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Facts

Also Known As compulsory military service • draft

Photos

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the military draft
Black-and-white illustration of young Russian men drawing lots for conscription, with officials overseeing the process and anxious families watching from the foreground.
Blindfolded Secretary Baker draws a WWI draft number from a glass bowl on June 27, 1918, flanked by Charles H. Morrow and Provost Marshal Gen. Crowder.
American anti-war demonstrators march on 42nd Street in New York City holding signs protesting conscription, including large placards reading NO Conscription, circa 1941.
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Key People

Portrait of Adolf Hitler in a collared shirt and tie, facing forward with a serious expression, circa 1933.
Adolf Hitler
dictator of Germany
Alexander II
Alexander II
emperor of Russia
default image
Melvin Laird
American public official
August, Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau
August, Count Neidhardt von Gneisenau
Prussian field marshal
Roon, engraving by K. Tetzel, 1861
Albrecht Theodor Emil, count von Roon
Prussian minister of war
Edward Douglass White
Edward Douglass White
chief justice of United States
Jourdan, detail of an engraving after a portrait by Hilaire Le Dru
Jean-Baptiste, Count Jourdan
French military commander