WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger has broadened Pentagon policy against the active participation of military personnel in 'hate groups,' directing commanders to discipline those who take part in disruptive meetings, Pentagon officials said Friday.
Weinberger's worldwide directive Sept. 5 re-emphasizes policy drawn up in 1969 that seeks to prevent service personnel from joining such organizations. But it goes a step further, for the first time authorizing commanders to discharge a member of the military, if necessary.
'Military personnel, duty bound to uphold the Constitution, must reject participation in such organizations,' the directive said. 'Active participation, including public demonstrations, recruiting and training members and organizing or leading such organizations is utterly incompatible with military service.'
The directive is an outgrowth of a policy review following reports that members of the Marine Corps participated in Ku Klux Klan activities in North Carolina this summer, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Weinberger's directive does not prevent military personnel from joining white supremacist or neo-Nazi 'hate groups' since such a ban would infringe on the constitutional rights of service people to assemble peacefully and to speak freely.
But, his message said, 'the requirements of trust and cohesiveness among service members and the discipline essential to military units demand that service personnel reject the goals of such groups.'
Military members may attend meetings of such organizations in civilian clothes so long as they do not take part in the group's activities, such as denouncing their loyalty to service and country, Pentagon officials said.
'They can still belong and still pay their dues, but that's about it,' a Pentagon spokesman said.
But Weinberger's directive makes it clear that commanders may order a person not to attend a meeting of such a group if he thinks attendance might be disruptive, the officials said.
'If the individual attends in defiance of the order -- even if in civilian attire and during off-duty time, the commander may take disciplinary action against the individual for disobeying his order,' the spokesman said.
'In addition, if circumstances warrant, the individual may be discharged from his service,' he said.
