More from the OpEd ...

... The Defense Department, Mr. Hegseth proclaims in his video canceling Harvard, needs "leaders who can wrestle with multiple viewpoints," not useless "ideological automatons." But cutting ties to these universities is less likely to produce independent thinking, and ironically, more likely to produce the very ideological automatons the Secretary decries.

The inferences are direct. Secretary Hegseth apparently believes his officers are not just impressionable, but ideologically brittle. He implies that years of operational experience, command responsibility, and professional military education can be undone by seminar discussions and exposure to alternative policy perspectives. He subtly suggests that the same men and women entrusted with lethal authority and national secrets cannot be trusted with a syllabus.

That is not a serious critique of an academic institution. It is a tacit indictment of the military officer corps by the Secretary of Defense.

As a former commissioned officer himself, Mr. Hegseth knows that military officers are not plucked from obscurity and handed commissions as a social experiment. They are trained, screened, evaluated, promoted, and tested repeatedly. The system prizes resilience, independent judgment, intellectual rigor, and moral steadiness under pressure. Those selected for competitive graduate programs " whether at Harvard or elsewhere " are typically among the most capable in their cohorts.

And yet Secretary Hegseth proclaims that graduate school might unravel all of that.

Despite the Secretary's unfounded logic, elite education doesn't weaken a military officer's character; it strengthens it.

I speak from experience. I am a veteran military officer and a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I am also a registered Republican and a gun owner. I did not arrive in Cambridge confused about my political identity. I did not leave with it erased or chastened.

At no point during my time at Harvard did I feel ostracized or vilified for holding views different from many of my peers. I encountered disagreement. Robust disagreement. It is, after all, a school of government.

The Kennedy School classrooms are not therapy circles designed for social and emotional validation. They are debate forums and intellectual proving grounds where you check your ego at the door. Faculty span the political spectrum, many having served in presidential administrations of both parties. Discussions are sharp, substantive, and often uncomfortable. That is precisely why the experience is valuable. ...