May 10 (UPI) — The Pentagon has ordered senior military leaders to pull and review library books from educational institutions that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues.
The Department of Defense on Friday issued a six-page memo “to identify library materials that may conflict with our core mission. The Department’s instructional materials should be mission-focused and not promote divisive concepts and gender ideology.”
“The Secretary has been clear: We are building a colorblind, merit-based culture that promotes and rewards individual initiative, excellence, and hard work,” Pentagon senior advisor Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Military educational institutions “are focused on the core warfighting mission of the Department while upholding the principles of intellectual freedom necessary to educate military leaders ready to fight and win the Nation’s wars,” the memo reads.
It was signed by Timothy Dill, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
Military schools, which include War Colleges and military service academies, have been told to identify this content no later than May 21.
The search will include 20 Library of Congress subject headings, including as affirmative action, anti-racism, critical race theory, discrimination, diversity in the workplace, gender affirming care, gender dysphoria, gender expression, transgender people, White privilege.
Then, experts in the fields of education will decide by June which books to remove from shelves, according to the memo.
“All reviews will use a ‘viewpoint-neutral’ approach, using definitions laid out in Executive Order 14168, ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,’ and Executive Order 13950, ‘Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,'” the memo reads.
In early April, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., removed 381 books from its library before a visit by Secretary Pete Hegseth. Officials had reviewed nearly 900 books.
Removed were books honoring Jewish female academy graduates, women who served during the Civil War and lessons discussing the Tuskegee Airmen‘s and Women’s Air Force Service Pilots’ services during World War II.
The libraries at Army West Point in New York and Air Force in Colorado were also told to find books related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
In March, an article about baseball icon Jackie Robinson‘s military history was “mistakenly removed” from the Department of Defense website due to search terms used to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion terms, officials said.