The letter signed by Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and John Kerry of Massachusetts and Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois argued that Rumsfeld's remarks at a Jan. 7 Pentagon news conference were offensive to veterans.

"We are shocked, frankly, that you were apparently willing to dismiss the value of the service of millions of Americans, tens of thousands of whom gave their lives for their country in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam," they wrote.

Rumsfeld made his comments in response to a reporter's question about an effort by some in Congress to reinstitute the draft. Rumsfeld said he saw no need for a draft because the all-volunteer system works better.

"If you think back to when we had the draft, people were brought in, they were paid some fraction of what they could make in the civilian manpower market because they were without choices," Rumsfeld said.

"Big categories were exempted - people that were in college, people that were teaching, people that were married. It varied from time to time, but there were all kinds of exemptions. And what was left was sucked into the intake, trained for a period of months, and then went out, adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone."

The letter to Rumsfeld said he had distorted the historical record.

"It is not only inaccurate, but also deeply offensive, to describe the service of these men who answered the call of their country as without value," they wrote. "A more careful look at the record indicates that America's draftees played a crucial role in defense of liberty and democracy around the globe."

Pentagon officials on Tuesday evening said they were preparing a written statement in response to the letter.

The letter said that about one of every three Americans killed in combat in Vietnam was a draftee, approximately 20,000 draftees in all. "Many more draftees came home with severe physical and emotional scars," they added. "Those who served in Korea and the two world wars can also attest to the value added by draftees."

The Pentagon initially responded to a Washington Post report on Rumsfeld's remarks by saying the newspaper had misconstrued his meaning. Rumsfeld's chief spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, wrote in a letter to the Post published Monday that Rumsfeld's point was that "conscription as a system suffers by comparison with the all-volunteer force."

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