Leach Foresees No Draft Change With Unification

The present draft system would probably remain the same under a proposed single Armed Forces plan according to W. Barton Leach, '21, Story Professor of Law, and member of the University's Defense Studies Program.

In an interview yesterday, Leach, who is a Brigadier General in the USAFR, further developed the concept of eliminating the separate services and uniting them under a single chief of staff and in a single uniform. Leach sees this single Armed Force as being divided into functional forces.

Spelling out the support gained for this plan, Leach quoted President Eisenhower as saying in 1945 before a Congressional Committee, "I am convinced that unless we have unity of direction in Washington during the years of peace ahead, we may enter an emergency, in time to come, like Pearl Harbor."

Eisenhower, Army Chief of Staff at that time, was supporting a program which would have had a single Armed Forces Department and chief of staff but seperate autonomous services. In terms of unification this plan was much tighter than the present defense system, Leach said.

Leach sees developing on Capitol Hill "a belief that our present organization is outmoded." Senator Styles Bridges, (Rep. N.H.) however, is in strong opposition to the plan. Last summer he said in the senate about the single force plan, "In my opinion these efforts constitute a grave threat to our national safety and the survival of our form of government."

Among the services, only the Navy is reportedly strongly against the unification plan. Captain Richard T. Spoffard, Professor of Naval Science, said however, "I'm personally in favor of a high-echelon reorganization--keeping the separate services."

Commenting on a well-paid professional Armed Force replacing the present draft system, Leach said, "It would be good, efficient and in the long run economical, but difficult to accomplish because of its heavy initial cost.