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Statement by the President Upon Establishing a Commission To Study the Draft and Other Systems of National Service.

July 02, 1966

AFTER THE STUDY has been completed, my advisers and I will weigh its recommendations very carefully in light of our military requirements and the impact on our young people and their families. We will then offer to the American people that course of action which we believe to be best designed to protect the Nation's freedom with the least and most equitable burden on our society.

Note: The President's statement accompanied the issuance of Executive Order 11289 "National Advisory Commission on Selective Service," dated July 2, 1966 (2 Weekly Comp. Pres. Does., p. 894; 31 F.R. 9265; 3 CFR, 1966 Comp., p. 131).

The order directed the Commission to "consider the past, present and prospective functioning of selective service and other systems of national service" in the light of such factors as (1) fairness to all citizens, (2) military manpower requirements, (3) the objective of minimizing uncertainty and interference with individual careers and education, (4) social, economic, and employment conditions and goals, and (5) budgetary and administrative considerations.

The Commission was also directed to make recommendations on such matters as (1) methods of classification and selection of registrants, (2) qualifications for military service, (3) grounds for deferment and for exemption, (4) procedures for appeal and protection of individual rights, and (5) organization and administration of the selective service system at the national, State and local levels.

The Executive order authorized the Commission to evaluate other proposals related to selective service "including proposals for national service." The Commission's final report was to be submitted on or about January 1, 1967• The report is entitled "In Pursuit of Equity: Who Serves When Not All Serve" (Government Printing Office, 1967, 219 pp.).

The President's statement was read by Bill D. Moyers, Special Assistant to the President, at his news conference at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 2, 1966, at San Antonio, Texas. It was not made public in the form of a White House press release.

On the same day, the White House made public the names of the following members of the Commission: Burke Marshall, vice president and general counsel, IBM, Armonk, N.Y., Chairman; Kingman Brewster, Jr., president, Yale University; Thomas S. Gates, Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., New York, N.Y.; Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, president and editor, Houston Post; Mrs. Anna Rosenberg Hoffman, public and industrial relations consultant, New York, N.Y.; Paul J. Jennings, president, International Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, AFLCIO, New York, N.Y.; John A. McCone, investment banker and corporate director, San Marino, Calif.; James Henry McCrocklin, president, Southwest Texas State College, San Marcos, Texas; Rev. John Courtney Murray, Jesuit priest, professor and author, Woodstock, Md.; Jeanne L. Noble, associate professor, Center for Human Relations Studies, New York University; George E. Reedy, Jr., vice president, Struthers-Wells Co., New York, N.Y.; David Monroe Shoup, director, U.S. Life Insurance Co., Arlington, Va.; Fiorinda R. Simeone, professor of surgery, Western Reserve University, Ohio; James A. Suffridge, international president, Retail Clerks International Association, Washington, D.C.; Frank Stanley Szymanski, judge of the probate court in Detroit, Mich.; Luther L. Terry, vice president, University of Pennsylvania; Warren G. Woodward, vice president of American Airlines, Los Angeles, Calif.; Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., project director, Voter Education Project, Southern Regional Council, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.; Daniel M. Luevano, director, Western Region, Office of Economic Opportunity, Los Angeles, Calif.; and John H. Johnson, president, Johnson Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill. (Ebony, Hue, Jet) and trustee, Tuskegee Institute.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Establishing a Commission To Study the Draft and Other Systems of National Service. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238553

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