document_title: Conscription in the United States

question_text: when did the us stop the military draft

question_tokens: when did the us stop the military draft

text: Conscription in the United States

text: History[edit]

text: Colonial to 1862[edit]

text: In colonial times, the Thirteen Colonies used a militia system for defense. Colonial militia laws—and after independence those of the United States and the various states—required able-bodied males to enroll in the militia, to undergo a minimum of military training, and to serve for limited periods of time in war or emergency. This earliest form of conscription involved selective drafts of militiamen for service in particular campaigns. Following this system in its essentials, the Continental Congress in 1778 recommended that the states draft men from their militias for one year's service in the Continental army; this first national conscription was irregularly applied and failed to fill the Continental ranks.

text: For long-term operations, conscription was occasionally used when volunteers or paid substitutes were insufficient to raise the needed manpower. During the American Revolutionary War, the states sometimes drafted men for militia duty or to fill state Continental Army units, but the central government did not have the authority to conscript except for purposes of naval impressment. President James Madison and his Secretary of War James Monroe unsuccessfully attempted to create a national draft of 40,000 men during the War of 1812.[3] This proposal was fiercely criticized on the House floor by antiwar Congressman Daniel Webster of New Hampshire.[4]

text:
"The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion...Is this, sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, sir, indeed it is not...Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty?

Daniel Webster (December 9, 1814 House of Representatives Address)

tag: table

text: Civil War[edit]

text: The United States first employed national conscription during the American Civil War. The vast majority of troops were volunteers; of the 2,100,000 Union soldiers, about 2% were draftees, and another 6% were substitutes paid by draftees.[5][6]

text: The Confederacy had far fewer inhabitants than the Union, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis proposed the first conscription act on March 28, 1862; it was passed into law the next month.[7] Resistance was both widespread and violent, with comparisons made between conscription and slavery.

text: Both sides permitted conscripts to hire substitutes to serve in their place. In the Union, many states and cities offered bounties and bonuses for enlistment. They also arranged to take credit against their draft quota by claiming freed slaves who enlisted in the Union Army.

text: Although both sides resorted to conscription, the system did not work effectively in either.[8] The Confederate Congress on April 16, 1862, passed an act requiring military service for three years from all males aged eighteen to thirty-five not legally exempt; it later extended the obligation. The U.S. Congress followed with the Militia Act of 1862 authorizing a militia draft within a state when it could not meet its quota with volunteers.[citation needed] This state-administered system failed in practice and in 1863 Congress passed the Enrollment Act, the first genuine national conscription law, setting up under the Union Army an elaborate machinery for enrolling and drafting men between twenty and forty-five years of age. Quotas were assigned in each state, the deficiencies in volunteers required to be met by conscription.

text: Still, men drafted could provide substitutes, and until mid-1864 could even avoid service by paying commutation money. Many eligible men pooled their money to cover the cost of any one of them drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which member should go into the army and which would stay home. The other popular means of procuring a substitute was to pay a soldier whose period of enlistment was about to expire - the advantage of this method was that the Army could retain a trained veteran in place of a raw recruit. Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union Army through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted. There was much evasion and overt resistance to the draft, and the New York City draft riots were in direct response to the draft and were the first large-scale resistance against the draft in the United States.

text: The problem of Confederate desertion was aggravated by the inequitable inclinations of conscription officers and local judges. The three conscription acts of the Confederacy exempted certain categories, most notably the planter class, and enrolling officers and local judges often practiced favoritism, sometimes accepting bribes. Attempts to effectively deal with the issue were frustrated by conflict between state and local governments on the one hand and the national government of the Confederacy.[9]

text: World War I[edit]

text: In 1917 the administration of President Woodrow Wilson decided to rely primarily on conscription, rather than voluntary enlistment, to raise military manpower for World War I when only 73,000 volunteers enlisted out of the initial 1 million target in the first six weeks of the war.[10] One claimed motivation was to head off the former President, Theodore Roosevelt, who proposed to raise a volunteer division, which would upstage Wilson. However, there is no evidence that even Roosevelt had the popularity to overcome the unpopular war, also, since Wilson had just started his second term in office the former President's prospects for substantial political gain would seem dubious.

text: The Selective Service Act of 1917 was carefully drawn to remedy the defects in the Civil War system and—by allowing exemptions for dependency, essential occupations, and religious scruples—to place each man in his proper niche in a national war effort. The act established a "liability for military service of all male citizens"; authorized a selective draft of all those between 21 and 31 years of age (later from 18 to 45); and prohibited all forms of bounties, substitutions, or purchase of exemptions. Administration was entrusted to local boards composed of leading civilians in each community. These boards issued draft calls in order of numbers drawn in a national lottery and determined exemptions.

text: In 1917 10 million men were registered. This was deemed to be inadequate, so age ranges were increased and exemptions reduced, and so by the end of 1918 this increased to 24 million men that were registered with nearly 3 million inducted into the military services, with little of the resistance that characterized the Civil War, thanks to a huge campaign by the government to build support for the war, and shut down newspapers and magazines that published articles against the war.[11][12]

text: The draft was universal and included blacks on the same terms as whites, although they served in different units. In all 367,710 black Americans were drafted (13.0% of the total), compared to 2,442,586 white (86.9%). Along with a general opposition to American involvement in a foreign conflict, Southern farmers objected to unfair conscription practices that exempted members of the upper class and industrial workers.

text: Draft boards were localized and based their decisions on social class: the poorest were the most often conscripted because they were considered the most expendable at home. African-Americans in particular were often disproportionately drafted, though they generally were conscripted as laborers and not sent into combat to avoid the tensions that would arise from mixing races in military units. Forms of resistance ranged from peaceful protest to violent demonstrations and from humble letter-writing campaigns asking for mercy to radical newspapers demanding reform. The most common tactics were dodging and desertion, and many communities sheltered and defended their draft dodgers as political heroes.

text: Nearly half a million immigrants were drafted, which forced the military to develop training procedures that took ethnic differences into account. Military leaders invited Progressive reformers and ethnic group leaders to assist in formulating new military policies. The military attempted to socialize and Americanize young immigrant recruits, not by forcing "angloconformity", but by showing remarkable sensitivity and respect for ethnic values and traditions and a concern for the morale of immigrant troops. Sports activities, keeping immigrant groups together, newspapers in various languages, the assistance of bilingual officers, and ethnic entertainment programs were all employed.[13]

text: Opposition[edit]

text: The Conscription Act of 1917 was passed in June. Conscripts were court-martialed by the Army if they refused to wear uniforms, bear arms, perform basic duties, or submit to military authority. Convicted objectors were often given long sentences of 20 years in Fort Leavenworth.[14] In 1918 Secretary Baker created the Board of Inquiry to question the conscientious objectors' sincerity.[15] Military tribunals tried men found by the Board to be insincere for a variety of offenses, sentencing 17 to death, 142 to life imprisonment, and 345 to penal labor camps.[15]

text: In 1917, a number of radicals and anarchists, including Emma Goldman, challenged the new draft law in federal court, arguing that it was a direct violation of the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the Selective Draft Law Cases on January 7, 1918. The decision said the Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war and to raise and support armies. The Court, relying partly on Vattel's The Law of Nations, emphasized the principle of the reciprocal rights and duties of citizens:[16]

text: It may not be doubted that the very conception of a just government and its duty to the citizen includes the reciprocal obligation of the citizen to render military service in case of need, and the right to compel it. To do more than state the proposition is absolutely unnecessary in view of the practical illustration afforded by the almost universal legislation to that effect now in force.

text: Conscription was unpopular from left-wing sectors at the start, with many Socialists jailed for "obstructing the recruitment or enlistment service". The most famous was Eugene Debs, head of the Socialist Party of America, who ran for president in 1920 from his Atlanta prison cell. He had his sentence commuted to time served and was released on December 25, 1921, by President Warren G. Harding.

text: The Industrial Workers of the World mobilized to obstruct the war effort through strikes in war-related industries and not registering.

text: Conscientious objectors[edit]

text: Conscientious objector (CO) exemptions were allowed for the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren only. All other religious and political objectors were forced to participate. Some 64,700 men claimed conscientious objector status; local draft boards certified 57,000, of whom 30,000 passed the physical and 21,000 were inducted into the U.S. Army. About 80% of the 21,000 decided to abandon their objection and take up arms, but 3,989 drafted objectors refused to serve. Most belonged to historically pacifist denominations, especially Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravian Brethren, as well as a few Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. About 15% were religious objectors from non-pacifist churches.[17]

text: Ben Salmon was a nationally known political activist who encouraged men not to register and personally refused to comply with the draft procedures. He rejected the Army Review Board proposal that he do noncombatant farm work. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, he again refused a proposed desk job. He was pardoned and released in November 1920 with a "dishonorable discharge".[18]

text: Interwar[edit]

text: The draft ended in 1918 but the Army designed the modern draft mechanism in 1926 and built it based on military needs despite an era of pacifism. Working where Congress would not, it gathered a cadre of officers for its nascent Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, most of whom were commissioned based on social standing rather than military experience.[19] This effort did not receive congressionally approved funding until 1934 when Major General Lewis B. Hershey was assigned to the organization. The passage of a conscription act was opposed by some, including Dorothy Day and George Barry O'Toole, who were concerned that such conscription would not provide adequate protection for the rights of conscientious objectors. However, much of Hershey's work was codified into law with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (STSA).[20]

text: World War II[edit]

text: By the summer of 1940, as Germany conquered France, Americans supported the return of conscription. One national survey found that 67% of respondents believed that a German-Italian victory would endanger the United States, and that 71% supported "the immediate adoption of compulsory military training for all young men".[21] Similarly, a November 1942 survey of American high-school students found that 69% favored compulsory postwar military training.[22]

text: The World War I system served as a model for that of World War II. The 1940 STSA instituted national conscription in peacetime, requiring registration of all men between 21 and 35, with selection for one year's service by a national lottery. The term of service was extended by one year in August 1941. After Pearl Harbor the STSA was further amended (December 19, 1941), extending the term of service to the duration of the war and six months and requiring the registration of all men 18 to 64 years of age. In the massive draft of World War II, 49 million men were registered, 36 million classified[not in citation given], and 10 million inducted.[23] President Roosevelt's signing of the STSA on September 16, 1940, began the first peacetime draft in the United States. It also established the Selective Service System as an independent agency responsible for identifying and inducting young men into military service. Roosevelt named Hershey to head the Selective Service on July 31, 1941, where he remained until 1969.[20] This preparatory act came when other preparations, such as increased training and equipment production, had not yet been approved. Nevertheless, it served as the basis for the conscription programs that would continue to the present. The act set a cap of 900,000 men to be in training at any given time and limited military service to 12 months. An amendment increased this 18 more months in August 1941. Later legislation on December 20, 1942 amended the act to require all men from 18 to 64 to register, with those aged 20 to 44 being able for induction. 18 and 19 year olds were made liable for induction and the upper age limit for the draft was reduced to 37 beginning on November 13, 1942. Service commitments for inductees were set at the length of the war plus six months.[24] As manpower need increased during World War II, draftees were inducted into the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

text: By 1942, the Selective Service System moved away from administrative selection by its more than 6,000 local boards to a system of lottery selection. Rather than filling quotas by local selection, the boards now ensured proper processing of men selected by the national lottery.[19] On December 5, 1942, presidential Executive Order 9279 made it so that men from the ages of 18 to 37 could not voluntarily enlist even if they had not been drafted, providing protection for the nation's home front manpower pool. Paul V. McNutt, head of the War Manpower Commission, estimated that the changes would increase the ratio of men drafted from one out of nine to one out of five. The commission's goal was to have nine million men in the armed forces by the end of 1943.[25] This facilitated the massive requirement of up to 200,000 men per month and would remain the standard for the length of the war. The World War II draft operated from 1940 until 1947 when its legislative authorization expired without further extension by Congress. During this time, more than 10 million men had been inducted into military service. With the expiration, no inductions occurred in 1947.[26] However, the SSS remained intact.

text: Opposition[edit]

text: Scattered opposition was encountered especially in the northern cities where African-Americans protested the system. The young Nation of Islam was at the forefront, with many Black Muslims jailed for refusing the draft, and their leader Elijah Muhammed was sentenced to federal prison for 5 years for inciting draft resistance. Organized draft resistance also developed in the Japanese American internment camps, where groups like the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee refused to serve unless they and their families were released. 300 Nisei men from eight of the ten War Relocation Authority camps were arrested and stood trial for felony draft evasion; most were sentenced to federal prison.[27] American Communists also opposed the war until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, whereupon they became supporters.[28]

text: Conscientious objectors[edit]

text: Of the more than 72,000 men registering as conscientious objectors (CO), nearly 52,000 received CO status. Of these, over 25,000 entered the military in noncombatant roles, another 12,000 went to civilian work camps, and nearly 6,000 went to prison. Draft evasion only accounted for about 4% of the total inducted. About 373,000 alleged evaders were investigated with just over 16,000 being imprisoned.[29]

text: Cold War[edit]

text: The second peacetime draft began with passage of the Selective Service Act of 1948 after the STSA expired. The new law required all men, ages 18 to 26, to register. It also created the system for the "Doctor Draft" aimed at inducting health professionals into military service.[30] Unless otherwise exempted or deferred, these men could be called for up to 21 months of active duty and five years of reserve duty service. Congress further tweaked this act in 1950 although the post–World War II surplus of military manpower left little need for draft calls until Truman's declaration of national emergency in December 1950.[31] Only 20,348 men were inducted in 1948 and only 9,781 in 1949.

text: Between the Korean War's outbreak in June 1950 and the armistice agreement in 1953, Selective Service inducted over 1.5 million men.[26] Another 1.3 million volunteered, usually choosing the Navy or Air Force.[19][29] Congress passed the Universal Military Training and Service Act in 1951 to meet the demands of the war. It lowered the induction age to 18½ and extended active-duty service commitments to 24 months. Despite the early combat failures and later stalemate in Korea, the draft has been credited by some as playing a vital role in turning the tide of war.[19] A February 1953 Gallup Poll showed 70 percent of Americans surveyed felt the SSS handled the draft fairly. Notably, Gallup reported that 64 percent of the demographic group including all draft age men (males 21 to 29) believed the draft to be fair.[32]

text: To increase equity in the system, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order on July 11, 1953, that ended the paternity deferment for married men.[33] In large part, the change in the draft served the purposes of the burgeoning Cold War. From a program that had just barely passed congressional muster during the fearful prelude to World War II, a more robust draft continued as fears now focused on the Soviet threat. Nevertheless, some dissenting voices in Congress continued to appeal to the history of voluntary American military service as preferable for a democracy.[34][35] The Korean War was the first time any form of student deferment was used. During the Korean War a student carrying at least twelve semester hours was spared until the end of his current semester.[36]

text: The United States breathed easier with the Korean War Armistice on July 27, 1953; however, technology brought new promises and threats. U.S. air and nuclear power fueled the Eisenhower doctrine of "massive retaliation". This strategy demanded more machines and fewer foot soldiers, so the draft slipped to the back burner. However, the head of the SSS, Maj. Gen. Hershey, urged caution fearing the conflict looming in Vietnam. In May 1953, he told his state directors to do everything possible to keep SSS alive in order to meet upcoming needs.[37]

text: Following the 1953 Korean War Armistice, Congress passed the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 with the aim of improving National Guard and federal Reserve Component readiness while also constraining its use by the president. Towards this end, it mandated a six-year service commitment, in a combination of reserve and active duty time, for every line military member regardless of their means of entry. Meanwhile, the SSS kept itself alive by devising and managing a complex system of deferments for a swelling pool of candidates during a period of shrinking requirements. The greatest challenge to the draft came not from protesters but rather lobbyists seeking additional deferments for their constituency groups such as scientists and farmers.[20]

text: Government leaders felt the potential for a draft was a critical element in maintaining a constant flow of volunteers. On numerous occasions Gen. Hershey told Congress for every man drafted, three or four more were scared into volunteering.[38] Assuming his assessment was accurate, this would mean over 11 million men volunteered for service because of the draft between January 1954 and April 1975.[19]

text: The policy of using the draft as a club to force "voluntary" enlistment was unique in U.S. history. Previous drafts had not aimed at encouraging individuals to sign up in order to gain preferential placement or less dangerous postings. However, the incremental buildup of Vietnam without a clear threat to the country bolstered this.[19] Some estimates suggest conscription encompassed almost one-third of all eligible men during the period of 1965–69.[39][40] This group represented those without exemption or resources to avoid military service. During the active combat phase, the possibility of avoiding combat by selecting their service and military specialty led as many as four out of 11 eligible men to enlist.[41][42] The military relied upon this draft-induced volunteerism to make its quotas, especially the Army, which accounted for nearly 95 percent of all inductees during Vietnam. For example, defense recruiting reports show 34% of the recruits in 1964 up to 50% in 1970 indicated they joined to avoid placement uncertainty via the draft.[43][44][45] These rates dwindled to 24% in 1972 and 15% in 1973 after the change to a lottery system. Accounting for other factors, it can be argued up to 60 percent of those who served throughout the Vietnam War did so directly or indirectly because of the draft.[41]

text: In addition, deferments provided an incentive for men to follow pursuits considered useful to the state. This process, known as channeling, helped push men into educational, occupational, and family choices they might not otherwise have pursued. Undergraduate degrees were valued. Graduate work had varying value over time, though technical and religious training received near constant support. War industry support in the form of teaching, research, or skilled labor also received deferred or exempt status. Finally, marriage and family were exempted because of its positive social consequences.[20][46] This included using presidential orders to extend exemptions again to fathers and others.[47] Channeling was also seen as a means of preempting the early loss of the country's "best and brightest" who had historically joined and died early in war.[48]

text: In the only extended period of military conscription of U.S. males during a major peacetime period, the draft continued on a more limited basis during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While a far smaller percentage of eligible males were conscripted compared to war periods, draftees by law served in the Army for two years. Elvis Presley and Willie Mays were two of the most famous people drafted during this period.

text: Public protests in the United States were few during the Korean War. However, the percentage of CO exemptions for inductees grew to 1.5% compared to a rate of just 0.5% in the past two wars. The Justice Department also investigated more than 80,000 draft evasion cases.[40][49][50]

text: Vietnam War[edit]

text: President Kennedy's decision to send military troops to Vietnam as "advisors" was a signal that Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey needed to visit the Oval Office. From that visit emerged two wishes of JFK with regard to conscription. The first was that the names of married men with children should occupy the very bottom of the callup list. Just above them should be the names of men who are married. This Presidential policy, however, was not to be formally encoded into Selective Service Status. Men who fit into these categories became known as Kennedy Husbands. When President Lyndon Johnson decided to rescind this Kennedy policy, there was a last-minute rush to the altar by thousands of American couples.[citation needed]

text: Many early rank-and-file anti-conscription protesters had been allied with the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy. The completion in 1963 of a Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty left a mass of undirected youth in search of a cause. Syndicated cartoonist Al Capp portrayed them as S.W.I.N.E, (Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything). The catalyst for protest reconnection was the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

text: Consequently, there was some opposition to the draft even before the major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began. The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War was responsible for a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college students. Besides being able to avoid the draft, college graduates who volunteered for military service (primarily as commissioned officers) had a much better chance of securing a preferential posting compared to less-educated inductees.

text: As U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam increased, more young men were drafted for service there, and many of those still at home sought means of avoiding the draft. Since only 15,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were sent to South Vietnam, enlistment in the Guard or the Reserves became a popular means of avoiding serving in a war zone. For those who could meet the more stringent enlistment standards, service in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard was a means of reducing the chances of being killed. Vocations to the ministry and the rabbinate soared, because divinity students were exempt from the draft[citation needed]. Doctors and draft board members found themselves being pressured by relatives or family friends to exempt potential draftees.[citation needed]

text: The marriage deferment ended suddenly on August 26, 1965. Around 3:10pm President Johnson signed an order allowing the draft of men who married after midnight that day, then around 5pm he announced the change for the first time.[51]

text: Some conscientious objectors objected to the war based on the theory of Just War. One of these, Stephen Spiro, was convicted of avoiding the draft, but given a suspended sentence of five years. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford.[52]

text: There were 8,744,000 servicemembers between 1964 and 1975, of whom 3,403,000 were deployed to Southeast Asia.[53] From a pool of approximately 27 million, the draft raised 2,215,000 men for military service (in the United States, South Vietnam, West Germany, and elsewhere) during the Vietnam War era. The majority of servicemembers deployed to South Vietnam were volunteers, even though hundreds of thousands of men opted to join the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard (for three or four year terms of enlistment) rather than risk being drafted, serve for two years, and have no choice over their military occupational specialty (MOS).[54]

text: Of the nearly 16 million men not engaged in active military service, 57% were exempted (typically because of jobs including other military service), deferred (usually for educational reasons), or disqualified (usually for physical and mental deficiencies but also for criminal records including draft violations).[19] The requirements for obtaining and maintaining an educational deferment changed several times in the late 1960s. For several years, students were required to take an annual qualification test. In 1967 educational deferments were changed for graduate students. Those starting graduate studies in the fall of 1967 were given two semester deferments becoming eligible in June of 1968. Those further along in their graduate study who entered prior to the summer of 1967 could continue to receive a deferment until they completed their studies. Peace Corps Volunteers were no longer given deferments and their induction was left to the discretion of their local boards. However most boards allowed Peace Corps Volunteers to complete their two years assignment before inducting them into the service. On December 1, 1969, a lottery was held to establish a draft priority for all those born between 1944 and 1950. Those with a high number no longer had to be concerned about the draft. Nearly 500,000 men were disqualified for criminal records, but less than 10,000 of them were convicted of draft violations.[29] Finally, as many as 100,000 draft eligible men fled the country.[55][56]

text: End of conscription[edit]

text: During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft.[57] He had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University.[58] Nixon also saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own probability of having to fight in it was gone.[59] There was opposition to the all-volunteer notion from both the Department of Defense and Congress, so Nixon took no immediate action towards ending the draft early in his presidency.[58]

text: Instead, the Gates Commission was formed, headed by Thomas S. Gates, Jr., a former Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. Gates initially opposed the all-volunteer army idea, but changed his mind during the course of the 15-member commission's work.[58] The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription.[57][60] The existing draft law was expiring at the end of June 1971, but the Department of Defense and Nixon administration decided the draft needed to continue for at least some time.[60] In February 1971, the administration requested of Congress a two-year extension of the draft, to June 1973.[61][62]

text: Senatorial opponents of the war wanted to reduce this to a one-year extension, or eliminate the draft altogether, or tie the draft renewal to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Vietnam;[63] Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska took the most forceful approach, trying to filibuster the draft renewal legislation, shut down conscription, and directly force an end to the war.[64] Senators supporting Nixon's war efforts supported the bill, even though some had qualms about ending the draft.[62] After a prolonged battle in the Senate, in September 1971 cloture was achieved over the filibuster and the draft renewal bill was approved.[65] Meanwhile, military pay was increased as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the U.S. Army began.[57] With the end of active U.S. ground participation in Vietnam, December 1972 saw the last men conscripted, who were born in 1952[66] and who reported for duty in June 1973. On February 2, 1972, a drawing was held to determine draft priority numbers for men born in 1953, but in early 1973 it was announced by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird that no further draft orders would be issued.[67][68] In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956, in case the draft was extended, but it never was.[69]

text: Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, believed to be the last drafted enlisted ranked soldier still on active duty, retired in 2011.[70][71]

text: Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph E. Rigby, the last Vietnam War-era drafted soldier of Warrant Officer rank, retired from the army in November 10, 2014 after a 42-year career.[72]

text: Post-1980 draft registration[edit]

text: On July 2, 1980, President Carter issued Presidential Proclamation 4771 and re-instated the requirement that young men register with the Selective Service System.[73] At that time it was required that all males, born on or after January 1, 1960, register with the Selective Service System. Those now in this category are male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25, who are required to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday even if they are not eligible to join the military; for example, non-citizens cannot join the military but must register with the Selective Service System.

text: The Selective Service System describes its mission as "to serve the emergency manpower needs of the Military by conscripting untrained manpower, or personnel with professional health care skills, if directed by Congress and the President in a national crisis".[74] Registration forms are available either online or at any U.S. Post Office.

text: The Selective Service registration form states that failure to register is a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment or a $250,000 fine.[75] In practice, no one has been prosecuted for failure to comply with draft registration since 1986,[76] in part because prosecutions of draft resisters proved counter-productive for the government, and in part because of the difficulty of proving that noncompliance with the law was "knowing and wilful". In interviews published in U.S. News & World Report in May 2016, current and former Selective Service System officials said that in 1988, the Department of Justice and Selective Service agreed to suspend any further prosecutions of nonregistrants.[77] Many men do not register at all, register late, or change addresses without notifying the Selective Service System.[78] Registration is a requirement for employment by the federal government and some states, as well as for receiving some state benefits such as driver's licenses.[79] Refusing to register can also cause a loss of eligibility for federal financial aid for college.[80]

text: Health care personnel[edit]

text: On December 1, 1989, Congress ordered the Selective Service System to put in place a system capable of drafting "persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care and professional occupation", if such a special-skills draft should be ordered by Congress.[81] In response, Selective Service published plans for the "Health Care Personnel Delivery System" (HCPDS) in 1989 and has had them ready ever since. The concept underwent a preliminary field exercise in Fiscal Year 1998, followed by a more extensive nationwide readiness exercise in Fiscal Year 1999. The HCPDS plans include women and men ages 20–54 in 57 different job categories.[82] As of May 2003, the Defense Department has said the most likely form of draft is a special skills draft, probably of health care workers.[83]

text: Legality[edit]

text: In 1918, the Supreme Court ruled that the World War I draft did not violate the United States Constitution in the Selective Draft Law Cases. The Court summarized the history of conscription in England and in colonial America, a history that it read as establishing that the Framers envisioned compulsory military service as a governmental power. It held that the Constitution's grant to Congress of the powers to declare war and to create standing armies included the power to mandate conscription. It rejected arguments based on states' rights, the 13th Amendment, and other provisions of the Constitution.

text: Later, during the Vietnam War, a lower appellate court also concluded that the draft was constitutional. United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968).[84] Justice William O. Douglas, in voting to hear the appeal in Holmes, agreed that the government had the authority to employ conscription in wartime, but argued that the constitutionality of a draft in the absence of a declaration of war was an open question, which the Supreme Court should address.

text: During the World War I era, the Supreme Court allowed the government great latitude in suppressing criticism of the draft. Examples include Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)[85] and Gilbert v. Minnesota, 254 U.S. 325 (1920).[86] In subsequent decades, however, the Court has taken a much broader view of the extent to which advocacy speech is protected by the First Amendment. Thus, in 1971 the Court held it unconstitutional for a state to punish a man who entered a county courthouse wearing a jacket with the words "F*ck the Draft" visible on it. Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).[87] Nevertheless, protesting the draft by the specific means of burning a draft registration card can be constitutionally prohibited, because of the government's interest in prohibiting the "nonspeech" element involved in destroying the card. United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).[88]

text: Since the reinstatement of draft registration in 1980, the Supreme Court has heard and decided four cases related to the Military Selective Service Act: Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), upholding the Constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register for the draft; Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), 468 U.S. 841 (1984), upholding the Constitutionality of the first of the federal "Solomon Amendment" laws, which requires applicants for Federal student aid to certify that they have complied with draft registration, either by having registered or by not being required to register; Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985), upholding the policies and procedures which the Supreme Court thought the government had used to select the "most vocal" nonregistrants for prosecution, after the government refused to comply with discovery orders by the trial court to produce documents and witnesses related to the selection of nonregistrants for prosecution; and Elgin v. Department of the Treasury, 567 U.S. ____ (2012), regarding procedures for judicial review of denial of Federal employment for nonregistrants.[89]

text: In 1981, several men filed lawsuit in the case Rostker v. Goldberg, alleging that the Military Selective Service Act violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by requiring that men only and not also women register with the Selective Service System. The Supreme Court upheld the act, stating that Congress's "decision to exempt women was not the accidental byproduct of a traditional way of thinking about women", that "since women are excluded from combat service by statute or military policy, men and women are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft, and Congress' decision to authorize the registration of only men therefore does not violate the Due Process Clause", and that "the argument for registering women was based on considerations of equity, but Congress was entitled, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to focus on the question of military need, rather than 'equity.'"[90]

text: The Rostker v. Goldberg opinion's dependence upon deference on decision of the executive to exclude women from combat has garnered renewed scrutiny since the Department of Defense announced its decision in January 2013 to do away with most of the federal policies that have kept women from serving in combat roles in ground war situations. Both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force had by then already opened up virtually all positions in sea and air combat to women. At least two lawsuits have been filed challenging the continued Constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register with the Selective service System: National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System (filed April 4, 2013, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; dismissed by the District Court July 29, 2013 as not "ripe" for decision; appeal argued December 8, 2015 before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals;[91] reversed and remanded February 19, 2016[92]), and Kyle v. Selective Service System (filed July 3, 2015, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey), brought on behalf of Elizabeth Kyle-LaBell, who tried to register but was turned away because she is female.[93]

text: Conscientious objection[edit]

text: According to the Selective Service System,[94]

text: The Supreme Court has ruled in cases United States v. Seeger[95] (1965) and Welsh v. United States[96] (1970) that conscientious objection can be by non-religious beliefs as well as religious beliefs; but it has also ruled in Gillette v. United States (1971) against objections to specific wars as grounds for conscientious objection.[97]

text: There is currently no mechanism to indicate that one is a conscientious objector in the Selective Service system. According to the SSS, after a person is drafted, he can claim Conscientious Objector status and then justify it before the Local Board. This is criticized because during the times of a draft, when the country is in emergency conditions, there could be increased pressure for Local Boards to be more harsh on conscientious objector claims.

text: There are two types of status for conscientious objectors. If a person objects only to combat but not to service in the military, then the person could be given noncombatant service in the military without training of weapons. If the person objects to all military service, then the person could be ordered to "alternative service" with a job "deemed to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety, and interest".

text: Poverty Draft[edit]

text: The poverty draft is a controversial belief in some circles that low-income demographics are either intentionally targeted by the military for recruitment, or that their low socioeconomic status makes enlistment especially attractive, such that they are overrepresented in the armed forces. The "poverty draft" is a term describing U.S. military recruiters' purposeful tendency to focus their recruiting efforts on inner-city and poor rural schools. The low-income youth and young people of color who attend these schools generally have fewer good educational and job opportunities than middle-class and wealthy youth and are therefore more likely to enlist. Proponents of the poverty draft view often claim that because of this the U.S. armed forces are disproportionally men and women of color and from poor and working class backgrounds.[98] [99]

text: Selective Service reforms[edit]

text: The Selective Service System has maintained that they have implemented several reforms that would make the draft more fair and equitable.

text: Some of the measures they have implemented include:[100]

text:
Before and during the Vietnam War, a young man could get a deferment by showing that he was a full-time student making satisfactory progress towards a degree; now deferment only lasts to the end of the semester. If the man is a senior he can defer until the end of the academic year.
The government has said that draft boards are now more representative of the local communities in areas such as race and national origin.
A lottery system would be used to determine the order of people being called up. Previously the oldest men who were found eligible for the draft would be taken first. In the new system, the men called first would be those who are or will turn 20 years old in the calendar year or those whose deferments will end in the calendar year. Each year after, the man will be placed on a lower priority status until his liability ends.

text: Conscription controversies since 2003[edit]

text: The effort to enforce Selective Service registration law was abandoned in 1986. Since then, no attempt to reinstate conscription has been able to attract much support in the legislature or among the public.[78] Since early 2003, when the Iraq War appeared imminent, there had been attempts through legislation and campaign rhetoric to begin a new public conversation on the topic. Public opinion since 1973 has been largely negative.

text: In 2003, several Democratic congressmen (Charles Rangel of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, John Conyers of Michigan, John Lewis of Georgia, Pete Stark of California, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii) introduced legislation that would draft both men and women into either military or civilian government service, should there be a draft in the future. The Republican majority leadership suddenly considered the bill, nine months after its introduction, without a report from the Armed Services Committee (to which it had been referred), and just one month prior to the 2004 presidential and congressional elections. The Republican leadership used an expedited parliamentary procedure that would have required a two-thirds vote for passage of the bill. The bill was defeated on October 5, 2004, with two members voting for it and 402 members voting against.

text: In 2004, the platforms of both the Democratic and Republican parties opposed military conscription, but neither party moved to end draft registration. John Kerry in one debate criticized Bush's policies, "You've got stop-loss policies so people can't get out when they were supposed to. You've got a backdoor draft right now."

text: This statement was in reference to the U.S. Department of Defense use of "stop-loss" orders, which have extended the Active Duty periods of some military personnel. All enlistees, upon entering the service, volunteer for a minimum eight-year Military Service Obligation (MSO). This MSO is split between a minimum active duty period, followed by a reserve period where enlistees may be called back to active duty for the remainder of the eight years.[101] Some of these active duty extensions have been for as long as two years. The Pentagon stated that as of August 24, 2004, 20,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines had been affected.[102] As of January 31, 2006 it has been reported that more than 50,000 soldiers and reservists had been affected.[103]

text: Despite arguments by defense leaders that they had no interest in re-instituting the draft, Representative Neil Abercrombie's (D-HI) inclusion of a DOD memo in the Congressional Record which detailed a meeting by senior leaders signaled renewed interest. Though the conclusion of the meeting memo did not call for a reinstatement of the draft, it did suggest Selective Service Act modifications to include registration by women and self-reporting of critical skills that could serve to meet military, homeland-defense, and humanitarian needs.[104] This hinted at more targeted draft options being considered, perhaps like that of the "Doctor Draft" that began in the 1950s to provide nearly 66% of the medical professionals who served in the Army in Korea.[105] Once created, this manpower tool continued to be used through 1972. The meeting memo gave DOD's primary reason for opposing a draft as a matter of cost effectiveness and efficiency. Draftees with less than two years' retention were said to be a net drain on military resources providing insufficient benefit to offset overhead costs of using them.[19]

text: Mentions of the draft during the presidential campaign led to a resurgence of anti-draft and draft resistance organizing.[106] One poll of young voters in October 2004 found that 29% would resist if drafted.[107]

text: In November 2006, Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) again called for the draft to be reinstated; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rejected the proposal.[108]

text: On December 19, 2006, President George W. Bush announced that he was considering sending more troops to Iraq. The next day, the Selective Service System's director for operations and chief information officer, Scott Campbell, announced plans for a "readiness exercise" to test the system's operations in 2006, for the first time since 1998.[109]

text: On December 21, 2006, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, when asked by a reporter whether the draft should be reinstated to make the military more equal, said, "I think that our society would benefit from that, yes sir." Nicholson proceeded to relate his experience as a company commander in an infantry unit which brought together soldiers of different socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels, noting that the draft "does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving". Nicholson later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstating the draft.[110]

text: On August 10, 2007, with National Public Radio on "All Things Considered", Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, National Security Adviser to the President and Congress for all matters pertaining to the United States Military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed support for a draft to alleviate the stress on the Army's all-volunteer force. He cited the fact that repeated deployments place much strain upon one soldier's family and himself which, in turn, can affect retention.[111]

text: A similar bill to Rangel's 2003 one was introduced in 2007, called the Universal National Service Act of 2007 (H.R. 393), but it has not received a hearing or been scheduled for consideration.

text: At the end of June 2014 in Pennsylvania 14,250 letters of conscription were erroneously posted to men born in the 19th century calling upon them to register for the US military draft. This was attributed to a clerk at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation who failed to select a century during a transfer of 400,000 records to the Selective Service. The Selective Service identified 27,218 records of men born in the 19th century made errantly applicable by the change of century and began sending out notices to them on June 30.[112]

text: On June 14, 2016, the Senate voted to require women to register for the draft, though language requiring this was dropped from later versions of the bill.[113]

text: Non-citizens[edit]

text: The Selective Service (and the draft) in the United States is not limited to citizens. Howard Stringer, for example, was drafted six weeks after arriving from his native Britain in 1965.[114][115] Today, non-citizen males of appropriate age in the United States, who are permanent residents (holders of green cards), seasonal agricultural workers not holding an H-2A Visa, refugees, parolees, asylees, and illegal immigrants, are required to register with the Selective Service System.[116] Refusal to do so is grounds for denial of a future citizenship application. In addition, immigrants who seek to naturalize as citizens must, as part of the Oath of Citizenship, swear to the following:

text: ... that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;[117]

text: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website also states however:

text: However, since 1975, USCIS has allowed the oath to be taken without the clauses: ". . .that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law...."

text: Non-citizens who serve in the United States military enjoy several naturalization benefits which are unavailable to non-citizens who do not, such as a waiver of application fees.[118] Permanent resident aliens who die while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces may be naturalized posthumously, which may be beneficial to surviving family members.[119]


document_title: Seven Natural Wonders (CNN)

question_text: which are the seven natural wonders of the world

root

text: Seven Natural Wonders (CNN)

text: Seven Natural Wonders[1] is an organization created with the mission of protecting and promoting the natural wonders of the world. The project was launched in 2008 in response to the New 7 Wonders[2][clarification needed] efforts to change the natural wonders of the world. This announcement was made following the campaign's efforts to establish a new list of modern man-made wonders.

tag: p

text: Seven Natural Wonders launched an effort to expand the 7 Natural Wonders of the World by creating campaigns to add the Seven Natural Wonders for each continent.  These campaigns differed from the efforts of New7Wonders because every wonder of nature was eligible with no requirements for entry fees and sponsorship fees of any kind.  This campaign was further distinguished by avoiding the influence of marketing, advertising and social media, with the winning wonders being determined by experts from around the world who leveraged statistical and traditional significance, uniqueness, and pure splendor.

text: Seven Natural Wonders was established to protect the original vision and declaration of the seven natural wonders of the world. Their list of the natural wonders includes:

text:
Aurora Borealis
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Mount Everest
Paricutin
Victoria Falls

tag: ul

text: The mission of Seven Natural Wonders is to promote and protect the natural wonders.[3]


document_title: The Princess and the Frog

question_text: name of the princess in princess and the frog

text: The Princess and the Frog

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 1912 New Orleans a seamstress, Eudora, is reading the story of The Frog Prince to her daughter, Tiana, and her friend, Charlotte La Bouff. Charlotte finds the story to be romantic, while Tiana proclaims she will never kiss a frog. Fourteen years later, Tiana has grown into an aspiring young chef who works as a waitress for two local diners, so she can save enough money to start her own restaurant, a dream she shared with her deceased father, James.

text: Prince Naveen of Maldonia arrives in New Orleans to better his financial situation. After being cut off by his parents, Naveen intends to marry a rich southern belle, and Charlotte is the perfect candidate. Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, a rich sugar baron and Charlotte's father, is hosting a masquerade ball in Naveen's honor. Charlotte hires Tiana to make beignets for the ball, giving her enough money to buy an old sugar mill to convert into her restaurant. Meanwhile, Naveen and his valet, Lawrence, meet Dr. Facilier, a voodoo witch doctor who plans to rule the city of New Orleans. Inviting them into his emporium, Facilier convinces them that he can make their dreams come true, but neither man gets what they are expecting; Naveen is transformed into a frog, while Lawrence is given a voodoo charm that makes him resemble Naveen. Facilier intends for Lawrence to marry Charlotte, after which he will kill Big Daddy and claim his fortune.

text: At the ball, Tiana discovers she may lose the mill to a higher bidder. Tiana then meets Naveen, who, believing her to be a princess because of her costume, asks her to kiss him and break Facilier's spell. In exchange for the money needed, Tiana accepts, but when she kisses Naveen, she is turned into a frog herself. A chase ensues, and Tiana and Naveen escape to a bayou. In the bayou, Tiana and Naveen meet Louis, a trumpet-playing alligator who longs to be human, and Ray, a Cajun firefly who is in love with the morning star, whom he calls Evangeline. Louis and Ray offer to lead Tiana and Naveen to the hoodoo priestess Mama Odie, whom they believe can undo the curse. During this time, Tiana and Naveen develop feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Facilier makes a deal with the voodoo spirits, offering them the souls of the people of New Orleans; in exchange, the spirits grant Facilier the services of a host of shadow demons, whom he orders to find and capture Naveen.

text: When the four find Mama Odie, she tells them that Naveen must kiss a true princess in order to break the spell. They return to New Orleans to find Charlotte, who is the princess of the Mardi Gras Parade, but only until midnight. Naveen tells Ray he loves Tiana and is willing to give up his dreams for her, but before he can tell her, he is captured by the demons and brought to Facilier. After Ray tells Tiana that Naveen loves her, Tiana goes to the Mardi Gras parade to find a human "Naveen" marrying Charlotte; but Ray rescues the real Naveen and steals the charm that disguises Lawrence. Ray finds Tiana, gives her the charm and attempts to hold off the demons so she can escape, but Facilier stomps on him. Facilier then offers Tiana to make her restaurant dream come true in exchange for the charm. Realizing she would rather be with Naveen, and realizing Facilier's true intentions, Tiana destroys the charm. The angered voodoo spirits claim Facilier himself as payment for his debts to them and drag him into the spirit world.

text: Tiana and Naveen then reveal their love to each other and explain the situation to Charlotte, who agrees to kiss Naveen, as Lawrence is taken away by the police. However, the clock strikes midnight before she can kiss him, but the two decide they are content to live together as frogs. Then they bid farewell to Ray, along with Louis, later to find out Ray finally joined Evangeline. Tiana and Naveen are wed by Mama Odie; and because of Tiana's new status as princess, they are restored to human form after their kiss. Later, the couple returns to New Orleans to legally get married and celebrate, and together the two open their new restaurant, with Louis performing with a band in it. The movie ends with Tiana and Naveen dancing as the two stars, Ray and Evangeline, twinkle in the sky.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Anika Noni Rose as Tiana/"Tia", a 19-year-old waitress and aspiring chef/restaurateur. She is a smart, hard-working, and independent young woman, but one who works so hard that she often forgets important things such as love, fun, and family.[4] Originally, Tiana was supposed to be known as "Maddy". Mark Henn served as the supervising animator for Tiana in both human and frog form, making her one of several Disney lead female characters he has animated.[5] Henn declared that he attempted to make a character that could stand on its own "without repeating what I've done on Belle, Ariel, and Jasmine", with Tiana having a more cynical and grounded personality. Rose's performance influenced much of the animation, with the actress even suggesting to Henn for Tiana to be left-handed like herself.[6]

Elizabeth Dampier voices Tiana as a child.

Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, the prince of Maldonia. Naveen is a 24-year-old ne'er-do-well and playboy who has been cut off from his family's riches until he learns the value of responsibility. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator of Naveen in both human and frog form.[7] As a prince from the fictional kingdom of Maldonia (which the directors describe as "located in an East of the Sun and West of the Moon location"), Campos adlibbed a French accent with his Brazilian accent to make up a Maldonian accent.[citation needed]
Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, a friendly, neurotic, trumpet-playing alligator whose dream is to become human so he can join a jazz band. His name comes from the famous jazz artist and trumpeter, Louis Armstrong. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator of Louis and other miscellaneous characters,[7] won the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work on the film.[8]
Jim Cummings as Ray, a Cajun firefly. He and his vast family are close friends with Mama Odie, so he offers to help the frogs get to her. Ray has an unrequited love for the Evening Star, which he believes is another firefly named "Evangeline" (a reference to the 19th-century Longfellow poem).[9] Mike Surrey was the supervising animator for Ray. Ray's name comes from the blind pianist Ray Charles.[7]
Keith David as Doctor Facilier, also known as The Shadow Man, a voodoo bokor (witch doctor). Bruce W. Smith, supervising animator of Doctor Facilier, referred to the character as the "lovechild" of his two favorite Disney Villains: Captain Hook from Peter Pan (1953), and Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).[10] Smith was nominated for the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production for his work.[8]
Jennifer Cody as Charlotte "Lottie" La Bouff, a wealthy Southern débutante and Tiana's best friend since childhood who dreams of marrying a prince. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator of Charlotte as an adult and child.[7] Jennifer Cody won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production for her performance.[8]

Breanna Brooks voices Charlotte as a child.

Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie, a blind, 197-year-old voodoo priestess, who serves as the film's 'Fairy Godmother figure'. Andreas Deja was the supervising animator for both Mama Odie and her pet snake, Juju, and was nominated for the Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production.[8][11]
Peter Bartlett as Lawrence, Prince Naveen's valet, whom Dr. Facilier recruits as a partner in his scheme by transforming him to look like Naveen using a blood charm. Anthony DeRosa was the supervising animator for the Lawrence character, whose design was influenced by the Mr. Smee character from Peter Pan.[9]
John Goodman as Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff, a very wealthy Southern sugar mill owner and father of Charlotte La Bouff. While he spoils Charlotte with everything she asks for, he is a loving and generous man, and loves Tiana's cooking. Duncan Marjoribanks was the supervising animator for Eli "Big Daddy" La Bouff.[7]
Oprah Winfrey as Eudora, Tiana's mother who wants to see her happy and worries that Tiana focuses too much on her dream of owning a restaurant.[12] Ruben A. Aquino animated both Eudora and her husband, James.[7]
Terrence Howard as James, Tiana's father, who helped instil a strong work ethic in Tiana. He served in World War I as evidenced by a dresser-top portrait photo of him in a World War I uniform. The circumstances of his death were not stated in the film; however, his portrait is accompanied by the Distinguished Service Cross, a US medal awarded to soldiers who demonstrated great heroism or risk of life in battle.
Frank Welker as Stella (vocal effects), Charlotte's pet dog who talks to Tiana during the film, when she is chasing Tiana and Naveen as frogs on the table. She loves Tiana's beignets and begs at Tiana when she wants one.
Dee Bradley Baker as Juju, Mama Odie's green pet snake.
Corey Burton and Jerry Kernion as the Fenner Brothers, two real estate agents who eventually sell Tiana the sugar mill under duress after initially refusing because someone else was offering to pay for it in cash, and because they believed Tiana could not manage it because of her background.[13]
Ritchie Montgomery, Don Hall, and Paul Briggs as Reggie, Darnell, and Two-Fingers, three bumbling frog hunters who try to catch Tiana and Naveen as frogs. Their resemblance to the Three Stooges has been noted.
Kevin Michael Richardson and Emeril Lagasse as Ian and Marlon, the two alligators.

text: Production[edit]

text: Early development[edit]

text: Disney had once announced that 2004's Home on the Range would be their last traditionally animated film. After the company's acquisition of Pixar in 2006, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, the new president and chief creative officer of Disney Animation Studios, reversed this decision and reinstated hand-drawn animation at the studio.[14][15] Many animators who had either been laid off or had left the studio when the traditional animation units were dissolved in 2003 were located and re-hired for the project.[16] Lasseter also brought back directors Ron Clements and John Musker, whose earlier works include The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), and Treasure Planet (2002).[17][18] The duo had left the company in 2005, but Lasseter requested their return to Disney to direct and write the film and had let them choose the style of animation (traditional or CGI) they wanted to use.[9]

text: The story for the film began development by merging two projects in development at Disney and Pixar at the time, both based around the "Frog Prince" fairy tale.[9][16] One of the projects was based on E. D. Baker's The Frog Princess, in which the story's heroine (Princess Emma) kisses a prince turned frog (Prince Eadric), only to become a frog herself.[16] The Princess and the Frog returns to the musical film format used in many of the previously successful Disney animated films, with a style Musker and Clements declared, like with Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, had inspiration from Golden Age Disney features such as Cinderella.[6]

text: Musker and Clements thought that given all fairy tales were set in Europe, they could do an American fairy tale.[6] They stated that they chose New Orleans as a tribute to the history of the city, for its "magical" qualities, and because it was Lasseter's favorite city.[9][19] The directors spent ten days in Louisiana before starting to write the film.[6]

text: The Princess and the Frog was originally announced as The Frog Princess in July 2006,[14] and early concepts and songs were presented to the public at the Walt Disney Company's annual shareholders' meeting in March 2007.[20] These announcements drew criticism from African-American media outlets, due to elements of the Frog Princess story, characters, and settings considered distasteful.[21][22] African-American critics disapproved of the original name for the heroine, "Maddy", due to its similarity to the derogatory term "mammy".[21] Also protested were Maddy's original career as a chambermaid,[22] the choice to have the black heroine's love interest be a non-black prince, which upset opponents of on-screen interracial romance,[21] and the use of a black male voodoo witchdoctor as the film's villain.[21] The Frog Princess title was also thought by critics to be a slur on French people.[23] Also questioned was the film's setting of New Orleans, which had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, resulting in the expulsion of a large number of mostly black residents.[24] Critics claimed the choice of New Orleans as the setting for a Disney film with a black heroine was an affront to the Katrina victims' plight.[21][24]

text: In response to these early criticisms, the film's title was changed in May 2007 from The Frog Princess to The Princess and the Frog. The name "Maddy" was changed to "Tiana",[23][25] and the character's occupation was altered from chambermaid to waitress.[21] Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was hired as a technical consultant for the film, leading to her taking a voice-acting role in the film as Tiana's mother, Eudora.[9]

text: Writing and themes[edit]

text: The head of story, Don Hall, described the plot as a fairy tale "twisted enough that it seems new and fresh", with a kingdom that is a modern city, a handsome prince that is a "knuckleheaded playboy" and a variation on the fairy godmother with Mama Odie. Co-writer Rob Edwards also said The Princess and the Frog was "a princess movie for people who don't like princess movies". As the writers thought Tiana's character motivation of simply dreaming of having her own restaurant was not appealing enough, they expanded so it was her father's as well, with the extra philosophy of "food bringing people together from all walks of life". Musker and Clements stated that while Tiana already starts as a sympathetic character, the events of the plot make her "understand things in a deeper level" and change people around her. Both protagonists would learn from each other—Naveen to take responsibilities, Tiana to enjoy life—as well as figuring from Ray's passion for Evangeline that the perfect balance is brought by having someone you love to share the experience.[6] Tiana became the first African-American Disney Princess.[26][27]

text: Voice cast[edit]

text: On December 1, 2006, a detailed casting call was announced for the film at the Manhattan Theatre Source forum.[28] The casting call states the film as being an American fairy tale musical set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age and provides a detailed list of the film's major characters.

text: In February 2007, it was reported that Dreamgirls actresses Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose were top contenders for the voice of Tiana, and that Alicia Keys directly contacted Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook about voicing the role.[29] It was later reported that Tyra Banks was considered for the role as well.[30] By April 2007, it was confirmed that Rose would be voicing Tiana.[31] Three months later, it was reported that Keith David would be doing the voice of Dr. Facilier, the villain of the film.[32]

text: Animation and design[edit]

text: Clements and Musker had agreed early on that the style they were aiming for was primarily that of Lady and the Tramp (1955), a film which they and John Lasseter feel represents "the pinnacle of Disney's style".[33] "After that, everything started becoming more stylized, like Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians—which are fantastic films as well, but there's a particular style (to 'Lady and the Tramp') that's so classically Disney."[34] Lady and the Tramp also heavily informed the style of the New Orleans scenes, while Disney's Bambi (1942) served as the template for the bayou scenes.[33] Bambi was described as a stylistic reference for the painted backgrounds, as according to art director Ian Gooding "Bambi painted what it feels like to be in the forest instead of the forest" so The Princess and the Frog would in turn try capturing the essence of roaming through New Orleans.[6]

text: The former trend in Disney's hand-drawn features where the characters and cinematography were influenced by a CGI-look has been abandoned. Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney animator who supervised the character of Mama Odie, says "I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing. So we are doing less extravagant Treasure Planet kind of treatments. You have to create a world but [we're doing it more simply]. What we're trying to do with Princess and the Frog is hook up with things that the old guys did earlier. It's not going to be graphic…".[35] Deja also mentions that Lasseter was aiming for the Disney sculptural and dimensional look of the 1950s: "All those things that were non-graphic, which means go easy on the straight lines and have one volume flow into the other—an organic feel to the drawing."[35] Lasseter also felt that traditional animation created more character believability.[36] For example, with Louis the alligator, created by Eric Goldberg, Lasseter said: "It's the believability of this large character being able to move around quite like that."[36] Choreographer Betsy Baytos was brought by the directors to lead a team of eccentric dancers that gave reference to make each character a different style of movement. The character design tried to create beautiful drawings through subtle shapes, particularly for most characters being human. For the frog versions of Tiana and Naveen, while the animators started with realistic designs, they eventually went for cutesy characters "removing all that is unappealing in frogs", similar to Pinocchio's Jiminy Cricket.[6]

text: Toon Boom Animation's Toon Boom Harmony software was used as the main software package for the production of the film, as the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) system that Disney developed with Pixar in the 1980s for use on their previous traditionally animated films had become outdated.[37] The Harmony software was augmented with a number of plug-ins to provide CAPS-like effects such as shading on cheeks and smoke effects.[11][35] The reinstated traditional unit's first production, a 2007 Goofy cartoon short entitled How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, was partly animated without paper by using Harmony and Wacom Cintiq pressure-sensitive tablets. The character animators found some difficulty with this approach, and decided to use traditional paper and pencil drawings, which were then scanned into the computer systems, for The Princess and the Frog.[11]

text: The one exception to the new Toon Boom Harmony pipeline was the "Almost There" dream sequence, which utilized an Art Deco graphic style based on the art of Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas.[38] Supervised by Eric Goldberg and designed by Sue Nichols,[39] the "Almost There" sequence's character animation was done on paper without going through the clean-up animation department,[9] and scanned directly into Photoshop. The artwork was then enhanced to affect the appearance of painted strokes and fills, and combined with backgrounds, using Adobe After Effects.[10][11]

text: The visual effects and backgrounds for the film were created digitally using Cintiq tablet displays.[11][40] Marlon West, one of Disney's veteran animation visual effects supervisors, says about the production; "Those guys had this bright idea to bring back hand-drawn animation, but everything had to be started again from the ground up. One of the first things we did was focus on producing shorts, to help us re-introduce the 2D pipeline. I worked as vfx supervisor on the Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. It was a real plus for the effects department, so we went paperless for The Princess and the Frog." The backgrounds were painted digitally using Adobe Photoshop, and many of the architectural elements were based upon 3D models built in Autodesk Maya.[11] Much of the clean-up animation, digital ink-and-paint, and compositing were outsourced to third-party companies in Orlando, Florida (Premise Entertainment), Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Yowza Digital Animation), and Brooklin, São Paulo, Brazil (HGN Produções).[7]

text: Music[edit]

text: During Disney's 2007 shareholder meeting, Randy Newman and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band performed the film's opening number, "Down in New Orleans", with famous New Orleans singer Dr. John singing, while slides of pre-production art from the film played on a screen.[20] Other songs in the film include "Almost There" (a solo for Tiana), "Dig a Little Deeper" (a song for Mama Odie), "When We're Human" (a song for Louis, Tiana and Naveen [as frogs]), "Friends on the Other Side" (a solo for Doctor Facilier), and "Gonna Take You There" and "Ma Belle Evangeline" (two solos for Ray).[20] Newman composed, arranged, and conducted the music for the film, a mixture of jazz, zydeco, blues, and gospel styles performed by the voice cast members for the respective characters while R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo wrote and performed the end title song "Never Knew I Needed", an R&B love song referring to the romance between the film's two main characters, Tiana and Naveen. Supported by a music video by Melina, "Never Knew I Needed" was issued to radio outlets as a commercial single from the Princess and the Frog soundtrack.[41]

text: The film's soundtrack album, The Princess and the Frog: Original Songs and Score, contains the ten original songs from the film and seven instrumental pieces. The soundtrack was released on November 23, 2009, the day before the limited release of the film in New York and Los Angeles.[42]

text: Release[edit]

text: The film premiered in theaters with a limited run in New York and Los Angeles beginning on November 25, 2009, followed by wide release on December 11, 2009.[43] The film was originally set for release on Christmas Day 2009, but its release date was changed due to a competing family film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, scheduled for release the same day.[44] The Princess and the Frog enjoyed a limited re-release in AMC Theatres, lasting from October 6–12, 2017 as part of the Dream Big, Princess campaign.[45][46]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: The Princess and the Frog was supported by a wide array of merchandise leading up to and following the film's release. Although Disney's main marketing push was not set to begin until November 2009, positive word-of-mouth promotion created demand for merchandise well in advance of the film.[47] Princess Tiana costumes were selling out prior to Halloween 2009, and a gift set of Tiana-themed hair-care products from Carol's Daughter sold out in seven hours on the company's website.[47] Other planned merchandise includes a cookbook for children and even a wedding gown.[47] Princess Tiana was also featured a few months before the release in the Disney on Ice: Let's Celebrate! show.[48] The film itself was promoted through advertisements, including one from GEICO where Naveen, as a frog, converses with the company's gecko mascot.[49]

text: A live parade and show called Tiana's Showboat Jubilee! premiered on October 25, 2009, at the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida,[50] and on November 5 at Disneyland in California.[51] In Disneyland, actors in New Orleans Square paraded to the Rivers of America and boarded the park's steamboat.[51] From there, the cast, starring Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis the alligator, and Doctor Facilier, would sing songs from the movie, following a short storyline taking place after the events of the film. The Disneyland version's actors actually partook in singing, while the Walt Disney World rendition incorporated lip-syncing.[51]

text: Tiana's Showboat Jubilee! ran at both parks until January 3, 2010.[50][51] At Disneyland Park, the show was replaced by a land-based event called Princess Tiana's Mardi Gras Celebration, which features Princess Tiana along with five of the original presentation's "Mardi Gras dancers" and the park's "Jambalaya Jazz Band" as they perform songs from the movie.[52] "Tiana's Mardi Gras Celebration" officially ended on October 3, 2010. However, it returned to Disneyland from 2011-2013 as part of the "Limited Time Magic" family-fun weekends.[53][54][55]

text: Tiana also appears in Disneyland Paris' New Generation Festival.[56] Some of the characters appear frequently during World of Color, the nightly fountain and projection show presented at Disney California Adventure. Disney announced on June 4, 2009, that they would release a video game inspired by the film and it was released on November 2009 exclusively for Wii and Nintendo DS platforms. It has been officially described an "adventure through the exciting world of New Orleans in a family-oriented video game", featuring events from the film and challenges for Princess Tiana.[57]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The Princess and the Frog was released in North America on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 16, 2010.[58]

text: The film is available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc combo pack editions; the combo pack includes DVD and digital copies of the film, along with the Blu-ray Disc version.[58] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Australia on June 2, 2010, and on June 21, 2010, in the United Kingdom. As of December 2010 the DVD has sold 4,475,227 copies and has made $71.3 million in DVD sales,[59] making it the ninth-best-selling DVD of 2010.[60]

text: Reception[edit]

text: The financial and critical success of The Princess and the Frog persuaded Disney to green-light at least one new hand-drawn animated film to be released every two years.[16] However, the blog /Film noted in July 2014 with the release of hand-drawn concept art for the 2013 computer animated film Frozen, that any future hand-drawn animated films have been "killed" for the time being due to The Princess and the Frog failing "to ignite the box office".[61] Two months later, however, many Disney artists announced they were working on a new independent hand drawn animated film, Hullabaloo as part of an attempt to bring back hand-drawn animation.[62] Despite such speculation, Walt Disney Animation Studios has continued to use both hand-drawn animation and computer animation in subsequent films.

text: Box office[edit]

text: On its limited day release, the film grossed $263,890 at two theaters and grossed $786,190 its opening weekend.[63][64] On its opening day in wide release, the film grossed $7 million at 3,434 theaters.[65] It went on to gross $24.2 million over the opening weekend averaging $7,050 per theater,[66] ranking at #1 for the weekend, and making it the highest-grossing start to date for an animated movie in December, a record previously held by Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.[67] The film went on to gross $104.4 million (in the United States and Canada) and $267 million (worldwide), making it a box office success, and became the fifth-highest-grossing animated film of 2009.[68] While the film did out-gross Disney's more recent hand-drawn films such as The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range, it was less auspicious than the animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios' 1990s heyday. Disney animator Tom Sito compared the film's box office performance to that of The Great Mouse Detective (1986), which was a step up from the theatrical run of the 1985 box office bomb The Black Cauldron.[69]

text: Looking back on the experience four years later, Catmull acknowledged that Disney had made a "serious mistake" in the process of marketing and releasing the film.[70] The Walt Disney Studios' marketing department had warned Disney Animation that the word "princess" in the title "would lead moviegoers to think that the film was for girls only," but the animation studio's management insisted on keeping the "princess" title because they truly believed that the film's excellent quality and beautiful hand-drawn animation would bring in all quadrants anyway.[70] In Catmull's words, this belief "was our own version of a stupid pill."[70] The marketing department turned out to be correct in their prediction that many moviegoers would and did avoid the film because they thought it was "for little girls only."[70] This error was further compounded by the fact that the film opened five days before Avatar.[70]

text: Looking back seven years later, Lasseter told Variety: "I was determined to bring back [hand-drawn animation] because I felt it was such a heritage of the Disney studio, and I love the art form … I was stunned that Princess didn't do better. We dug into it and did a lot of research and focus groups. It was viewed as old-fashioned by the audience."[71]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The film received largely positive reviews from critics, praising the animation, characters, music and themes. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of 191 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10.[72] The site's general consensus is that "The warmth of traditional Disney animation makes this occasionally lightweight fairy-tale update a lively and captivating confection for the holidays."[73] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 from film critics, has a rating score of 73 based on 29 reviews.[74]

text: Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" grade and applauded the film's creative team for "uphold[ing] the great tradition of classic Disney animation".[75] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised Walt Disney Animation for "rediscovering its traditional hand-drawn animation" and for "a thing called story".[76] David Germain of the Associated Press wrote that "The Princess and the Frog is not the second coming of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. It's just plain pleasant, an old-fashioned little charmer that's not straining to be the next glib animated compendium of pop-culture flotsam."[77] Justin Chang of Variety was less receptive, stating "this long-anticipated throwback to a venerable house style never comes within kissing distance of the studio's former glory".[78] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film 3/5 stars while saying "The Princess and the Frog breaks the color barrier for Disney princesses, but is a throwback to traditional animation and her story is a retread".[79] Village Voice's Scott Foundas found that "the movie as a whole never approache[d] the wit, cleverness, and storytelling brio of the studio's early-1990s animation renaissance (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) or pretty much anything by Pixar".[80] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review claiming that "the dialogue is fresh-prince clever, the themes are ageless, the rhythms are riotous and the return to a primal animation style is beautifully executed."[81] Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and admired Disney's step back to traditional animation, writing, "No 3-D! No glasses! No extra ticket charge! No frantic frenzies of meaningless action! And…good gravy! A story! Characters! A plot! This is what classic animation once was like!", but stated that the film "inspires memories of Disney's Golden Age it doesn't quite live up to, as I've said, but it's spritely and high-spirited, and will allow kids to enjoy it without visually assaulting them."[82]

text: S. Jhoanna Robledo of Common Sense Media gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "First African-American Disney princess is a good role model".[83] Saint Bryan of the NBC-TV Seattle praised the film and called it "The Best Disney Movie Since The Lion King".[84]

text: Upon its release, the film created controversy among some Christians over its use of Louisiana Voodoo as a plot device.[85] Christianity Today's review of the film cited its sexual undertones and use of voodoo, arguing that the scenes with Dr. Facilier and his "friends on the other side" contain many horror elements and that young children might be frightened by the film.[86] The film's treatment of Louisiana voodoo as a type of magic instead of a religion also drew criticism from non-Christian factions.[87]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and twice for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to Up and Crazy Heart, respectively.[3][88] It was also nominated for eight Annie Awards and, at the 37th Annie Awards Ceremony on February 6, 2010, won three.[8]

text:
Award
Category
Nominee
Result

2009 Satellite Awards[89]
Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media
The Princess and the Frog
Nominated

Best Original Song
Randy Newman
(Almost There)

Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

African-American Film Critics Association Awards 2009
Top 10 Films
The Princess and the Frog
Won

Best Screenplay
John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Edwards — Tied with Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

2009 Producers Guild of America Awards[90]
Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Peter Del Vecho
Nominated

2009 Online Film Critics Society Awards[91]
Best Animated Feature
The Princess and the Frog

67th Golden Globe Awards[92]
Best Animated Feature Film

2009 Chicago Film Critics Association[93]
Best Animated Feature

2009 Critics Choice Awards[94]
Best Animated Feature

Best Score
Randy Newman

Best Song
(Almost There)

2009 Black Reel Awards[95]
Best Film
The Princess and the Frog

Best Song, Original or Adapted
Ne-Yo
(Never Knew I Needed)

Anika Noni Rose
(Almost There)
Won

Anika Noni Rose
(Down in New Orleans)
Nominated

Best Voice Performance
Keith David

Anika Noni Rose
Won

Best Ensemble
The Princess and the Frog
Nominated

37th Annie Awards[8]
Best Animated Feature

Animated Effects
James DeValera Mansfield
Won

Production Design in a Feature Production
Ian Gooding
Nominated

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Andreas Deja

Eric Goldberg
Won

Bruce W. Smith
Nominated

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jennifer Cody ("Charlotte")
Won

Jenifer Lewis ("Mama Odie")
Nominated

82nd Academy Awards[3][88]

Best Animated Feature
John Musker and Ron Clements

Best Music, Original Song
Randy Newman
(Almost There)

Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

41st NAACP Image Awards
Outstanding Motion Picture

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Anika Noni Rose

36th Saturn Awards[96]
Best Animated Film
The Princess and the Frog

2010 Teen Choice Awards[97][98]
Choice Movie: Animated

2011 Grammy Awards[99]
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Randy Newman
(Down in New Orleans)

Women Film Critics Circle
Best Animated Females
Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), Jennifer Cody (Charlotte La Bouff), Oprah Winfrey (Eudora), Jenifer Lewis (Mama Odie), and all other female characters in The Princess and the Frog.
Won

text: Television[edit]

text:
Tiana made a guest-appearance on Sofia the First in the season 2 episode titled "Winter's Gift".[100]
A live-action version of Tiana is also a main character on the seventh season of Once Upon a Time.[101][102][103]