Empoword Journalism

Trump vs History: Censorship In The Department Of Defence

jessrmckeown
Vintage picture of women in military-like uniforms marching in a row.

Content warning: This article contains details of sexual assault

Jessica McKeown

Recently, the Associated Press obtained a database of more than 26,000 images and online posts flagged for deletion at the US Defence Department. Why? Because they have been marked as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content.

Images marked for deletion in the US Defence Department database include records of Enola Gay – the bomber plane that dropped the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima – along with references to Women’s History Month and a World War II Medal of Honor recipient.

The history of the US military is being selectively erased, and women and minorities are the casualties.

Targeting The Few

Since day one of Trump 2.0, DEI policies have been under attack with the signing of an executive order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”. Mere days into his second term, Trump blamed DEI hiring policies as the cause of the collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane over Washington DC. 

The Trump administration’s war on DEI has unsurprisingly veered into attacking women and minorities, dismissing their qualifications and implying they only got the job because of their gender, race or sexuality – just to name a few.

But this isn’t just a series of disgustingly prejudiced acts, it’s rewriting history, and it sets a dangerous precedent.

Alarm bells have been ringing since before election day. In fact, months before Trump won in 2016, leading neo-conservative columnist Robert Kagan warned that “This is how fascism comes to America, not with jackboots and salutes […] but with a television huckster, a phony billionaire, a textbook egomaniac.”

Is this blatant attempt to erase history another step toward America’s descent into fascism?

Fascism, Historical Revisionism And Censorship

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) deletions feel more like an attempt from the Trump administration to erase women and minorities from military history, undoing decades of progress. Returning public perception of the military to being tough and manly allows the Republicans to create a mythos of strong conservative values. This includes, ironically, defending freedom and conveying the message that women don’t belong in the military.

“The attacks on DEI policies show a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of these policies.”

Indeed, there are many tools in a fascist’s toolbox and censoring the press, academia and political opponents, are just a few the U.S. is becoming familiar with.

To rally people around a leader or cause and create a nationalist identity, the go-to tool is historical revisionism. This can take the form of shutting down historical centres, rewriting textbooks and the erasure of records and images to present a preferred version of events. In other words, propaganda. 

“Anti-DEI is now becoming a socially accepted form of government-supported racism. “

One world leader who seems to be employing historical revisionism is Vladmir Putin. He used it to paint Russia as the heroes against Nazism and justify their invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since their 2014 annexation of Crimea, Russia has repeatedly claimed that a neo-Nazi regime is in charge of Ukraine. In 2021, Putin shut down the Soviet-era Memorial organisation, which was founded in the late 1980s to preserve the memory of the USSR’s atrocities. In 2023, new history textbooks were rolled out to high school seniors echoing Kremlin propaganda about the war in Ukraine.

However, this isn’t just happening in the US and Russia. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has taken steps to weave the narrative that Hungary is a defenceless victim of the Nazis and Soviets. However, he has made it clear it is under his rule that Hungary can now stand up for itself.

It’s A Man’s World: Treatment Of Women In The Military

In April 2020, soldier Vanessa Guillén was reported missing from Fort Hood, Texas. Two months later, her body was found. Aaron Robinson, Guillén’s supervisor, is accused of bludgeoning her to death, but committed suicide when he learnt her body had been found.

Robinson’s secret girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, claimed that Robinson murdered Guillén because she saw a photo of Aguilar – who was still married to another soldier – on Robinson’s phone and he thought she would report him for breaking fraternisation rules.

Before her disappearance, however, Guillén told her family that she was being sexually harassed by an unidentified sergeant and that complaints against him by other victims were dismissed. In August 2022, Guillén’s family launched a civil lawsuit against the US military for $35 million for her sexual harassment, assault and wrongful death. 

“If historic moments of women’s inclusion are being erased, it wouldn’t be surprising if next on the list is data on their safety.”

Sexual assault in the US military is a widespread issue. Figures from the Department of Defense estimated 35,900 cases of sexual assault in the military in 2021, though Brown University believes it could be twice that. However, the DoD reported that in 2023 there were 7,000 fewer cases than 2021.

If historic moments of women’s inclusion are being erased, it wouldn’t be surprising if next on the list is data on their safety. And who knows what may happen with Biden’s efforts to tackle this issue with the executive order making sexual harassment in the military a crime.

The Irony Of Anti-DEI

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s claims that he is returning the military to hiring based on merit are ironic given that many of Trump’s senior appointees are suspected to have been hired based on loyalty rather than qualifications. 

The attacks on DEI policies show a fundamental misunderstanding of the point of these policies. Unqualified candidates aren’t being hired as air traffic controllers just because they are an ethnic minority. It means that qualified candidates aren’t rejected solely because of their sex, sexuality, able-bodiedness or race. Anti-DEI feels more like a socially accepted form of government-supported racism. 

One question remains: will other governmental departments follow suit in erasing women and minorities?

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Image courtesy of Museums Victoria on Unplash. No changes have been made to this image. Image license found here.

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