Military academies criticized for eliminating books related to Dei de Libraries

In the US Naval Academy, it is not what is on the shelves what is drawing attention, but what is missing.

The institution’s Nimitz library has been stripped of 381 titlesAccording to a list published for the first time in the New York Times, including works that explore the breed, gender and national identity.

The sacrifice includes “I know why the caged bird Sing” by Maya Angelou, “how to be an anti -racist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “In doubt bodies” by Elizabeth Reis and “White Rage” by Carol Anderson. None was prohibited directly, only that “is not available immediately”, a spokesman for the Naval Academy, CMDR. Tim Hawkins, he said. The books, he said, had been placed in a room where customers could no longer access them.

The executive order of January 29 of President Donald Trump, entitled “Radical Ending Acdoctrination in K-12 Schooling” has spread to cover the military academies of the country. With the language aimed at what he called “ideology of discriminatory equity” and “gender ideology”, which later called “the tyranny of the so -called diversity, equity and inclusion policies,” the order established in motion extensive, reviews and institutional confusion.

“There are no clear criteria,” News Katherine Kuzminki, director of Studies of the New American Security Center, told ABC News. “Leave the leadership struggle: how do we guarantee compliance without being accused of excessive correction?”

Kuzminski said that military leaders, bound by a strict code to obey legal orders, are dealing with what she called the ambiguity of politics. “Particularly in the Air Force,” he said, “when the learning module of the aviators of Tuskegee was eliminated from basic training for a few days, leadership was trying to continue with the best intentions.”

The Marine Leadership Department determined which books required extraction in the Naval Academy Library, Hawkins told ABC News.

Initially, the officials recorded the Nimitz library catalog, using key word searches, to identify books that required an additional review, Hawkins said. Approximately 900 books were identified during the preliminary search, he said, and department officials closely examined the preliminary list to determine which books required the elimination to comply with the directives described in the executive orders issued by the President.

That finally turned out that almost 400 books are selected for the elimination of the Nimitz library collection, he said.

Historians and former military officers told ABC News that the implications are chilling. Richard Kohn, a military historian and former chief historian of the Air Force, sees the movement as a “cleaning” effort. “It reveals a certain type of weakness in the confidence of the current administration,” he said. “They are determined to appeal to their circumscription Maga by going back decades of progress in race, religion and diversity.”

For Kohn, deleting these books from the shelves sends a clear message to the cadets: to advance the army, avoid certain ideas.

The colonel retired from the US Air Force, Thomas Keaney, the main member of the School of Advanced International Studies Johns Hopkins, spoke about how far academies have come, and how far they said they risk backing. “When I was there,” he said, “it was a only white institution,” he said about the United States Air Force Academy. “It was the poorest for that.” Education, he insisted, is an exhibition. “You’re not damaging people letting them read,” he said.

In a letter to the Secretaries of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, Democratic Representatives Adam Smith and Chrissy Houlahan described the book Remalls “a flagrant attack on the first amendment” and “an alarming return to the censorship of the McCarthy era”.

They demanded to know who ordered the removals, the process used and what titles were purging, while urging an immediate high.

The academies have issued carefully written answers, or none, when ABC News asks for comments.

The US Marines Academy. UU. It did not respond to repeated applications. The US Naval Academy, the US Air Force Academy and the United States Coast Guard Academy issued short statements that affirmed compliance with executive orders, but offered few details.

“The Coast Guard Academy is carrying out an exhaustive review of its curriculum to ensure compliance with all executive orders,” said a spokesman.

The spokesman of the US Naval Academy. UU. Confirmed that “almost 400 books” had been eliminated from their Nimitz library, explaining the movement as an effort “to guarantee the fulfillment of all the directives described in the executive orders issued by the president.”

He emphasized what he called the robust collection of the library, about 590,000 printed books and thousands of academic resources, framing books as minors compared to the size of the general collection. “The mission of the Naval Academy,” added the spokesman, “is to develop moral, mentally and physically … to prepare them for service careers to our country.”

In the US Air Force Academy, a spokesman said that a review of the curriculum was underway “to guarantee our fulfillment of executive orders.”

But external voices in military academic circles warned that the problem goes beyond compliance, saying that it hits the core of intellectual development.

“You can’t make ideas safe for people, but you can make people safe for ideas,” said Kohn, who specializes in civil-military relations. “If you do not guide students in academies to understand what is happening in American society, don’t really educate them.”

Keaney, former United States Air Force officer, was more circumspect but equally worried. “I don’t think anyone hurt when reading something, no matter how nut or outside their own culture,” he said. “You are not damaging people exposing them to ideas. On the contrary, you are training them to be demanding leaders. Give them a chance. Do not leave them to treat ignorance.”