An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era by Beth Bailey

Author:Beth Bailey
Format: epub

In the realm of race, however, the army’s brief experiment with Afros and the cultural symbolism of Black pride would have long-lasting significance, helping to shape the ways that this massive institution dealt with demands for social change. In an age of cultural nationalism, Black soldiers had insisted on the right to express Black pride; they had embraced the Afro as a symbol of Black identity in an overwhelmingly white institution. As the army confronted their demands in the context of impending crisis, it tested its own institutional limits. Some of what it learned (or verified) was that the institution possessed a surprising flexibility. In the face of crisis, the army could respond creatively; it could bend—at least when under threat of internal violence and external failure.

The institution also drew lessons about the tools available for managing social change: in the military, hierarchy is clear, authority reaches well past the boundaries of civilian employers, and orders are orders, with mechanisms for enforcement. That mattered, for (as the comments on Confederate flags by MACV officers noted) it may be that forcing changes in behavior will prompt changes in attitudes. Nonetheless, as General Vaughan’s instructions to avoid racial epithets when addressing Black soldiers reveals, there is often great distance between policies and their ground-level implementations.

Finally, in this process, the army confronted its institutional limits, the ways in which the weight of organization, culture, history, tradition, logic, policy, and practice fundamentally define what will more likely succeed and what will more likely fail. It was relatively easy to change what stocked the PX shelves, and those changes would be long-lasting. It was much more difficult to accommodate symbols of identity that transcended that of soldier. By the late 1970s the institution had returned to fundamentals: military identity must take precedence over all others; uniformity, order, discipline, and regulation must be paramount.

Regulations, however, do continue to evolve. In 2021, army hair policy was updated by a panel consisting of fifteen female and two male soldiers, which was advised by two army dermatologists, an army psychologist, and an army equal opportunity officer. The results ran to more than 2,300 words. In large part, changes recognized the cultural desires and physical needs of women of color. “Our identity is important,” said the senior enlisted leader of the army’s uniform policy branch. “If we care about people first and the Soldier as a whole, we have to care about the many aspects to who they are as well. This is a small, but significant change that positively impacts a considerable size of our force.”⁶²

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