A Stronger Military

As a retired rear admiral in the Navy Medical Corps, I appreciated Benjamin Wallace-Wells’s piece about Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth’s warped vision of the military (Comment, October 13th). Wallace-Wells points out many of the contradictory and troubling aspects of the remarks that Trump and Hegseth gave at the gathering of generals and admirals that took place at Quantico, in late September. One disturbing thing that he did not mention was their implicit disparagement of female service members. In my twenty-five years of active service, I witnessed firsthand how women’s contributions to the military were essential to its effectiveness. The Navy is more than just ships and combat troops—it requires diverse expertise to maintain operational readiness. History is also full of examples of women making groundbreaking contributions that have strengthened the military. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, for example, who joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1943, after acquiring a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale, revolutionized the Navy’s ballistics programming. Looking ahead, as climate change intensifies and cyber threats evolve, it will be increasingly vital that the military cultivates all people who have the skills to help us meet those risks.

Robert C. J. Krasner New York City

Fanon’s Prediction

Kelefa Sanneh’s review of two new books about African decolonization brought to mind a passage from Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth,” from the early sixties (A Critic at Large, October 13th). Fanon, in that book, wrote that, “as soon as independence is declared,” the formerly revolutionary leader of a newly decolonized state should be expected not so much to embody “the needs of the people” but to “reveal his inner purpose: to become the general president of that company of profiteers impatient for their returns which constitutes the national bourgeoisie.” For those of us who have stood shoulder to shoulder with African freedom fighters such as Kenneth Kaunda, Masauko Chipembere, Dunduzu Chisiza, Eduardo Mondlane, and Joseph Boakye Danquah, it has been difficult not to rue the decades that followed Kwame Nkrumah’s descent to autocracy and Yoweri Museveni’s transformation from protesting authoritarian rule to enjoying it. Even South Africa—which Mahmood Mamdani, the author of one of the books Sanneh reviews, holds up as a rare example of post-colonial success—has its flaws, as Thabo Mbeki’s and Jacob Zuma’s willingness to let corruption take root shows. Unfortunately, as Fanon predicted, too many Africans are still denied the fundamental freedoms of democracy.

Robert I. Rotberg Founding Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict Harvard Kennedy School Lexington, Mass.

One Quote After Another

I enjoyed Justin Chang’s review of the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, “One Battle After Another” (The Current Cinema, October 6th). Chang identifies several of Anderson’s references to earlier films, including “Dr. Strangelove” and “The Battle of Algiers,” but, to me, there’s one significant nod that he missed. In a crucial moment of the film, someone calls out to the main character, “Who are you?” The reference there, of course, is to “Lawrence of Arabia.” In that film, “Who are you?” is cried out to the title character when he cheats death, crossing the desert and finally reaching the Suez Canal.

Paul Most New York City

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