CNN —
The Pentagon has ordered all military academies to identify and remove books from their libraries that deal with issues such as race, gender ideology, and other “divisive concepts” that are now considered “incompatible with the department’s core mission,” according to a memo obtained by CNN.
The memo, dated Friday, is signed by the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and also announces the creation of a temporary Academic Libraries Committee “comprised of knowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals” from across the Defense Department who will help identify and “sequester” the offending books for further review.
The books must be identified and set aside for review by May 21, the memo says.
The committee has already developed a list of search terms to help military leaders identify books that may need to be removed. The terms include: “Affirmative action,” “anti-racism,” “allyship,” “diversity in the workplace,” “gender transition,” “white privilege,” and “critical race theory,” according to an attachment to the memo.
The establishment of a special committee to review books for removal across the military academies marks an escalation of the Defense Department’s efforts to eliminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” content across the military.
In a separate memo released on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said there will be “no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex” in admissions to US military academies, which will focus admissions “exclusively on merit.” The memo ordered the service academies to rank candidates, starting with the 2026 admissions cycle, “by merit-based scores,” accepting the highest-ranking candidates in each nomination category.
“Merit-based scores may give weight to unique athletic talent or other experiences such as prior military service or performance at a MSA preparatory school,” the memo says. It’s unclear how the directive will impact the ability of US senators to recommend people for admission to the military academies.
The Naval Academy has already removed nearly 400 books from its main library in an attempt to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order in January mandating the removal of all “diversity, equity, and inclusion” content from K-12 schools, which Hegseth later said also applied to military academies.
The Naval Academy also canceled a lecture that author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give to students there last month after he refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy’s decision to remove the books, CNN reported.
A tenured professor of philosophy at West Point wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday that he was resigning after 13 years at the school because it was “suddenly eliminating courses, modifying syllabuses and censoring arguments to comport with the ideological tastes of the Trump administration.” The professor, Graham Parsons, wrote that West Point was interpreting Hegseth’s order “broadly,” and conducting “a sweeping assault on the school’s curriculum and the faculty members’ research.”
In response to Parson’s op-ed, Hegseth posted on X on Thursday, “You will not be missed Professor Parsons,” and the DoD’s rapid response account called Parsons “woke.”
Students and parents also told CNN last month that the anti-DEI policy is having a direct impact on students at Defense Department schools around the globe, as classes like AP Psychology and certain student clubs and books have been banned from DoD schools. The ACLU has sued DoD over the policy.
Meanwhile, articles about the Holocaust, the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention were among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the department scrambled to comply with Hegseth’s order.
The Friday memo standing up the libraries committee said the review of the book removals would be “deliberate” and conducted by “experts in the fields of education and the department’s mission.”
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