At US Naval Academy, this is not what is on the shelves that attracts attention – but what is missing.
The Nimitz library of the institution was stripped of 381 titlesAccording to a list published for the first time in the New York Times, including works exploring race, sex and national identity.
The slaughter includes “I know why the cage bird sings” by Maya Angelou, “How to Be a Anttiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “Bodies in Doubt” by Elizabeth Reis and “White Rage” by Carol Anderson. None have been prohibited squarely – just made “not immediately available”, a spokesperson for the naval academy, CMDR. Tim Hawkins, said. The books, he said, had been placed in a room where customers could no longer access it.
The executive decree of January 29 of President Donald Trump entitled “The end of radical indoctrination in kindergarten in the 12th year” has been extended to cover the country’s military academies. With the language targeting what he called “the ideology of discriminatory equity” and “gender ideology” – which he then called “the tyranny of so -called diversity, inclusion actions and policies” – the order has set in motion moves, journals and institutional confusion.
“There is no clear criterion,” said ABC News Katherine Kuzminski, director of studies at the Center for a New American Security. “This leaves a leadership scrambling – how to ensure compliance without being accused of having overorrated?”
Kuzminski said the military leaders, linked by a strict code to obey legal orders, are struggling with what she called the ambiguity of politics. “In particular in the Air Force,” she noted, “when the learning module of the aviators of Tuskegee was removed from the basic formation for a few days, leadership was trying to follow the best intentions.”
The US Naval Academy campus was seen, on March 20, 2025, in Annapolis, MD.
Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP
The Ministry of Marine leaders determined which books required withdrawal from the Naval Academy Library, Hawkins told ABC News.
Initially, officials looked for the catalog of the Nimitz library, using keyword research, to identify books that required a more in -depth examination, said Hawkins. About 900 pounds were identified during the preliminary search, he said, and officials of the department then examined the preliminary list closely to determine which books required withdrawal to comply with the directives described in the decrees published by the President.
This finally led to the selection of nearly 400 pounds for the withdrawal of the Nimitz library collection, he said.
Historians and former military officials told ABC News that the implications were frightening. Richard Kohn, military historian and former Air Force chief historian, considers move as a “cleaner” effort. “This reveals a certain type of weakness in the confidence of the current administration,” he said. “They are determined to appeal to their district Maga by retreating decades of progress on race, religion and diversity.”
For Kohn, withdraw these books from the shelves sends a clear message to the cadets: to move forward in the army, avoid certain ideas.
Air Force Retirement Colonel Thomas Keaney, main member of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the academies explained – and how far they said they were likely to fall back. “When I was there,” he said, “it was an institution reserved for whites,” he said about the American Air Force Academy. “It was the poorest for that.” Education, he insisted, concerns the exhibition. “You don’t hurt people by letting them read,” he said.
In a letter to the Army, Navy and Air Force secretaries, Democratic representatives Adam Smith and Chrissy Houlahan qualified the book to suppress “a blatant attack on the first amendment” and “an alarming return to censorship of the McCarthy era”.
They asked to find out who ordered the eliminations, the process used and the titles purged, while exhorting an immediate stop.
The cadets are heading for their seats for their start ceremony with President Donald Trump as a lecturer of the graduation of the US Air Force Academy, on May 30, 2019 to the Air Force Academy, Colo.
David Zalubowski / AP
Academies have issued carefully denominated answers – or none at all – when they asked by ABC News to comment.
The US Mercihant Marine Academy did not respond to repeated requests. The US Naval Academy, the US Air Force Academy and the US Coast Guard Academy published brief statements affirming respect for the decrees, but offered few details.
“The Coast Guard Academy performs a complete examination of its study program to guarantee compliance with all decrees,” said a spokesperson.
US Naval Academy spokesperson confirmed that “nearly 400 pounds” had been removed from his Nimitz library, explaining this decision as an effort “to guarantee compliance with all the guidelines described in the decrees published by the President”.
He underlined what he called the robust collection of the library – some 590,000 printed pounds and thousands of academic resources – supervising the moves of the book as minors compared to the size of the global collection. “The mission of the Naval Academy,” added the spokesman, “consists in developing aspirants morally, mentally and physically … to prepare them for service careers in our country.”
At the US Air Force Academy, a spokesperson noted that an examination of the programs was underway “to ensure our compliance with the decrees”.
But external voices in military university circles have warned that the problem goes beyond conformity, claiming that it strikes the heart of intellectual development.
“You cannot make ideas safe for people, but you can make people sure for ideas,” said Kohn, specializing in civil-military relations. “If you do not lie to students in academies to understand what is happening in American society, you don’t really educate them.”
Keaney, the former American Air Force officer, was more circumspect but just as concerned. “I don’t think anyone will be injured by reading anything-whatever the hazelnut or outside of its own culture,” he said. “You do not hurt people by exposing them to ideas. On the contrary, you forms them to be demanding leaders. Give them a chance. Do not give them to face ignorance.”
