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Defense Department Urged to Act on Army Officers Racist ‘prank’

March 26, 1965
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The Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. today made known that it has asked the Defense Department to amend army regulations to cover such infractions as recently took place in West Germany in which U.S. Army officers wore Ku Klux Klan uniforms and displayed Klan symbols.

National Commander Ralph Plofsky said action beyond a "mere reprimand" was required. The perpetrators claimed it was a harmless prank but Mr. Plofsky said Germany "all too recently had enough racist symbols to be now spared importation of American hate paraphernalia. He said that the officers who displayed themselves in Klan robes "must have been a disconcerting spectacle to American military personnel of the Negro race and the Jewish and Catholic faiths."

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