For centuries the warrior class has been male. Now Uncle Sam's best and brightest include women. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, can a few good men treat a few good women as equals? Or will gender wars tear the military apart? Also, why race relations are better in the army than anywhere in civilian life.

SEGMENT 1

Journalist Tom Ricks tells Jim Fleming that the military forms a separate society within the U.S. -- one that is in some ways more successful than mainstream society. The military has less crime and better race relations, but says Ricks, the danger is that the military may come to see itself as defining society rather than defending it. Ricks is the author of "Making the Corps," and has an article in the July issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

SEGMENT 2:

Writer Linda Bird Francke tells Steve Paulson why this is a terrible time for women in the military and that commanders often blame female recruits for the problems caused by the behavior of the men in their units. Francke is the author of "Ground Zero: The Gender Wars in the Military." Also, Northwestern University sociologist Charles Moskos tells Judith Strasser that the army has much better race relations than society as a whole and explains how they've done it. Moskos and John Sibley Butler are the co-authors of "All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way."

SEGMENT 3:

Barbara Ehrenreich is a columnist for The Guardian and the author of "Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War." She tells Anne Strainchamps that the human fascination with violence comes from our having been not hunters, but hunted; and that the human species would be better off if it attached more importance to making peace.

Distribution dates:

• week of 08/03/97 - hour 1