Joseph Stalin conducted two enormous purges of Red Army officers that decimated its leadership. During the first in 1937-38, three marshals were executed; 13 Army Commanders were removed, and 50 Corps Commanders – some exiled, many killed. All were accused of being ideological traitors.
Stalin was no fool; he understood after cutting off the head of his military that it wasn’t ready to fight Nazi Germany. Many historians view Stalin’s Non-ggression pact with Hitler, which allowed Hitler to fight on a single front and conquer Western Europe, as motivated by his knowledge that unravelling his own army threatened national security.
Now the US is going through our own military purge of what had been acclaimed as the world’s best-led, best-equipped, and best-trained military. At the end of his first term, President Trump accused his Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley, of treason for making two calls to his Chinese counterpart, and said that, in earlier times, “the punishment would have been DEATH.” In the second administration, Trump has appointed a Secretary of Defence (“War”) whose military experience consisted only of serving in the National Guard, achieving the rank of major. Nevertheless, Pete Hegseth has strong views on proper qualifications for promotion. The two principal requirements appear to be whiteness and maleness.
Hegseth blames any problem on race, gender and political belief. That he is factually wrong on every count has not prevented him from making policies that dishonour the traditions of the American military. He has called for and ordered what are widely believed to be war crimes. And, as with Stalin in World War II, the military and the country continue to pay the price.
Hegseth seems obsessed with the conviction that the military is being taken over by unqualified Black officers. Approximately 19 per cent of members of the military are Black, somewhat above the percentage in the general population. Only around 9 per cent of officers are Black, and only 6.5 per cent of generals and admirals (flag officers). Black officers just don’t become generals as often as their white counterparts. Even fewer attain three- or four-star rank where real power is exercised. How “woke” is military leadership when the percentage of Black officers is less than half the overall percentage of Black people in the military? It is not that Hegseth is opposed to Black soldiers; he just doesn’t want to see them promoted.
As Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.” But in this administration, facts don’t matter; only opinions driven by fantasy. Hegseth wrote in his 2024 book The War on Warriors that “America’s white sons and daughters” are walking away from the military because of “woke” ideology that is too “effeminate” and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion to the country’s detriment. When talking about race, he includes white daughters; when he talks about women in the military, not so much. “I’m straight up just saying we shouldn’t have women in combat roles,” he wrote.
Women, of course, comprise more than 50 per cent of the US population but between 17 and 18 per cent of the military. Here again, the number of women in command plummets. Of a total of 900 flag officers, about 8.3 per cent are women, less than half their overall strength in the armed forces generally.
“When I think about my career in uniform,” he reflected, “in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire.’” Immune to irony, Hegseth, of course, does not see his own appointment as the ultimate Maga diversity hire.
Hegseth has acted on his prejudices by systematically overriding long-established multi-step and multi-factor merit board procedures. And he has fired some of the most respected senior officers in the military for similar reasons: that they are Black or women, or that they support the promotion of Black people and women.
This year alone, Hegseth has blocked the promotions of 40 people who have been through rigorous, systematic vetting at every stage. As former Four-Star Admiral William McRaven wrote, “President Trump, upon advice from Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, has relieved or forced the retirement of some of the finest officers that have ever served this nation.” Half of the officers cashiered by Hegseth are minorities or women.
Last year, Hegseth dismissed General CQ Brown, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who had been appointed Air Force Chief of Staff by Trump in his first term, before being named JCS Chair by President Biden. What was Brown’s great failing? “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, or whatever, that was involved in any of that DEI woke shit has got to go,” Hegseth offered and in a masterpiece of reverse-reverse racism, speculated: “Was it because of his skin colour? Or his skill?”
General Brown was the second Black Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Colin Powell was the first. He was an inspirational leader to his troops, to African-Americans and to all Americans. He was a thoughtful strategist who coined the Powell doctrine, which called for using military force only when there was a vital national interest, a clear objective, a commitment to overwhelming force, public support and a clear exit strategy.
Powell also supported affirmative action and racial healing. He wrote that the military was an “integrated society” where no one cared about the colour of his skin, only what kind of soldier he could become.”
“The Army was living the democratic ideal ahead of the rest of America,” he said. Pete Hegseth is killing that ideal, with the full permission of Donald Trump.
If Powell lived today, he would not have met the Pete Hegseth test. Today’s national security policy is driven by impulse and narcissism, aided by a Secretary of Defence (or War) who lacks the knowledge or courage to see the experience in the remarkable organisation he leads. And just as on the eve of World War II, the world is watching.
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