The American People

First of all, on the issue of critical race theory, etc., I will obviously have to get much smarter on whatever the theory is, but I do think it is important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. ...

What is it that that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?  What caused that?  I want to find that out.  I want to maintain an open mind here and I do want to analyze it.  It's important that we understand that because our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians, they come from the American people.  So it is important that the leaders, now and in the future, do understand it.

I've read Mao Zedong, I've read Karl Marx, I've read Lenin, that doesn't make me a communist.  So what is wrong with understanding -- having some situational understanding about the country that we are here to defend?  And I personally find it offensive that we are finding the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers of being ‘woke' or something else because we're studying some theories that are out there.

-- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley at a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing, responding to questions from two Republican lawmakers about the teaching of critical race theory at West Point, the United States Military Academy, 23 June 2021