Edwin Walker
Encyclopedia
Major General
Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was a United States Army
officer known for his conservative political views and for being an attempted assassination target of Lee Harvey Oswald
.
in 1927. He then attended the United States Military Academy
, where he graduated in 1931. During World War II
, Walker commanded a subunit of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force
in the invasion of Anzio, Italy
in January 1944. In August 1944, Walker succeeded Robert T. Frederick
as the unit's commanding officer. The FSSF landed on the Hyeres Islands
off of the French Riviera
, taking out a strong German garrison.
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. He next 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
in Little Rock. In 1959, General Walker was sent to Germany
to command the 24th Infantry Division.
In 1961, however, the 51 year-old confirmed bachelor became involved in controversy. Walker initiated a mandatory, anti-communist indoctrination program for troops called "Pro Blue" (where the Free World troops were colored blue on maps) and was accused of distributing right-wing literature to the soldiers of his division, supplied to him by evangelist
Billy James Hargis
.
He was also quoted by a newspaper, 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 as to whom to cast their votes for in the next election, with all of the candidates the General named being arch-conservative Republicans
. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
relieved Walker of his command, 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 resigned from the Army on November 2, 1961. Said Walker: "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."
, which followed the Senator Joseph McCarthy belief that communists had infiltrated the US Government. Because of this political content, the Pentagon criticized Walker in private, while President Kennedy criticized Walker in public.
Walker said he felt he was being forced out of the Army, so in protest, and choosing a political career over his 30-year military career, Walker did not retire, but resigned his post, thereby forfeiting his officer's pension.
As a civilian in 1961, Walker first pursued a career of speaking out on politics, along with extreme right-wing Evangelist, Billy James Hargis
, for several months, to enthusiastic crowds all over the United States. His message of anti-Communism was popular, but because he also pressed the McCarthyist belief that communists were inside the US Government, he mainly attracted the extremists among the American right-wing. Yet his home-base was Dallas, Texas, which was generally a right-wing city, and he received considerable support from the citizens of Dallas. So, to pursue his political career, former General Edwin Walker chose to run for Governor.
In February 1962, Walker entered the race for Governor of Texas, but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic
primary election that was won in a runoff election by John B. Connally, Jr. 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. After winning the nomination in a close vote over Yarborough, Connally defeated Republican Jack Cox
, an oil equipment executive, also from Houston, who ran stronger than past nominees of his party.
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
. His public statement on September 29:
After a violent, 15-hour riot broke out on the campus, on September 30, in which 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 Kennedy. The humiliation of this treatment at the hands of a US Attorney General was enraging to Walker, the war hero and respected Army Commander.
Walker posted bond and returned home to Dallas
, where he was greeted by a crowd of 200 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.
That same year Bob Jones University
invited Walker to speak to its student body.
's attention. Oswald's wife Marina 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, Oswald began to put Walker under surveillance
, taking pictures of Walker's Dallas home on the weekend of March 9–10. He 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; 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.
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, U.S.A.
, that on the evening of October 23, 1963 he had attended an "ultra right" meeting headed by Gen. Edwin A. Walker - the very man he had tried to shoot on April 10, 1963, according to Marina Oswald.
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, 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.
He died of lung cancer at his home in Dallas in 1993.
) 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.
A comparison can be seen in the film clips with Lancaster as Scott at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGGvX6gsYcA against Walker as himself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyONwsHqbw.
When Walker testified before Mississippi Senator John Stennis' subcommittee investigating "the muzzling of the military" in 1962, Walker testified,
Alaskan Senator Bob Bartlett
then asked,
Walker then replied,
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 of Lee Harvey Oswald
's attempt to shoot him from Walker's perspective.
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was a United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
officer known for his conservative political views and for being an attempted assassination target of Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
.
Early life and military career
Edwin "Ted" Walker was born in Center Point, Texas and graduated from the New Mexico Military InstituteNew Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute is a state-supported educational institution. NMMI is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. It is sometimes referred to as the West Point of the West and it is the only state-supported military college located in the western United States. NMMI includes a...
in 1927. He then attended the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
, where he graduated in 1931. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Walker commanded a subunit of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force
Devil's Brigade
The Devil's Brigade , was a joint World War II American-Canadian commando unit organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States...
in the invasion of Anzio, Italy
Operation Shingle
Operation Shingle , during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an...
in January 1944. In August 1944, Walker succeeded Robert T. Frederick
Robert T. Frederick
Robert Tryon Frederick was a highly decorated American combat commander during World War II, who commanded the 1st Special Service Force, the 1st Airborne Task Force and the 45th Infantry Division.-Career:...
as the unit's commanding officer. The FSSF landed on the Hyeres Islands
Îles d'Hyères
The Îles d'Hyères is a group of three islands off Hyères in the Var département, in the south-east of France. The three mediterranean islands are named Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Île du Levant. Together, they make up an area of .-See also:...
off of the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, taking out a strong German garrison.
Walker again saw combat in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, commanding the Third Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment
7th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The United States Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Cottenbalers" from an incident that occurred during the Battle of New Orleans, while under the command of Andrew Jackson, when soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment held positions behind a breastwork of bales of cotton during the...
and was senior advisor to the Republic of Korea Army I Corps. He next became the commander of the Arkansas Military district in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
. During his years in Arkansas, he implemented an order from President Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
in 1957 to quell civil disturbances during the desegregation of Central High School
Central High School (Little Rock)
Little Rock Central High School is a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. Central High School was the site of forced school desegregation during the American Civil Rights Movement.Central is located at the intersection of Daisy L...
in Little Rock. In 1959, General Walker was sent to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to command the 24th Infantry Division.
In 1961, however, the 51 year-old confirmed bachelor became involved in controversy. Walker initiated a mandatory, anti-communist indoctrination program for troops called "Pro Blue" (where the Free World troops were colored blue on maps) and was accused of distributing right-wing literature to the soldiers of his division, supplied to him by evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis was a fundamentalist Protestant Christian evangelist. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, his Christian Crusade ministry was broadcast on more than 500 radio stations and 250 television stations...
.
He was also quoted by a newspaper, the Overseas Weekly, as saying that Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
, and Dean Acheson
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
were "definitely pink
Pinko
Pinko is a term for a person regarded as being sympathetic to communism, though not necessarily a Communist Party member.The term has its origins in the notion that pink is a lighter shade of red, the color associated with communism...
." Additionally, a number of soldiers had complained that Walker was instructing them as to whom to cast their votes for in the next election, with all of the candidates the General named being arch-conservative Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
relieved Walker of his command, 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 resigned from the Army on November 2, 1961. Said Walker: "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 commanding officer in Germany, Major General Edwin Walker embarked upon his political career in 1961, by distributing reading material to his troops as part of his Pro-Blue indoctrination program. This reading material included books by the John Birch SocietyJohn Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, which followed the Senator Joseph McCarthy belief that communists had infiltrated the US Government. Because of this political content, the Pentagon criticized Walker in private, while President Kennedy criticized Walker in public.
Walker said he felt he was being forced out of the Army, so in protest, and choosing a political career over his 30-year military career, Walker did not retire, but resigned his post, thereby forfeiting his officer's pension.
As a civilian in 1961, Walker first pursued a career of speaking out on politics, along with extreme right-wing Evangelist, Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis was a fundamentalist Protestant Christian evangelist. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, his Christian Crusade ministry was broadcast on more than 500 radio stations and 250 television stations...
, for several months, to enthusiastic crowds all over the United States. His message of anti-Communism was popular, but because he also pressed the McCarthyist belief that communists were inside the US Government, he mainly attracted the extremists among the American right-wing. Yet his home-base was Dallas, Texas, which was generally a right-wing city, and he received considerable support from the citizens of Dallas. So, to pursue his political career, former General Edwin Walker chose to run for Governor.
In February 1962, Walker entered the race for Governor of Texas, but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
primary election that was won in a runoff election by John B. Connally, Jr. Other contenders were the sitting Governor Price Daniel
Price Daniel
Marion Price Daniel, Sr. , was a Democratic U.S. Senator and the 38th Governor of the state of Texas. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be a member of the National Security Council, Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and Assistant to the President for Federal-State...
, highway commissioner Marshall Formby
Marshall Formby
Marshall Clinton Formby, Jr. , was a Texas attorney, newspaper publisher, radio executive, and a Democratic politician who served a term in the Texas State Senate from District 30 from 1941 to 1945. He was a defender of West Texas interests and entitled a 1962 book, These Are My People...
of Plainview
Plainview, Texas
Plainview is a city in and the county seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,336 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plainview is located at ....
, Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will Reid Wilson, Sr. was a prominent Democratic politician in his native Texas best known for his service as attorney general of Texas from 1957-1963. In 1968, he joined the Republican Party to support the election of Richard M. Nixon as U.S. President. Nixon thereafter named Wilson an assistant...
, and Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
lawyer Don Yarborough
Don Yarborough
Donald Howard Yarborough, known as Don Yarborough , was a liberal Democratic politician who was reportedly the first Southern politician to endorse the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yarborough, an attorney in Houston, Texas, ran for governor of Texas in 1962, 1964, and 1968...
, the favorite of liberals and organized labor. After winning the nomination in a close vote over Yarborough, Connally defeated Republican Jack Cox
Jack Cox (Texas)
Jack M. Cox was an oil equipment executive from Houston and the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee in the state of Texas.-Early years:...
, an oil equipment executive, also from Houston, who ran stronger than past nominees of his party.
Walker organized protests in September 1962 against the use of federal troops to enforce the enrollment of African-American James Meredith
James Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President...
at the racially segregated University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
. His public statement on September 29:
This is Edwin A. Walker. I am in Mississippi beside Gov. Ross BarnettRoss BarnettRoss Robert Barnett was the governor of Mississippi from 1960 to 1964. He was a States' Rights Democrat.- Early life :...
. 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 troopsMississippi Army National GuardThe Mississippi Army National Guard is the Army National Guard component of the Mississippi National Guard. It was originally formed in 1798. It is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard...
.
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-ChristAntichristThe term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
conspirators of the Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in their denial of prayerEngel v. VitaleEngel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that determined that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and require its recitation in public schools....
and their betrayal of a nation.
After a violent, 15-hour riot broke out on the campus, on September 30, in which two people were killed and six federal marshals
United States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...
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 Kennedy. The humiliation of this treatment at the hands of a US Attorney General was enraging to Walker, the war hero and respected Army Commander.
Walker posted bond and returned home to Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, where he was greeted by a crowd of 200 supporters. After a federal grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
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.
That same year Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University is a private, for-profit, non-denominational Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina.The university was founded in 1927 by Bob Jones, Sr. , an evangelist and contemporary of Billy Sunday...
invited Walker to speak to its student body.
Assassination attempt
According to the Warren Commission, around this time, Walker got Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
's attention. Oswald's wife Marina said that Oswald, a self-proclaimed Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, considered Walker a "fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
" and the leader of a "fascist organization." A front page story on Walker in the October 7, 1962, issue of the Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
, a Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
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
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
by mail, using the alias "A.J. Hidell."
In February 1963, Walker was making news by joining forces with evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis
Billy James Hargis was a fundamentalist Protestant Christian evangelist. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, his Christian Crusade ministry was broadcast on more than 500 radio stations and 250 television stations...
in an anti-communist tour called "Operation Midnight Ride
Paul Revere's Ride (poem)
"Paul Revere's Ride" is a poem by an American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that commemorates the actions of American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775.-Overview:...
". In a speech Walker made on March 5, reported in the Dallas Times Herald
Dallas Times Herald
The Dallas Times Herald, founded in 1888 by a merger of the Dallas Times and the Dallas Herald, was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and two George Polk Awards, for local and regional reporting...
, 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
John F. Kennedy assassination rifle
In March 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, using the alias "A. Hidell", purchased a 6.5 mm Carcano Model 91/38 rifle by mail order. He also purchased a revolver from a different company, by the same method...
rifle, using the alias "A. Hidell."
According to the Warren Commission, Oswald began to put Walker under surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
, taking pictures of Walker's Dallas home on the weekend of March 9–10. He 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; 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.
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
Neutron activation
Neutron activation is the process in which neutron radiation induces radioactivity in materials, and occurs when atomic nuclei capture free neutrons, becoming heavier and entering excited states. The excited nucleus often decays immediately by emitting particles such as neutrons, protons, or alpha...
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, U.S.A.
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, that on the evening of October 23, 1963 he had attended an "ultra right" meeting headed by Gen. Edwin A. Walker - the very man he had tried to shoot on April 10, 1963, according to Marina Oswald.
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." A Texas trial court in 1964 found the statements false and defamatory. The decision was appealed, as Associated Press v. Walker, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, but the Court ruled against Walker and found that although the statements may have been false, the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
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.
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
Nolo contendere
is a legal term that comes from the Latin for "I do not wish to contend." It is also referred to as a plea of no contest.In criminal trials, and in some common law jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of...
to one of the two misdemeanor charges, was given a suspended
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
, 30-day jail sentence, and fined $1,000.
He died of lung cancer at his home in Dallas in 1993.
Culture
Walker (along with Air Force General Curtis LeMayCurtis LeMay
Curtis Emerson LeMay was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in 1968....
) was cited as inspiration for the Air Force General James Mattoon Scott character in the film Seven Days in May
Seven Days in May
Seven Days in May is an American political thriller novel written by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II and published in 1962. It was made into a motion picture and released in February 1964, with a screenplay by Rod Serling, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk...
; in fact, Walker himself is mentioned by name in the film. While General Scott is portrayed by Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
as smooth and formidable in the film, Walker was usually seen as abrasive and strident.
A comparison can be seen in the film clips with Lancaster as Scott at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGGvX6gsYcA against Walker as himself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyONwsHqbw.
When Walker testified before Mississippi Senator John Stennis' 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
Bob Bartlett
Edward Lewis "Bob" Bartlett was an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party.Bartlett was born in Seattle, Washington. After graduating from the University of Alaska in 1925, Bartlett began his career in politics...
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.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
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
Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell may refer to:* Cameron Mitchell * Cameron Mitchell , a fictional character in the series Stargate SG-1* Cameron Mitchell Restaurants* Cameron Mitchell...
as a supporting character in the 1985 film Prince Jack
Prince Jack
Prince Jack is 1985 film from Castle Hill Productions which dramatises some of the inner workings of the Kennedy Administration, including efforts by Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy to address the issue of Civil Rights...
. The movie includes a dramatization of Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
's attempt to shoot him from Walker's perspective.