West Point graduate Edwin Walker led a joint US/Canadian commando team in Italy during World War II. He helped Greek citizens defeat communists in 1947 and later served in Korea. On his return to the US President Eisenhower named him commander of the Arkansas Military District in Little Rock, Arkansas.

It was during this time, in September of 1957 that Governor Orval Faubus was acting to prevent several black children from attending high School in Little Rock. For eighteen days President Eisenhower attempted to convince Faubus to follow the Supreme Court ruling that they be permitted entrance, but was unable to bring about a resolution. Faubus called out the National Guard to enforce his orders – then Eisenhower ordered Walker and his paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division to accompany the students into the school. Walker was opposed to this integration but he followed the orders of his Commander in Chief.

In August of 1959 Major General Walker submitted his resignation claiming the the United States government had been infiltrated by the international communist conspiracy. President Eisenhower refused to accept the resignation and he remained on active duty.

In October of 1959 he ordered to Augsburg Germany to command the 24th Infantry Division. During this time he developed a competitive rifle team that many believed were part of the LGBTQ lifestyle. He was also accused of indoctrinating his men with right-wing materials – read anti-communist materials. General Lemnitzer had reviewed the materials and found them to be “interesting and useful.” President Kennedy, after conferring with Robert McNamara called him back to the US.

Walker was an outspoken critic of President Kennedy, speaking at any venue he could find as explained how he believed softness toward the Soviet menace was ultimately harmful to the US and it's allies.

At one point, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered him to be committed to a mental institution for a ninety day evaluation. With the help of the ACLU and psychiatrist along with some right leaning support, he was out after five days.

In 1962 he ran against John Connally in the Democrat primary for governor. Connally won and was seated in the car with the Kennedy's on November 22, 1963.

On April 10, 1963 Walker was sitting at his desk at home and a shot came through a window and narrowly missed him. The Warren Commission decided that the shooter was Lee Oswald. However witnesses say they saw two men put a rifle in the trunk of one car and the each drove away separately. Since Oswald had neither a drivers license nor a car, he does not appear to be the guilty party.

If any of the investigators had chosen to go down the conspiracy route could have qualified for further investigation. He was not in Dallas at the time of the shooting, but he was on a commercial passenger plane miles above Texas. When the pilot announced the the President has been shot, Walker rose from his seat and walked up and down the aisle telling people who he was and making sure they remembered that he was nowhere near the city of Dallas. He understood that he would be a prime suspect, but did not know that, for various reasons, Lee Harvey Oswald would be named as the lone gunman.