In 1948, President Truman instated Executive Order 9981, which initiated a political effort toward desegregating the armed forces and other branches of the military. The Army was especially resistant to the order, and only cooperated when a shortage of troops in the Korean War required that black soldiers serve alongside their white counterparts. Though military units were officially desegregated after the Korean War in 1954, racial tensions continued to give rise to segregation and in fighting amongst various units, especially during the Vietnam War. The militaristic inefficiencies caused by this internal conflict incentivized military leaders to seek to establish more harmonious racial relationships in the Army. One scholar argued that, in being forced to actively root out institutional racial tensions, "the military radically revised the moral contract governing relations between it and its members."
