Ideological purges reduce deterrence, readiness, and effectiveness. Just ask Stalin

Consequences of ideological discrimination

Excerpt: "History is replete with cautionary tales about the dangers of ideological purges, particularly when they target national-security institutions. One of the starkest examples comes from the Soviet Union, when Joseph Stalin’s purges gutted the Red Army on the eve of World War II. Now the United States faces a potentially parallel crisis: the purge of transgender service members from the military amid rising tensions with China and Russia. The consequences for national security ripple far beyond the careers of a few thousand troops.

In 1937 and 1938, the Great Terror swept through the Soviet military. More than 24,000 officers were discharged, and nearly 10,000 were arrested. Stalin targeted officers based on their belonging to perceived “dangerous” groups, rather than any actual disloyalty. The loss of senior leaders cost the Red Army thousands of cumulative years of institutional experience, forcing Stalin to replace seasoned generals with untested officers promoted for their political reliability rather than their military competence.

Historian David Glantz writes that Stalin’s paranoia “impelled him to stifle original thought within the military institutions and inexorably bend the armed forces to his will…The bloodletting that ensued tore the brain from the Red Army, smashed its morale, stifled any spark of original thought and left a magnificent hollow military establishment, riper for catastrophic defeat.”

This hollowing-out of leadership eroded deterrence. At the Nuremberg Trials after the war, German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel testified that many generals warned Hitler not to attack the Soviets, arguing the Red Army was still a formidable force. But Hitler dismissed these concerns, saying: “The first-class high-ranking officers were wiped out by Stalin in 1937, and the new generation cannot yet provide the brains they need.”'