John Birch Society

The John Birch Society is an Americanist organization founded in 1958 to fight what it saw as growing threats to the Constitution of the United States especially a perceived communist infiltration and to support free enterprise. It promotes a conspiracy theory of history and has been marginalized within the conservative movement since the 1960s.

Based in Appleton, Wisconsin, the society describes itself as "a membership-based organization dedicated to restoring and preserving freedom under the United States Constitution." It says that members come from all walks of life and are active in all 50 states via local chapters. Its mission is to achieve "Less Government, More Responsibility, and — With God's Help — a Better World."

The JBS was formed as an educational organization and does not endorse candidates. It was named after John Birch, a United States military intelligence officer and Baptist missionary in World War II who was killed in 1945 by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, and whom the JBS describes as "the first American victim of the Cold War." His parents joined the society as life members.

Core values

The JBS is anti-leftist, particularly anti-socialist and anti-communist. It strenuously defends what it sees as the original intention of the US Constitution, it promotes the idea that America is founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and it supports a strong Judeo-Christian influence in culture and government. It idealizes the Founding Fathers and anticommunists. The JBS opposes what it describes as collectivism, which in its view includes wealth redistribution, economic interventionism, socialism, communism, and fascism. The JBS claims that collectivist conspiracies throughout the world have significantly shaped history, and it seeks to expose and eliminate their claimed control in government in the modern era. This degree of conspiracism has isolated the Society from many other conservative groups.

During the 1960s, the JBS opposed the Civil Rights Movement since it was rumored that it was backed and supported by the American Communist Party. Yet, the John Birch Society has always described itself as being open to people of all races and religions and is staunchly against communist beliefs. The Society maintains that its rumored backing by the Communist party was an attack by the conspiratorial efforts that it believes exists and actively opposes.

Finally, the JBS is anti-globalization and has an illegal immigration reduction view on immigration reform. It has been a major opponent of the United Nations, NAFTA, CAFTA, and the FTAA, and other free-trade agreements with other nations, believing them to be destructive to American principles and sovereignty.

Origins

The John Birch Society was established in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 9, 1958 by a group of twelve "patriotic and public-spirited" men led by Robert Welch, Jr., a retired candy manufacturer from Belmont, Massachusetts. A noted founding member was Fred Koch, founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private corporations in America. A transcript of Welch's two-day presentation at the founding meeting was published as The Blue Book of the John Birch Society and became a cornerstone of its beliefs, with each new JBS member receiving a copy.

"According to Welch," writes the progressive watchdog group Political Research Associates about the Birchers, "both the US and Soviet governments are controlled by the same furtive conspiratorial cabal of internationalists, greedy bankers, and corrupt politicians. If left unexposed, the traitors inside the US government would betray the country's sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist New World Order managed by a 'one-world socialist government.' The Birch Society incorporated many themes from pre-WWII rightist groups opposed to the New Deal, and had its base in the business nationalist sector."[1]

Welch saw "collectivism" as the main threat to western civilization, and liberals as "secret communist traitors" who provide the cover for the gradual process of collectivism, with the ultimate goal of replacing the nations of western civilization with one-world socialist government. "There are many stages of welfarism, socialism, and collectivism in general," he wrote, "but communism is the ultimate state of them all, and they all lead inevitably in that direction."[2]

The JBS's objective has been to fight communism using some of communism's own techniques —-organization of front groups, infiltration of other groups,and letter-writing campaigns. They have organized grassroots chapters in every state and are the only Americanist organization to have full-time paid field staff assisting those chapters. Their activities include distribution of literature, pamphlets, magazines, videos and other educational material while sponsoring a Speaker's Bureau and encouraging members to conduct letter-writing campaigns especially to elected officials.

One of the first public activities of the JBS was a "Get US Out!" (of membership in the UN) campaign, which claimed in 1959 that the "Real nature of [the] UN is to build a One World Government (New World Order)." In 1960, Welch advised JBS members to "join your local PTA at the beginning of the school year, get your conservative friends to do likewise, and go to work to take it over." One Man's Opinion, a magazine launched by Welch in 1956, was renamed American Opinion and became the Birch Society's official publication. It has since been replaced by the bi-weekly magazine, The New American.

Robert Welch and "The Politician"

Robert Welch's underground book, "The Politician," which influenced the early JBS, was a lengthy, scathing attack on President Eisenhower. He said also that Franklin Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor in advance but said nothing because he wanted to get his country in the war. It spawned much debate in the 1960s over whether the author really intended to call Eisenhower a communist. G. Edgar Griffin, one of his friends, thinks that he meant collectivist. The charge's sensationalism led many conservatives and Republicans to shy away from the group. The book was slightly toned down in the published version with respect to the unpublished version. Welch later tried to distance himself with the work by saying that it was not originally meant to be published because it was a confidential letter among friends.

In the published edition that excises the section just quoted above, there is a footnote on page 278 (footnote 2) and its text appears on pages cxxxviii-cxxxix at the back of the book. That text is as follows:

"At this point in the original manuscript, there was one paragraph in which I expressed my own personal belief as to the most likely explanation of the events and actions with this document had tried to bring into focus. In a confidential letter, neither published nor offered for sale and restricted to friends who were expected to respect the confidence but offer me in exchange their own points of view, this seemed entirely permissible and proper. It does not seem so for an edition of the letter that is now to be published and given, probably, fairly wide distribution. So that paragraph, and two explanatory paragraphs, connected with it, have been omitted here. And the reader is left entirely free to draw his own conclusions." [3]

On page 278 of The Politician, Welch summarized, from his perspective, the only two possible interpretations of President Eisenhower's motives: "The role he has played, as described in all the pages above, would fit just as well into one theory as the other; that he is a mere stooge or that he is a Communist assigned the specific job of being a political front man."

On page 279, Welch discusses the 3 stages by which Communists came to control the U.S. Presidency. In stages 1 and 2, FDR and Truman were "used" by Communists. In Truman's case, according to Welch, he was used "with his knowledge and acquiescence as the price he consciously paid for their making him President."

Then, with respect to Ike, from page 279 of the 1963 published edition of The Politician: "In the third stage the Communists have installed in the Presidency a man who, for whatever reasons, appears intentionally to be carrying forward Communist aims... With regard to this third man, Eisenhower, it is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate treason."

The original formulation of this comment from the unpublished version of The Politician is as follows: "In the third stage, in my own firm opinion, the Communists have one of their own actually in the Presidency. For this third man, Eisenhower, there is only one possible word to describe his purposes and his actions. That word is treason." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 268]

There are many other passages in both the 1963 published edition and the 1958 unpublished version of The Politician wherein Welch makes clear that he considered Eisenhower to be a Communist and a traitor. Below are a few examples from the unpublished version (aka "private letter") which was mailed by Welch to friends and acquaintances in the summer of 1958.

"In my opinion the chances are very strong that Milton Eisenhower is actually Dwight Eisenhower's superior and boss within the Communist Party." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 210]

"We think that an objective survey of Eisenhower's associates and appointments shows clever Communist brains, aided by willing Communist hands, always at work to give the Communists more power, and to weaken the anti-Communist resistance." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 239]

In discussing Eisenhower's appointment of Philip C. Jessup, Robert Welch refers to Eisenhower as "he and his fellow Communists." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 214]

In discussing Eisenhower's appointment of James B. Conant, Robert Welch refers to "the appointment of Conant...made by a Communist President..." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 221]

"For Eisenhower and his Communist bosses and their pro-Communist appointees are gradually taking over our whole government right under the noses of the American people." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 238-239]

Welch refers to Eisenhower's actions in Europe which "show his sympathies with the Communist cause and friendship for the Kremlin tyrants..." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 263]

"For the sake of honesty, however, I want to confess here my own conviction that Eisenhower's motivation is more ideological than opportunistic. Or, to put it bluntly, I personally think that he has been sympathetic to ultimate Communist aims, realistically willing to use Communist means to help them achieve their goals, knowingly accepting and abiding by Communist orders, and consciously serving the Communist conspiracy for all of his adult life." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 266]

"But my firm belief that Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy is based on an accumulation of detailed evidence so extensive and so palpable that it seems to me to put this conviction beyond any reasonable doubt." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 267]

"To paraphrase Elizabeth Churchill Brown, 'the only enemies the American people have to fear are the enemies in their midst.' The most conspicuous and injurious of these enemies today, I believe, is named Dwight David Eisenhower. He is either a willing agent or an integral and important part of a conspiracy of gangsters determined to rule the world at any cost." [The Politician, published version, page 291] [4]

1960s

By March 1961, the Society had an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 members and, according to Welch, "a staff of 28 people in the Home Office; about 30 Coordinators (or Major Coordinators) in the field, who are fully paid as to salary and expenses; and about 100 Coordinators (or Section Leaders as they are called in some areas), who work on a volunteer basis as to all or part of their salary, or expenses, or both." According to its profile by Political Research Associates, an organization that tracks conspiracists on the Right, JBS "pioneered grassroots lobbying, combining educational meetings, petition drives and letter-writing campaigns. One early campaign against the second summit between the United States and the Soviet Union generated over 600,000 postcards and letters, according to the Society. A June 1964 Birch campaign to oppose Xerox corporate sponsorship of TV programs favorable to the UN produced 51,279 letters from 12,785 individuals." [5] The Birchers' ad-hoc special issues committees have been effective in creating awareness about issues which they believe to be affecting the American way of life. Much of the Society's early conspiracism, according to Political Research Associates, "reflects an ultraconservative business nationalist critique of business internationalists networked through groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)." Birchers elaborated on an earlier Illuminati/Freemason conspiracy theory, imagining "an unbroken ideologically driven conspiracy linking the Illuminati, the French Revolution, the rise of Marxism and Communism, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the United Nations"[6]. Unlike most advocates of the Illuminati-Freemason conspiracy theory, however, the Birch Society strenuously denies harboring any anti-Semitic or antimasonic ideas, and indeed claims many Jews among its membership. At one point a key leader in the JBS, Revilo P. Oliver, resigned after a dispute over his veering off into antisemitic conspiracy theories in public.

Anti-Jewish, racist, anti-Mormon, anti-Masonic, and religious groups criticized the group's acceptance of Jews, nonwhites, and Masons, the large number of Mormons in the Society (Ezra Taft Benson, a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encouraged people to join it), and Welch's alleged feminist, ecumenical, and evolutionary ideas. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Ironically, John Birch had tried to convict a teacher at his Baptist seminary of heresy because of belief in evolution. The teacher was acquitted but soon afterward resigned from the seminary.

The Objectivist Ayn Rand said in a Playboy interview that "I consider the Birch Society futile, because they are not for capitalism but merely against communism." [12]

Republican mainstream unhappiness with the Birch Society intensified after Welch circulated a letter calling President Dwight D. Eisenhower a possible “conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy.” Welch went further in a book titled The Politician, written in 1956 and published by the JBS in 1963, which declared that Eisenhower’s brother Milton was Ike’s superior within the communist apparatus and alleging other top government officials also were communist tools. Included were ex-president Truman, Roosevelt, the previous Secretary Of State John Foster Dulles and former CIA Director Allan W. Dulles. Conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr., an early friend and admirer of Welch, regarded his accusations against Eisenhower as "paranoid and idiotic libels" and attempted unsuccessfully to purge Welch from the JBS. Welch responded by attempting to take over Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth organization founded with assistance from Buckley. The JBS now maintains summer camps which operate across the country and teach youth the ideas of its members.[13]

In October 1964, the Idaho Statesman newspaper expressed concern about what it called an "ominous" increase in JBS-led "ultra-right" radio and television broadcasts, which it said then numbered 7,000 weekly and cost an estimated $10 million annually. "By virtue of saturation tactics used, radical, reactionary propaganda is producing an impact even on large numbers of people who, themselves, are in no sense extremists or sympathetic to extremist views," declared a Statesman editorial. "When day after day they hear distortions of fact and sinister charges against persons or groups, often emanating from organizations with conspicuously respectable sounding names, it is no wonder that the result is confusion on some important public issues; stimulation of latent prejudices; creation of suspicion, fear and mistrust in relation not only to their representatives in government, but even in relation to their neighbors."

In their early days, the JBS shared a common ideology and some overlapping membership with Fred Schwarz and his California-based Christian Anti-Communism Crusade. John Birch Society influence on US politics hit its high point in the years around the failed 1964 presidential campaign of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who lost to incumbent President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Welch had supported Goldwater over Richard Nixon for the Republican nomination, but the membership split, with two-thirds supporting Goldwater and one-third supporting Nixon. A number of Birch members and their allies were Goldwater supporters in 1964 and some were delegates at the 1964 Republican National Convention. The Goldwater campaign in turn brought together the nucleus of what later became known as the New Right, many of whom had been groomed by the Birch Society but whose more pragmatic members realized that the group's conspiracism was an impediment to electoral success. In April 1966, the New York Times reported on "the increasing tempo of radical right attacks on local government, libraries, school boards, parent-teacher associations, mental health programs, the Republican Party and, most recently, the ecumenical movement. The Birch Society is by far the most successful and 'respectable' radical right organization in the country. It operates alone or in support of other extremist organizations whose major preoccupation, like that of the Birchers, is the internal Communist conspiracy in the United States." By then, a committee called the Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE) was established to promote opinions about child-rearing; in particular, MOTOREDE pushed for a ban on sex education.

1970s

The Society wound up at the center of an important free-speech law case in the 1970s, after one of its magazines, American Opinion, accused a Chicago lawyer representing the family of a young man killed by a police officer of being part of a Communist conspiracy to merge all police agencies in the country into one large force. The resulting libel suit, Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., reached the United States Supreme Court, which said opinions cannot be false under the First Amendment (while nevertheless finding for the plaintiff, who prevailed upon retrial).

Key Birch Society causes of the 1970s included opposition to OSHA and the establishment of diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China. The organization claimed in 1973 that the regime of Mao Zedong had murdered 64 million Chinese as of that year and that it was the primary supplier of illicit heroin into the United States This led to bumper stickers showing a pair of scissors cutting a hypodermic needle in half accompanied by the slogan "Cut The Red China Connection." The society also was vehemently opposed to transferring control of the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian sovereignty, resulting in another slogan: "Don't Give Panama Our Canal — Give Them Kissinger Instead."

The John Birch Society was organized into local chapters, imitating Welch's understanding of Communist organizing techniques.Ernest Brosang, a New Jersey regional coordinator, contended it is virtually impossible for opponents of the society to penetrate its policy-making levels, thereby protecting it from anti-Americanist takeover attempts. Its activities included distribution of literature attacking proposed civil rights legislation, warning of the influence of the United Nations, and distributing petitions to impeach liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. To spread their message, members held Sunday showings of documentary films and operated initiatives such as "Let Freedom Ring," a nationwide network of recorded telephone messages. Some Birch Society members also helped organize the "Minutemen," a paramilitary group training to lead guerrilla warfare in case of a Communist take over but later left the Society, saying it did little but talk.

After Welch

By the time of Welch's death in 1985, the Birch Society's membership and influence had dramatically declined because partly of the ending of the Cold War, but the UN's role in the Gulf War and President George H. W. Bush's call for a 'New World Order' appeared to many JBS members to validate their claims about a "One World Government" conspiracy. Growing right-wing populism in the United States helped the JBS position itself for a comeback, and by 1995 its membership had grown somewhat to more than 55,000 though that number is unofficial as the Society does not disclose its membership statistics.

Since the founder's death, its tactics have moderated wheras its views have radicalized.

After that time period, the John Birch Society started a campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton for alleged connections with Chinese interests and on charges of treason and bribery.1 2 3 Within months of the Society's call for impeachment, news of the Monica Lewinsky affair broke, and the Society's charges were overshadowed by media coverage of Lewinsky and Clinton. The President was eventually impeached but on charges other than the Society had hoped to bring. Clinton, however, was not convicted by the Senate because the impeachers got less than the needed two-thirds. Nevertheless, the impeachment campaign's relative success bolstered the Society and its public knowledge, membership, publication circulation, and finances.

During the 1990s (with a brief pause to work on the Clinton impeachment campaign) and in the first decade of the 21st century, the Society has opposed free-trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and the newly proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). CAFTA won a two-vote victory in the House (217-215), but the Society predicts the FTAA will have an even more difficult time.

In recent years, the JBS has been just as critical of President George W. Bush as it has been of Democratic presidents, accusing the Bush administration of advocating and carrying out acts of torture against suspected terrorist leaders during the War on Terror. In a 2005 online poll, the organization's membership voted for President Bush's impeachment, [14] citing issues such as the USA PATRIOT Act, the proposed sell out of US Seaports to Dubai Ports World [15], and recent allegations against the Bush administration concerning domestic telephone surveillance of suspected terrorists operating within the United States. These were cited as evidence of Bush's lack of regard for the Constitution.

The JBS continues to press for an end to U.S. membership in the United Nations. As evidence of the effectiveness of JBS efforts, the Society points to the Utah legislature's resolution calling for U.S. withdrawal, as well as the actions of several other states where the Society's membership has been active. The Birch Society repeatedly opposed overseas warmaking although it is strongly supportive of the American military. It has issued calls to "Bring Our Troops Home" in every conflict since its founding including Vietnam (it wanted a quick win and exit there after the conflict had already started rather than a simple losing pullout). The Society also has a national speakers' committee, called American Opinion Speakers Bureau (AOSB), and an anti-tax committee called TRIM (Tax Reform IMmediately).

New American

The New American is a bi-weekly news magazine published by the John Birch Society, created from the merger of Review of The News and American Opinion.

In popular culture

The JBS's views made it a favorite target of political satire. For example:

In his novel The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon satirized the famously conservative society with his "Peter Pinguid Society," an organization so anti-communist that they opposed capitalism because it led inevitably to communism.
The Bob Dylan song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" from The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 is a fictitious, satirical story about a man joining the society.
The Chad Mitchell Trio's 'break-out' song hit was their comic parody "The John Birch Society."
The Charlie Daniels song "Uneasy Rider" satirizes rural white southern conservatism with the line "I'm a faithful follower of Brother John Birch/And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church."
The Beat Farmers' song, "Gun Sale at the Church" contains the line, "My two main men are Jesus and ol' John Birch. So, I'm going on down to the gun sale at the church."
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's novel Illuminatus! contains several references to the John Birch Society in a subplot.
Steve Jackson Games included a mythical "Fred Birch Society" as one of hundreds of groups in the collectible card game Illuminati: New World Order. The F.B.S. is also mentioned in their GURPS Supers - International Super Teams universe.
Walt Kelly's comic strip "Pogo" featured references to a rather muddled political group called the "Jack Acid Society" (more than likely a play on the insult "jackass").

Presidents

Robert W. Welch Jr. (1958-1983)
Larry McDonald (1983)
Charles R. Armour
John F. McManus (1991-2004, 2005-present)
G. Vance Smith (2004-2005)

The second John Birch Society chairman, US Representative Dr. Larry McDonald, was killed in the 1983 KAL-007 shootdown incident. Society members suggested that McDonald had been the principal target of the Soviets in the attack upon the airplane.

CEOs

G. Allen Bubolz (1988-1991)
G. Vance Smith (

Other notable members in history

Edwin Walker
Former Congressman John Rarick
John Rousselot
Late Congressman John G. Schmitz
Late Congressman Edgar W. Hiestand
Eric Show (pitcher for the San Diego Padres)
Late Congressman Lawrence Patton McDonald
Walter Brennan ("Grandpa" on the "Real McCoys")
Meldrim Thomson, Jr. (former Governor of New Hampshire)
Robert Welch (president of Welch's Candy company)
Robert Waring Stoddard (former president of Wyman-Gordon and chairman of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette)
William J. Grede
Floyd Paxton
Andy Schmitt (1980's Christian Pop Artist)
Ezola Foster
Nelson Bunker Hunt (businessman)
Tom Anderson (syndicated Journalist)
Taylor Caldwell (author)
Rollye James (syndicated radio talk show host)
G. Edward Griffin (author)
Dr. Medford Evans, author of The Secret War for the A-Bomb
General Andrew Gatsis
General Edwin Shull
General Robert Lee Scott (author of "God is my Co-pilot")
Professor E. Merrill Root (poet and essayist)
Kent Courtney

External links

John Birch Society website
The New American, JBS bi-weekly publication
"John Birch Society," Political Research Associates
Report of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities on the John Birch Society
http://birchers.blogspot.com

This is a 65-page report on the Birch Society based, primarily, upon first-time released FBI files and documents.

http://dan-smoot.blogspot.com/

This is a recently revised 21-page report on former FBI Special Agent Dan Smoot. Smoot wrote articles for Birch Society publications. His themes and conclusions were consistent with those of the Birch Society. A major section of this report focuses on Smoot/JBS assertions regarding the civil rights movement and the alleged "subversive" background of NAACP officials.