It’s one of the Critical Choices that confronts all Americans: A Citizen’s Right to Choose, or a Government’s Right to Command? Joining an army is certainly a life (and possibly death) decision. Governments throughout history have grappled with how to guarantee enough soldiers for their armies.

In the United States, we see bloody resistance to the draft as far back as the Civil War, when soldiers actually rode into towns to physically force young men into service. There were riots, especially in New York City, where dozens were killed. We see the psychological impact of advertising for soldiers as early as World War I.

Those instrumental in ending the draft during the Vietnam War—former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan and Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman—take us behind the scenes of that momentous decision. How did that happen? Was it a good idea? Throughout is the commentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy.