Decades before the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell survey, the military asked troops how they felt about two other groups of people: African-Americans and Jews.
The Advocate first reported that before President Truman integrated the military in 1948, the Pentagon conducted some surveys of servicemembers.
According to one survey conducted in 1942 and obtained by Wonk Room, white members of the Air Force overwhelmingly believed that white and black troops should be kept separate during training and combat operations. (Truman integrated the military anyway.)
A few years later, the military asked white Christian members of the military what they thought about Jews. Via Wonk Room:
In one part of the survey, non-Jewish, white troops were asked to mark “agree” or “disagree” to a series of statements “mostly about stereotypes” of Jews.Consider these:
“There is nothing good about Jews.” (Agree: 86%, Disagree: 13%)
“Jews are out to rule the world.” (Agree: 27%, Disagree: 73%)
“The Jews always get the best of everything.” (Agree: 30%, Disagree: 70%)
“You can always tell a Jew by the way he looks.” (Agree: 61%, Disagree: 39%)
Jews are the biggest goldbricks in the Army. (Agree: 51%, Disagree: 49%)
“A Jew will always play you for a sucker.” (Agree: 48%, Disagree: 52%)
Here’s the full survey on Jews, via Wonk Room:
1940 Survey of Military Personnel about Jews
And the one about segregation: