Pro Blue
Dallas, Texas: American Eagle Publishing Company, 1965. An autobiographical and strongly partisan account by Major General Edwin A. Walker (1909–1993), the decorated Army officer who became a nationally prominent figure of the American radical right. Walker recounts his military career—including service during World War II and Korea—and defends the “Pro Blue” program of anti-Communist political instruction that he instituted while commanding the 24th Infantry Division in West Germany. Accused of circulating John Birch Society–associated literature and attempting to influence the political views of his troops, Walker was relieved of his command and formally admonished; he resigned from the Army in 1961 and subsequently entered far-right electoral and political activism.
Published by Walker’s own American Eagle Publishing Company, the pamphlet presents him as a patriotic soldier persecuted for warning Americans about Communist infiltration. It offers a revealing piece of political self-fashioning from the Cold War right, issued several years after Walker’s opposition to the integration of the University of Mississippi and Lee Harvey Oswald’s unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him in 1963.
Photographically illustrated wrappers printed in red and blue, 40 pp. An about fine copy. Uncommon. Less than a dozen copies in OCLC. Item #15241
Price: $75.00