General William Westmoreland testified before the Gates Commission, which planned an all-volunteer army. He said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. The economist Milton Friedman stopped him: “General, would you rather command an army of slaves?”
Friedman went on: “If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general.” He added: “we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.” Friedman told the story in his memoir, Two Lucky People.
The draft ended, and the all-volunteer force came into effect on July 1, 1973.