Armed Forces: Mac’s Other War

Viet Nam was once—unfairly—called “McNamara’s war.” Today, in addition to directing the Asian conflict, the Secretary of Defense is conducting a littlenoticed, highly effective domestic offensive that fully merits his imprimatur. Robert McNamara’s other war is an uncompromising campaign to eradicate discrimination against the nation’s 300,000 Negro servicemen in off-base housing throughout the nation.

Begun only four months ago on a pilot basis in Maryland and Washington, the program already has been responsible for more than trebling—from 15,000 to 47,500—the number of housing units open to all races. That is only the beginning. With the President’s backing, Mc-Namara has now set his sights on wiping out the discrimination that exists in 33% of the 900,000 housing units within a 3.5-mile radius of the nation’s 305 major military posts in 46 states.

Successful Simplicity. As his field commander, McNamara has chosen husky Brigadier General William Ekman, 54, a bayonet-hard combat officer who led parachute assaults during World War II and was an original leader of the Green Berets. Though he has never previously grappled with civil rights or the law, Missouri-born Ekman (West Point, ’38) knows how to face down segregationist landlords. “He looks on his new job as another battle,” says a friend.

The program’s success has resulted from its simplicity. Whenever Ekman has proof that a landlord will not accommodate Negroes, white servicemen are forbidden to lease or rent from the property owner. Since most landlords around military bases depend almost exclusively on military occupants, Ekman’s decree leaves them with little choice between integration or bankruptcy. But, says Ekman, “first we try to use persuasion. I point out that a lot of the combat leaders are Negroes. If they have to live 20 or 30 miles from the base, it is uneconomic and very bad for morale. If the landlords still don’t integrate, they begin losing money—and not too slowly.”

Wooing & Warning. In Washington and Maryland, where 56% of rental housing was closed to Negro servicemen—despite fair housing laws—Ekman won by ceaselessly wooing and warning reluctant landlords. By letter, telephone or in person, he approached 1,700 owners or managers. He found that many of them were segregationists only for economic reasons. “What they would most like,” argues Ekman, “is a law that would force them to open up.” That way, of course, no landlord would be fearful of losing white renters to rival apartment owners. Without such a law, Ekman can only counterweight landlords’ misgivings about accommodating Negroes with the certainty that they will lose all their military business by refusing to do so.

Since the program has been successful in Washington and Maryland, McNamara and Ekman have chosen California as their next prime target. There, 102,000 servicemen live off base, and 32% of the housing near bases is segregated. At the same time, property owners in other states also will begin to feel pressure from Ekman’s office. The lesson of Maryland is already rubbing off on landlords. “Every week thousands of voluntary units are turned in,” exults Ekman.