Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Wayburn Norfleet and Norma Stover, visiting from Indiana, stop at the bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

Sunday will mark the first time the bust of Josef Stalin will be part of the D-Day anniversary ceremony.

BEDFORD -- A controversial bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin has been placed at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, just in time for Sunday's ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1944 invasion of Normandy.

However, the placement of the bronze sculpture has not ended the debate over whether Stalin deserves a place at the memorial among other architects of the Allied victory in World War II. Other busts at the memorial include U.S. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Some veterans say the bust of Stalin tarnishes the memorial and threatens its ability to raise money, even as it is struggling to stay afloat financially. The memorial's overseers are trying to persuade the National Park Service to take control of the site.

"The Stalin bust dishonors all veterans who are remembered at the memorial and all veterans who have served in the armed forces of the United States and our Allies," said Bedford County resident and veteran James Morrison, who has worked as a volunteer at the memorial. "Stalin was a reviled dictator, responsible for the deaths of millions."

But Wednesday, one day after the Stalin bust was placed along the edge of the memorial, visitor Wayburn Norfleet said the National D-Day Memorial Foundation was right to include the bust because "you can't start deleting this, deleting that from history."

"Stalin wasn't a good guy, but he was part of it," said Norfleet, 75, of Pine Village, Ind. "You know what Eisenhower said at Auschwitz: He said, you take all the pictures you can because one day some S.O.B. will come along and say it didn't happen. You can't delete from history."

The bust sits atop a pedestal on the eastern edge of the memorial. Sunday will mark the first time Stalin's image will be a part of the annual ceremony commemorating the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of France to reclaim Europe from Adolf Hitler (scheduled to speak at the 11 a.m. ceremony are Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs).

Stalin is credited by historians with helping to start World War II by signing a peace pact with Hitler and Germany. When Hitler later betrayed him, launching an attack against the Soviet Union, Stalin joined the Allies. Before the war, Stalin was known for his purge of political enemies and innocent civilians alike.

Nick Soukhanov, a Vietnam War-era veteran and member of Bedford's American Legion Post 54, said the state chapter of the veterans group will call on the foundation to remove the bust when it holds its July convention. Stalin's role should be acknowledged, Soukhanov said, "but don't tell it with a bust -- tell it with a plaque."

Soukhanov said he used to volunteer at the memorial but will not do so again as long as the Stalin bust is in place.

In defending the bust of Stalin, National D-Day Memorial Foundation President William McIntosh on Wednesday referred to the foundation's Web site (www.dday.org), which says the point of the bust is to acknowledge Stalin's part in the war. The Russian leader's troops tied up massive German forces while the Allies planned and executed the Normandy invasion.

Meanwhile, a plaque does accompany the bust and summarizes Stalin's ruthless leadership. It concludes: "In memory of the tens of millions who died under Stalin's rule and in tribute to all whose valor, fidelity, and sacrifice denied him and his successors victory in the Cold War."

In addition to the busts of Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman and Churchill, the memorial features busts of Clement Attlee, deputy prime minister under Churchill; French general and leader of the Free French Forces, Charles de Gaulle; and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek.