Introduction The military personnel security program has as its objective the rejec tion or separation of persons whose membership in the Armed Forces does not meet the requirements of national security as expressed in directives of the Department of Defense. The operation of the program is carried out by the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force under their separate regulations. These regulations, however, must conform to the standards, policies, and procedures outlined by the Department of Defense. The mili tary program parallels in significant features the civilian program, but its authority rests neither on Executive order nor congressional enactment. The basis for the program is the inherent power of command exercised by the President as Commander in Chief under the Constitution. The military context is distinguished by a high degree of personnel control and a compelling necessity for loyalty and obedience. In the number of persons affected the military program ranks with the largest. As of September 30, 1956, the estimated number of Armed Forces personnel on active duty, including officer candidates, was 2,797,221; that of reservists not on active duty was 3,926,859. The approximate overall total is thus 6.7 millions. HISTORY The military security program, as a unified overall program, was essentially initiated by the joint agreement of the Secretaries of the Armed Forces on "The Disposition of Commissioned and Enlisted Personnel of the Armed Forces of Doubtful Loyalty," issued on October 26, 1948. The joint agreement was issued following the promulgation of Executive Order 9835 on March 25, 1947. The joint agreement stated: 1. Conduct or associations which may be considered as establishing reasonable grounds for separation of personnel of the Armed Forces and the rejection of persons seeking to be enlisted or appointed in a service shall include, but not be limited to, one or more of the following: (a) Sabotage, espionage, or attempts or preparations therefor, or intimate and sympathetic association with or voluntary assistance to persons who the subject of the investigation has reasonable cause to believe may be spies or saboteurs. (b) Treason, sedition, or writings and acts which can reasonably be considered as intended to encourage seditious or treasonable opinions or actions. (c) Advocacy of revolution or by force or violence to alter the existing constitutional form of government of the United States; advocacy of revolution or by force or violence to bring about economic, political, or social change. (d) Intentional unauthorized disclosure to any person under circumstances which may indicate disloyalty to the United States, of documents or information of a classified or nonpublic character. (e) Acting, attempting to act, or knowingly failing to act when such conduct is calculated to serve the interests of another government in preference to the interests of the United States of America. (f) Membership in, affiliation or sympathetic association with any foreign or domestic organization, association, movement, group, or combination of persons, (1) Which practices, seeks to practice or advocates: (a) Denial, by force, violence, or intimidation, to any person, group of persons, or class of persons within the United States or territory subject to its jurisdiction, of any right or rights which the Federal Constitution guarantees or protects against encroachment by either or both Federal and State gov ernment. (b) Alteration, through or with the aid of force, violence, or intimidation, of the existing form of government of the United States or Territory subject to its jurisdiction or of the existing economic, social, or political order within it. (2) Which (regardless of practice, advocacy, or nonadvocacy of any of the tenets set forth in (1) (a) and (b) above), is disclosed by investigation or designated by the Attorney General to be totalitarian, Fascist, Communist, or subversive or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny persons their rights under the Constitution of the United States by unconstitutional means. 2. The respective Secretaries of the departments of the Armed Forces shall immediately and concurrently publish to their respective departments the standards outlined above. Publication shall be of unrestricted classification and given wide dissemination. 3. It shall be the duty of every member of the Armed Forces to report to his commanding officer or intelligence officer any information coming to his attention concerning disloyal or subversive activities by any member of the service. 4. No person who admits or who is otherwise believed to have engaged in disloyal or subversive activities shall be appointed or enlisted in any of the armed services of the United States without the specific approval of the departments concerned. 5. Administration. (a) The action to be taken in each case shall be determined by the department concerned. No action shall be taken to apprise any individual that he is under suspicion prior to consultation with the proper intelligence agency. Investigation shall be conducted as directed by the respective departments. (b) Court-martial proceedings may and normally will be instituted against disloyal personnel who have committed triable offenses. (c) Administrative procedures may and normally will be instituted against disloyal personnel who have committed offenses in the categories above not covered by existing law or where for other reasons court-martial proceedings are impracticable or deemed inadvisable. (1) The basic standard for actions taken under this regulation shall be that, on all the evidence, reasonable grounds exist for belief that the individual involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States. No action shall be initiated |