Special prosecutor needed to look into 1979 Purvis trip
Columnist Hoyt Purvis (July 5) has finally confessed that he assisted Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd in conspiring with the Russians to orient American foreign policy to benefit Russia.
They took advantage of America's Independence Day distraction to scoot off to Moscow. Patriotic Americans were shooting fireworks, singing patriotic songs, cooking barbecue, eating ice cream and watermelon, soaking up sun at beaches and other such distracting pleasures. They were not looking for undercover activity of high government officials. Were Byrd and Purvis secretly plotting with Soviet KGB to make that July 4, 1979, the last one America would celebrate? Who knows. There has never been a proper investigation.
Mr. Purvis admitted he and Byrd loaded up in Moscow on a plush Russian government plane richly appointed in communist red. They disembarked in a remote place in the Crimea to meet with the No. 1 Soviet Russian, Leonid Brezhnev. From there they proceeded in isolation by ground to an even more remote place for plotting. They lounged in luxury at a secret place on the shore of the Black Sea, but the Russians only allowed them to dip their feet in the water. Meanwhile, Brezhnev finished the details of his plot to command relations with America. When the Russians got ready, they carried Byrd and Purvis on a round-about trek into the dense woods where Brezhnev was already ensconced. The meeting was so secretive and degrading that Byrd and Purvis had to sit in lawn chairs on the grass under the forest cover as Brezhnev issued his orders to modify arms controls to benefit Russia. At the conclusion of that secret planning session, Brezhnev gave Sen. Byrd and Purvis a sop of a toast to American Independence Day.
Russians quickly retraced the journey, carrying Byrd and Purvis back to Moscow by air in a dazed condition. They weren't even able to see the phone in their suite and awoke the next day in great shock to see that their photo was on the front page of Russia's communist paper, Pravda.
Shortly after this mysterious meeting the proposed weapons treaty on which America was relying was aborted and the Russians invaded Afghanistan. What other evidence do we need to logically conclude that the goal of that surreptitious tete-a-tete was to advance Russian interests, subordinating ours to theirs?
The only way we can learn the complete truth of this seemingly treasonous activity is to appoint a special prosecutor with unlimited spending and prosecutorial powers. Treason being giving aid and comfort to America's enemy Russia in time of (Cold) War. Congress should do its duty of holding public hearings and posthumously impeaching and expelling the deceased Sen. Byrd. Mr. Purvis probably should be charged by the special prosecutor with aiding and abetting or accessory before and after the fact of treason.
Gerald Holland
Bentonville
Editorial on 07/10/2017