Free Republic

The JBS had a long history of accepting and praising racial and religious bigots into the JBS as members, as officials, and as paid employees.

The JBS never “opposed Judeophobia” — which is why it was never able to attract any significant number of Jews into its ranks — as even Welch admitted in private correspondence.

Furthermore, the official JBS position on Israel was extremely hostile AND it also attacked and defamed Jewish fraternal organizations like ADL and American Jewish Committee.

Robert Welch and the JBS recommended and sold publications by UK conspiracy author Nesta Webster. She was an official in the first UK fascist organization and in 1926 she gave a speech entitled “The Need For Fascism in Great Britain”. For details re: how the JBS promoted her writings see:
https://archive.org/details/webster-nesta-the-need-for-fascism-in-great-britain-1926-12pp

Buckley was “never conservative”? Then why did Robert Welch contribute $1000 twice to National Review? Why did Welch ask Buckley to support and endorse his original enterprises (and Buckley did so)?

Why did Welch describe Buckley as his “friend” and then suggest that Buckley be invited to a dinner honoring Alfred Kohlberg?

Why did Welch and Buckley have cordial correspondence for many years?

Why did Buckley’s positions on many public policy issues agree with Welch’s?

Why did the Birch Society recommend and sell Buckley’s books?

Why did Buckley’s magazine (National Review) feature the most important and accomplished conservative thinkers of the 20th century — whereas Welch was NOT able to attract authors of the same caliber for his magazines?

For a more accurate understanding of Robert Welch, see the new biography about Welch (published this month) that was authored by a PhD historian.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo123795778.html

Your understanding about Welch is deeply flawed. He made massive errors in analysis and judgment despite his “intelligence”. THAT is why almost the entire conservative movement in the U.S. denounced and rejected his views.

Apparently, Dr Sivana, you are not aware that the Birch Society (and its surrogates) have lost defamation lawsuits because their publications presented maliciously false information.

In July 1961, Robert Welch wrote in that month’s JBS Bulletin that there were 300,000 to 500,000 Communist Party members in the United States. The actual number (according to the FBI) was 5262! Obviously, Welch had no clue regarding the correct number because he had no way to determine that information. He did not have access to CPUSA dues payment info (as the FBI did) and he had no informants inside the CPUSA (the FBI had over 400 human informants inside the Party).

So, you can rely upon the FALSE information in JBS publications OR you can prefer verifiable FACTUAL information but you cannot rely upon the JBS for “reasoned” information. OPINIONS (by definition) do not necessarily reflect reality or truth. They are just personal observations or preferences -— such as stating that strawberry is the best flavor of ice cream. FACTS are different because they represent reality and truth.

Furthermore, the JBS has a very long history of associating itself with racial and religious bigots and praising or recommending such people (politicians and authors).

In December 2019, the former Research Director of the JBS (Tom Eddlem) resigned his lifetime JBS membership because of what HE described as “nazi racial propaganda” published in the JBS magazine (The New American). You can see Eddlem’s resignation letter here:
http://teddlem.blogspot.com/2019/12/resignation-letter-to-john-birch-society.html

For over 100 pages of details regarding JBS links to racial and religious bigots, see:
https://archive.org/details/jbs-chronology-january-2022

There is no evidence in the public domain to support your contention that “There is a range of opinions held by members and leadership of JBS, just as there are in NR and the Republican Party.”

The core ideological belief of the JBS since its inception in 1958 has been that almost all of our national leaders in the 20th century were “Communist traitors” or “agents” of a vast criminal conspiracy. The JBS concluded that the U.S. was 60 to 80% under “Communist influence and control” — and they always predicted our imminent demise as a free country. In fact, numerous senior officials of the JBS claimed that our last free election would be in 1964, then 1970, then 1972, then 1976.

“Those folks were intelligent, courteous and friendly”

The point is that “intelligent, courteous and friendly” people can, nevertheless, be gravely mistaken in their views.

That is why even J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI concluded that the Birch Society was a “right wing extremist” group that did NOT deal in facts or reality.

The JBS has not been “right” by any known rules of evidence and logic.

Robert Welch and every senior official of the JBS effusively praised former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. According to Welch and the JBS, Hoover was our nation’s most knowledgeable expert re: the Communist movement in the U.S. See for example, JBS article entitled “The Wisdom and Warning of J. Edgar Hoover” published in the 10/66 issue of the JBS magazine (American Opinion) and also available as a reprint. Significantly, Hoover’s FBI falsified EVERY major predicate of JBS ideology AND Hoover stated that the JBS was a “right wing extremist” movement that did not deal in fact or reality.
For details see:
https://archive.org/details/john-birch-society-report-october-2020-614pp/mode/2up

For a massive critique of the JBS position concerning our civil rights movement, see:
https://archive.org/details/0906-combined-pdf-racism-and-the-john-birch-society-283-pages

The last link (Racism and the JBS) includes a massive Chronology which shows HUNDREDS of links between the JBS and racial and religious bigots -— and also shows how the JBS promoted racist arguments and stereotypes.

REPORT ON JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY—Based Upon Data in FBI Files (614 pages):
https://archive.org/details/john-birch-society-report-october-2020-614pp/mode/2up

John Birch Society 6-Decade Attack Upon Our Civil Rights Movement
https://archive.org/details/jbs-6-decade-attack-upon-our-civil-rights-movement-and-its-leaders/mode/2up

Racism and the JBS (283 pages)
https://archive.org/details/0906-combined-pdf-racism-and-the-john-birch-society-283-pages/mode/2up

BTW, the JBS and its surrogates (whom you describe as “impressive people”) lost numerous libel lawsuits because once they were put into a courtroom environment and were required to present factual evidence, their lunatic assertions crumbled into absurdity.

Significantly, Hoover’s FBI falsified EVERY major predicate of JBS ideology. In many instances, the JBS (in conjunction with the Communist Party!) attacked and defamed ANTI-Communist Americans which made the JBS the functional equivalent of a PRO-Communist organization.

At the time when JBS founder Robert Welch claimed that there were 300,000 to 500,000 Communist Party members in the U.S., the FBI concluded that the actual number was 5262. That, in a nutshell, tells you everything you need to know about the quality of JBS “reasoning”.

The point is that “nice people” can still be gravely mistaken in their viewpoints and assertions.

Your comment is seriously misinformed. The following Report shows the numerous falsehoods and misrepresentations which the JBS has always presented about Robert Welch’s so-called “private letter” (The Politician).

See:
https://archive.org/details/jbs-13-the-politician-by-robert-welch/mode/2up [Click on PDF link on right side of webpage for copy of this Report]

The Venona files DO NOT confirm JBS assertions. Serious historians and political scientists have written extensively about this. Also, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover refuted JBS arguments. Hoover’s comment in reply to JBS arguments re: extent of Communist movement success:

“The Communist Party in this country has attempted to infiltrate and subvert every segment of our society, but its continuing efforts have not achieved success of any substance. Too many self-styled experts on communism, without valid credentials and without any access whatsoever to classified factual data regarding the inner workings of the conspiracy, have engaged in rumor-mongering and hurling false and wholly unsubstantiated allegations against persons whose views differ from their own. This is dangerous business. It is divisive and unintelligent and makes more difficult the task of the professional investigator.” [Hoover statement in February 5, 1962 letter to Mrs. W.R. Brown of Bountiful Utah; also published as letter-to-editor in Tri-Cities Daily newspaper of Sheffield, Alabama on Sunday March 31, 1963. Copy of Hoover letter in FBI HQ file 94-1-369, serial #1676]

Virtually the entire conservative movement in the United States denounced and rejected the JBS as an example of a “right wing extremist” organization that was “irrational” and “irresponsible”.

JBS critics include such prominent conservative Americans as:
Sen. Barry Goldwater, Cong. Walter Judd, Cong. Gordon H. Scherer, Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, Russell Kirk, Ronald Reagan, Eugene Lyons, Willmoore Kendall, James Burnham, Robert Bork, Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, Herbert Philbrick, Frank S. Meyer, William F. Buckley Jr., Patrick Buchanan, Fred Schwarz, Lee Edwards, the editors of the conservative newspaper, Human Events, David Lawrence, Holmes Alexander, William Loeb, George Sokolsky, Roy M. Cohn, Anthony Bouscaren, plus even many former Birchers such as: Alan Stang, Gary Allen, Fred Koch, Milorad Draskovich, Don Fotheringham, John Rees, Wayne Rickert, former JBS Research Director Tom Eddlem, William Norman Grigg (senior editor of JBS magazine) and many more.

Even Mrs. Robert Welch withdrew her support from the JBS after her husband died because of the hostile articles about President Ronald Reagan published by the JBS.

The former Research Director of the JBS from 1991-2000 (Tom Eddlem) announced that he terminated his lifetime JBS membership in December 2019 because of what HE described as “nazi racial propaganda” published in the JBS magazine (The New American).

See Eddlem’s resignation here: https://teddlem.blogspot.com/2019/12/resignation-letter-to-john-birch-society.html

Some of the Birch Society’s most famous and prolific writers (like Gary Allen and Alan Stang and William Norman Grigg) also denounced the new JBS leadership after Robert Welch passed away.

During J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure as FBI Director, the FBI falsified every major predicate of JBS ideology. In November 1964 Hoover responded to numerous inquiries about Robert Welch and the JBS as follows:

“Personally, I have little respect for the head of the John Birch Society since he linked the names of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the late John Foster Dulles, and former CIA Director Allen Dulles with communism.” [J. Edgar Hoover comment during November 1964 press conference; also appears in FBI-HQ file 62-104401, serial #2381, 11/20/64 and HQ 100-114578-152, October 22, 1965 and 62-104401, #3865, 3/24/72.]

FBI POSITION ON JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY
“The supporters of this organization and those influenced by the vicious propaganda it has been putting out are typical of the fanatics who have been attempting lately to disparage and discredit Bureau speakers who have been giving audiences a true, factual picture concerning the nature of the threat which communist activities in this country represent.” [FBI-HQ 62-104401, serial #791, March 9, 1961, Chief Inspector W.C. Sullivan to A.H. Belmont].

“The John Birch Society is an extremist organization which was founded by Robert Welch in Indianapolis, Indiana in December 1958…We certainly should not allow ourselves to be placed in a position where an organization of the character of the JBS can use statements attributed to the Bureau or to the Director to support its position in this or any other matter. This organization would not hesitate to twist any statement by the Bureau to confirm with its extremist position.” J. Edgar Hoover wrote “OK” on memo as did Associate Director Clyde Tolson. [FBI HQ file 62-7582, #4729; 2/8/61 memo from A.J. Decker to A.H. Belmont re: JBS member phone call; also, in HQ file 62-104401, #unrecorded]

The Birch Society has the “distinction” of being the only national conservative “educational” organization to have lost an historic precedent-setting defamation lawsuit (which changed American libel law) after the JBS falsely described Chicago lawyer Elmer Gertz in an article it published in its monthly magazine as “a Communist fronter” and a “Leninist” who was engaged in a “conspiracy” (a criminal act) against the Chicago police.

After 14 years of litigation, including two different jury trials, numerous appeals, and review by the U.S. Supreme Court, the JBS paid Gertz $100,000 in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages for malice. Because the JBS appealed the initial decision, their final payment (including accrued interest) was almost $500,000 (which is about $2 million in 2021 dollars). Punitive damages are only allowed in libel actions when “malice” can be shown. Malice, in legalese, refers to “reckless disregard for truth” arising from evil intent and a desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering.

As one Appeals Court observed about the JBS article on Gertz:

“There was more than enough evidence for the jury to conclude that this article was published with utter disregard for the truth or falsity of the statements contained in the article about Gertz.” [U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, No. 81-2483, Elmer Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 6/16/82, page 20.

JBS 6-DECADE ATTACK UPON OUR CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
https://archive.org/details/0906-combined-pdf-racism-and-the-john-birch-society-283-pages/mode/2up

Yes, that is the 1963 California Senate Report which the JBS claims “exonerated” the JBS. However, the JBS ignores the criticisms and never mentions what the Chairman of the Subcommittee repeatedly said about that year’s Report on the JBS. Also, the JBS never mentions what the Subcommittee concluded in its 1965 Report which updated its findings on the JBS.

Correct. In my Chronology re: “Racism and the JBS”, one of the entries is about Sturdza (as follows):

~~~~~~~~~
The JBS publishing house (Western Islands) published a book by Prince Michael R Sturdza aka Mihail Sturdza aka Zad Rust, entitled “The Suicide of Europe: Memoirs of Prince Michael Sturdza”.

During the 1930’s-1940’s Sturdza was a member of the Romanian Iron Guard movement aka Legion of Michael the Archangel. Before World War II, Romania had a population of several hundred thousand Jews. More than 400,000 were deported to death camps under the regime of the Romanian Iron Guard. In fact, Romania was directly responsible for the murder of more Jews than any country other than Germany.

This movement believed that the problem of poverty in Romania was due to Jews having “colonized” Romania, and thereby prevented Christian Romanians from getting ahead economically. Their solution to this perceived problem was to drive the Jews out of Romania, which the Iron Guard claimed would finally allow Eastern Orthodox Romanians to rise up to the middle class.

Terry Lautz. I sent him some info which he used in his book.

There is also another new book which contains a lot of information about John Birch.

“Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War” by Matthew Avery Sutton

BTW, when the FBI opened a preliminary inquiry into the JBS (in 1959-1960), it contacted former FBI informant Herbert Philbrick (of “I Led Three Lives” fame) to inquire about Robert Welch and the JBS because Philbrick knew Welch and, in fact, at that time, Philbrick was a Home Chapter member of the JBS.

The FBI also asked Philbrick whether or not he had given Revilo Oliver information about Communists in the Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare (as Oliver claimed he did).

Philbrick told the FBI that Oliver was lying and, furthermore, based upon his personal contacts with Oliver in 1959 (!) he (Philbrick) considered Oliver to be “an extremist in anticommunist feelings and violently anti-Semitic.” [FBI-HQ file 65-45027, serial #29, 2/1/61 memo from F.J. Baumgardner to FBI Assistant Director Alan H. Belmont, page 2, which is in the FBI HQ file on Revilo P. Oliver; also in FBI-HQ file 62-104401 on JBS, serial #unrecorded, but just after serial #621].

So...that begs the question: How could Robert Welch NOT know about Oliver’s bigotry (anti-Semitism and racism) until 1966 when Oliver resigned?

Incidentally, the former Research Director of the JBS (Thomas Eddlem) recently resigned from his lifetime membership in the JBS because (he wrote), of “nazi racial propaganda” published in the JBS magazine (The New American).

Eddlem’s resignation letter may be seen here:

http://teddlem.blogspot.com/2019/12/resignation-letter-to-john-birch-society.html

Eddlem (like the late William Norman Grigg—who was a Senior Editor for the JBS magazine) is a principled and honorable person who had the guts to reveal bigotry within the JBS.

@BDParrish

Both George Birch and his wife were JBS members and they both praised the JBS so I’m not sure why he would have expressed any concerns to you — unless in later years the Birch family was concerned about some of Robert Welch’s more lunatic assertions——as happened with Fred and Charles Koch—both of whom resigned from the JBS.

Well, CGBG, as is this case will all large organizations, one doesn’t want to unfairly characterize an entire organization because of incidents involving a few members.

However, the problem with the Birch Society is that its senior leadership (in particular, JBS founder Robert Welch) INVITED many racial and religious bigots to become JBS members, JBS endorsers, and employees of the JBS (as writers and speakers).

Chapter 3 of my Report entitled “Racism and the John Birch Society” includes an exhaustive Chronology which lists scores of examples to document my assertion.

Briefly, for example:

(1) At least 4 (and probably 5) members of the JBS National Council (its governing body) were life-long segregationists. That includes:

(1) T. Coleman Andrews Sr. who ran for President in 1956 on the States Rights Party ticket—and their official platform was pro-segregation. Andrews also created his own segregationist organization in Richmond VA.

(2) A.G. Heinsohn Jr. who had previously associated himself with several white supremacy organizations in Tennessee.

(3) Thomas J. Anderson who wrote articles defending slavery and who belonged to a whites-only church.

(4) Dr. Thomas Parker who was President of his local White Citizens Council chapter in Greenville SC and who signed a declaration in 1956 associating himself with the pro-segregation independent electors movement for the forthcoming Presidential election.

One of the most famous members of the JBS was Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker of Dallas TX.

He frequently was the featured speaker at white supremacist meetings including Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Council meetings. [Note: since 1947, the KKK was listed on the U.S. Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations!]

This never bothered the JBS and, in fact, the Public Relations Director of the JBS (John Rousselot) presented Edwin Walker with a plaque in 1963 which described Walker as our “greatest living American”. [Los Angeles Times, 4/4/63, page 36].

This is the same Edwin Walker who declared during a June 1965 speech to the American Conservative Club in Harrisburg PA that:

“I think I can match three good Americans in the KKK for every one in the Americans For Democratic Action or the Anti-Defamation League.” [Harrisburg PA Patriot, 6/21/65, page 1, “Liberals Lashed By General Walker” by Robert J. Hayes; FBI-Philadelphia file 157-1549, serial #6, 6/21/65]

Historical footnote:

In October 1965, Walker met with United Klans of America Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton in Shreveport LA at which time Shelton “offered General Walker the position of Grand Dragon of the UKA for the State of Texas.” [FBI-HQ file 157-370-2, serial #345; also see: FBI-HQ file 157-370-4, serials #328, 340X, 341, 377, 383]. “Later General Walker mentioned to someone that he was interested in the Klan position…” [FBI-HQ file 157-370-4, serial #341, 11/1/65 SAC Birmingham to J. Edgar Hoover re: United Klans of America, Inc., Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, page 1.]

Rev. Ferrell Griswold was a featured speaker under the auspices of the JBS. He also spoke at KKK meetings and he described the KKK as a “patriotic” and “conservative” organization!