-.4.1bammumer.p.

7 /Ilk

Dallas Observer November 18-24, 1993 74 •

IN HIS LAST INTERVIEW,

GEN. EDWIN WALKER

DEFENDED HIS PLACE When Dallasites read the news IN HISTORY. that Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker died peacefully at 83 in his mod- est North home, most of BY ROBERT WILONSKY the city's residents struggled to remember who he was. If they remembered the general at all, was for his brief brush with infamy. Walker narrowly survived a bullet from 's Mannlicher- Carcano rifle, only seven months b..!fore Oswald would cut down John Kennedy with the same weapon a few mites away in Dealey Plaza A front-page obituary in the Dallas 'Horning News and a large one in helped Dallasites fill i:. the blanks, bringing the general into uncomfortable focus, particularly whet, they recalled the Dallas of the 1960s that Walker personified: Commie-bashing, antidesegregationism, Kennedy- baiting, and right-wing fanaticism. Walker's Halloween death from lung thsease, no doubt from a chain-smok- ing habit, was a surprise only to those. who Continued on page 22 WaMoir Contlaiusel'161Caiii; 21 • like those two times in the 1970s when be 1 thought the general—for so many years was caught and charged with trying to silent—had died long ago. He spent the pick up male undercover cops in Dallas last years of his life like an aging boxer, park bathrooms—Walker's name hadn't too tough and too proud and too punch- been in the papers in three decades. The drunk to hear the bell. days of the Kennedy Camelot, commu- As Walker told the Dallas Observer in an nism, and the Berlin Wall have passed. interview given just weeks before his And the , the National death, "Our.fight is not necessary now in Indignation Committee, the Christian the way it was then. It was bringing out an Crusaders, the Minute Men, and every understanding of what the enemy was and other extremist right-wing movement that what a communist was and was capable of. Even the Kennedys couldn't understand that • "You can't under- stand the demise of communism unless -"you saw it in action," Walker said. "You're living in an age that's trying to back out of all the thh:gs it did. It was vicious Lime. Everything was deceit- ful, from bottom to top. It got into every- thing, politics; and everybody doesn't get straight in one day." Whether you liked him or hated him—if only because he was a grim reminder of an ugly, mean-spirited time—there's no deny- ing Walker's place in Dallas' history. For one brief but indelible moment in the early 1960s, for the world at large, retired Maj. Gen. Edwin. Anderson Walker was Dallas. The ramrod Gen. Edwin Walker being led away by U.S. marshals after being arrested straight general on charges of inciting a riot on the Ole Miss campus embodied the city's attitude and ideology at a time when men Walker founded or drew strength from like congressman Bruce Alger and busi- are dead or moribund. And, finally, the nessman H.L. Hunt had Dallas' rich and general himself has died, in obscurity. powerful running around like frightened children, fretting about the Red Menace hen reached by phone in late and the threat of weak-kneed liberals like September, Walker refused to Kennedy and Johnson. Walker took be interviewed. He said he had Dallas' eccentricities to a national audi- had enough of the media, which was "always getting ence in 1961 when Newsweek featured his stately face on its cover, casting him as an things wrong." Visitors weren't important spokesmen of the extreme allowed to his house and weren't allowed right-wing. to call—though, till his dying day, the gen- Yet with just a few notable exceptions— eral's phone number and address were listed in the city directory, ana,k00 ‘Ad — ally answer the phone when you 'cidie:). • But Walker, perhaps sensing his neat ..--Though he repeatedly insisted he was ing death, finally relented and agreed to "doin' all right, feeling fine," Walker an interview. For two hours he talked, would not allow a face-to-face interview. often incoherently, about his place in his- And, the longer the general spoke over tory, touching on communism, the impor- the phone, the shakier his voice became. tance of the Warsaw Pact, John Kennedy's It was the quivering, brittle, phlegmy ineffectual presidency, Walker's failed run voice of a nearly deaf 83-year-old man who for governor in the 1960s, and had seen his share of bloodshed and fight- Oswald's attempt on his life. Sometimes ing, in and out of uniform. In it was only a the obviously ailing Walker was insight- distant echo of the brash, determined ful, epecially when it came -to the voice of a soldier who thought it was worth sacrificing his military career for his belief that America must be saved from communists without and within. Where he once toured the country giv- ing speeches about the relentless Red threat to freedom, espousing Christian Kennedy assassination: he would raise verse and rightist propaganda, Walker questions about the FBI's lack of assis- spent his final days phoning state and tance to the Dallas police, mentioning the local politicians to tell them Sen. Kay long-known fact that Hoover had it in for Bailey Hutchison got a raw deal and that the bungling local cops and wouldn't ..,:ate in, one L.IN. was grant them jurisdiction on'the shooting. Three decades after rallying thousanns Other times, Walker mumbled gibber- against communism, Kennedy, and deseg- ish, particularly when he spoke about his regation, the general's issues were tame historic legacy. Did his actions change the by even moderate Republican standards. course of this country, or even his city? Walker answered with a rambling dis- ne of the things lost to history course on the impact of communism, is that Walker was a fine sol- adding, "You can't understand any of that dier, a West Pointer who was unless you discuss the three Warsaw Pact awarded the Bronze and Silver objectives put out by Khrushchev, and stars and the . only by assessing those against the 0 Born in Center Point, Texas, Kennedy administration do you get a clear on November 10, 1909, Walker graduated picture of what the result is." The more he from West Point (where he was a first-rate would elaborate, the more murky the polo player) in 1931 and slowly worked answer would become. his way through the peace-time Army's Here he was, grudgingly giving what ranks until, in 1943, he assumed his first would be his last interview, and most of it command, leading a special service force was an unintelligible mishmash of right- of airborne, amphibious, and ski troops. It wing code words, out-of-date rhetoric, ral- was his unit, the 3rd Regiment, that led lying cries long ago forgotten, and half- the assault on the Japanese at Amchitka remembered snippets of anticommunist, during the Aleutian campaign in May antidesegregation speeches he gave 1943, countering the only foreign invasion decades ago in places like Shreveport and of America soil since the War of 1812. Jackson, Mississippi. The 3rd also participated in the attack The leader who rallied people by the on Naples, the Anzio beachhead, the thousands to hear him speak—his "U.S. Battle of Cassino, and several battles in Day" speech at the Dallas Memorial southern France. In 1944, he commanded Auditorium on October 23, 1963 being the 474th Infantry Regiment, which partic- one of the most memorable, when he ipated in several German and European assembled every right-wing nut in the campaigns as part of General George region from the Birchers to the Christian Patton's Third Army. Crusaders—now struggled to finish After World War II, Walker returned to the U.S. and eventually became Secretary of the General Staff, Fourth U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Sam . He would go on to train airborne Ranger companies for each Army division, but by the early THE COMMIES WANTED HIM of Asia. The New York 'Tunes said I was forced out of the Army, but the Army was DEAD, AND THE KENNEDYS running a hell of an operation if the war was so bad they were forcing me out by DIDN'T MUCH LIKE THE assigning me to it. "John F. Kennedy and Robert GENERAL EITHER, SO THEY McNamara were kind of mixed up in their military affairs. If they could use their own SENT THEIR BOY TO KILL dirty war as a means of getting me out of the Army, I don't think that's much credit, HIM, WALKER FIGURED. do you? I just had a Kennedy on top of me who said I had to be eliminated from the 1950s Walker was itching for combat. Army because of my anticommunist In 1951 he was sent to Korea, where he stance, and I did what I had to do." eventually became the Deputy Chief of After his resignation he moved to Dallas Staff for prisoner-of-war affairs. Then he and became the symbol of the right wing. hopscotched from Korea to Fort Bragg, From Dallas, he was going to launch a North Carolina, to Taiwan (where he conservative revolution with the help of became advisor to the commander-of- people like evangelist Billy Hargis (who chief of the Chinese Nationalist Army), to would tour the country fighting Commies , to , and to Heidelberg, with Christ) and local billionaire and well- Germany—each time as a commanding, dressed religious zealot H.L Hunt—who, Walker claimed, "was just someone I talked to a couple of officer and an increasingly revered sol- lb times," desr -te history .flier. books Yet while stationed in Germany in 1961, closely allied. Walker found himself in trouble with the To Walker, Dallas Army and his commander in chief for dis- was a "communist tributing right-wing John Birch Society cell" that needed to be leaflets to his troops; it was part of his purged, and his forces "pro-blue" training program, which he were ever-growing. claimed was "based on years of personal Yet when he ran for study, expert counsel, and official Cold governor in 1961, he War directives." As the general explained finished sixth out of it, to be pro-blue was to be anti-red; it was six in the Democratic patriotism (if not McCarthyism) taken to primary; two years the extreme: Walker's strong belief that later he considered running again— Commies had infiltrated the U.S. govern- "because it is the cause for Christ and the ment. Kennedy himself became involved world," he explained at the time—but in the Army's investigation of Walker and then abruptly dropped the idea. reprimanded him publicly. Walker didn't realize that his moment in Fed up with the military, Walker sent history had already passed, in 1957. He the Chief of Staff his letter of resignation was named the commander of the U.S. on October 1, 1961, claiming that "connec- Military District in Arkansas, and under tion or affiliation with the President Dwight EisenhoWer's orders he inay the jeLpardies to Continued on pegs 24 which I have recently been subjected." In one of the many ironies of Walker's Continued from 23 life, he found himself defying a liberal led the troops that forced integration on president who wanted him to fight com- Little Rock's Central High School. His munists. But Walker refused to fight in presence helped keep calm and order at a what he believed was a dirty, ill-advised turning point in American history and war Vietnam. make him a hero to the civil rights move- "With 30 years of military' service I made ment. But the general rejected history— the decision I would not honor the he was commanding in Little Rock, he Kennedy order of October 13, 1961," said, "against my wishes." Walker said during his interview with the "I didn't think American troops on top of Observer, "that reassigned me from NATO American people was the right way to do Germany to an undeclared war against a that," Walker said. "I asked Doug second-rate Soviet satellite in the jungles MacArthur what he thought about it, and

- "When Oswald shot at walker, says he said Eisenhower made him do a lot at author Gerald Posner (Case Closed), "he things he didn't want to do, too." Walker's dragged Walker into the history books in Little Rock dilemma may have struck a a more prominent way." deeper chord with MacArthur, who, It was on April 10, 1963 that Lee Harvey under orders from another president, Oswald narrowly missed putting a bullet used cavalry in 1932 to break up the through Walker's head. Had it not been Bonus Army, a group of disgruntled for a window frame that deflected the 6.5 World War I veterans camped in mm bullet harmlessly onto a. task of 4 gt( In 1962, would wake up for nis Little Rock "error" when he led a riot on the campus of the University of Mississippi at Oxford to protest the admission of black 29-year-old Air Force veteran . On September PPIsi%rs, the general would have died three 30, Walker issued a statement to the decades ago, a martyr for his right-wing national media claiming that Meredith's cause. As it is, his history is forever inter- enrollment at Ole Miss was "the conspir- twined with that of the president he acy of the crucifixion by the Supreme Court in their denial of prayer and their betrayal of a nation." - despised. The riot on Oct. 1, 1962, which involved - Walker, in his own mind miraculously thousands of anticlesegregationists- spared JFK's fate, was left with an obses- some armed and wearing Confederate sion with the assassination, convinced uniforms—left Ole Miss in shambles and that Oswald was part of a communist plot landed Walker in the custody of U.S. mar- to kill both himself and the president, shals. To the end, he maintained that he Walker believed the was simply part of the melee, not its Report was "85 percent right" and that leader. . Oswald alone killed JFK. But he also He was charged with acts of "rebellion, maintained that not only did the insurrection, and seditious conspiracy"— Kennedys know that Oswald shot at him, all of which were later dropped after a but that the Dallas Police Department had high-profile legal battle and batteries of arrested Oswald the night of the shooting psychological tests, including one that led and that Attorney General Bobby an SMU professor to proclaim Walker had Kennedy had ordered Oswald's release a "superior level of intelligence." from custody. How Oswald could be part In one way, Walker equated Little Rock of a communist plot to kill a right-wing and Ole Miss: both events were "too badly radical and JFK—and be protected by the messed up, too questionable." president's brother—Walker couldn't "T ere's a difference between integra- quite explain. tion Ind desegregation, and that's never The FBI claimed it didn't learn of bee taken into account," Walker said in Walker's attempted murder until his final interview. "One infers force and December 3, 1963, when Marina Oswald, the other one doesn't. That's all I have to Oswald's widow, told the feds that Oswald say on to .subject," had plotted to kill the general. She not In 1982, Walker was reinstated by the only turned over a note from Oswald that Army and given back his title of major instructed" her on what to do in case he general—not to mention his full annual was captured, but also revealed that when pension 12) ere all ' "I T‘t Lee returned home that night, he was everything back," Walker said, quite "nervous," saying he had just tried to kill proudly. Edwin Walker. She also gave the agents "I don't have any fights with the Army," copies of surveillance photos Lee had he added. "I was never fed up with the Army. I was fed up with the Kennedy administration." WALKER, MIRACULOUSLY

yen with Little Rock and Ole SPARED JFK's FATE, WAS Miss, Edwin Walker would have become little more than a LEFT WITH AN OBSESSION footnote had Lee Harvey Oswald not embarked on his WITH THE ASSASSINATION. E own rendezvous with history. Commies wanted him dead, and the taken of the general's old Turtle Creek Kennedys didn't much like the general mansion. either, so they sent their boy Lee to kill According to a December 26, 1963, let- him. History would tell us Oswald's act ter sent from the Secret Service to Jesse that April night (and November after- Curry, then the Dallas police chief, noon) was out of calculated, illogical vio- Oswald told his wife, "It was best for lence, but Walker would tell you it was everybody that I got rid of Walker." part of some grand international scheme The general has spent three decades to bury the right, to bury God. turning over in his mind why Oswald "I completed 30 years of military service would have targeted him and Kennedy, and made my home in Dallas when the two men who, to most people, appeared at president gets shot by a Communist," odds with each other and at political Walker said. "How do you younger people poles. But Walker figured it differently: he explain it? The policy was wrong. I andJEKItaretet so slit feceni_ Butt mare couldn't prosecute a communist because

he knew Khrushchev and because he knew Kennedy, and in my A surveillance photo of Walker's mansion believed to have been taken by Lee Harvey Oswald opinion Oswald was a ward of both states. You know bloomin' fairly conservative when it came to mat- well he was a ward of ters of foreign policy, Walker said, and he the Kennedy state and never really saw himself as the right-wing a ward of the extremist portrayed in the media. Khrushchev state." Then, and to his dying day, Walker was convinced communism, whether it finally "There are similarities in everything," had been beaten by Jesus or the cash reg- Walker said, laughing. "But I ister, had left scars that affect us every wouldn't make a newspaper article out of day. "Everything's a little off-keel," he it" said. "A Little abnormal. And, of course, it could have been that "You know, I can't systematize the Oswald, obsessed in his own way, thought whole world, but you can do it one person Gen. Edwin Walker was a more powerful, at a time," he said, perhaps the only time influential figure than he really was. One in the conversation when he really of the hundreds of theories swirling reflected on his life's work. "But back around the assassination holds that then, I had a bit more influence than that Oswald believed that by killing Walker, 'Course, you young people don't remem- whom he considered to be racist and anti- ber that" " - Semitic, he would wreak havoc on the Dallas political scene—the hoped-for effect of the Kennedy assassination on a smaller scale. But for Walker it was simple: The