Earlier this month, we told you about the decision to place a bust of the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin in an installation commemorating D-Day. Despite the controversy that this decision has caused, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation—the organization responsible the memorial—has steadfastly refused to remove the offending sculpture.
A new website, StalinStatue.com, has been launched in an effort to force the removal of the statue from the memorial. Visitors can visit the site and sign a petition which reads:
I, the undersigned, STAND for the memory of all the Allied troops of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, Australia, and Norway who gave their lives on D-Day or in the ensuing combat on the Western Front.I STAND for the American veterans currently living in the State of Virginia, and in all other States, who survived D-Day, risking their lives to liberate Western Europe from tyranny.I AFFIRM that the true history of World War II must be protected from distortion and misinformation which threaten to erase or alter well-established and documented facts.I RECOGNIZE, on the basis of overwhelming historical evidence, that neither Joseph Stalin nor Soviet forces played any part in the D-Day landings at Normandy.I AFFIRM that a bust of Joseph Stalin has no place at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, whose stated purpose is to “honor the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of Allied forces on D-Day,” June 6, 1944, and that a Stalin statue should not be displayed with statues of the leaders of the Western Allies responsible for the triumph of D-Day.I therefore PETITION the Officers and Board of Directors of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation to remove the bust of Stalin from the grounds of the Memorial immediately; I further PETITION Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar to ensure that if the National D-Day Memorial should come under the National Park Service, no bust or statue of Stalin will be included or allowed; in so acting, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation and Interior Secretary Salazar will safeguard the sacred memory of D-Day for ourselves, our veterans, and future generations.
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/06/21/petition-seeks-to-remove-stalin-from-d-day-memorial/?query=Petition+Seeks+To+Remove+Stalin+from+D-Day+Memorial
