March 13, 2003 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full speech: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/robert-byrd-iraq-war-speech-2003....
Robert Carlyle Byrd (November 20, 1917 -- June 28, 2010) was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A Democrat, Byrd served as a Senator from 1959 to 2010 and was the longest-serving senator, as well as the longest-serving member in congressional history.
Initially elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952, Byrd served there for six years before being elected to the Senate in 1958. Over the years he rose to become one of the most powerful members of the Senate, leading the Democratic caucus in the Senate from 1977 to 1989. Later, he served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the times between 1989 and 2010 when the Democratic Party had a majority in the Senate. As President pro tempore, he was third in the line of presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Byrd's seniority and influence enabled him to steer a great deal of federal money towards projects in West Virginia over the years; in doing so he acquired immense prestige in West Virginia, although some derided his efforts as "pork" spending designed simply to appeal to his own constituents. He held a wide variety of both liberal and conservative political views. His stance on race issues was moderated later in his life and he recanted his earlier views.
Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1917. When he was one year old, his mother, Ada Mae (née Kirby), died in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. In accordance with his mother's wishes, his father, Cornelius Calvin Sale, dispersed the family children among relatives. Sale Jr. was given to the custody of Titus and Vlurma Byrd, his uncle and aunt, who adopted him, renamed him Robert Carlyle Byrd, and raised him in the coal-mining region of southern West Virginia.
Byrd was valedictorian of Mark Twain High School and, in 1937, he married his high-school sweetheart, Erma Ora James (12 June 1917 - 25 March 2006). They were both 19 years old. He eventually attended Beckley College, Concord College, Morris Harvey College, and Marshall College, all in West Virginia.
Byrd joined the Ku Klux Klan when he was 24 in 1942. His local chapter unanimously elected him the top officer of their unit.
According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, "You have a talent for leadership, Bob... The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation." Byrd later recalled, "suddenly lights flashed in my mind! Someone important had recognized my abilities! I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did." Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.
In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi senator Theodore Bilbo:
" I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. "
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944
When running for the United States House of Representatives in 1952, he announced "After about a year, I became disinterested, quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization. During the nine years that have followed, I have never been interested in the Klan." He said he had joined the Klan because he felt it offered excitement and was anti-communist. However, in 1946 or 1947 he wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."
In 1997, he told an interviewer he would encourage young people to become involved in politics, but to "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena." In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a member because he "was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions." Byrd also said, in 2005,
" I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened. "
— Robert C. Byrd
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10:59
Robert Byrd: Iraq War Speech - Part 1 (2003)by thefilmarchive5,353 views
it's like he had a time machine of some sort..........
TheUsualSuspect7 1 month ago
@3PointFilms Wait a minute now, calm down. First of all, I think you're too brainwashed to really know what the term 'racist' means. Think about it. 75%-80% of white Americans live in all-white neighborhoods BY CHOICE. Have you ever heard of the White Flight of the 60s and 70s? Are you going to tell me that 70%-80% of white people in this country are racist? If so, I suppose you think real highly of youself for being amongst the 20%-25% of the "good people" in America.
Sistarovat 1 month ago
@Sistarovat You are racist. Don't give me the bullshit 'segregationist' argument. You are racist. You are a worthless human being.
3PointFilms 1 month ago
"The arm industry must be salivating..." lol
The greatest and most significant speech given before the Iraq War.
It reveals the sad internal state of our goverment.
norakat 4 months ago
@MsSanetta I am a segregationist. By your brainwashed logic, I hate you. You'
re too ignorant to understand the difference between a segregationist and a racist. 75% of the white people I know are segregationists and not a one of them are racist.
Sistarovat 6 months ago
I KNOW UR DEAD BUT DID YA KNOW, YOU WROTE A LETTER TO THEODORE BILBO, A FAKE ASS RACIST, THAT MF WAS LOVIN UP MY 2ND GREAT GRANDMA AND HAD 2 BOYS WITH HER, WALTER AND THEODORE JR. I AM HIS BLACK 2ND GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER.
RIP MAN! YOU TOO 2ND GREAT GRANDDADDIE BILBO. WE KNOW YOU LIVED THE LAST YEARS MAKING UP FOR YOUR HATE.
MsSanetta 9 months ago
Mr. KKK RIP
Sulla2300 11 months ago
I personally am prepared to give up my own right to vote on the condition that every other American who lives outside West Virginia do the same. Send us 100 more like him for the Senate and one for the White House mountaineers. I have come to believe you are all that is left of America.
swampdog12345 1 year ago
8:46 - 9:09 I'm surprized to see this sarcasm regarding corporate greed--AMAZING. RIP Bobby Byrd!!!!
furmansoundbypass 1 year ago
rip
ladieskeeper 1 year ago