This post is a response to Jason Ward asking for my reading of the Dallas Radical Right in 1963.
In my reading, the crucial figure is Ex-General Edwin Walker. I say Ex-General, not to disrespect a formerly great General of World War 2 and the Korean War, but to reflect his own opinion -- General Walker was the only US General to resign from the Army in the 20th century. I don't mean retire, I mean resign in protest, so that he deliberately forfeited his 30-year Army Pension. He quit the Army in November 1961, while very angry.
There is a myth that says JFK kicked General Walker out of the Army for teaching John Birch Society doctrines to his ten thousands troops and their families in Augsburg, Germany in 1960-1961. That myth was started by General Walker himself. Actually, JFK offered General Walker another troop education post in Hawaii. But this wasn't the first time that General Walker had submitted his resignation to the Army.
The first time was in September 4, 1959, under President "Ike" Eisenhower. In my reading, the cause was the John Birch Society Black Book conclusion that Ike was a consenting tool of the Communists. But Ike just laughed at this resignation, and gave Walker a promotion to Germany, in commemoration of Walker's successful role in racially integrating Little Rock High School in Arkansas in 1957.
This broader story is important to my narrative about the Radical Right in Dallas in 1963.
After General Walker quit the Army (for the second time) in November, 1961, he moved straight to Dallas. His home town was Kerr County, Texas, and his family was not wealthy, and he rashly gave up his 30-year Army Pension, yet he moved directly to Dallas, into a two story house in the neighborhood of the relatives of Texas oil baron, H.L. Hunt.
As the richest man in America, H.L. Hunt held the lion's share of political influence in Dallas. H.L. Hunt, born in 1889, was not college educated, and evidently used his considerable intellectual powers to buy as many oil fields as possible. His political orientation was largely defined by the John Birch Society literature, in addition to racist literature of various sources.
H.L. Hunt had financed the campaign of General Douglas MacArthur as the Republican nominee for US President 1951. One of the points of that campaign was that President Truman had fired MacArthur in 1951 for his poor performance in the Korean War. The Radical Right in 1951 accused President Truman of being "soft on Communism." Although MacArthur lost that bid for US President, H.L. Hunt had a great time trying.
All this background is needed for my portrait of the Radical Right in Dallas in 1963. H.L. Hunt had evidently found a new candidate -- Ex-General Walker -- who might play ball . First, H.L. Hunt would finance Walker's campaign for Texas Governor for 1962. The first point was that JFK "fired" Walker from the Army -- because JFK was "soft on Communism." If Walker had won the Texas Governor's chair, he would have been a possible candidate for US President in 1964. That was the reading of at least one prominent journalist in 1962.
Now I think that the main contours of my portrait are clear. H.L. Hunt and General Walker were the superstars of Dallas political society. The John Birch Society was the ruling ideology of Dallas in 1963. Everybody who was with H.L. Hunt was aligned underneath these two men.
General Walker was regarded by the Radical Right in the South as a legitimate General (even though he resigned) because he resigned in protest against a US President (JFK) who was illegitimate -- being "soft on Communism," if not an "outright agent of the Communist Party." In other words, if JFK was "Wanted for Treason," then the best candidate to rule the USA was General Walker. This was a widespread feeling in the Southern USA, as expressed by Radical Right journalists such as Kent and Phoebe Courtney.
The Southern USA added a new and special feature to Anticommunism as voiced by the John Birch Society, namely, the racist element from the White Citizen Councils that peppered the South, where the KKK had failed to take hold. That special feature was a slogan -- "Race mixing is Communism." By merging the fears of racial integration of US public schools with fears of Communism, they created a massive political reaction.
The main leaders of Dallas Radical Right were the old school politicians and civic leaders. There is a reason that Dallas was considered the "Right-wing Capitol of America." Almost all civic leaders in Dallas fell in line under H.L. Hunt and General Walker. In my reading, this included the Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker, Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz. Dallas Postal Inspector Harry Holmes, Dallas FBI agent James Hosty, Dallas Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels, and their many subordinate administrators and officers.
This was a widespread Dallas plot that included dozens of people in the Dallas Police, Sheriff and other offices, who ultimately regarded JFK as a Damn Yankee who deserved what he got . They stuck together like glue. The CIA-did-it CTers (or as Jason calls them, the JFKAIC) who have dominated the past half-century on this topic, have diverted attention away from Dallas all this time, as they chased illusions of a CIA plot in this theatrical spectacle in Dallas.
The good news for JFK Research is that most of these Dallas officials gave sworn testimony to the Warren Commission -- and they contradicted each other and themselves thoroughly. We can trace their steps, if we only have the courage to do so.
As Allen Dulles told his secretary, Jacques Zwart, "the full story of the JFK Assassination is in the Warren Report -- but one must become an expert in hair-splitting." Soon, Zwart published his own book, Invitation to Hairsplitting (1971) which missed the point. He merely produced one more CIA-did-it CT, and failed to dig into Dallas herself.
In this web site, Jason Ward and I will dig deeper into the Warren Commission testimonies of the Dallas Police and Dallas officials than at any other time in the past half century. The result will surprise most people -- even those who have been reading JFK literature for decades.