Charles Moskos, RIP

Charles C. Moskos, the renowned Northwestern sociologist who died last Saturday, is being remembered as the father of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy toward gays – but he was much more than that, as members of The Century Foundation community know.

A widely respected student of the military, Moskos saw the far reaching impact that an economically and racially diverse U.S. armed forces could have on the larger society.  He called for reinstating the draft, as The Washington Post noted, believing that “a shared military experience for Americans of different classes, races and economic backgrounds forged a sense of common purpose.” 

And he also believed that the racial integration of the Army's leadership could serve as a template for American society at large. When affirmative action policies were under attack in the mid-1990s, Moskos co-authored a well-received book with John Sibley Butler of the University of Texas titled All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration The Army Way (1996).  The book, sponsored by The Twentieth Century Fund (as The Century Foundation was then known), outlined the ways in which the military was able to promote excellence across racial lines without resorting to quotas or race-norming of test scores.  Especially appealing was the Army’s development academies for economically disadvantaged recruits of all races. Employing such programs, the authors noted, the Army was able to become “the only place in America where blacks routinely boss around whites.”

Moskos’s research had a profound impact on American society and he will be sorely missed.

Comments

[John Sibley Butler]

Charlie Moskos was a great human being, a great scholar, and a man who loved his country. His theories on military organizations have all been grounded in reality. He will be missed. John Sibley Buter