In a memo last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a Pentagon directive ordering all military leaders to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, racism or gender issues. Materials that promote "divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department's core mission," says the memo.
The memo relates to Hegseth's campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies, and instructional materials. The deadline for identifying the books and sequestering them is May 21.
AFN spoke with Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness. She explains what the rationale behind the directive could be.
"They are going to be looking at books and programs to find those that are promoting … things like divisive concepts, gender ideology, [that] some people should be discriminated against by others, divisions – one race is better than the other," she says.
"Any kind of program that promotes that kind of ideology would come up in the course of this review. We don't need all of those kinds of materials in the libraries of our military educational institutions."
But Donnelly contends such materials shouldn't necessarily be pulled because they do retain some value for those in the military.
"I think you have to see them. You have to be able to understand the ideology if you're going to have debates," she argues. "You can't really debate if you don't know what the opposition argument is and know it better than they do.
"[That's why] I'm not in favor of removing books from libraries," she concludes. "But it should be made very clear that because a book is there, that doesn't mean the Department of Defense or the service academies are endorsing it."
The temporary committee set up to conduct the reviews and make the decisions about the books provided a list of search items that are to be used in the initial phase, including such terms as affirmative action, critical race theory, diversity, transgender, and white privilege.
