The U.S. military is one of the many institutions facing the nation鈥檚 reckoning on racial injustice.
, retired Navy admiral and former NATO supreme allied commander, says it鈥檚 time for all branches of the military to rename bases that and ban public displays of the .
While he points out how far the military has come since an executive order from President Harry Truman in 1948, he says there鈥檚 still a long way to go.
鈥淚 think the services are paying attention to this issue,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we still have instances of racism. We still have pockets of concern around the military. We鈥檙e gonna be working at it like everybody else for a long time to come.鈥�
To get more Black and Latino service members to four and five-star rankings, more mentorship is needed within the organization, he says.
Stavridis believes the U.S. military can address racism while also dealing with other threats including the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淲e have leaders who are perfectly capable of focusing on their warfighting responsibilities at the same time that they focus on taking care of the force,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have the leaders who can do both.鈥�
Interview Highlights
On the issue of racism in the military
鈥淚 think we have got plenty of work to do, but we鈥檝e come a long way in the military. And if you go back to our period of time in the Second World War, we still had a very much segregated military, utterly segregated. We turned that corner I think a little before the rest of the country. By the 鈥�60s, we are a desegregated organization. Today, we have four-star African Americans. We have four-star Latinos. Within the uniformed military, we鈥檝e made a lot of progress. The Navy just named its newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier after an African American former cook named Doris Miller, who won the Navy Cross at the Battle of Pearl Harbor, just as an example.鈥�
On the difficulty of banning the Confederate flag in the military
鈥淚t will not be hard at all. First of all, in my career for 35 plus years, I just can鈥檛 remember seeing the stars and bars, so to speak, the flag, the Dixie flag up anywhere. So I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a big deal. But to my earlier comment of pockets of racism, I think there is a strain of white nationalism that runs through pockets of the military. You see that in polling data that the Military Times does, for example. So, again, we鈥檝e got work to do, but this is a layup. This is a no-brainer to get rid of the Confederate flag. And I think you鈥檒l see not only the Navy, I think you鈥檒l see the entire Department of Defense do that in the next several months.鈥�
On if service members are confused by military generals calling for unity while President Trump stokes racial divisions
鈥淚 think it is, and I think it鈥檚 deeply unfortunate. And the one thing Americans historically have looked to the presidency for is unification is a leader who can transcend the moment. Those are the great presidents. Think of Franklin Delano Roosevelt leading us through the Great Depression, coming out of, by the way, the Spanish influenza into the Great Depression. And as he becomes president and through the Second World War, he brought the nation together. That鈥檚 the kind of president we need.鈥�
On whether it will be difficult to rename military bases named after Confederate generals
鈥淣ot in the least. And again, I think this is a layup. If you look at it as Gen. [David H.] Berger said it, we鈥檙e in the military. Ultimately, we鈥檙e an organization that values above everything else teamwork, working together. I mean, this is 1.2 million people who get up in the morning and put on the same outfit. They call them uniforms because we want to be together. We want to even look like each other.
鈥淪o in a case like this, these Confederate bases are not unifying us because significant members of our force find it offensive. And frankly, the idea that we would have bases named after generals who fought against the United States of America, we certainly don鈥檛 have a base named after Gen. Erwin Rommel, who is the great Nazi general in the Second World War. He was a terrific general, an exceptional warfighter. We鈥檙e not going to name a base after him because he鈥檚 a great warfighter. I鈥檝e heard that argument put forward in terms of having bases named after Lee or [Braxton] Bragg or Stonewall Jackson. It鈥檚 a mistake and it鈥檚 a mistake that we can correct. And the Congress sees it, by the way, on both sides of the aisle and has sent the president a defense bill that is going to help the military unname those bases. It鈥檚 time to do that.鈥�
On the lack of diversity among military leadership
鈥淲e need to do better. And this is something I mentioned before at moving along our minorities. It鈥檚 not just African Americans. It鈥檚 our Latinos who represent 15% of the United States population, more than the African American population. And we need to be looking out for our Asian population as well. All of these minorities, in my view, need to be better represented. The way to do that is to get them into the mid-career jobs that lead to those flag ranks. That has to happen as a result of mentorship, just as it does in the civilian world, just as it does in the academic setting. When I was dean at the Fletcher School, you have to work hard to get people in position in the middle of their careers so that they can then step up to those leadership roles later on. Mentorship is the key.鈥�
On if the military has the bandwidth to address racism while also dealing with other existing threats
鈥淵es, the military has the ability to do this because these are fundamentally different tasks and different muscle movements, if you will. The skill sets and the work that we do in order to prepare to conduct prompt and sustained combat operations. That鈥檚 what the law charges the U.S. military with doing the work to do that is a discrete set of tactics, techniques, procedures. Alongside that, we鈥檙e running a big [human resources] department, if you will, 1.2 million people. But we have specialists who do that鈥� And throughout the course of my career, I鈥檝e seen so many of our best leaders are the best warfighters, but they鈥檙e also the ones who take the time to mentor people and bring along others. I鈥檒l give you a practical example who you will know, and that鈥檚 Gen. Colin Powell. He鈥檚 someone who was a terrific combat leader, who also was an instinctive mentor. And I was lucky enough to be someone who was mentored by Colin Powell that helped me in my career.鈥�
On the biggest threat to the U.S. right now
鈥淚 will surprise you, perhaps. But the thing that kept me awake at night when I, a supreme allied commander of NATO, was not Afghanistan, Libya, the Balkans, piracy, Russia, it was cyber. Just as we have been surprised at our vulnerability to this pandemic, we are quite vulnerable and not thinking enough about how vulnerable our cyber systems are. And they touch everything that we do and we are vulnerable there. I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e paying enough attention exactly as we did not pay sufficient attention to the pandemic. We are not paying enough attention to the cyber threat.鈥�
produced and edited this interview for broadcast with . adapted it for the web.
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