“The U.S. Service Academies and other defense academic institutions shall teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered late last month. Unfortunately, it is not entirely clear what the secretary meant by this.
The order appears in a Jan. 29 memo that is largely devoted to eradicating the Pentagon’s diversity-equity-inclusion efforts. In their eagerness to comply, some agencies have broadly interpreted this mandate. The Air Force, for example, temporarily took down historical accounts of the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots, while the National Security Agency is reported to be indiscriminately deleting “DEI-related” words, many of which have specific intelligence-related meanings.
Professional military education schools might respond in similar fashion, stripping curricula of sources and material that present a putatively unauthorized perspective. This could lead to the teaching of what Michael Howard, the past century’s preeminent historian of war, called “nursery history”: a “selective and heroic view of the past” designed to “create or sustain certain emotions or beliefs” rather than foster a deeper understanding. Nursery history reduces competitors and enemies to caricatures, and complex national problems to sloganeering and sound bites.
For the military, this is especially concerning. No decision carries greater consequence for a nation than the one to use military power to address a national problem. America’s military leaders must possess the wherewithal and confidence to understand and explain such decisions to their subordinates. Honing this ability requires military leaders to spend their careers as students of America, learning about its history and its founding documents from multiple perspectives.
Seven areas are particularly important to understand about America and its founding.
First, students need to understand the political currents of the day. As in all periods, these events and documents did not occur in a vacuum, but rather in a broader political environment. This means introducing students to public intellectuals such as Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu. Their works, and reactions to them, capture some of the intellectual ferment during the American Revolutionary era. They, in turn, provide some of the key ideas that shaped key founding documents to include the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Second, in conjunction with the key political ideas of the day, students need to appreciate the vast global role of the British Empire during the 1700s. This includes understanding how Britain governed other colonies, to include India and Canada, as well as the thirteen American colonies. It also means studying Britain’s global wars. The American colonies existed as part of the British Empire and their gradual decision to revolt occurred within this context.
Third, students should better understand the differences that set the American colonies apart from each other, including variations in populations, economies, and governments. In colonial days, for example, a visitor from Massachusetts stopping in Georgia could encounter a world more foreign to him than if he had traveled to Britain. The final version of the founding documents accounted for these differences, and forced the colonies to work hard on compromise.
Fourth, students need to look in detail at the Revolutionary War, which played a critical role in shaping the nation. They need to understand why the war went north to Canada; why the writing of the Declaration of Independence occurred a year into the war; how the war was fought in the different theaters; why allies played such a major role in America’s victory; and how Gen. George Washington used the war to shape a nascent national army.
Fifth, military students should examine several foundational documents: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, even James Madison’s notes from the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. Collectively, they capture the era’s different views on government and governance, and help explain some of the Constitutional compromises. Most notably, these included the passing of the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, and equating enslaved individuals to “three fifths” of a person. Study would also reveal how ideas such as Montesquieu’s separation of powers worked their way into the Constitution.
Sixth, they should develop an appreciation of how early presidential administrations filled in gaps left by the Constitution. Article Two, Section 1, for example, is silent on how many terms someone should serve as President, and Section 2 is vague on the role of the President as Commander-in-Chief. George Washington played a vital role in establishing norms for both. John Adams, Washington’s successor, established a precedent for accepting tough election results, gracefully making way for Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. The establishment and respect for norms of behavior, especially early in the nation’s history, mattered to the evolution of the American republic.
Finally, military personnel need to understand the role the American Civil War played in reshaping the Constitution. Only after the war did African-Americans become fully people under the Constitution, whose 13th, 14th and 15th amendments abolished slavery, clarified the rights of citizenship, and established that the right to vote could not be denied because of race. The war also shaped the wording of officers’ commissioning oath.
All this, of course, is just a starting point. Much more needs to be explored, such as how war insinuated itself into the founding documents, affected civilian and military roles and responsibilities, and shaped American military culture over time. Such examinations should occur routinely throughout a career, allowing military students to revisit, test, and revise their conclusions about America and its founding documents. These educational experiences would also deepen their understanding of their oath to the Constitution, and the republic they serve.
Such an approach should meet Secretary Hegseth’s commitment to understand America and its founding documents, and encourage officers and cadets to learn the nuances of both. Individual perspectives will vary, but the Founders would understand and applaud that. In a democracy, an officer corps comprised of thoughtful individuals with a reasoned understanding of their nation, its foundations, and subsequent history makes for a stronger, more stable military than one inculcated with nursery history.
Paula Thornhill is a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
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