Edwin Walker

Major General Edwin Anderson Walker, sometimes known as Ted Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993), was a United States Army officer who fought in World War II and the Korean War, reaching the rank of Major General. He was known for his ultra-conservative political views and was criticized by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for promoting a personal political stand while in uniform. Walker resigned his commission in 1959, but Eisenhower refused to accept his resignation and gave Walker a new command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. Walker again resigned his commission in 1961 after being publicly and formally admonished by President John F. Kennedy for publicly calling Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman "pink" in print, and for violating the Hatch Act by attempting to direct the votes of his troops. Kennedy accepted his resignation.

In early 1962 Walker ran for Governor of Texas, and lost to John Connally. Later that year, Walker was arrested for leading riots at Ole Miss in protest against admitting a black student, James Meredith, into the then-all-white college. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Walker committed to an insane asylum for a 90-day evaluation in response to the riots, but psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested and Walker was released in five days. Attorney Robert Morris convinced a Mississippi Grand Jury not to indict Walker. Walker was the target of an assassination attempt on April 10, 1963 that has been linked to Lee Harvey Oswald. From the period of President Kennedy's assassination forward, General Walker wrote and spoke publicly about his belief that there were two assassins at his "April Crime", the same assassin who killed the President, and another one never found, but probably hired by the President's brother, the Attorney General.

Early life and military career
Walker was born in Center Point in Kerr County in the Texas Hill Country. He graduated in 1927 from the New Mexico Military Institute. He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1931. Walker's background was as an artilleryman, but during World War II, he commanded a subunit of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force. Walker took command of one of the Force's three regiments while still in the United States, and commanded the 3rd Regiment throughout its time in Italy. Their first combat actions began in December 1943, and after battling through the Winter Line, the Force was withdrawn for redeployment to the Anzio beachhead in early 1944. After the fight for Rome in June 1944, the Force was withdrawn once again to prepare for Operation Dragoon and in August 1944, Walker succeeded Robert T. Frederick as the unit's second, and last, commanding officer. The FSSF landed on the Hyeres Islands off of the French Riviera in the autumn of 1944, taking out a strong German garrison. Walker was in command of the FSSF when it was disbanded in early 1945.

Walker again saw combat in the Korean War, commanding the Third Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment and was senior advisor to the Republic of Korea Army I Corps.

Next Walker became the commander of the Arkansas Military District in Little Rock, Arkansas. During his years in Arkansas, he implemented an order from President Eisenhower in 1957 to quell civil disturbances during the desegregation of Central High School. Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, recalls that Walker "made it clear from the outset ... that he would do any and everything necessary to see that the black students attended Central High School as ordered by the federal court ... he would arrange protection for them and their families, if necessary, and also supervise their transportation to and from the school for their safety."

At the same time, however, Walker repeatedly protested to President Eisenhower that using Federal Troops to enforce racial integration over States' Rights was against his own conscience. So, although Walker obeyed orders and successfully integrated Little Rock High, he also turned more politically toward right-wing literature and radio programs, including that of segregationist preacher, Reverend Billy James Hargis, and H.L. Hunt, whose right-wing radio program, Life Line was the launching platform for Dan Smoot. The main teaching of all these rightists in 1957-1959 was the same as that of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, i.e., that Communists controlled key portions of the US Government and the United Nations.

In 1959, General Walker met right-wing publisher, Robert Welch who had just started up his John Birch Society with his principal belief that President Eisenhower was in reality a Communist. This revelation shocked General Walker, who took it to heart, because it harmonized with the segregationist preaching of Reverend Billy James Hargis, that the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality in America was a Communist plot.

Therefore, on 4 August 1959, General Walker submitted his resignation to the US Army. President Eisenhower denied Walker's request for resignation on 4 September 1959, and instead offered General Walker a command over more than 10,000 Troops in Augsburg, Germany, specifically over the 24th Infantry Division. Walker promptly accepted that command, and just as promptly initiated plans to promote his Pro-Blue indoctrination program which included a reading list of materials from Billy James Hargis and the John Birch Society.

The Pro-Blue program was an anti-Communist indoctrination program for troops. Its name, said Walker, was intended to suggest 'Anti-Red', (where the Free World troops were colored blue on maps). The Pro-Blue program was based upon Walker's experiences in Korea, in which he saw hastily mobilized and deployed soldiers "bug out" in the face of communist units with inferior equipment and often smaller numbers. American soldiers, unprepared for the psychological battlefield, needed to know why they had to beat the enemy as well as the how.

Throughout 1960, the Pro-Blue program was very successful in Germany, although General Walker also came into hostile conflict with a US Army newspaper there named the Overseas Weekly. Their conflict blew up every few months, until on 16 April 1961 the Overseas Weekly published a front page scandal about General Walker, accusing him of brainwashing his troops with John Birch Society materials, supplied to him by evangelist Billy James Hargis.

Because the John Birch Society regularly printed that all U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt forward had been Communists, this was perceived as too politically controversial for a US General to advocate. Walker was quoted by the Overseas Weekly as saying that Harry S. Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dean Acheson were "definitely pink." Additionally, a number of soldiers had complained that Walker was instructing them to vote in the forthcoming USA election by using the Conservative Voting Index which had a bias toward the Republicans. Later, the alleged "instruction" by Walker to soldiers as "how to vote" would be disproven, as the basis for the allegation was an article in the division newspaper which provided information as to how to fill out absentee ballots, a practice which is still current in the U.S. Army to this day.

The very next day, on 17 April 1961 General Walker was relieved from his command by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara while an inquiry was conducted, and in October Walker was reassigned to Hawaii to become assistant chief of staff for training and operations in the Pacific.

Instead, Walker chose a second time to resign from the Army on 2 November 1961. This was following an investigation into the allegations put forth by the Overseas Weekly which found no evidence of wrongdoing by Maj. Gen. Walker. The Secretary of the Army, with no "crime" having been committed (as defined by the Uniform Code of Military Justice), chose to "admonish" the general, an action which could not be appealed by Walker but did allow for the appearance of impropriety. The Secretary also stated that Walker would not be permitted to take command of VIII Corps, as the President had seen fit to withdraw his name for promotion. In protest, and choosing a political career over his 30-year military career, Walker did not retire but resigned his post, thereby voluntarily forfeiting his officer's pension. This time the US President accepted his resignation. Walker said: "It will be my purpose now, as a civilian, to attempt to do what I have found it no longer possible to do in uniform."

Political career
As a civilian in December 1961, Walker embarked on a career of right-wing political speeches, along with segregationist evangelist Billy James Hargis. Walker enjoyed enthusiastic crowds all over the United States, who frequently gave him a dozen standing ovations at every speech. His message of anti-Communism was popular, but because he also pressed the McCarthyist belief that Communists were inside the United States government, he mainly attracted the extremists among the American right-wing. Yet his home base was Dallas, Texas, then considered a conservative city. Walker received considerable support from the citizens of Dallas, in particular from oil billionaire and right-wing publisher, H.L. Hunt, who supported Walker's first election campaign for governor of Texas.

In February 1962, Walker entered the race but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic primary election that was won in a runoff election by John B. Connally, Jr., the choice of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Other contenders were the sitting Governor Price Daniel, highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, Attorney General Will Wilson, and Houston lawyer Don Yarborough, the favorite of liberals and organized labor.

Though he had followed military orders to compel the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Walker organized protests in September 1962 against the use of federal troops to enforce the enrollment of African-American James Meredith at the racially segregated University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi. On 26 September 1962 ex-General Edwin Walker went on several radio stations to broadcast this message: "Mississippi: It is time to move. We have talked, listened and been pushed around far too much by the anti-Christ Supreme Court! Rise...to a stand beside Governor Ross Barnett at Jackson, Mississippi! Now is the time to be heard!  Thousands strong from every State in the Union!  Rally to the cause of freedom!  The Battle Cry of the Republic!  Barnett yes!  Castro no!  Bring your flag, your tent and your skillet.  It's now or never!  The time is when the President of the United States commits or uses any troops, Federal or State, in Mississippi!  The last time in such a situation I was on the wrong side.  That was in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957-1958.  This time -- out of uniform -- I am on the right side!  I will be there!" This is his televised public statement on 29 September 1962: "This is Edwin A. Walker. I am in Mississippi beside Governor Ross Barnett. I call for a national protest against the conspiracy from within. Rally to the cause of freedom in righteous indignation, violent vocal protest, and bitter silence under the flag of Mississippi at the use of Federal troops. This today is a disgrace to the nation in 'dire peril,' a disgrace beyond the capacity of anyone except its enemies. This is the conspiracy of the crucifixion by anti-Christ conspirators of the Supreme Court in their denial of prayer and their betrayal of a nation."

After a violent, 15-hour riot broke out on the campus, on September 30, in which hundreds were wounded, two people were killed and six federal marshals were shot, Walker was arrested on four federal charges, including sedition and insurrection against the United States. He was temporarily held in a mental institution on orders from President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. RFK demanded that Walker receive a 90-day psychiatric examination.

However, the Attorney General's decision was promptly challenged by famous psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who insisted that psychiatry must never become a tool of political rivalry. The American Civil Liberties Union joined Thomas Szasz in a protest against the Attorney General, completing this coalition of liberal and right-wing leaders. The Attorney General had to back down, and Walker spent only five days in the asylum.

Walker posted bond and returned home to Dallas, where he was greeted by a crowd of some two hundred supporters. After a federal grand jury adjourned in January 1963 without indicting him, the charges were dropped. Because the dismissal of the charges was without prejudice, the charges could have been reinstated within five years.

Assassination attempt
According to the Warren Commission, around this time, Walker got Lee Harvey Oswald's attention. Oswald's wife, Marina Oswald, said that Oswald, a self-proclaimed Marxist, considered Walker a "fascist" and the leader of a "fascist organization." A front page story on Walker in the October 7, 1962, issue of the Worker, a Communist Party newspaper to which Oswald subscribed, warned "the Kennedy administration and the American people of the need for action against [Walker] and his allies." Five days after the front page news on January 22, 1963 that Walker's federal charges had been dropped, Oswald ordered a revolver by mail, using the alias "A.J. Hidell."

In February 1963, Walker was making news by joining forces with evangelist Billy James Hargis in an anti-Communist tour called "Operation Midnight Ride". In a speech Walker made on March 5, reported in the Dallas Times Herald, he called on the United States military to "liquidate the scourge that has descended upon the island of Cuba." Seven days later, Oswald ordered by mail a Carcano rifle, using the alias "A. Hidell."

According to the Warren Commission, and to the later House Select Committee on Assassinations Oswald began to put Walker under surveillance, taking pictures of Walker's Dallas home on the weekend of March 9–10. Furthermore, people involved with Oswald in those and prior weeks admitted to have been criticizing General Walker with Lee Harvey Oswald included Dallas engineer, Michael Paine, oil geologist, George De Mohrenschildt and oil engineer, Volkmar Schmidt.

Oswald planned the assassination for April 10. Oswald's wife Marina said that he chose a Wednesday evening because the neighborhood would be relatively crowded because of services in a church adjacent to Walker's home, and he would not stand out and could mingle with the crowds if necessary to make his escape. He left a note in Russian for his wife Marina with instructions should he be caught. Walker was sitting at a desk in his dining room when Oswald fired at him from less than a hundred feet (30 m) away. The bullet struck the wooden frame of the window, which deflected its path. Walker was injured in the forearm by fragments.

According to Dallas Police Department records, neighbors of Walker witnessed two men at the scene of the crime, running into a car and speeding away. To the end of his life, Walker believed that there was another man serving as Oswald's accomplice, and he spent decades attempting to learn the identity of that accomplice.

A police detective, D. E. McElroy, commented that "Whoever shot at the general was playing for keeps. The sniper wasn't trying to scare him. He was shooting to kill." Marina Oswald stated later that she had seen Oswald burn most of his plans in the bathtub, though she hid the note he left her in a cookbook, with the intention of bringing it to the police should Oswald again attempt to kill Walker or anyone else. Marina later quoted her husband as saying, "Well, what would you say if somebody got rid of Hitler at the right time? So if you don't know about General Walker, how can you speak up on his behalf?"

Before the Kennedy assassination, Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting, but Oswald's involvement was suspected within hours of his arrest following the assassination. (The note Oswald left for Marina on the night of the attempt was not found until early December 1963.)  The bullet was too badly damaged to run conclusive ballistics tests, but neutron activation tests later determined that it was "extremely likely" the bullet was a Carcano bullet manufactured by the Western Cartridge Company, the same ammunition used in the Kennedy assassination.

Oswald later wrote to Arnold Johnson of the Communist Party USA, that on the evening of October 23, 1963, he had attended an "ultra right" meeting headed by General Walker.

Walker orchestrates verbal attack on Adlai Stevenson
The famous attack in Dallas, Texas on the person of United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson on "UN Day," 24 October 1963 was orchestrated by Walker. In mid-October 1963 Walker rented the same Dallas Memorial Auditorium in which Adlai Stevenson would speak. He advertised his opposing event as "US Day" and he invited members of the John Birch Society, the National Indignation Convention, the Minutemen and other right-wing organizations that were fundamentally opposed to the existence of the United Nations.

On the night before Stevenson's speech, Walker held his "US Day" rally and instructed his audience to "buy all the tickets" they could afford to the Stevenson speech, and to fill the auditorium with rightists. Walker then instructed his audience to heckle Stevenson mercilessly, and to bring Halloween noise-makers, and bring their own prepared speeches to recite in the hallways, and generally disrupt the speech in any way that they could.

Walker also instructed his followers to hoist a banner on the ceiling of the Auditorium, and fold it, and tie it with a long string, so that when the string was pulled, it would unfurl. On one side of the banner was printed, "US out of UN!" and on the other side was printed, "UN out of US!" This banner was to remain folded until after Stevenson began speaking.

Walker himself did not attend the planned disruption, nor did he take credit for the orchestration. The events in the Auditorium proceeded exactly according to plan, so that Stevenson quit speaking before his presentation was finished, and rushed out to his limousine. On his way there, he was spat upon by some protesters, and one protester struck him in the head with her placard. The spitter and the hitter were both arrested. Walker was not charged although his role was well known at the time.

Associated Press v. Walker
Angered by negative publicity he was receiving for his conservative political views, Walker began to file libel lawsuits against various media outlets. One of these suits was in response to coverage of his participation in the University of Mississippi riot, specifically that he had "led a charge of students against federal marshals" and that he had "assumed command of the crowd." Several newspapers were named in the lawsuit, and Walker and his lawyers stood to win up to $30 million if they won every suit.

A Texas trial court in 1964 found the statements false and defamatory. At this point Walker and his lawyers had won over $3 million in lawsuits.

The Associated Press appealed the decision, as Associated Press v. Walker, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1967 the Supreme Court ruled against Walker and found that although the statements may have been false, the Associated Press was not guilty of reckless disregard in their reporting about Walker. The Court, which had previously said that public officials could not recover damages unless they could prove actual malice, extended this to public figures as well.

Walker, from 1962 through 1967, displayed a full-size billboard on his front lawn with the standard John Birch Society slogan, Impeach Earl Warren (no citation provided). Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren was a key figure in the decision of Brown v. Board of Education which mandated the racial integration of all U.S. public schools. Warren was also the Supreme Court judge who heard Walker's case against the Associated Press. Walker and his lawyers walked away with nothing.

Later life
By resigning instead of retiring, Walker was unable to draw a pension from the Army. He made statements at the time to the Dallas Morning News that he had "refused" to take his pension. However, he had made several previous requests for his pension dating back to 1973. The Army restored his pension rights in 1982.

Walker, then 66, was arrested on June 23, 1976 for public lewdness in a restroom at a Dallas park and accused of fondling an undercover policeman. He was arrested again in Dallas for public lewdness on March 16, 1977. He pled no contest to one of the two misdemeanor charges, was given a suspended, 30-day jail sentence, and fined $1,000.

Walker died of lung cancer at his home in Dallas in 1993. He was never married and he left no children.

Culture
Walker (along with Air Force General Curtis LeMay) was cited as inspiration for the Air Force General James Mattoon Scott character in the film Seven Days in May; in fact, Walker himself is mentioned by name in the film. While General Scott is portrayed by Burt Lancaster as smooth and formidable in the film, Walker was usually seen as abrasive and strident.

When Walker testified before Mississippi U.S. Senator John Stennis's subcommittee investigating "the muzzling of the military" in 1962, Walker testified,
 * "It is evident that the real control apparatus will not tolerate militant anti-Communist leadership in a division commander. The real control apparatus can be identified by the effects of what it is doing in the Congo, what it did in Korea..."

Alaskan Senator Bob Bartlett then asked,
 * "General, are you saying that there exists in this country - in positions of ultimate leadership - a group of sinister men, anti-American, willing and wanting to sell this country out? Is that the correct inference?"

Walker then replied,
 * "That is correct; yes, sir."

William F. Buckley, Jr., had considered Walker a potential leader of the Right but gave up on Walker in this period.

Walker is also cited as inspiration for General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

Walker is portrayed by Cameron Mitchell as a supporting character in the 1985 film Prince Jack. The movie includes a dramatization from Walker's perspective of Lee Harvey Oswald's attempt to shoot him.

Oswald's attempted assassination of Walker is incorporated into the storyline of 11/22/63, a novel by Stephen King about a time traveler who attempts to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.