D-Day Memorial removes Stalin bust

BEDFORD — The National D-Day Memorial’s bust of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, which triggered a torrent of protest this summer, was removed from its pedestal Tuesday evening.

The ouster is not permanent and the Stalin statue — along with other sculptures of World War II Allied world leaders — will return at an unspecified time when they can be placed in a “more appropriate venue” for interpretation at the memorial, the foundation that operates the Bedford site announced Tuesday.

Statues of Stalin, and Chiang Kai-shek, who led China’s military during World War II, were taken down Tuesday.

Busts of Franklin D. Roosevelt and British leader Winston Churchill will be removed by the end of the year, said National D-Day Memorial Foundation President Robin Reed.

Stalin’s bust was installed at the Bedford site in early June, a few days before a ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of D-Day. The move was condemned almost immediately.

Veterans criticized the decision to install the bust, some protesting at the memorial and demanding the removal of the bust at meetings with Bedford county and city officials.

The county Board of Supervisors drafted a resolution asking for the removal of the bust in late June.

Bedford County Supervisor Annie Pollard called the Stalin artwork “a slap in the face.” Moneta veteran James W. Morrison said it had disgraced the community.

The plan announced by the foundation on Tuesday did not placate Morrison.

“My personal view is that the Stalin bust needs to be removed completely and not returned,” Morrison said, adding it has no place at the memorial. “I think it absolutely makes no sense to put it back up, regardless of where they put it.”

The Stalin bust is one in a series of seven World War II Allied leaders sculpted by Lynchburg College professor Richard Pumphrey for the memorial. Donations were earmarked for the project; each bust cost a minimum of $50,000, former foundation president William McIntosh said in a 2009 interview.

Reed said the memorial foundation received input from volunteers and hundreds of people as it evaluated the Stalin bust and the display of the Allied leaders.

“We have determined that we have two very compelling interpretive stories up here on the hill,” Reed said, referring to the military aspects of D-Day and the Allied political effort that led up to the invasion.

“We have two very strong messages that, because of their close proximity to one another, are starting to dilute each other and actually create some competition.”

To make both stories stronger, Reed said the foundation has chosen to move the four Allied leaders “off the circle” within the main grounds and now plans to reincorporate them into one location somewhere else on the 88-acre site. He said there are no plans to immediately relocate busts of Harry S Truman, British Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee and French leader Charles de Gaulle.

The future rearrangement of the Allied leaders’ sculptures is part of an overall plan to improve the site, Reed said. Finishing original design elements to focus on additional, military involvement in D-Day, along with an education center, also are part of that plan.

Reed said that would be years in the making and could cost an estimated $10 million to $15 million.

Reed said an education center to house artifacts, archives and operations is critical to the memorial’s survival and sustainability.

The foundation soon will form an advisory committee to assist the board of directors and staff with this planning, he said. Veterans, community leaders, volunteers, donors, scholars and others would make up the committee, he said.

“It’s in our best interest to have as many people involved as possible,” Reed said.

Reed said Tuesday’s announcement has less to do with removing Stalin and more with creating a “new interpretive chapter” for the memorial.

“There’s no question that the opposition of the placement of Stalin on the circle has served as a catalyst for us to look at that sooner than later,” he said. “Our chief objective is to create the strongest possible education message.”

Since Reed took over as the foundation’s third president in late June, he has said he was determined not to make a “snap decision” on the Stalin matter, despite the controversy.

“There’s always two sides to every debate,” Reed said.

Roger Cheek, chairman of the Bedford County Board of Supervisors, said the Stalin subject still is a major “conversation piece” in Bedford. But lately, he said, he has talked to more and more people who want to see it stay put.

“It’s pretty equally split, I would say,” Cheek said of public opinion.

Cheek voted in June along with the other six supervisors to lobby for the Stalin statue’s removal, but repeated a board sentiment Tuesday that the county certainly can’t dictate how a nonprofit governs itself.

The protests have extended beyond Bedford’s borders. Earlier this month, the American Legion passed a resolution opposing Stalin’s place at the memorial during its annual national convention in Milwaukee.

Several organizations, including the Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. and the Central & East European Coalition have also formally opposed the bust.

Karl Altau, the committee’s managing director, said Stalin’s temporary removal is only “a victory for today” and the lack of long-term banishment is a defeat “if Stalin comes back, in any shape or form.”