Policy Planning Staff Files
Memorandum by the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Kennan) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Rusk)
With reference to the letter of October 21, 1949 to the Secretary from the Secretary of Defense, the Policy Planning Staff recommends that the Secretary take the position that the Selective Service Act of 1948 should be extended beyond its present expiration date of June 1950.
Even though the provisions of the Act are not utilized by the Department of Defense during the next year or so, the legislation has both a potential military value and a present psychological value. In view of serious international tensions and great uncertainty, it seems wise to have legislative authority under which the numerical strength of the armed services could be increased fairly rapidly by means short of general mobilization.
Collective defense planning under the North Atlantic Treaty has been initiated. If the Selective Service Act were to be allowed to expire within a few months, the other signatories to the Treaty might doubt the intention of the United States to press forward vigorously with the implementation of Article 3: “In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual [Page 407] aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.”