Crossing the Rubicon

Stuff of Sacked

I'm not attempting here to draw direct parallels betwixt General Stanley Allen McChrystal and General Edwin Walker, but a tenuous association is inescapable. Walker was sacked by Robert McNamara (JFK) in 1961.  “ In 1959, General Walker was sent to Germany to command the 24th Infantry Division. In 1961, however, he became involved in controversy. Walker initiated an anti-communist indoctrination program for troops called "Pro Blue" (due to Free World troops being colored blue on maps)[2]  and was accused of distributing right-wing literature from the John Birch Society to the soldiers of his division. He was also quoted by a newspaper, the Overseas Weekly, as saying that Harry S. Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dean Acheson were "definitely pink." Additionally, a number of soldiers had complained that Walker was instructing them as to whom to cast their votes for in the next election, with all of the candidates the General named being arch-conservative Republicans. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara relieved Walker of his command, while an inquiry was conducted, and in October Walker was reassigned to Hawaii to become assistant chief of staff for training and operations in the Pacific. Instead, Walker resigned from the Army on November 2, 1961. Said Walker: "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."[Wikipedia] ” Walker (along with Air Force General Curtis LeMay) was cited as inspiration for the Air Force General James Mattoon Scott character in the film Seven Days in May, although Walker himself is mentioned by name in the film.  Of course, there is the General MacArthur parallel to consider as well.