Killing Woke At West Point

a reprint from STARRS.US; By LTC Edwin L. Kennedy, Jr, USA ret, USMA ’76 STARRS Ambassador

“West Point is set apart. It’s special. It’s above politics.”—SecWar Hegseth, 23 May 2026 Commencement Speech at the USMA (1)

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point holds a special place in American culture. Largely based on the heroic and patriotic service of past generations, the Academy has acquired an almost a revered status in American society.

However, during the last two to three decades, the Academy has seen an alarming undermining of the values that made the Academy a paragon of American values and culture.

Like a cancer, the acceptance of both military personnel and civilian academics that are antithetical to “Duty, Honor, Country” have infiltrated the Academy.

While many outside the Academy are focused on the symptoms of this invidious cancer, the root cause is the real problem. If the “root causes” are not eliminated, they will return like a weed that is cut but retains its roots.

This infiltration of the Academy includes civilian and military faculty, even to the level of department head status.

For example, the former chair of the history department, BrigGen (ret) Ty Seidule, Ph.D. is the face of DEI in the military. While he is physically ‘gone’ from the Military Academy, retired, his roots remain embedded there. His damage continues.

Seidule’s effects on the Department of History at the USMA have influenced a generation of cadets who were subjected to his ‘Woke’ influenced teachings.

His long tenure as an instructor, and then as the chair of the history department, was profound not just to the USMA, but to the U.S. Army as well. In 2015 Seidule came to the fore pushing his version of Woke CRT / DEI when he got himself featured on an ostensibly ‘conservative’ website, PragerU.(2)

What is more important however, is the explicit influence Seidule exercised to express his personal opinion clothed in the respectability of the U.S. Military Academy.

He wore his Army uniform in a highly controversial presentation of his own, personal views regarding General Robert E. Lee. His actions were disavowed by the West Point PAO who claimed that Seidule did not have permission to make his video in uniform. This is a clear violation of Army regulations. Is this the example cadets and other leaders of the Army should be emulating?(3)

What is interesting about Seidule’s relatively recent epiphanies regarding General Lee (and by inference, the South) is that they coincided with the anti-Southern pronouncements by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The SPLC has been heavily involved in sending “educational materials” to colleges and universities across the country for decades. The SPLC is allegedly an organization devoted to “civil rights” and “human rights” (according to their websites), yet have recently been indicted by the DOJ for funding the very racist and extremist organizations they supposedly oppose in “false flag” operations.

They are funding the organizations they claim to fight against!

Their “hate group” literature has been used for years by the Federal government agencies. The FBI and the DOD finally figured-out this scam and divested their involvement with the SPLC.

However, the damage has been done. It is objectively impossible to measure the effects of their slick, professionally prepared handouts and glossy trifolds targeting people and organizations they want destroyed. The SPLC target list of Confederate soldier monuments and memorials has been used by ANTIFA, BLM and other anarchists.

It is very reasonable to believe that Seidule was exposed to this propaganda in his years of academic positions as an instructor, then department chair.

Seidule’s “coming out” in his videos happened at the very same time the Department of Defense decided to end its decades-long mutual support of the now highly discredited and extremist, SPLC in 2015.(4)

Was this a ‘timely Seidule’ picking up the cudgel for the DOD shunned SPLC, or a total coincidence?

In 2015, Seidule was featured in his infamous video denigrating General Lee. Sadly, PragerU has used its otherwise excellent reputation to spread Seidule’s faux hate without any legitimate challenges.

As distinguished Army historian and former chair of the graduate history program of the US Army Command and General Staff College, COL (ret) Jerry Morelock, Ph.D., stated: “It’s not…researched…. based on new information or new evaluation of previous information.”

In other words, Seidule has not discovered any new information about Lee that was not already known. What he did is, based on his own personal interpretations, redefined Lee as something other reputable historians have not done since 1865.

Why? COL Morelock rightly speculates that it “…is nothing more than his revisionist ‘sucking up’ to his new civilian academic buddies.”(5)

It might be easy to dismiss these actions by Seidule as just circumstantial. However, 2015 was key at the USMA for another significant event pointing to the fact that stuff didn’t “just happen” in a vacuum. After a couple of decades of allowing leftist professors onto faculty, the results were predictable.

Cadet Spenser Rapone, a cadet with a major in history, was reported for very concerning anti-American social media posts; “…his online postings were “red flags that cannot be ignored”.(6)

So, Rapone, a student majoring in the department chaired by Seidule, was posting anti-American screeds, apparently with the knowledge of Seidule since one of his instructors reported the postings.

Then, to top it off, Cadet Rapone engaged in highly disrespectful and undisciplined interactions with a commissioned Army officer history instructor. In earlier days, Rapone’s actions were classified as “gross disrespect” and were grounds for very serious consequences, even UCMJ punishment.

Even though the instructor, LTC Robert Heffington, reported (360708005-Heffington-Sworn-Statement-18-Nov-2015-Signed-2 (pdf)) this breach of military courtesy and discipline through Seidule, no actions were ever taken against Rapone.

Rapone became known nationally a few months later, when, at West Point’s 2016 graduation, he openly advocated for communism by wearing a Che Guevera t-shirt and displaying a sign inside his dress cap stating “Communism Will Win”.

He was allowed to graduate and only dismissed from the Army with a less than honorable discharge due primarily to public outcry.(7)

Unfortunately, this should have been a serious enough incident to garner some kind of reproach of West Point and Seidule.

Seidule was the chair of the department Rapone majored-in. He was notified by Heffington of the severe breach of military discipline and protocol by Rapone. He was notified by Heffington of the extremist social media posts by Rapone.

Seidule had the ability to influence the disciplining of Rapone. He didn’t. Instead, Seidule effectively protected Rapone by not pressing for any actions against Rapone. Seidule kept his chair position after the commissioning of the very first, openly communist officer (with a history major) from West Point.(8)

Under the Academy superintendency of LTG Darryl Williams (2018-2022), DEI was pushed harder. William’s “five year plan”, 2020-2025 classified “’inclusivity’ as equal in importance as marksmanship….”.(9) Seidule continued on as the chair of the history department during Williams’ initial posting.

In 2020, Seidule retired from the Army. Purportedly, his retirement was so that he could speak-out on topics like Confederate hatred more openly (than appearing nationally on videos in uniform).

In 2022, Seidule’s book and anti-Robert E. Lee and Me thesis was published. The timing was likely in a manner designed to piggyback on the outrage of the George Floyd incident. Like his YouTube and PragerU videos, Seidule does not produce any new information about General Lee.

However, Seidule became the instant hero of the neo-Marxists and those who harbored anti-Southern confirmation biases. Seidule provided the “proof” that Southerners (and others) who admired Lee for decades were really “closet racists” of the worst kinds. If one disagrees with Seidule, it is because of racism. End of argument.(10)

Another distinguished USMA graduate, COL (ret) Barrie Zais, Ph.D. says this about Seidule and his book in a very detailed and superlative review (see below for full review):

“Seidule, did, and continues to do much damage to the Army and West Point. Calling racism a “national institution,” he has played a key role in the cultural purge of Lee and Confederates at the military academy. It is all but certain that Lee Gate, Lee Barracks, Lee Hall, Lee Road, and Lee Housing Area will be erased from history by the cultural commissars. Heeding Seidule’s proposition that all use of the name “Lee” at West Point is “a protest against integration and equal rights,” the Military Academy leadership is all in on the purge.”(11)

It did not end when Seidule retired. On the way out-the-door, Seidule garnered honors from DEI advocate, Superintendent LTG Williams. He was granted a noncompetitive promotion to brigadier general, not completely uncommon for some retiring department chairs.

Again, as COL (ret) Morelock notes:

“The bottom line is that the title ‘Brig. Gen.’ given to a former USMA permanent professor/department head does NOT carry the same weight and prestige as an Army officer EARNING that rank on his own military merits — it was merely given to Seidule for ‘staying the course’ for 20 years as a fat-cat West Point professor. I only present this information to inform readers that there is a difference between ‘real’ US Army brigadier generals and those who, like Seidule, are simply awarded that rank upon retirement — he didn’t earn it, he got it as a ‘gold watch’ upon retirement;….”. (12)

The rank of brigadier general is a hefty rank and brings with it credibility and a perception of distinction, as it should. Unfortunately, for those that don’t understand how military ranks are earned and honorifics awarded, they are all the same. They are not.

Seidule has been allowed to use his rank to market himself as some type of super expert on Robert E. Lee and Confederate memorials. Appointed as one of the eight members to the “Naming Commission”, Seidule used his extreme hatred and historical bias to destroy reconciliation. One of his key targets, outside the Naming Commission’s congressional mandate (because it is a grave marker), was the beautiful Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington Cemetery.

“Of the thousands of monuments around the country to the Confederacy, the one in Arlington National Cemetery angers me the most. Every year, the commander in chief sends a wreath, ensuring the Confederate monument receives all the prestige of the U.S. government. That’s why it riles me so much. . . .”13

Sadly, the other members of the Naming Commission were at the mercy of the extreme bias of Seidule as they lacked the necessary historical backgrounds to counter his “expert” views (he is, of course, a “general officer” and former head of the USMA history department, a “professor emeritus”). Seidule’s extreme views (cited in his book) influenced the other seven members of the Naming Commission to recommend to SECDEF Austin (another DEI / CRT advocate) to remove the Reconciliation Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery.

In addition to his rank of brigadier general, DEI Superintendent Williams gonged Siedule with another honor,… “professor emeritus”. Supposedly he is the first history chair to receive this esteemed award.

This is no mean honorific. It lends even more credibility to Seidule’s reputation unfortunately. “Not all individuals who retire are granted the emeritus title, underscoring its function as a mark of distinction rather than an automatic status.”(14)

Sadly, LTG Williams, stamped approval on Woke history and interpretation at West Point by awarding Seidule emeritus status.

Seidule has, unlike many other emeritus awardees, cleverly turned it into a distinction that allows him access to many other venues, not the least to organizations like the Association of the US Army. He lectured its members on his warped historical interpretations, undoing years of reconciliation and good will by re-interpreting history through the lens of Woke DEI / CRT Marxist thought. Many recipients uncritically accept Seidule’s “Howard Zinn-istic” views.

So, where did Seidule go to peddle his new interpretations of otherwise settled history? Why is it important?

Seidule was subsequently hired by the liberal arts Hamilton College in New York under the auspices of the “Chamberlain Project”. The Chamberlain Project is funded entirely by the “Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation”. Jonathan Soros is purportedly the decision-maker regarding recipients of Chamberlain Project money.

The goal is to get “Woke” retired military officers into professorial positions at private colleges. The Soros are intimately tied to ultra-liberal organizations such as the Open Society Foundations (OSF) which funnels money to leftist organizations and is anti-Israel and pro-Iran.

The Chamberlain Project is intentionally cloaked in “respectability” by association and collaboration with “Blue Star Families”. Professors in the Chamberlain Project are nick-named “Soros Professors”.

Seidule, not only a Soros Professor, he is a “Fellow” at the left-leaning “New America” think tank which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Bloomberg Philanthropies. New America is rated as “left of center biased” by unbiased media rating groups.(15)

The question now becomes, is Seidule the type of representative carrying the rank of brigadier general and the status of “professor emeritus” that should be representing the US Military Academy and the U.S. Army?

No. Public perceptions of the USMA and our military are crippled by the ilk of Seidule.

His views that closely reflect those of the SPLC, BLM and other leftist organizations and should have no place in our military.

Granted by DEI proponent, LTG Williams, Seidule’s professor emeritus award should be revoked by SecWar Hegseth for his associations with the Soros organizations, his advocacy of Woke revisionist history, DEI / CRT and especially for his extreme prejudice as a member of the Naming Commission.

SecWar Hegseth has done great work to rid the ranks of “progressive ideology” proponents but there is much more to be done. Let it continue with the culling of the intellectual cancer Seidule represents.(16)

for endnotes, go here.