Decades of DOD efforts fail to stamp out bias, extremism

In February, with the images of the violent insurrection in Washington still fresh in the minds of Americans, newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took the unprecedented step of signing a memo directing commanding officers across the military to institute a one-day stand-down to address extremism within the nation’s armed forces. Following the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, white U.S. service members based at the Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam naval base, celebrated his death by parading around the base in Ku Klux Klan-style white sheets and hoisted a Confederate flag atop the headquarters building, according to the 1997 book “Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War.” In the 1970s, extremism in the military gained national attention when the Ku Klux Klan was found to be operating openly at Camp Pendleton, a U.S. Marine Corps base in southern California. Thus DoD does not prohibit personnel from joining such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan.” Weinberger did issue a directive instructing service members to “reject participation in white supremacy, neo-Nazi and other such groups which espouse or attempt to create overt discrimination.” But critics say the military’s response fell short and failed to meet the moment by not instituting new, stricter policies. During last week’s press conference announcing the new guidelines on extremism Kirby also emphasized that the DOD does not screen service members’ social media posts for extremist content: “There’s no methodology in there. He also questioned whether military officials will be able to uniformly enforce and establish “intent” behind a service member’s decision to like or share extremist views and posts on social media.