meet their requirements.

If a trainee did not carry out his Reserve training in a satisfactory manner, his deferment was to be canceled and he was then liable for

induction into the Armed Forces for 24 months. It was further provided that the National Security Training Commission should advise the President and the Secretary of Defense with regard to the welfare of the 6-month trainees. The Commission was also required to make an annual report on the welfare of this group to the Congress. F. Reserve Officers' Training Corps.-Special provision was made for qualified graduates of the Army or Air Force ROTC to receive commissions upon graduation. If their numbers were in excess of the requirements of the Active Forces, they were to be ordered to active duty for training for 6 months, and then were to be returned to inactive duty and assigned to a Reserve component for 7%1⁄2 years. If an ROTC officer failed to meet the standards required for satisfactory participation in training, his commission could be revoked.

G. Providing for the military strength of the National Guard.-The bill provided that the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard should continue to be voluntary "to the maximum extent practicable." If the States did not succeed in recruiting a sufficient number of volunteers to meet their requirements, however, persons who had completed their active training and service or active duty for training in the Armed Forces were to be transferred to the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard upon the request or approval of the governor (or other appropriate authority) of a State, Territory, or the District of Columbia. Persons who were transferred under this authority were to serve the remainder of their period of obligation in the guard and concurrently become members of the Army National Guard of the United States or the Air National Guard of the United States. This provision, of course, was devised as a method whereby the military strength of the National Guard could be guaranteed by the Federal Government. It also insured a flow of trained personnel into the National Guard divisions because those transferred would already have completed their initial training.

H. State militia.-H. R. 5297 amended the National Defense Act so that the States, in peacetime, could organize and maintain defense forces in addition to the National Guard. These forces were to take care of civil defense problems if and when the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard divisions were ordered to active duty with the Regular Federal Forces. It was intended that these State militia forces would be used only within the borders of their respective States and that they could not be called into the United States Armed Forces. The President was authorized to issue arms, ammunition, clothing, and any military equipment that the State defense forces might need. The National Guard Bureau was to administer this provision of the law and be the channel of communication between the States and the Department of the Army, pursuant to policies prescribed by the Secretary of the Army.

I. Records on strengthening the Reserve Forces.-The Secretary of Defense was charged with keeping records and reporting on them to the President and the Congress in January of each year.

IX. AMENDMENTS TO H. R. 5297

On May 17, 1955, the House of Representatives resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and

began consideration of H. R. 5297 to strengthen the Reserve Forces.3 In the course of the debate, several committee amendments of a technical nature were agreed to without discussion.32 In addition, three floor amendments were adopted.

A. A floor amendment offered by Mr. Powell, of New York, was adopted by a vote of 126 to 87. This amendment added the same provision to two parts of the bill. The first was the provision that enabled the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force (or Treasury with respect to the Coast Guard) to transfer persons to the Army National Guard or Air National Guard when the several States were unable to attain their military strength by recruiting voluntary personnel. Such transfers had to be

upon request or approval of the governor or other appropriate authority of a State, Territory, or the District of Columbia. *

The amendment

**

Provided, That said State, Territorial, or District National Guard or Air National Guard does not exclude or segregate against any person on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin.

The same wording was also added to that part of the bill which provided for the enlistment of persons into the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard of each State, as well as into the Reserve of any Armed Force.

B. Mr. Bow, of Ohio, offered an amendment which passed by a vote of 174 to 46, and added a new paragraph dealing with the jurisdiction of foreign governments over United States personnel stationed

overseas:

No person who, after the enactment of the National Reserve Plan is inducted into, or initially enlisted or appointed in, the Armed Forces, including Reserve components thereof, shall at any time be assigned for duty at any installation located in a foreign country with which (at such time) the United States has in effect a treaty or international agreement containing provisions permitting such country to exercise in any way jurisdiction over American personnel stationed within its boundaries.

C. Mr. Thomson of Wyoming offered a floor amendment containing an educational clause that was accepted by Mr. Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The inclusion of this amendment into the wording of the bill resulted in the following provision:

* * * any person who has satisfactorily completed high school or has reached the age of 19 years and who is under the age of 20 years and who has not received notice to report for induction under this act may be enlisted to serve on active duty for training and in a Reserve component for a total of 8 years.

During the debate of May 17, 18, and 19, no resolution was reached and the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union voted to rise without reporting the bill to the House. It did not seem possible for the bill, H. R. 5297, to pass the House in its amended form, and thus it became necessary to reconsider the content of legislation on the Reserve Forces.

"Daily Congressional Record, May 17, 1955, pp. 5519-5545; May 18, 1955, pp. 5552-5587; May 19, 1955, pp. 5651-5663. 32 Ibid., May 18, 1955, pp. 5571, 5572.

X. RELATION OF THE RESERVE PROBLEM TO THE EXTENSION OF INDUCTION UNDER THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM

The authority to induct men through the Selective Service System was due to expire on June 30, 1955, and H. R. 3005 proposed that this authority be extended for 4 more years until July 1, 1959. The administration considered that dealing effectively with the Reserve problem required not only the passage of H. R. 3005, but also that of H. R. 5297 or some similar legislation. If only H. R. 3005 were enacted into law, it would mean that the Reserve system would continue with many of its known weaknesses. Some changes might be effected by means of administration, regulations, and appropriations, but there were several problems which could not be met unless the basic laws were amended.

At the time the consideration of H. R. 5297 was suspended (May 19, 1955), the status of H. R. 3005 was that it had passed the House but not the Senate. Hearings on H. R. 3005 had been held by the House Armed Services Committee on February 1, 1955, and the bill was reported favorably on February 3 with amendments.33 On February 8, H. R. 3005 was debated by the House of Representatives and passed by a vote of 394 to 4.34

On June 8, 1955, President Eisenhower discussed the Reserve problem at his White House press conference:

This Reserve bill is more essential than ever before to the security of the United States. We need trained men in every single section of this country. We acknowledge, as we look at the probable face of future warfare, if ever we must face that tragedy, we acknowledge that every hamlet and important city of the United States is likely to be on the frontlines *** our own National Guard units need people who have been thoroughly grounded in military training.

Next, we must carry on our conflicts, if we have to wage them, or our mobilizations, if we have to order one, with people who haven't been off to war already 1 or 2 or 3 times, and now are raising families. It certainly is unjust to depend for training only on the people who have already done their stint, in effect, in defending our country.

Finally, entirely aside from the whole question of fairness, the whole question of national security, comes the individual himself. It is these individuals who must defend the United States, and why should they not have the advantage of some prior training?

*

*

*

*

*

In some details the bill, as was finally brought out on the floor before it was amended *** had changed some of the items in which I believed. But the bill, on the whole, as it came out of the committee represented a tremendous advance over anything we had ever had, and I believe that we just must have it.

*** in my opinion no possible, no feasible, logical increase in the Armed Forces, Active Forces, of a logical size could possibly compensate for not having a Reserve. We must have it. * * *

The President called attention to the good faith and record of the administration in the field of segregation and said that

if the House situation has gotten so difficult that they can do nothing there now, why, then, I will most urgently hope that the Senate can do something about it.35

33 For a detailed discussion explaining the committee amendments, see H. Rept. 19, February 8, 1955, 84th Cong., 1st sess., a report from the Committee on Armed Services to accompany H. R. 3005. See also the explanation of the amendments by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Mr. Carl Vinson, when the bill was debated on the floor: Daily Congressional Record, February 8, 1955, pp. 1108-1109. 34 Daily Congressional Record, February 8, 1955, pp. 1102-1129.

35 New York Times, June 9, 1955, p. 16L.

The Senate Armed Services Committee was about to take up the extension of induction under selective service, and the question was raised as to whether the Reserve legislation might be added as an amendment to H. R. 3005. This idea was rejected by the committee because the authority to induct men through selective service would expire in less than 3 weeks, and there was not sufficient time to hold hearings on the Reserve problem and complete all legislative action on both measures by that date. In addition, it was felt that action by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Reserve legislation should be postponed until further action by the House of Representatives.36

On June 9 and 10, 1955, the Senate Armed Services Committee held hearings on H. R. 3005, and voted to report it favorably, with amendments.37 The principal amendment adopted by the committee derived from pending legislation, H. R. 6057, which extended for 2 years the authority to induct physicians and dentists.

On June 16, 1955, the bill was debated in the Senate and passed, with amendments, by a voice vote.38 The conference report, reconciling the differences in the House and Senate amendments, was agreed to and filed in the House on June 23, 1955.39 Both the House and Senate adopted the conference report on June 28, and on June 30, 1955, the measure was approved and became Public Law 118, 84th Congress. The act, cited as the "1955 Amendments to the Universal Military Training and Service Act," has as its purposeTo further amend the Universal Military Training and Service Act by extending the authority to induct certain individuals and by extending the authority to require the special registration, classification, and induction of certain medical, dental, and allied specialist categories, and for other purposes.

This legislation was considered to be an essential part of the overall policy on military manpower because an active force of 2,850,000 men could not be maintained solely by means of volunteers. Although this part of the military manpower problem had been met by the enactment of Public Law 118, 84th Congress, legislation to strengthen the Reserve Forces was still in the process of being formulated.

XI. LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS LEADING TO H. R. 7000

Following the civil-defense exercise Operation Alert, President Eisenhower issued a statement from his emergency press headquatrers on June 17, 1955, again urging congressional action on the Reserve problem:

There are before the Congress bills for establishing Reserves for our armed services. We must remember that in the kind of disaster of which I am now speaking, 1 trained Reserve battalion in the proper place would be worth 5 divisions located a thousand miles away. Trained men will be needed on the spot at the time the disaster occurs to respond to the calls of the mayors, to respond to the call of the governors, and the Federal Government.

This matter is so important, we cannot possibly allow any extraneous matter of any kind to impede progress of the bills through the Congress. This is no

Ibid., June 18, 1955, p. 9L.

"Extending the authority to induct certain individuals and to extend the benefits of the Dependents Assistance Act. S. Rept. 549, 84th Cong., 1st sess. Senate Armed Services Committee report to accompany H. R. 3005, June 14, 1955. 30 pages.

Daily Congressional Record, June 16, 1955, pp. 7270-7276.

1955 Amendments to the Universal Military Training and Service Act. Conference report to accom. pany H. R. 3005. House of Representatives, 84th Cong., 1st sess. H. Rept. 902. June 22, 1955. 6 pages. See also, Daily Congressional Record, June 23, 1955, pp. 7768-7770.