"West Point Bicentennial"
A Pictorial History of the First Two Hundred Years of the United States Military Academy
Preface | 1776-1817 | 1817-1833 | 1833-1848 | 1848-1865 | 1865-1890 | 1890-1919 | 1919-1939 | 1939-1950 | 1950-1970 | 1970-1980 | 1980-2002 | Bicentennial and Beyond

"The Long Gray Line Changes Formation"

1970-1980

Trust is the quality most essential in the profession of arms. Soldiers earn that trust by acting honorably and by demonstrating courage, veracity, fidelity and selfless service. The academy’s honor system is the cornerstone of the moral and ethical program for developing these qualities in future officers. Unfortunately, cadets often feel torn between the desire to be faithful to their classmates and the imperative to maintain the highest standards of honor. Although the refusal to tolerate honor violations had always been an implicit part of the code for decades, the duty to report violations had never been explicitly specified until 1970.

The public controversy over the Vietnam War brought unwanted attention to the Military Academy. In the early 1970s, the silencing of a cadet also made headlines in many major newspapers throughout the nation. Usually imposed when the Corps believed a cadet had not been punished severely enough through official academy channels, silencing meant that no one in the Corps would speak to the silenced cadet except in the performance of official duties. Following the graduation of the silenced cadet in 1973, the Cadet Honor Committee made their annual examination of the Honor System. They ultimately decided, following an assessment of cadet opinion and external pressure, to end the practice of silencing later that year. At the same time in 1972, the Secretary of Defense ordered an end to compulsory chapel at West Point following a federal court decision. That action ended a tradition that had existed since 1818 but was judged to violate the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The vibrancy of religious expression in subsequent decades demonstrates that the Corps of Cadets does not need compulsion to make religious participation a powerful influence in their lives.

There were also two external reviews critiquing the academy’s curriculum and fiscal efficiency during the 1970s. These reviews advocated many changes; especially several that would reduce the attrition rate and increase West Point’s cost-effectiveness. At the same time, increasing public controversy over the Vietnam War and criticism of the military contributed to a drastic reduction in the number of applicants. A smaller applicant pool, combined with the previous major expansion of the Corps, forced the Military Academy to admit all qualified candidates in 1973 -- the only time this has happened since the Corps of Cadets was enlarged in the 1960s.

The theme of the Class of 1977’s Howitzer was "Challenge and Change." One of the most revolutionary changes in the history of West Point was the arrival of the first women cadets in 1976. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the nationwide women’s movement had broken down gender barriers at many prestigious universities. At the same time, women entered many occupations previously closed to them. With the elimination of the draft in the same period, the Defense Department began to expand opportunities for women in all branches of the armed services. Although the service academies initially resisted the entry of women on the basis of combat requirements, Congress voted in 1975 to admit them.

The Corps of Cadets and much of the West Point community received the news with great dismay. Although the initial years presented unprecedented challenges for the Military Academy, over time, the performance of women at West Point quieted the doubters. On 28 May 1980, Andrea Lee Hollen became the first of 62 women to graduate from West Point in the Class of 1980. She was also the academy’s 58th Rhodes Scholar. Although the Class of 1980 graduated only half of the initial 119 women who entered, more than a thousand women had graduated by 1991. Through the years, the academic, military and physical record of these women has earned their recognition as accepted members of the Corps of Cadets. Some who received special recognition include Kristin Baker, Class of 1990, the first woman to serve as First Captain; Rebecca Marier, Class of 1995, the first woman to be the top-ranking graduate of a class; and Alison Jones, Class of 1999, only the fifth cadet to receive a Soldier’s Medal. Through the years, several women also have given their lives for their country in a variety of military missions. Today, women constitute approximately 15 percent of the Corps of Cadets

While the West Point underwent extensive preparations for the admission of women, a devastating honor scandal was developing inside the academy walls. Ultimately, hundreds of cadets had received unauthorized assistance, or cheated, on an electrical engineering assignment and more than 150 cadets were separated for honor violations. The large numbers of cadets involved led to unprecedented congressional and public scrutiny of academy policies and programs. Ultimately, due to the large numbers of the cadets involved and indications that certain institutional practices may have facilitated this behavior, many were permitted to reapply. In the end, nearly 100 returned, and 85 ultimately graduated.

The reverberations from the cases were profound. The Secretary of the Army named a committee headed by former astronaut Frank Borman, Class of 1950, to take an in-depth look at the honor system. That study revealed numerous flaws and inadequacies. An even more all-encompassing Army study, called the West Point Study Group Report, looked at all programs and policies at the institution. Retired General Andrew J. Goodpaster agreed to come out of retirement and assume the superintendency to help guide the evaluation of more than 100 recommendations of the West Point Study Group Report. After more than a dozen committees and hundreds of staff and faculty members analyzed the recommendations, most were integrated into the academy’s structure, programs and policies.

While the cheating scandal tarnished West Point’s image, there were also other more positive developments during these years. Cadet Vincent Brooks, Class of 1980, became the first African-American First Captain, completing an evolution to leadership that had begun more than 30 years earlier. Since 1948, there have been African-American cadets in every incoming class. The open hostility and discrimination that greeted those initial African-American cadets during the later half of the 19th and first half of the 20th Century rapidly faded in the 1950s, but there were only 30 African-American cadets in the Corps in 1968. The advance of civil rights legislation from Congress and action by the Department of the Army was reflected at the academy in the assignment of an African-American officer to the admissions office with the mission of recruiting qualified African Americans. By 1970, there were more than 100 African-American cadets in the Corps each year and, in 1991, the 1,000th African American graduated from the Military Academy. Roscoe Robinson, Jr., Class of 1951, became the Army’s first four-star African-American general in 1982. Later in the decade, Fred Gorden, Class of 1962, became the first African American to serve as the commandant of cadets from 1987 and 1989. Today, African Americans typically represent about 8 percent of the Corps of Cadets.

At the same time that the numbers of women and African Americans were increasing in the Corps, the number of Hispanics, Asians, and Native-American cadets also increased. Many early Hispanic cadets were foreign cadets who attended to become members of the Philippines Scouts (part of the Philippines defense forces while those islands were an American possession) in the first decades of the 20th Century. Even in later years, cadets such as the Filipino Fidel Ramos, of the Class of 1950, who would help return democracy to his country and serve as its president, continued a notable tradition. At the same time, Puerto Ricans and Americans of Hispanic-origins also have attended in greater numbers in recent years. Richard Morales, Jr., Class of 1976, became the first Hispanic First Captain. Louis Caldera, who recently served as Secretary of the Army, graduated in the Class of 1978, and Jose Figueres, Class of 1979, served as the President of Costa Rica. The initial graduates from the Asian mainland were foreign cadets from China in the first decades of the 20th Century. In more recent years, the number of Americans of Asian descent entering West Point has risen considerably. Their advance was marked by the selection of John Tien, Jr. Class of 1987, a Rhodes Scholar, who served as the first Asian-American First Captain.

Today, ethnic and racial minorities comprise more than 23 percent of the Corps of Cadets. By all accounts, the Corps of Cadets has compiled an exceptional record of integration, demonstrating that people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds can study, work and achieve their highest potential in this challenging and demanding environment.