I was very critical of Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos' remarks suggesting that repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell could lead to battlefield casualties. But I don't share Richard Cohen's view that he should resign in the name of "unit cohesion," although it's a cute dig:
Amos, though, is the wrong man to deal with it. His subordinates know what he thinks of gays. They know he has not an iota of sympathy for what might be their difficulties or any tolerance for their lifestyle. If I were gay, I would not want to work for the man - or serve under him. He is one step short of being a bigot.
The racial desegregation of the military in 1948 also produced much blather about unit cohesion. It is true, of course, that race is not about behavior, but it is also true that race is obvious, spotted clear across a room - or a dance hall or a noncommissioned officers club - and can produce a violent reaction. (Remember, the South was still an apartheid nation back then.) The military managed because it was commanded to comply. The leadership came from President Truman. He liked to have his orders followed.
Truman may have liked having his orders followed, but the objections of military leaders who were later tasked with integrating the military were just as loud and offensive, if not more so. As the Pentagon's DADT report notes, in 1946 Major General Idwal Edwards, said that "the Army must recognize the “ineptitude and limited capacity of the Negro soldier.” Two years later, Edwards was the one arguing that problems with integration would be “minimized if commanders give the implementation of this policy their personal attention and exercise positive control.”
Likewise, in 1948 then Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower argued in favor of segregation because “In general, the Negro is less educated…and if you make a complete amalgamation, what you are going to have in every company the Negro is going to be relegated to the minor jobs, and he is never going to get his promotion."
Military leaders opposed to integration and possessing obvious racial bias against blacks nonetheless followed orders to make it happen. Gen. Amos resigning would be a distraction and send the wrong message to an institution already concerned about the changes taking place. The best thing Gen. Amos can do now is make it clear, like his predecessors, that he expects nothing less than professionalism from the Marines under his command, and that the repeal of DADT hasn't changed that. I'm sure that's what he'll do if he hasn't already, and I have no doubts that they'll follow his lead if he does.
