By inviting a speaker, history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York University, who has already said that she plans to attack presidential candidate Donald Trump in the annual Bancroft Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy on Oct. 10, the academy is violating Defense Department directives prohibiting the military from engaging in partisan political activity.
In addition to constituting a clear violation of a long-standing, mandatory policy, families whose sons and daughters are attending this august military institution should be outraged by the academy’s partisan indoctrination of future officers of the U.S. Navy.
The Bancroft Lecture is held in October of each year and “was established by the Naval Academy’s History Department to honor the academy’s founder, George Bancroft.” Bancroft was the secretary of the Navy during President James Polk’s administration…
