Geoff Bennett:
Who owns history? It’s been a central question since President Trump reentered the White House. His administration’s efforts to strip diversity, equity and inclusion programs prompted the Defense Department to remove thousands of Web pages and images honoring the contributions of women and people of color, like the Navajo Code Talkers who served during the World Wars.
The Pentagon is now restoring at least some of those Web pages after much pushback, including one honoring Black Medal of Honor recipient army Major General Charles Calvin Rogers. The Web site URL had labeled that a DEI Medal of Honor, which the DOD now says was a mistake.
For a deeper look at what stories are told and which are ignored and why, we’re joined by Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.
Let’s start with the Defense Department, which has been the most active on this front. In the early days of the administration, the Pentagon temporarily removed training material about the Tuskegee Airmen. There was more recently the deleted information about the Code Talkers, which we mentioned.
Add to that Arlington National Cemetery removing histories that highlighted Black, Hispanic and female veterans from its Web site. How is the administration, in your view, seeking to shape the national identity and the historical memory with these actions?
Don Moynihan, University of Michigan: Well, the Defense Department is a great place to start.
They tell the story of American history through the story of individuals, through the story of heroes who did amazing things for the U.S. military at different points in time. And so, once you start to selectively erase the stories of those individuals, you’re also erasing American military history.
And some of that is incredibly interesting history, if you look at something like the Navajo Code Talkers, where, in that case, you can’t tell the story of how they were such an advantage during World War II without talking about their identity, because they used their tribal languages to share intelligence in a way that our military enemies could not break.
That is a very good demonstration of how diversity on the battlefield is actually a strength in a way that runs contrary to some of the messaging that’s coming from the secretary of defense right now.
