Lawsuit against West Point reveals what USMA has been doing to eradicate radical leftist DEI ideology

STARRS

An article by the Associated Press about a West Point law professor (above) suing the military academy on behalf of over a 100 civilian professors because they say West Point has restricted their speech actually reveals what USMA has been doing to eradicate the radical, leftist CRT/DEI/Woke ideology at the academy. An ideology much brought to the Academy by—you guessed it—the civilian professors.

Oh the articles/information we have about these professors, perhaps starting with the Muslim professor of Middle East History who encouraged the radicalization of cadet Spencer Rapone. You remember Rapone, the anti-American Marxist cadet who bragged Communism will win.

An unbelievable disgrace to all those in the Army (and other services) who fought and died fighting Communism during the Cold War.

Other articles re West Point professors:

From the AP article, West Point is violating the First Amendment with a crackdown on professors, citing what the lawsuit says, we can draw out:

• The school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to “carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions.”

• In February, the military academy at West Point issued a policy preventing faculty members from using the schools’ “affiliation or branding” in connection with any public comments or writings without the academy’s approval.

• The academy in the spring withdrew books from its library.

• Removed words and phrases from faculty members’ syllabi.

• Eliminated courses and majors.

• “Threatened or punished” faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school.

• During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members’ published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members’ webpages on the school’s website.

• The Academy directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom.

All of this was to stop the CRT/DEI/Woke agenda and ideology from being pushed. If they hadn’t gone so woke, the Academy would have never needed to do any of this.

The complainant West Point law professor Tim Bakken is the author of this 2020 book (and after reading the description, it’s rather hard to understand why he is at West Point and why WP would want him there as an instructor; apparently USMA won’t even carry this book in their stores):

The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military

Description: A courageous and damning look at the destruction wrought by the arrogance, incompetence, and duplicity prevalent in the U.S. military―from the inside perspective of a West Point professor of law.

Veneration for the military is a deeply embedded but fatal flaw in America’s collective identity. In twenty years at West Point, whistleblower Tim Bakken has come to understand how unquestioned faith isolates the U.S. armed forces from civil society and leads to catastrophe.

Pervaded by chronic deceit, the military’s insular culture elevates blind loyalty above all other values. The consequences are undeniably grim: failure in every war since World War II, millions of lives lost around the globe, and trillions of dollars wasted.

Bakken makes the case that the culture he has observed at West Point influences whether America starts wars and how it prosecutes them.

Despite fabricated admissions data, rampant cheating, epidemics of sexual assault, archaic curriculums, and shoddy teaching, the military academies produce officers who maintain their privileges at any cost to the nation. Any dissenter is crushed.

Bakken revisits all the major wars the United States has fought, from Korea to the current debacles in the Middle East, to show how the military culture produces one failure after another.

The Cost of Loyalty is a powerful, multifaceted revelation about the United States and its singular source of pride.

One of the few federal employees ever to win a whistleblowing case against the U.S. military, Bakken, in this brave, timely, and urgently necessary book, and at great personal risk, helps us understand why America loses wars.

The Self-Deluded Hubris at the Heart of the American Military
By Tim Bakken in Literary Hub, March 2020

The military’s loyalty to itself and determined separation from society have produced an authoritarian institution that is contributing to the erosion of American democracy.

The hubris, arrogance, and self-righteousness of officers have isolated the military from modern thinking and mores.

As a result, the military operates in an intellectual fog, relying on a philosophy and practices that quite literally originated at West Point 200 years ago. By dint of their rank, officers implicitly trust their own judgment, even when it runs counter to basic facts. . . . .

Complaint (pdf):

TIM BAKKEN, Individually and on behalf of a putative class of all those similarly-situated
v
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY; LT. GENERAL STEVEN W. GILLAND, in his Official Capacity; BRIGADIER GENERAL SHANE R. REEVES, in his Official Capacity; COL. KRISTA WATTS, in her Official Capacity; COL. WINSTON WILLIAMS, in his Official Capacity; COL. JOSHUA BERRY, in his Official Capacity; and LT. COL. CAITLIN CHIARAMONTE, in her Official Capacity

Pulling out some items:

38. During his employment at USMA, Plaintiff has spoken out critically about certain policies and practices of the Academy and/or the U.S. Military.

39. By way of example, in 2011, Plaintiff reported to a previous Dean and Vice Dean what he believed was wrongdoing by senior military officers at West Point – namely that military Department Heads were hiring retired military officers into civilian faculty positions over more qualified civilian applicants and paying them more than better-qualified civilian faculty members.

C. USMA begins to scrutinize faculty speech.

45. On January 27, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order that referred to the federal service academies.

46. The Executive Order reads, in part, “The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall carefully review the leadership, curriculum, and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions associated with their respective Departments to ensure alignment with this order. In addition, these institutions shall be required to teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.” See Executive Order, Restoring America’s Fighting Force, § 6(c), (Jan. 27, 2025) available at, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoringamericas-fighting-force/ (last visited Sept. 16, 2025).

47. In the spring of 2025, USMA withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members’ syllabi, eliminated courses and majors, and threatened or inflicted punishment on faculty members for engaging in teaching, speaking, and writing without the prior approval of Defendants or other Department Heads at USMA.

48. In the summer of 2025, USMA removed from all faculty members’ webpages on the USMA website the “Publications” tab, which had listed the faculty members’ published books, articles, essays, and scholarship entries. (STARRS NOTE: Hmmm, now WHY would they do that, unless those materials were mostly shown to be woke, such as Professor Morton Ender’s transgender scholarship?)

49. Upon information and belief, USMA took the actions described in Paragraphs “47” through “48” above, at least in part, because of the January 27, 2025 Executive Order.

“Horrors”, West Point leaders were following the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of Defense’s orders, but the WP professors dismissed that as patronizing Trump and Hegseth only in order to keep their positions.

. . . . . continuing to fight back against the Executive Orders

He’s worried his second book critical of West Point and the military won’t be approved.

No more pushing left-leaning ideology in the classroom, is that so hard? Apparently.

Yet during the Biden administration, those with conservative or patriotic viewpoints were shamed, silenced and discriminated against, and the enforcement of radical left CRT ideology certainly “chilled” classroom speech.

Boots On The Ground Perspectives

These are from West Point:

Here is an excerpt from a cadet critique of their “leadership course”: “It should not be so clear what my instructor’s political views are, especially if the instructor is a military officer. The instructor may not be aware of this but it was very prevalent from day one. I am being told what views are right and wrong (seems like the opposite of the free country I am willing to fight for)… apparently I am wrong to believe that the military should be comprised of a bipartisan group of Americans! -(We need) less politicization of the class. This should be upheld no matter what the views are. I am at a military academy, not a liberal arts school, and there needs to exist a separation between politics and the military to best serve the nation.”

In-Class Accusations of Being a Racist
“In Geography class we had a class on Racism. It references Ibram X. Kendi, a Marxist, definition of racism. And they talked about “how to be an antiracist.” They went on to say if you do not actively fight against racism that you may be a racist too. And then they referred to color blind racism and they said that it uses victim blaming as its approach.”

Woke Indoctrinations In Class
“In American Politics Class they talked about how CRT and the 1619 Project is not implemented because we are forced to agree, but because it is supposed to give us another perspective on American history. He said some Americans agree with this and it’s important for officers to know all sides. It is not because they are indoctrinating us; it’s because they are trying to show us different ways of thinking. The thing is though CRT and 1619 Project are both lies and are divisive. It’s not based off fact.”

Politicizing in the Classroom
“A teacher in class was talking to us about equity vs equality. She said, “…equality is not enough and not fair.” She talked about how Kamala Harris “box model” is what we should go for because that is the only way equality can be met. She also pointed to how the poor should be given everything to become equal with the rich.”

“A student in class asked, “Is Liz Cheney a moderate Republican because she isn’t like Trump, who is an extremist Republican?” The teacher then said, “I don’t necessarily want to call a former president an extremist.” He later came back to the subject and he said, ‘This person is not an Extremist Republican like President Trump.’ I think he realized what he said so he quickly said, ‘as **** alluded to earlier…”

“Today in Physical Geography class, better known as DIRT, we did a lesson on cultural geography. A big portion of the class was dedicated to cultural changes. We talked about statues being taken down. We watched a 15 minute long video on a statue of Teddy Roosevelt getting taken down. This is the video we watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL2CW8bZ0to. I know many of you don’t have time to watch a 15 minute video so here are some things that stood out. The national park system is racist because it drove out Indians. Teddy Roosevelt was a racist. Roosevelt was an imperialist in Africa and a white suppremmist [sic]. And they even switched to a BLM chant that was calling out democracy.”

USMA cadets have a nickname for their American History class. They call it their “I hate America class.”

A West Point cadet said his freshman English class was “totally Woke.” He added that the “History of the US Army” class he is now taking is “totally CRT.”

USMA cadets complain about “Living Honorably Down Days.” During training on one of these days, cadets were required to watch 2 movies produced by governor Newsom’s wife which were full of “leftists politicians”, “leftist Hollywood personalities”, and “leftist media”. No conservative thought included.

West Point cadets were required to attend diversity events that denounced masculinity. Cadets were obliged to watch two left-wing documentaries by the wife of Gov. Newsom and featured, among others left-wing people, Jane Fonda. “I’m being taught how not to be a man,” said one cadet. “I’m going to quit West Point. It’s no longer teaching me to be a leader of men. It’s teaching me how to be a victim,” said another cadet. “The real bias we need to talk about [is] why it’s scandalous to be conservative in a professional environment but ‘brave’ to follow the crowd and be liberal,” a third cadet wrote. A fourth cadet said, “The guest speaker had us all make a black power sign a yell, ‘Fight the power!’”

USMA cadet complains to parents that 1/3 of the grade in a core course was based on “class participation” and cadet wasn’t participating much as pro CRT discussions were expected and cadet didn’t believe in CRT.

Pat Hueman, a 1962 graduate of USMA (West Point), in an email to USMA Superintendent LTG Darryl Williams (following the Superintendent’s address to Pat’s class at its 60th reunion), asked questions about various subjects, including the lack of balance between left-leaning and right-leaning speakers in recent years, as well as cadets reporting they are being taught “what to think” rather than “how to think.” Hueman had reached out to cadets, asking them to list the “liberal/radical” and the “conservative” speakers they had heard, or were told about, since January 1, 2021. Cadets listed six liberal/radical speakers and no conservative speakers.

Mr. Hueman’s email further contained an excerpt from a USMA Social Sciences syllabus that was sent to him from a West Point cadet: “EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON THE INHERENT INEQUALITIES FOUND WITHIN THE STRUCTURES, RULES AND PROCESSES OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM.” This same cadet stated that a History Department instructor showed the class a video from the 1950s called “West Point Belongs to You.” The instructor forced his opinion on the class that the video was sexist and misogynistic. When cadets wrote essays that included political points of view different from those of the instructor, the instructor scratched out cadets’ different views with a red ink pen. The instructor did not allow debate; rather the instructor told the cadets WHAT to believe.

Mr. Hueman further asked, “Did you feel sufficiently comfortable to speak against CRT tenets during class discussions?” One cadet responded, “I know many who would just go with the narrative out of fear. I didn’t because I would rather speak the truth and accept a bad grade than lies. That said, I did not feel comfortable enough to speak up against it in class.” When Mr. Hueman asked cadets about what books they were required to read, they reported, “Integrating the US Military: race, gender and sexual orientation since World War II,” described as being entirely focused on how “whites” marginalize minorities. Another heavily-biased work cited was, “Intimations,” by Zadie Smith.

The experience of a West Point grad in dealing with the woke agenda at the Academy and in the military is detailed in Pete Hegseth’s book, “The War on Warriors”.

Share this post:

Other articles re West Point professors:

You may also like

Leave a Comment X