National Health and Manpower Resources

Report Outline
Draft Rejection in Korean Conflict
Health Status in the Productive Years
New Health Hazards in Industry
Means of Improving Workers Health
Special Focus

Draft Rejection in Korean Conflict

Draft rejection rates for the war in Korea show a larger proportion of men disqualified for military service than during World War II. If taken at face value, the selective service figures would suggest that the health of the nation's young people has seriously deteriorated in recent years. However, draft rejection statistics are no longer regarded as a sound index to the state of the nation's health and opinion is divided on the seriousness of the situation the figures disclose.

Maj. Gen. Lewis E. Hershey, director of Selective Service, told Congress in June that the country faces a “real youth-health problem” and offered draft rejection figures to support this conclusion.

But U. S. Surgeon General Scheele had said six months earlier that “despite the major health problems… we have the healthiest population in the world”. And President Truman said more recently: “We now have the highest standard of health in our history. Life expectancy has never been so high; the occurrence of communicable disease has never been so low,” This was fundamental to the national security because “only the strong can survive and only the healthy can be strong”.