Desegregation had an immediate impact on diversity in the non-commissioned ranks. Integrating the military’s officer corps was far more difficult. The problem became acute when large-scale deployments of U.S. forces to Vietnam began in the early 1960s, where large numbers of Black and Hispanic service members served under officers who were almost invariably white. Discrimination, both real and perceived, undermined unit cohesion and fighting effectiveness during the war.
The Supreme Court signed off on affirmative action in higher education in the 1977 decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. In 2003, the Supreme Court heard Grutter v. Bollinger to reconsider that decision. The most influential brief in Grutter came not from the two parties, but from a friend-of-the-court filing by some of the nation’s most prominent military leaders, including Generals Norman Schwarzkopf, Wesley Clark, and John Shalikashvili. They cited the military’s struggles in the 1960s and 1970s to emphasize the need for a diverse officer corps.
“The danger this created was not theoretical, as the Vietnam era demonstrates,” they told the court, quoting at one point from news articles quoting other military leaders. “As that war continued, the armed forces suffered increased racial polarization, pervasive disciplinary problems, and racially motivated incidents in Vietnam and on posts around the world. ‘In Vietnam, racial tensions reached a point where there was an inability to fight.’ By the early 1970s, racial strife in the ranks was entirely commonplace. The lack of minority officers substantially exacerbated the problems throughout the armed services.”
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote for the majority in Grutter, was initially inclined to strike down Bakke. But she changed course after reading the military leaders’ brief, as well as ones from business leaders and other private-sector groups who extolled the necessity of ensuring that the nation’s future leaders would be educated in racially diverse settings. Since national security is usually taken seriously as a compelling interest, the generals’ words—as well as their practical experience—carried the most weight. “In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity,” O’Connor wrote.