Rumsfeld Apologizes for Remarks on Draftees
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 22, 2003; Page
A01
Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, responding to growing
criticism for recent remarks
about draftees adding "no value"
to the U.S. military, offered a
"full apology" yesterday to
veterans groups and their
supporters in Congress.
"Hundreds of thousands of
military draftees served over the
years with great distinction and
valor -- many being wounded and
still others killed," Rumsfeld
said in a letter sent last night to
the American Legion, Vietnam
Veterans of America and other
veterans organizations. "The last
thing I would want to do would
be to disparage the service of
those draftees."
Rumsfeld's letter came in
response to demands from those
groups and lawmakers from both
parties angered by the defense
secretary's comment two weeks
ago in response to a question
about legislation calling for
reinstituting the draft. In his
remarks, Rumsfeld said he
opposed the proposal, adding
that draftees added "no value,
no advantage, really, to the
United States armed services
over any sustained period of
time."
Three leading Democrats who
served in Vietnam, Sens.
Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and
John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Rep.
Lane Evans (Ill.) said in a letter
to Rumsfeld yesterday that "we
are shocked, frankly, that you
were apparently willing to
dismiss the value of the service of millions of Americans." The letter asked that
he apologize to them and their families.
The Vietnam Veterans of America, the principal organization representing
veterans from the war, also demanded an apology for what it called Rumsfeld's
"insulting" remarks. It distributed audio responses from veterans and the mother
of one serviceman killed in action to several hundred radio stations across the
United States.
The American Legion, in a letter to Rumsfeld posted on its Web site, asked the
defense secretary for "a retraction and an apology to the families of those
'draftees' who served America with honor and gave their very lives for their
country." And the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, an offshoot group
that works to advance peace initiatives, said it found Rumsfeld's "egregious slur a
grave insult to the memory, sacrifice and valor of those who lost their lives, and,
further, dismissive of the hundreds and thousands of lives, both in the U.S. and in
Vietnam, who were devastatingly shattered by the Vietnam War."
The veterans' charges thrust Rumsfeld into a public controversy at a sensitive
time, with the U.S. military preparing for a possible invasion of Iraq. Rumsfeld,
who has garnered considerable public support for his blunt talk since the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks, risked alienating a key constituency on the eve of a possible war.
Rumsfeld's remarks came at a Jan. 7 Pentagon news conference at which he was
asked about a bill introduced by Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and John
Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) that would reinstitute a draft for military or alternative
national service for men and women ages 18 to 26.
Rumsfeld dismissed the legislation and said the Bush administration had no
intention of reinstituting a draft.
"If you think back to when we had the draft, people were brought in . . . without
choices," Rumsfeld said. "Big categories were exempted: people who were in
college, people who were teaching, people who were married. . . . And what was
left was sucked into the intake, trained for a period of months, and then went out,
adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over
any sustained period of time because the churning that took place, it took an
enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone."
Rumsfeld's remarks were reported by news organizations without fanfare and
initially generated little controversy. The Washington Post carried a five-paragraph
report on the comments Jan. 8.
Rangel criticized the remarks three days later, saying they were "offensive and an
affront" to draftees. In the days that followed, a few members of Congress and
some newspaper columnists also singled out Rumsfeld for criticism as
consternation grew among veterans groups.
Victoria Clarke, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, complained in a
letter to The Post published Monday that Rumsfeld's remarks had been
misconstrued. But her explanation failed to mollify veterans groups.
Rick Weidman, director of government relations for the Vietnam Veterans of
America, said he read Clarke's letter and then read the entire transcript of
Rumsfeld's remarks. "Doggone it, he did say it," Weidman said. "What it did was
rip the scab off wounds that had been there for years -- he's the secretary of
defense saying, 'You didn't count, your service had no value whatsoever.' It was
just terribly, terribly insensitive."
In their letter to Rumsfeld yesterday, Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate;
Daschle, the Senate minority leader; and Evans, ranking Democrat on the House
Veterans Affairs Committee, said Rumsfeld's claim that draftees were of no value
to the military "is not only inaccurate, but also deeply offensive."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,
said in an interview that he was "very surprised" by Rumsfeld's comments.
In his letter, Rumsfeld said, "I always have had the highest respect for [draftees']
service and I offer my full apology to any veteran who misinterpreted my remarks
when I said them."
He acknowledged that his statement on the draft "was not eloquent." What he
meant, Rumsfeld explained, was not that draftees "added no value while they
were serving. They added great value. I was commenting on the loss of that value
when they left the service."
Rumsfeld said his comments were meant "to reflect a view that I have held for
some time: that we should lengthen tours of duty and careers for our all-volunteer
forces."
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