Letter From Howard McCrum Snyder to Eli Ginzberg

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED POWERS EUROPE APO 55 c/o P. M. NEW YORK, NEW YORK 21 December 1951 Dear Eli, I am embarrassed to comment upon problems of homosexuality to a staff which incorporates the knowledge that Sol alone among you repre- sents on this subject. I will not enter upon a long-winded discussion of the subject but will confine my remarks almost exclusively to a re- ply to your questions. I have always taken the position, which I feel you share with me, that none but overt homosexuals should be rejected for the military ser vice, It is questionable whether some of these would not make "good" in the Service, We are acquainted with the anecdotes that are presented occasionally in the press, more often in novels, of volence and death as a result of activities of these individuals, but we also know that these instances are exceedingly rare. As a matter of fact, we can read in the press and novels about violence and death resulting from "pure love". Yet, me must accept the fact that many consider homosexuality a morale destroyer in any and all circumstances, I think that many homosexuals were prematurely separated from the Service "hho had not even a "nuisance value" because of this characteris- tic. I do not consider an individual a homosexual based upon the atti- tudes represented by many of those included under that heading in Kinsey's work. I am sure that many adolescent instances of occasional homosexual contact represent no material deviation from normal conduct, though these individuals may be statistically classified as homosexuals because they have at some time indulged in homosexual "experimentation, I cannot believe that there were many "active" seducers among the homosezuals in the military service, at least in the Army, during the last war. I was close enough to the "soil" to have had any glaring ex- amples of such conduct brought to my attention. It was only rarely that I learned of a situation in which homosexuality created an administrative problem of any seriousness, To all intents and purposes, I think we can form the conclusion that those who were interested in this form of sex expression used discretion in their practices. Some few cases were made the subject of investigation by the Inspector General's Office, 9 and is