ctices affecting his men and their dependents
and to foster equal opportunity for them, not only in areas under
his immediate control, but also in nearby communities where they
may live or gather in off-duty hours. In discharging that
responsibility a commander shall not, except with the prior
approval of the Secretary of his military department, use the
off-limits sanction in discrimination cases arising within the
United States.[21-66]

[Footnote 21-66: DOD Dir 5120.36, 26 Jul 63.]

After some thirty months in office, Robert McNamara had made a (p. 549)
most decisive move in race relations. In the name of fulfilling
Harry Truman's pledge of equal treatment and opportunity he announced
an aggressive new policy. Not only would the department work to
eliminate discrimination in the armed forces, but when servicemen were
affected it would work in the community as well. Even more ominous to
the secretary's critics was the fact that the new policy revealed
McNamara's willingness, under certain circumstances, to use the
department's economic powers to force these changes. This directive
marked the beginning of McNamara's most active period of participation
in the civil rights revolution of the 1960's.

But the secretary's move did not escape strong criticism. The
directive was denounced as infamous and shocking, as biased,
impractical, undemocratic, brutally authoritarian, and un-American. If
followed, critics warned, it would set the military establishment at
war with society, inject the military into civilian political
controversies in defiance of all traditions to the contrary, and
burden military commanders with sociological tasks beyond their powers
and to the detriment of their military mission.[21-67]

[Footnote 21-67: Alfred B. Fitt thus characterized the
opposition in his Remarks Before Civilian Aides
Conference of the Secretary of Army, 6 Mar 64, DASD
(CR) files.]

"It is hard to realize that your office would become so rotten and
degraded," one critic wrote McNamara. "In my opinion you are using the
tactics of a dictator.... It is a tragic event when the Federal
Government is again trying to bring Reconstruction Days into the
South. Again the military is being used to bring this about." Did
businesses not have the right to choose their customers? Did local
authorities not have