Legion National Commander Responds to NY Times

Newspaper publishes letter rebutting earlier insult to veterans

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Apr 19, 2014, 11:43 ET

INDIANAPOLIS, April 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The leader of the nation's largest veterans service organization took a New York Times editorialist to task for falsely linking recent brutal murders to a white supremacist's military service, which ended decades earlier.

In a letter published in today's New York Times http://nyti.ms/1i4quWd

American Legion National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger said, "I condemn the deplorable actions of Frazier Glenn Miller, charged with three killings in Kansas. Veterans have taken an oath to defend America, not attack innocent civilians."

Dellinger's letter was in response to an April 16 Opinion-Editorial titled "Veterans and White Supremacy" by Kathleen Belew, a postdoctoral fellow in history at Northwestern University.

"While I am glad that The New York Times published my letter, I am disappointed that they saw fit to publish Ms. Belew's poorly researched and agenda-driven piece," Dellinger said. "U.S. military veterans defeated the Nazis, liberated concentration camps and ended slavery in America. Ms. Belew and the New York Times should be above the slanderous stereotyping of the men and women that have defended us against the racist ideology that Ms. Belew and the NY Times no doubt oppose."

In his letter, Dellinger pointed out that The American Legion passed a national resolution in 1923, opposing the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups as "un-American, a menace to our liberties, and destructive to our fundamental law.

"Mr. Miller is just one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation's uniform during wartime since the American Revolution," Dellinger continued. "Using him and Timothy J. McVeigh as examples of radicalized returning veterans is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as typical Muslims."

Media contacts: John Raughter, (317) 441-8847 /Marty Callaghan: 202-215-8644

SOURCE The American Legion