Birch Society Proposal To Publish J. Edgar Hoover Comments

Enrie1241

[Ernie.cal]

In 1965, Dr. James D. Bales, a professor at Harding College in Searcy Arkansas contacted the FBI to inquire into whether or not J. Edgar Hoover would object to Bales' compiling statements made by Hoover about Communism and publishing them in book form. J. Edgar Hoover rejected the idea.

In June of 1967, the idea was resurrected by representatives of the John Birch Society (JBS). Douglas C. Morse, Managing Editor of the JBS publishing arm, Western Island Publishers, contacted the Boston FBI office to again propose the idea.

FBI Assistant-Special-Agent-In Charge Troy Coleman met with Mr. Morse and JBS founder Robert Welch at JBS offices to discuss the matter. Hoover's public statements were to be compiled by Dr. Bales and published by the Birch Society under the title "J. Edgar Hoover On Communism."

A Bureau memo summarizes the encounter with Robert Welch:

"Mr. Welch advised he had the greatest admiration for the Director and that the captioned book was intended as an instrument against communism. He said he felt the statements on the subject from Mr. Hoover would be taken as statements from the world's greatest authority on the matter of communism..."

However, J. Edgar Hoover flatly rejected the JBS proposal--just as was previously the case when Dr. Bales contacted the FBI.

Subsequently, Robert Welch inquired if Hoover would withdraw his opposition to publication of the book if it contained an explicit disclaimer pointing out that the book was not endorsed by Hoover. Hoover instructed the Boston Field Office to reject that idea too.

A June 26, 1967 FBI memo summarizes why Hoover and the Bureau were so adamantly opposed to both the Bales and JBS proposals:

"Harding College is well known as a right-wing anticommunist center and is a source of extremist-type literature in the field of anticommunism. It was noted that it would be highly unwise for the Director to be associated publicly with Harding College."

J. Edgar Hoover handwrote "I concur" on the memo's closing "Observations" paragraph, copied below:

"It is felt the Director should remain firm in continuing to deny Bales and also the John Birch Society permission to publish excerpts from the Director's quotations on communism. It is not felt that such a book could possibly give a balanced view of the Director's statements and in view of the extremist position taken by both Bales and the Birch Society, it is anticipated that the Director could be subject to public criticism by any implied association with Bales and the Birch Society."

The complete documentation for everything cited above is available from FBI HQ file 62-104401, serials 3146, 3148, 3149, 3151.

[Tailgunner Joe]

I recommend Hoover's own book, A Study of Communism.

[Ernie.cal]

There is a difference between rational and informed anti-communism versus inept and harmful anti-communism. According to Hoover and his top subordinates, the Birch Society belonged in the latter category.

In 1960, when the Birch Society was telling everyone that whole departments of our government were surfeited with Communists and Comsymps and our Federal Government was "taken over" by Communists, the FBI Security Index indicated that only 20 suspected or known Communists were employed in the entire U.S. Government. In addition, Hoover and his subordinates denied that the Communist movement had achieved any significant success within our society. Infiltration was attempted but not very successful.

Consequently, one wonders why Birchers routinely referred to Hoover and the FBI as our nation's most reliable, authoritative, and knowledgeable source of information about the Communist Conspiracy.

Ernie

[GOP_1900AD]

Now here are some interesting URLs:

http://discuss.pittsburghlive.com/viewforum.php?f=8

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=John_Birch_Society

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Political_Research_Associates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

http://www.ebay.com.sg/fdbkProfile?UserId=ernie1241

http://www.ebay.com.hk/fdbkProfile?UserId=movies--music-books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9990864985/103-4629777-2989403?v=glance

The only people who have this much time to spend in depth on a single topic on the web are people who are doing it as part of their day job. Like people in the on line encyclopedia business, for example.....