Byrd's KKK Alibi Comes Unraveled

NewsMax.com ^ | 1/22/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, has said repeatedly over the years that he joined the notorious anti-black hate group the Ku Klux Klan during World War II - not because he was a racist - but because the Klan had taken a strong stance against communism, a system of government that then existed only in the Soviet Union.

But Byrd's KKK alibi doesn't stand up to even the most cursory historical scrutiny, as a World War II veteran pointed out to NewsMax.com Wednesday.

"When Byrd said he joined the Klan, it couldn't have been famous for being anti-Communist, since in 1943 the Soviet Union was our crucial ally in World War II," said our source, who served in Air Force, then known as the Army Air Corps, in preparation for the Normandy invasion.

"In 1943 Franklin Roosevelt was still calling Stalin 'Uncle Joe'," he added. "And I remember U.S. military maps that showed the Red Army's advances toward Berlin, which was something we were all happy about."

Further puncturing Sen. Byrd's KKK alibi, the World War II vet recalled, "There would have been no reason for any patriotic American to have been anti-Communist in 1943 - because we were doing everything we could to help the Reds beat Hitler on the Eastern Front."

In fact, anti-communism didn't emerge as a genuine force in American politics until 1947, with the outbreak of the Cold War - four years after Byrd says he left the Klan. Two weeks ago the West Virginia Democrat's press secretary Tom Gavin said his boss had belonged to the Klan for only "a number of months."

It was during this period that Byrd - supposedly by then an EX-Klansman - was advising Grand Imperial Wizard Samuel Green on whom to appoint to important posts in the hierarchy of the hate group. In a letter to Green, Byrd urged, "the Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

A year later in 1948, Byrd opposed President Truman's initiative to integrate the Armed Forces - and he did so using the language of a very much active Klansman.

The powerful Senate Democrat vowed then that he would "never submit to fight beneath that banner (the American flag) with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

"If Byrd said he thought the Klan's main job was fighting communism, he's either not being honest about why he joined - or he was a Klansman a lot longer than he now wants to admit," said the World War II vet.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

DNC

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[spokeshave]

Maybe he was a Trotskyist

[dogbyte12]

"Sheets" Byrd has voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. One liberal, one conservative, one thing in common.

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[South40]

So he's a dem and he lied.

Not much of a story there.

[aristeides]

The Klan may have toned down its anti-Communism while the Soviets were our allies in WWII, but I'm reasonably sure they had a long history of being against Communism.

[Maedhros]

Maybe he was a Trotskyist

Good point.

[mhking]

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[MHGinTN]

You get Jesse or Al Sharpton to admit that in public and you would have a story. As it is, this is huge in light of the Trent Lott race baiting exploitation by the despotic democrat party.

[genefromjersey]

Yep ! 'Twas Southern Democrats who favored segregation, and Northern Republicans who brought about de-segregation. I was around, back then, and remember it well.

De-segregation was NOT a particularly popular cause- North or South - and there WERE plenty of rascists in BOTH parties. One of the things that slowed progress down was the very active role the Communist Party took in de-segregation efforts : not that they really cared, one way or the other . The important thing to them was to LOOK good to "The Negros", and to make Mainstream America look BAD.

The Klan was pretty active in Northern states. In the small NY town I grew up in, KKK members ( hoods and all ) torched a Roman Catholic church - for being Roman Catholic, I guess. A relative of ours ran a KKK cell in a nearby State Prison- much to the chagrin of other family members. Many small town police departments or Sheriff's Offices had KKK cell members. ( In our area, the Klan was most focused on Jews; there being a shortage of Afro-Americans nearby.)

[Free ThinkerNY]

[DWSUWF]

Has there been a careful scrutiny of what Byrd's Klan group was up to while he was a member?

Were they 'active'? Were they out in the woods lynching hapless Negroes who "sassed" them? Did they engage in kidnappings? In beatings? Did they burn crosses?

These Klan guys were, and are, hard-core terrorists, and Byrd admits that he was a member.

What's the scoop here?

[Post Toasties]

Maybe during Black History Month PBS could schedule a 60th anniversary KKK tribute to Byrd.

[Arpege92]

Big Byrd needs to come forward and be HONEST!

[perfect stranger]

His argument is pretty lame really. Especially compared to what Ronald Reagan accomplished at the same time in Hollywood fighting the union strikes, and commie influences.

If you believe that Byrd was in the KKK ONLY to do his part to stop Communism, raise your hand.

[Post Toasties]

So, how much Jersey Klan was Democrat, do you think? 90%, 99%, all?

[Cyber Liberty]

Does have a bit of a "dog bites man" flavor about it, doesn't it?

[billhilly]

Well shoot! Lester Maddox, Bull Conner, George Wallace, Orville Faubus, and a double handfull of Southern democrats, then called dixiecrats, voiced the same sentiments. That is, until the black man decided to vote. Then reelection became the moving force, described for the past four and a half decades as inclusion.

What a bunch of phony pols. They have happily worked hand in hand with race entrepeneurs like Jesse Jackson and the current version of the NAACP to keep the status quo.

Historians will very likely come to the conclusion that, while slavery was hideous, what a small group of self appointed and self described "leaders" did to their own race was even worse. There was a genuine contrition among a majority of whites many years ago that would have allowed a much more rapid recovery, had the preachers of hatred from both camps not used the situation to feather their nests.

That, of course, is just my opinion.

[billhilly]

Well shoot! Lester Maddox, Bull Conner, George Wallace, Orville Faubus, and a double handfull of Southern democrats, then called dixiecrats, voiced the same sentiments. That is, until the black man decided to vote. Then reelection became the moving force, described for the past four and a half decades as inclusion.

What a bunch of phony pols. They have happily worked hand in hand with race entrepeneurs like Jesse Jackson and the current version of the NAACP to keep the status quo.

Historians will very likely come to the conclusion that, while slavery was hideous, what a small group of self appointed and self described "leaders" did to their own race was even worse. There was a genuine contrition among a majority of whites many years ago that would have allowed a much more rapid recovery, had the preachers of hatred from both camps not used the situation to feather their nests.

That, of course, is just my opinion.