The U.S. military is cutting ties with one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious universities, citing the school’s “woke” indoctrination programs and left-wing activism. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced in a video message posted to social media late Friday that all graduate-level fellowships and certificate programs that the Department of War engages in with Harvard University will end.
“Today, this university, with such a unique history, which receives billions of our federal tax dollars, is one of the red-hot centers of ‘Hate America’ activism,” Hegseth averred, after detailing Harvard’s historical ties to the U.S. military. He contrasted the Harvard that served as a military base for George Washington during the Revolutionary War against the Harvard of today, which vilifies the military and penalizes patriotism. Hegseth commented, “They’ve replaced open inquiry and honest debate with rigid orthodoxy. In our line of work, ideological automatons are useless. We need leaders who can wrestle with multiple viewpoints, professionals who can think critically and independently to solve important questions.”
“Even more troubling is Harvard’s partnership with our adversaries,” Hegseth warned, pointing out the university’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and widespread support for the terrorist organization Hamas, among both professors and students. “DEI was literally founded at Harvard,” he added, pointing out the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and refusal to abide by U.S. Supreme Court decisions barring discrimination on the basis of race.
“Why should the War Department support an environment that’s destructive to our nation and the principles that the vast majority of Americans hold dear? The answer to that question is that we should not, and we will not,” Hegseth, who graduated with a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard in 2013, affirmed. Referring to the announcement as “long overdue,” he said that sending the military’s “best and brightest” to Harvard has not equipped them to be better soldiers or leaders. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard: heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks,” the War Secretary commented. “We train warriors, not wokesters. Harvard, good riddance.”
In comments to The Washington Stand, Lt. General (Ret.) William G. Boykin, one of the founding members of Delta Force and executive vice president at Family Research Council, said, “No one should be surprised by this action by the Secretary of War (SOW). From the beginning of his tenure, he has made it clear that the number one priority within our military services is to be ready and able to win the nation’s wars.” He continued, “Harvard is a bastion of DEI and liberal ideology, including Marxism. Those in military courses at Harvard are not getting anything from that institution that helps them to be better warriors.”
“Secretary Hegseth is doing what’s right and needed to bring our military back to where it needs to be,” Boykin asserted, noting Harvard’s “disturbing” history of on-campus anti-Semitism. “Just look around, and you will see that America has a lot of enemies as well as a lot of friends. Look at what’s going on with Iran and the major deployment of forces. There is nothing that I can think of that Harvard could offer to the warriors that are headed into the Middle East,” Boykin continued. “Therefore, I am in total support of what the SOW is doing, and I also believe that it is something that should have been done long ago. It took the leadership of President Trump and Pete Hegseth to finally get a grip on reality and take this bold move.”
Not only will the U.S. military be terminating its academic connections with Harvard, but Hegseth also ordered the Army, Navy, and Air Force to reevaluate their connections to Ivy League universities. “The Ivy League as a whole has pervasive institutional bias and a lack of viewpoint diversity, including the coddling of toxic ideologies, that undercuts our mission right here in this building,” he said, in ordering a review of relevant programs. “The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs at the War Department,” Hegseth explained. “We will strive to maximize taxpayer value in building lethality, to establish deterrence. It’s that simple. That no longer includes spending millions of dollars on expensive universities that actively undercut our mission and undercut our country.”
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand, a news division of the Family Research Council.
Editor’s Note: Bringing Back Biblical Recognition And Religious Freedom
In addition to combating dangerous progressive ideology in the nation’s military, under the Trump Administration, the Department of War has also been working to bring back Biblical recognition and religious freedom to America’s armed forces.
This has included the Pentagon’s first “Christmas Worship Service” this past December, led by Franklin Graham, monthly prayer services, and major policy changes to prioritize religious liberty.
“In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth emphasized. “There will be a top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual wellbeing on the same footing as mental and physical health, as a first step toward creating a supportive environment for our warriors and their souls.”
“You each day are asked to do impossible things, work impossible hours, at impossible odds, which mere men and women could not do,” he noted at the Pentagon’s worship service in December, adding that prayer has played a critical role in the United States since the days of George Washington. “That’s why we bend the knee, because we know where our strength comes from, and we need that wisdom and that guidance, that providential guide in our own lives as we try to act on behalf of our nation.”
