Edwin Walker (other)

Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was a United States Army major general who served in World War II and the Korean War. Walker resigned his commission during 1959, but Eisenhower refused to accept his resignation and gave Walker a new command of the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. Walker again resigned his commission in 1961 after being publicly and formally admonished by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for allegedly referring to Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman as " pink" in print and for violating the Hatch Act of 1939 by attempting to influence the votes of his troops. President John F. Kennedy accepted his resignation, making Walker the only US general to resign during the 20th century.

In early 1962, Walker campaigned to become governor of Texas and lost the Democratic primary election to the eventual winner, John Connally. In October 1962, Walker was arrested for promoting riots at the University of Mississippi in protest against the admission of black student James Meredith into the all-white university. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Walker committed to a mental asylum for a 90-day evaluation, but the ACLU and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested along with rightist groups, and Walker was released in five days. Attorney Robert Morris in early 1963 convinced a Mississippi grand jury to not charge Walker with a crime.

Walker reported that he was the target of an assassination attempt at his home on April 10, 1963, but escaped serious injury when a bullet fired from outside hit a window frame and fragmented. After its investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Warren Commission concluded that Walker's assailant had been Lee Harvey Oswald.

Early life and military career

Walker was born in the town of Center Point in Kerr County, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country. He graduated in 1927 from the New Mexico Military Institute. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1931.

Walker's training was in artillery, but in World War II he commanded a sub-unit of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force. Walker took command of the force's 3rd Regiment while still in the United States, and commanded the 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 Their first combat actions began in December 1943, and after battling through the Winter Line, the force was withdrawn for redeployment to the Anzio beachhead in early 1944.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 again to prepare for Operation Dragoon. In August 1944, Walker succeeded Robert T. Frederick as the unit's second, and last, commanding officer. The FSSF landed on the Islands of Hyeres off the French Riviera in the autumn of 1944, defeating a strong German garrison. Walker commanded the FSSF when it was disbanded in early 1945.

Walker experienced combat during the Korean War, commanding the Third Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment and serving as a senior advisor to the army of the Republic of Korea.

Walker was then assigned as commander of the Arkansas Military District in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957, he implemented an order by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to quell civil disturbances related to the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School. Osro Cobb, the US 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."

Walker repeatedly protested to Eisenhower that using federal troops to enforce racial integration was against his conscience. Although he obeyed orders and successfully integrated Little Rock High School, he began listening to segregationist preacher Billy James Hargis and oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, whose anti-communist radio program ''Life Line'' was supported by conservative activist and publisher Dan Smoot. Anti-communist activists in the late 1950s claimed that communists controlled important parts of the U.S. government and the United Nations, and that some Soviet spies and agents occupied prominent jobs within the federal government.

In 1959, Walker met publisher Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society who taught his followers that Eisenhower was a communist and that the civil rights movement was a communist plot.

On August 4, 1959, Walker submitted his resignation to the U.S. Army claiming the US government had been infiltrated by an international communist conspiracy. Eisenhower denied Walker's request, however, and instead offered him command of the more than 10,000 troops in Augsburg, Germany, in the 24th Infantry Division, which Walker accepted. He began promoting his "Pro-Blue" indoctrination program for troops, which included a reading list of materials by Hargis and the John Birch Society. The name "Pro-Blue", said Walker, was intended to suggest "anti-red." He later wrote that the Pro-Blue program was based upon his experiences in Korea, where 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."

The John Birch Society regularly claimed that all U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt onward had been communists, and Walker was quoted by the ''Overseas Weekly'' as saying that Harry S. Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Secretary of State Dean Acheson were "definitely pink." Finally, a number of soldiers had complained that Walker was instructing them how to vote in the forthcoming American election by using the ''Conservative Voting Index'', which was biased toward the Republican Party. Walker denied the allegation that he provided voting instructions to soldiers and that the allegation was based on an article in the division newspaper that provided instructions for filling out absentee ballots. Walker was relieved of his command by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, while an inquiry was conducted. In October, Walker was reassigned to Hawaii to become assistant chief of staff for training and operations in the Pacific region.

Walker decided for the second time to resign from the US Army. He was entitled to retire, but he chose instead to make a political statement. Walker chose political activism to his 30-year military career, so on November 2, 1961, Walker publicly resigned (thereby forfeiting his Army pension). President Kennedy offered Walker a new command in Hawaii instead, but Walker spurned it. Weeks later 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

During December 1961, as a civilian, Walker began a career making political speeches along with Billy James Hargis. Walker enjoyed enthusiastic crowds all over the United States and his anti-communist message was popular. He also promoted the McCarthyist belief that communists were inside the United States government. Walker's home base was Dallas, Texas, where he received considerable assistance from oil billionaire, publisher and radio host H. L. Hunt. Hunt assisted Walker's first campaign for governor of Texas. A '' Newsweek'' cover proclaimed Walker the public face of the anti-communist conservative movement.

In February 1962, Walker began his campaign for governor, but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic primary election. The winner in a runoff election was John B. Connally, Jr., the choice of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Other contenders were Governor Price Daniel, Highway Commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, Attorney General of Texas

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