Armed Forces: More & Faster

Some of the demonstrators may face an even more horrendous fate—Army duty in Viet Nam. The Pentagon last week issued a draft call for 45,224 men in December, the largest monthly quota since the Korean War. They may be needed. Last July, when President Johnson ordered an increase in the size of the armed forces, he predicted that monthly inductions would rise to only 35,000 men. However, instead of a planned buildup of 125,000 U.S. troops in Viet Nam, the U.S. force there has already grown to 145,000, and it will pass the 200,000 mark by year’s end. At the same time, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s “selected force” of 150,000 National Guardsmen and Army reservists (TIME, Oct. 8) got orders to speed up its training so that it could be deployed within eight weeks after mobilization. Reservists will not be called to active duty, according to present plans, save in a major crisis such as an open declaration of war by Peking or Hanoi.