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THEIR DARK HISTORY HIDDEN FROM THEIR MEMBERS
By Gordon Duff, Staff Writer
Any American Legion post with members who genuinely love America and knew the truth about their organization and its leadership and history would “jump ship” immediately. The Legion has and to some extent continues to be a political group, not a “service organization.” Those politics have a long and dirty history of betraying America and its veterans.
The VA, now under President Obama, offering all veterans care having overturned Bush restrictions, needs massive funding. It has to come from somewhere. The former Legion/Republican answer was to close facilities, destroy records and deny services. In fact, the Legion politically works against the President’s needed veterans reforms, reforms that would positively impact its own members. Is the Legion really a veterans service organization or a political party with an hidden agenda?
SILENCE ON “SHREDDERGATE”
When it was “discovered,” really one of the least “well kept secrets in history,” that the Department of Veterans Affairs had been destroying mail from veterans by the carload for decades, why was the American Legion silent? Ralph W. Eckard, former head of the VA’s Prosthetics Division has told us of what happened in front of him:
“Security personnel carried bags of mail, everyday, to the same office, where it was destroyed.”
Why would the American Legion do nothing when, in Detroit alone, 16,000 applications for disability, treatment or education were hidden, part of millions of similar documents and say nothing? I have spoken with Legion representatives at local level. They were all aware and wondered why they leadership in Washington was silent. The answer is simple, decades of corruption.
ANTI-UNION MERCENARIES
The Legion was established to support anti-labor activities and operate as a private mercenary group supporting the establishment of, according to Legion Executive Director Alvin Owsley in 1923, a “Fascist” government like that of Mussolini in Italy and later Hitler in Germany.
“If ever needed,” he stated, “the American Legion stands ready to protect our country’s institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the deconstructionists who menaced Italy…Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States.”
Prior to that, Legion “troops” had been involved in labor violence such as the Centralia Massacre in 1919. Legion groups, armed with high powered weapons and supported by the Ku Klux Klan and corrupt police organizations worked to eliminate labor unions, keep wages at starvation levels and working conditions intolerable.
In fact, many American Legion posts and Klan offices were one in the same. Through the 20s and 30s, with the resurgence of KKK membership, the Legion and Klan shared, not only political views and membership but facilities as well.
THE “BUSINESS PLOT” FOR A NAZI AMERICA
In 1933, the Legion took part in the infamous “Business Plot” against the US government. It was the goal of the Legion to overthrow the United States and form a Fascist dictatorship based on the German model under Adolf Hitler. The Legion, key to organizing the biggest threat against America other than the Civil War, still tries to deny involvement though you can order a film outlining their involvement at The History Channel for 24.95, for those who still have that much.
During this period, Legion policy supported only Anglo Saxon membership and policies limiting immigration and full civil rights to Aryans. The Legion worked to oppose full civil right to, not only Jews and Blacks, but Asians and Europeans of Eastern and Mediterranean origin. Thus, the Legion membership was exclusively for Aryans, same as Himmler’s SS .
During the early days of World War 2, the Legion supported pacifism and believed the US was being pushed into war by a “Jewish conspiracy” under the direction of President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Charles Lindbergh, Legion “golden boy” was decorated both by the Legion and Adolf Hitler.
Lindbergh planned to move to Berlin with his family as he found living in America “politically unacceptable.” A house was gotten for him by his close friend, Herman Goering. The previous owners, Jews, had been “relocated east.” This term is a euphemism for being murdered in a gas chamber and cremated in ovens. It is now referred to as the “holocaust.”
During the war, Lindbergh attacked our soldiers for their “brutal” treatment of the enemy, especially the Japanese:
During his Pacific tour Mr Lindbergh repeatedly recorded his shock over American treatment of Japanese soldiers. In an entry for June 28, 1944 he wrote:
“I am shocked at the attitude of our American troops. They have no respect for death, the courage of an enemy soldier or many of the ordinary decencies of life. They think nothing whatever of robbing the body of a dead Jap and call him a “son of a bitch” while they do so.
“I said during a discussion with American officers that regardless of what the japs did I did not see how we could gain anything or claim that we represented a civilized state if we killed them by torture.”
This was a theme to which Mr.Lindbergh returned several times, as he recorded instances of shooting of Japanese taken as war prisoners or the torture of them.
Lindbergh and his Legion friends were silent on Japanese germ warfare experiments on American POWS, the beheadings, the Bataan Death March and thousands of other atrocities against Americans, Chinese and the people of Asia resulting in the deaths of millions.
Instead, they supported bringing Japanese war criminals to the US or releasing them without punishment, as hundreds were. Being Fascist and “conservative” outweighed even the mass murder of American POW’s in the eyes of some “veterans.”
And when he traveled in Germany shortly after the Nazi surrender in May 1945, he wrote in his journal:
“What the German has done to the Jew in Europe, we are doing to the Jap in the Pacific.”
This, of course, was the Germany Lindbergh supported continually and who continually rewarded Lindbergh with both honors and wealth.
After World War 2, the American Legion began a program of closing branches whose membership included members of trade unions, such as the UAW and Teamsters. Many of these Legion branches renamed as other service organizations, creating the diversity we have today.
Gradually, these policies were changed and Jewish and Catholic American Legion branches were allowed and the Legion reformed membership policies, though the political affiliations of their leadership remained “off center.”
During the McCarthy Era, one of the darkest periods in American history, the Legion was Senator McCarthy’s strongest supporter. McCarthy, later censured by the Senate, crushed by President Eisenhower and reviled by the American people, died in obscurity, but the American Legion continues with his policies to this day.
As veterans returned from Vietnam, many American Legion posts were disqualifying Vietnam Veterans from membership, even those with numerous decorations for heroism and serious disabilities up to and including multiple traumatic amputations, a common injury in Vietnam.
Simultaneously, the Legion’s “unwritten policy” was to lobby for VA facilities to continue supporting the World War 2 and Korean War veterans, many of whom had undiagnosed PTSD, thus flooding the system with victims of alcohol abuse and “shell shock.” Vietnam veterans were “invisible” to the Legion.
Considering the strong advisory position the Legion held with what was then the VA, the end result was a drastic lowering of treatment quality for returning Vietnam veterans, resulting in the death of an alarmingly high percentage of seriously wounded veterans who succumbed to pneumonia and infections due to grossly substandard care.
Some Legion posts, such as in East Lansing, Michigan, were taken over by Vietnam Veteran groups and were in open insurrection with Legion headquarters.
As time went on, and the number of surviving World War 2 veterans dwindled, ironically, the American Legion was forced to began actively recruiting the same Vietnam Veterans it had previously referred to as “baby killers” and “druggies.”
Today’s Legion is a schizophrenic combination of regional posts involved in pro-veteran and patriotic activities and a Washington based leadership closely tied to extremist politics and lobbyist groups closer to the Legion’s original roots supporting monied interests over American values and Constitutional rights.
Hiding the history of Legion alignment with America’s enemies and her policies of Aryan superiority and partnership with Klan and Nazi groups from today’s membership is a full time job for Legion political pundits.
Hiding behind the “flag protection amendment” and “anti-terrorism,” the Legion still sits in the balance, doing considerable harm with considerable good, but certainly one of the most flawed and notorious organizations impacting American today.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran, 100% disabled veteran and regular contributor on political and social causes.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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