From: citer@jetson.uh.edu (Ray (citer@jetson.uh.edu))
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Re: History will judge
Date: 27 Jan 1993 16:52 CST
Organization: University of Houston
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In article <C1Is0I.MsG@math.uwaterloo.ca>, shallit@graceland.uwaterloo.ca (Jeffrey Shallit) writes...

>In article <2542@blue.cis.pitt.edu> psg+@pitt.edu (Paul S Galvanek) writes:
>>In article <93025.095440MMB3@psuvm.psu.edu> MMB3@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>>Answer this
>>question - without regard to the specifics of the policy of gays in the
>>military -  tell me when in your lifetime, if ever, did you see the Joint
>>Chiefs of Staff AND it's [sic] Chairman publicly oppose the policies of the President?
>>When in your memory can you tell me of a time when the military establishment
>>threatened to fight the President to the end on a policy that hasn't even 
>>been formulated yet
> 
>Well, I think we have to go back exactly 45 years.  True, that is not
>in my lifetime, but I trust Mr. Galvanek will be willing to listen to
>a history lesson.
> 
>The year is 1948.  Truman is a Democratic President.  The armed forces
>are segregated, and black soldiers, despite the unquestioned heroism
>in World War II, cannot serve side-by-side with white soldiers.
> 
>Congress is "dominated by a conservative coalition that included the
>Dixiecrats, a group of sometimes racially reactionary southerners...
>Congress showed little interest in civil rights".  [1]   [Today,
>Sam Nunn, a "Dixie democrat", shows little interest in gay rights.]
> 
>One of Truman's first domestic programs is a national health
>project.  [Sound familiar?]
> 
>The President's Committee on Civil Rights examines the state of civil
>rights in the armed forces and concludes that a segregated military is
>unjust, and calls for sweeping changes.  [Just as in our time, the
>DoD's own studies have concluded that there is no valid reason for
>maintaining the discriminatory policy against lesbians and gay men.]
> 
>Forrestal, the Secretary of Defense urges that "progress must be made
>administratively, and not put into effect by fiat."  [1]  [Is there
>a parallel to Les Aspin's cautionary remarks?]
> 
>Dwight Eisenhower, "the nation's most widely admired hero-general...
>testified that he believed racial segregation should not be
>discontinued at the platoon level or below."  [2]   [Like Colin
>Powell's view on gays today?  A little irony there, considering Powell
>is black.]
> 
>On July 26, Truman issues Executive Order 9981, calling on the armed
>forces to provide equal treatment and opportunity for black serviceman.
>In 1940, he had said
> 
>	"In giving Negroes the rights which are theirs we are only acting
>	in accord with our own ideals of a true democracy.  If any CLASS
>	[emphasis mine] or race can be permanently set apart from, or
>	pushed down below the rest in political and civil rights, so may 
>	any other class or race when it shall incur the displeasure of
>	its more powerful associates, and we may say farewell to the
>	principles on which we count our safety."  [1]
> 
>[Just as Clinton has the courage to call for changes today.]
> 
>On July 28, the army's Chief of Staff, Omar Bradley, declared that
>the Army would have to retain segregation as long as it was the
>national pattern.  [1]   [Like Gordon Sullivan's opposition to gays
>today?]
> 
>The Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel for the Air Force reported
>that "you didn't have to scratch far to run into opposition" to
>integration.
>[Like Merrill A. McPeak's opposition to gays today?]
> 
>So there you have it:  the situation in 1948 was similar in many respects
>to the situation in 1993.  And what happened?  According to the DOD's
>own report [quoted in 3]:
> 
>	The order to integrate blacks was first met with stout resistance
>	by traditionalists in the military establishment.  Dire
>	consequences were predicted for maintaining discipline, building
>	group morale, and achieving military organizational goals.  None
>	of these predictions of doom has come true.
> 
>Can we learn from history?  
> 
> 
>References
>----------
> 
>[1]  Morris J. Macgregor, Jr.  _Integration of the Armed Forces 1940-1964_,
>Defense Studies Series, Center of Military History, United States Army,
>Washington, DC  1981.
> 
>[2]  Richard Kluger, _Simple Justice:  The History of Brown v. Board of
>Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality_, Alfred A. Knopf,
>New York, 1976.
> 
>[3]  United States General Accounting Office Report GAO/NSIAD-92-98,
>_Defense Force Management: DOD's Policy on Homosexuality_, June 1992.
> 

PS.  Don't forget what President Truman did with General McArthur when
     McArthur forgot who was Commander-in-Chief.

Ray (citer@jetson.uh.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton