A civilian West Point professor made a public spectacle of his exit from the US Military Academy and, in the process, inadvertently proved the wisdom of the policies he was griping about. Dr. Graham Parsons, professor of philosophy and a 13-year veteran of West Point's civilian faculty, took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to announce that the academic environment at West Point has shifted focus and he was just not going to take it: Opinion | West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate.

The op-ed was in response to the directive by President Trump (Two New Trump Executive Orders Are Guaranteed to Make Pete Hegseth's Life Really Interesting – RedState) and amplified into policy by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Pentagon Orders Academies to Remove DEI/Anti-Racism From Libraries, Admit Candidates Solely on Merit – RedState). The Trump administration and Hegseth's team focused on changing the service academies from clones of elite liberal northeast private colleges and returning to their roots as institutions dedicated to producing top-quality military leaders. Quite honestly, unless that focus exists, there is no reason for the service academies, as ROTC produces officers on par with academy graduates at a fraction of the cost.

This was not something Doctor Parsons, who studies "the relationship between military ethics and gender, especially masculinity," could accept. It was fine when West Point held mandatory seminars for officers-in-training titled "Understanding Whiteness and White Rage." But getting back to warfighting was a bridge too far.

It turned out to be easy to undermine West Point. All it took was an executive order from President Trump and a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dictating what could and couldn’t be taught in the military and its educational institutions.

Truthfully, West Point and its sister institutions were undermined long before Trump was elected or Hegseth tabbed to lead the Department of Defense. In March 2024, West Point formally retired the phrase "Duty, Honor, Country" from its mission statement (West Point 'Updates' Venerable Mission Statement, Disgracefully Removes 'Duty, Honor, Country' – RedState).

Then came the executive order from Mr. Trump on Jan. 27 and Mr. Hegseth’s memo two days later. Mr. Trump’s order prohibited any educational institution operated by the armed forces from “promoting, advancing or otherwise inculcating” certain “un-American” theories, including “gender ideology” and the idea that “America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.”

Mr. Hegseth’s memo went further, adding that the service academies were prohibited even from providing instruction about such topics. Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth also ordered that the academies shall “teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.”

These were brazen demands to indoctrinate, not educate.

The requirement to remove Critical Race Theory and its idiot offspring, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, from West Point's curriculum and administration could only have come as a shock to the most arrogant leftists who thought the rules did not apply to them. The coming changes were announced by Hegseth shortly after the November election when Trump said he would be Secretary of Defense; see YES! Pete Hegseth Takes Aim at Gender Ideology in Service Academies. – RedState. Trump reshaping the Boards of Visitors who oversee the academies was another sign that things would change (Making Our Military Great Again: Trump Fires Service Academy Boards of Visitors – RedState).

According to the good professor, rather than eradicating bankrupt and destructive concepts from the curriculum, "students should engage with them and debate their merits rather than be told they are too dangerous even to be contemplated." I'm guessing Jim Crow and Naziism should also be studied.

What followed was a horror show, in Parsons's view:

Department heads ordered reviews of syllabuses and then demanded changes. West Point scrapped two history courses (Topics in Gender History and Race, Ethnicity, Nation) and an English course (Power and Difference). The sociology major was dissolved, and a Black history project at the history department was disbanded. Department leaders forced professors to remove from their courses works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and other women and men of color.

One of my supervisors ordered professors to get rid of readings on white supremacy in Western ethical theory and feminist approaches to ethics in Philosophy and Ethical Reasoning, a course I direct that is required for all cadets. A West Point student debate team was even told that it couldn’t take certain positions at a forthcoming competition.

To me, the real question is why this stuff was taught in a military academy to begin with. Why are we teaching "white supremacy in Western ethical theory and feminist approaches to ethics" to future officers? How is this aiding their education and, more importantly, how is it not brainwashing? Why does a military academy have a sociology department, and why did it offer a minor in "diversity and inclusion studies?"

The Pentagon responded to Parsons's cri de coeur in a very "sorry, not sorry" way.

This article was written by a woke professor who will be RESIGNING in the coming months because he “cannot tolerate these changes.”

AKA, he's so upset that @SecDef is REMOVING DEI from West Point that he is RESIGNING… GOOD pic.twitter.com/xJO2pCFxSh

— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) May 8, 2025

In fact, I suspect that Parsons would have been asked to leave at the end of the semester had he not announced his departure.

The cultural rot and leftist drift have been visible at West Point and the other academies for years (The Saga of the Commie Lieutenant Comes to an End – RedState). The arrival of Pete Hegseth may have inconvenienced Professor Parsons and his fellow travelers in the "long march through the institutions," but it has a chance to make the service academies relevant once again.

Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions” is readily visible everywhere we look. The politicization of our Armed Forces presents an existential danger to the United States. The Trump administration is attempting to change the focus from playing politics and leftist indoctrination to fighting and winning wars. Join RedState VIP and help continue our coverage to keep you abreast of this critical struggle. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.