The question of who serves in America's military continues to shape battle strategy and foreign policy today. Ever since Lincoln imposed a national draft in the Civil War to the conflicts of the Vietnam era, forced military service has torn the nation apart - and sometimes, as in WWII, united Americans in a common purpose. The Draft tells the story of how a single, controversial issue continues to define the United States.
The Draft
What is the price of citizenship in time of war? What are the limits to government authority over the liberty of a free people? Does the military draft have a place in American democracy? Since the birth of the United States these questions have driven a defining national debate.
The Draft will unpack the history and the arguments that have shaped military conscription in the United States. In the era of the war on terror and today's volunteer army, the question of who serves in America's military has molded battle strategy, driven foreign policy, and forced Americans in uniform to serve for years on distant battlefields. Ever since Lincoln imposed a national draft in the Civil War to the conflicts of the Vietnam era, forced military service has torn the nation apart - and sometimes, as in WWII, united Americans in a common purpose. Vivid, contemporary, and probing, The Draft features searing stories and intimate interviews with the people who have fought the draft, supported it, and lived its realities. It tells the story of how a single, controversial issue continues to define a nation.
Producer: Aaaron Matthews, Peter Schnall
Production Company: Partisan Pictures
Production Year: 2015
Copyright Year: 2015
Rating: TV-PG
Narrator: Campbell Scott
Writers: Donald Campbell, Aaron Matthews
Number of Discs: 1
Length: 60 minutes
Subtitled: Y
Subtitle Languages: English (SDH)
Audio Format: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Widescreen