A portrait and stone bust of General Robert E. Lee — in place since the 1950s — will be removed from Reconciliation Plaza of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Lieutenant General Steven Gilland, the 61st superintendent at West Point, announced the removal of Lee’s portrait and bust this week — ironic, as Lee himself was a superintendent at the academy.
Following a directive in October from the DOD to address racial injustice and to do away with anything that commemorates or memorializes the Confederacy, Gilland wrote in a press release, “During the holiday break, we will begin a multi-phased process, in accordance with the Department of Defense directives, to remove, rename or modify assets and real property at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and West Point installation that commemorates or memorializes the Confederacy or those who voluntarily served with the Confederacy.”
That would, of course, include Lee, the famed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, but also most of the approximately one million men who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War of 1861-1865.
Gilland said that new names will be developed for streets, buildings, and areas at the academy originally named after those who served in the Confederacy, but added, “We will conduct these actions with dignity and respect.” Whatever that means.
Interestingly, the Academy will be removing bronze panels not only of Lee and other Confederate figures, but also historical figures Benjamin Franklin and Clara Barton. Of course, neither Franklin, who died decades before the Civil War and lived in the Union state of Pennsylvania, nor Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, had anything to do with the Confederate States of America. Barton was a nurse during the Civil War with the Union army, but perhaps the fact that she gave medical attention to Confederate as well as Union soldiers has now made her suspect in today’s politically correct environment. Maybe that is now considered giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Lee was one of the original targets in the crusade against Confederate personalities, with some even arguing that Lee was a slave-owner. While technically true, it is almost never mentioned that Lee inherited slaves from his father-in-law and then freed them. Of course, that does not fit the narrative pushed by those who want to continue to cause division rather than reconciliation in the country.
In the years after the Civil War, efforts were made at reconciliation between North and South. Today, however, reconciliation is usually opposed as racist.
When the attack began on Confederate figures such as Lee (in Richmond, Virginia, they have even dug up the remains of Confederate General A.P. Hill), many, including this writer, warned that Confederate icons were just the “low-hanging fruit.” Once it was acceptable to remove statues and other monuments to Confederate heroes, supposedly all in the name of racial justice, other figures of American history would also be destroyed, as we see in the case of Franklin and Barton. Over the past few years, we have seen the removal of statues and the like of other leading figures of our nation’s history. Even a statue of the black abolitionist Frederic Douglass has been desecrated. Apparently his assertion that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were “liberty documents” conflicts with the present efforts to divide us.
This is all part of a Marxist agenda to sow division in American society. Under Marxist Critical Theory, history is marked by an oppressor class and an oppressed class. Branches of Critical Theory have included Critical Legal Theory, asserting that laws are designed to keep the oppressed class in a state of submission. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is another branch of Marxist Critical Theory.
In his farewell address at West Point in 1962, General Douglas MacArthur told the cadets that they hold the nation’s destiny in their hands “the moment the war tocsin sounds.”
Thus, it is imperative to Marxists that these future defenders of our nation be indoctrinated as Marxist soldiers. Therefore, CRT is now being used at West Point, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said, “Our military is under attack — from within.”
“These documents,” Fitton continued, “show racist, anti-American Critical Race Theory propaganda is being used to try to radicalize our rising generation of Army leadership at West Point.”
For example, the documents reveal that cadets are now asked about whiteness, and encouraged to use CRT to answers questions asked in the course. Among the statements made in the course: “In order to understand racial inequality and slavery, it is first necessary to address whiteness,” along with the “Take-for-grantedness of whiteness.”
“Do you think Affirmative Action creates an environment for reverse discrimination?” is one of the questions asked. To make sure that the cadets don’t answer the wrong way, they are directed to use CRT to support their answer.
Marxist divisiveness, not reconciliation, is the guiding principle for training the cadets at West Point. This is well-illustrated by the removal of Lee.
