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The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, or libertarian ideas. The society's founder, businessman Robert W. Welch Jr. (1899–1985), developed an organizational infrastructure of nationwide chapters in December 1958. The society rose quickly in membership and influence, and was controversial for its promotion of conspiracy theories. In the 1960s the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. and '' National Review'' pushed for the JBS to be exiled to the fringes of the American right. More recently,
Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for '' The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at '' The New Republic''. As of 2014, he was writing a doctoral thesis at ...
has argued in '' The New Republic'' that while the organization's influence peaked in the 1970s, "Bircherism" and its legacy of conspiracy theories have become the dominant strain in the conservative movement.
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has asserted that the JBS began making a resurgence in the mid-2010s, while observers have stated that the JBS and its beliefs shaped the
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...
, the
Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
, and the broader conservative movement. Writing in ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', Andrew Reinbach called the JBS "the intellectual seed bank of the right." Originally based in Belmont, Massachusetts, the John Birch Society is now headquartered in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, a suburb of Appleton, Wisconsin, with local chapters throughout the United States. It owns American Opinion Publishing, which publishes the magazine '' The New American''.


Political positions

The John Birch Society from its start opposed collectivism as a "cancer" and, by extension,
Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
and
big government Big government is a pejorative term for a government or public sector that is considered excessively large or unconstitutionally involved in certain areas of public policy or the private sector. The term may also be used specifically in relatio ...
. The organization and its founder, Robert Welch, promoted Americanism as “the philosophical antithesis of Communism.” It contended that the United States is a republic, not a
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
, and argued that states' rights should supersede those of the federal government. Welch infused constitutionalist and classical liberal principles, in addition to his conspiracy theories, into the JBS's ideology and rhetoric. In 1983, Congressman Larry McDonald, then the society's newly appointed chairman, characterized the JBS as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right. The society opposes "
one world government World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors. A world gove ...
", the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
Central America Free Trade Agreement Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
(CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other
free trade agreement A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occ ...
s. It argues the U.S. Constitution has been devalued in favor of political and
economic globalization Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization. Econo ...
. It has cited the existence of the former Security and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards a North American Union. The JBS has sought to reduce
immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...
. The JBS supports auditing and eventually dismantling the
Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after ...
. The JBS holds that the United States Constitution gives only Congress the ability to coin money, and does not permit it to delegate this power, or to transform the dollar into a fiat currency not backed by
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
or
silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
. The JBS opposed the
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
of the 1960s and the women's Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. It has campaigned for state nullification. It opposes efforts to call an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, and it has been influential at promoting opposition to it among Republican legislators. Its publication ''The New American'' has described what it sees as American moral decline and threats to the family, including abortion, drugs, homosexuality, crime, violence, teenage pregnancy, teen suicide, feminism and pornography. The JBS has alleged that moral degeneracy is perpetrated by a conspiracy to make the United States vulnerable to internationalism. The JBS has been described as ultraconservative,

far-right, and extremist. The
Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...
lists the society as a "Patriot" group, a group that "advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines". By the 1990s, the JBS was perceived as "more mainstream conservative" than in the 1960s. It has also been associated with the libertarian movement and
business nationalism Business nationalism is an economic nationalist ideology held by a sector of the political right in the United States. Business nationalists are conservative business and industrial leaders who favor a protectionist trade policy and an isola ...
.


Influence on conservatism

The JBS contributed to the development of modern American conservatism through its organizational tactics and its promotion of right-wing political views. Despite never considering itself a religious organization, the JBS played a role in the rise of the Moral Majority and the Christian right as major political forces, ideologically and tactically influencing multiple leaders in that movement including
Tim LaHaye Timothy Francis LaHaye (April 27, 1926 – July 25, 2016) was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister who wrote more than 85 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the ''Left Behind'' series of apocalyptic fiction, which h ...
and
Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleocons ...
. The historian D. J. Mulloy wrote in 2014 that the JBS has served as "a kind of bridge" between the Old Right (including the McCarthyites) of the 1940s50s, the New Right of the 1970s80s, and the Tea Party right of the 21st century. Professor Edward H. Miller wrote that Welch and the JBS were "never excommunicated" from conservatism and that "the ideas of the John Birch Society paved the way for the conservatism of the twentieth century" and "shaped events in the twenty-first century". Miller also credits JBS with helping stop the ERA and setting the stage for the Reagan Era, while Mulloy states that the JBS "played an essential role in the revitalization of conservatism." JBS took an early stance in opposing abortion and social liberalism, and its TRIM committees, which supported lower taxes, helped lead to the Reagan tax cuts. By the early 2020s, multiple commentators and academics argued that the John Birch Society and its beliefs had successfully taken over the Republican Party and the broader conservative movement.


History


Origins

The John Birch Society was established on December 9, 1958, in
Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mar ...
, at the conclusion of a two-day session of a group of 12 people led by Robert W. Welch Jr.. Welch was a retired candy manufacturer from Belmont, Massachusetts, who had been a state
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...
official and had unsuccessfully run in its 1950 lieutenant governor primary.''The Secret File on John Birch'', James & Marti Hefley, Tyndale House Publishers, 1980, In 1954, Welch authored the first book about John Birch titled ''The Life of John Birch''. He organized an anti-Communist society to "promote less government, more responsibility, and a better world". He named his new organization in memory of Birch, saying that Birch was an unknown but dedicated anti-Communist, and the first American casualty of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
. Welch alleged that a Communist conspiracy within the American government had suppressed the truth about Birch's killing. John Birch was an American Baptist who went to China as a missionary in 1940, when the Japanese invasion had created suffering and chaos. He was a U.S. military intelligence officer under Brigadier General Claire Chennault in China. Chennault commanded the " Flying Tigers" and afterwards
U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War ...
units in China. In April 1942, Birch helped Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle and his flight crew (and other crews) a few days after they bailed out of their B-25 bomber over Japanese-held territory in China. Sixteen B-25's led by Doolittle bombed Tokyo ( "Doolittle raid") off the Navy aircraft carrier ''USS Hornet'' during the United States' first attack on Japan. Beginning in July 1942, Birch, who spoke Chinese, became an Army intelligence officer. He operated alone or with Nationalist Chinese soldiers, and regularly risked his life in Japanese-held territory in China. His many activities included setting up Chinese agent and radio intelligence networks, and rescuing downed American pilots; he had two emergency aircraft runways built. Although he suffered from malaria, he refused furloughs. In 1945, Birch was promoted to captain and began working in China both for and with the
OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
, the U.S. wartime intelligence service in World War II. In August, after the Japanese surrendered, Birch was ordered by the OSS to northern China to get the surrender of the Japanese commanders at their installations. On August 24, nine days after the war, Birch left by train with his party which included two American soldiers, five Chinese officers, and two Koreans who spoke Japanese. After spending a night in a village, the party proceeded by handcar the next morning, and ran into a group of 300 armed Chinese Communists. Birch and his Chinese officer aide approached them and were told to surrender their weapons and the group's equipment. Birch refused, and after arguing about it with their commander, they were allowed to proceed. Along the way, Birch's party encountered more groups of Communists. The party arrived at a train station at Hwang Kao which was occupied by more Chinese Communists. Birch requested to speak with their leader. Birch and his aide approached the group's leader and after Birch refused to give up his sidearm, both were beaten and shot. Birch's corpse was bayonetted. The rest of Birch's party were taken prisoner. Birch's aide survived and the prisoners were later released. Birch's remains were recovered, and a
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
burial service was held with military honors on a hillside outside of Suzhou, in eastern China. The Chinese Communists, who were active in northern China and
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, were supposedly WWII allies with the United States. Birch believed that
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
and the Chinese Communists intended to take over China after the war (as they did in 1949) and move into Korea. There were different explanations and theories as to why Birch was killed, ranging from his party showing up at Hwang Kao instead of Ninchuan, Birch's scheduled meeting with Chinese puppet troops of the Sixth Army under General Hu Peng-chu, misunderstanding by local guerillas, and provocation from Birch himself. The founding members of the JBS included Harry Lynde Bradley, co-founder of the Allen Bradley Company and the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, commonly known as the Bradley Foundation, is an American charitable foundation based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that primarily supports conservative causes. The foundation provides between $35 million and $ ...
,
Fred C. Koch Fred Chase Koch ( ; September 23, 1900 – November 17, 1967) was an American chemical engineer and entrepreneur who founded the oil refinery firm that later became Koch Industries, a privately held company which -- under the principal owner ...
, founder of Koch Industries and Robert Waring Stoddard, President of Wyman-Gordon, a major industrial enterprise. Another was
Revilo P. Oliver Revilo Pendleton Oliver (July 7, 1908 – August 20, 1994) was an American professor of Classical philology, Spanish, and Italian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was one of the founders of ''National Review'' in 1955, an ...
, a University of Illinois professor who was later expelled from the Society and helped found the National Alliance. Koch became one of the organization's primary financial supporters. According to investigative journalist Jane Mayer, Koch's sons, David and Charles Koch, were also members of the JBS. However, both left it before the 1970s. 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 prospective member receiving a copy. According to Welch, "both the U.S. 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 U.S. government would betray the country's sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist New World Order, managed by a 'one-world socialist government. Welch saw collectivism as the main threat to
western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
, and American liberals as "secret Communist traitors" who provided cover for the gradual process of collectivism, with the ultimate goal of replacing the nations of western civilization with a 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." Welch predicted that "you have only a few more years before the country in which you live will become four separate provinces in a world-wide Communist dominion ruled by police-state methods from the Kremlin". The JBS was organized to be, in Welch's words, "under completely authoritative control at all levels". It incorporated aspects of business hierarchies and also the Communist cells Welch opposed but whose discipline he admired. Chapters of 10 to 20 members each had a leader appointed from above, and were expected to meet twice a month. Members of chapters that grew larger than 20 members were expected to break off and form a new small chapter. The activities of the JBS include distributing literature, pamphlets, magazines, videos and other material; the society also sponsors a Speaker's Bureau, which invites "speakers who are keenly aware of the motivations that drive political policy". One of the first public activities of the society was a "Get US Out!" (of membership in the UN) campaign, which claimed in 1959 that the "Real nature of heUN is to build a One World Government". The society also alleged that Communists and UN supporters were conducting an "assault on Christmas" to "destroy all religious beliefs and customs". In 1960, Welch advised JBS members to: "Join your local P.T.A. 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 society's official publication. The society publishes ''The New American'', a biweekly magazine.


1960s

In the 1960s, the JBS was known as a right-wing organization with anti-Communist ideology. As of the middle of the decade, it had 400 American Opinion bookstores selling its literature. By March 1961, the JBS had 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 Political Research Associates (a non-profit research group that investigates the far-right), the society "pioneered grassroots lobbying, combining educational meetings, petition drives and letter-writing campaigns. Rick Perlstein described its main activity in the 1960s as "monthly meetings to watch a film by Welch, followed by writing postcards or letters to government officials linking specific policies to the Communist menace". One early campaign against the second summit between the United States and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
(which urged
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, "If you go, don't come back!") generated over 600,000 postcards and letters, according to the society. In 1961 Welch offered $2,300 in prizes to college students for the best essays on "grounds of impeachment" of Chief Justice Warren, a prime target of ultra-conservatives. A June 1964 society campaign to oppose
Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from St ...
corporate sponsorship of TV programs favorable to the UN produced 51,279 letters from 12,785 individuals." In 1962, William F. Buckley Jr., editor of the '' National Review'', an influential conservative magazine, denounced Welch and the John Birch Society as "far removed from common sense" and urged the GOP to purge itself of Welch's influence. In the late 1960s, Welch insisted that the Johnson administration's fight against Communism in Vietnam was part of a Communist plot aimed at taking over the United States. Welch demanded that the United States get out of Vietnam, thus aligning the Society with the left. The society opposed water fluoridation, which it called "mass medicine" and a Communist effort to destroy American children. The JBS was moderately active in the 1960s with numerous chapters, but rarely engaged in coalition building with other conservatives. It was rejected by most conservatives because of Welch's conspiracy theories. The philosopher Ayn Rand said in a 1964 '' Playboy'' interview, "I consider the Birch Society futile, because they are not for capitalism but merely against Communism ... I gather they believe that the disastrous state of today's world is caused by a Communist conspiracy. This is childishly naïve and superficial. No country can be destroyed by a mere conspiracy, it can be destroyed only by ideas." Former Eisenhower cabinet member Ezra Taft Benson—a leading
Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into se ...
—spoke in favor of the JBS, but in January 1963
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
issued a statement distancing itself from the Society. Antisemitic, racist, anti-Mormon, anti-Masonic groups criticized the organization's acceptance of Jews, non-whites, Masons, and Mormons as members. These opponents accused Welch of harboring feminist, ecumenical, and evolutionary ideas. Welch rejected these accusations by his detractors: "All we are interested in here is opposing the advance of the Communists, and eventually destroying the whole Communist conspiracy, so that Jews and Christians alike, and Mohammedans and Buddhists, can again have a decent world in which to live." In a 1963 report, the
California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities (CUAC) was established by the California State Legislature in 1941 as the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on UnAmerican Activities. The creation of the new joint committee (with membe ...
, following an investigation into the JBS, found no evidence it was "a secret, fascist, subversive, un-American, ranti-Semitic organization." In 1964, Welch favored Barry Goldwater for the Republican presidential nomination, but the membership split, with two-thirds supporting Goldwater and one-third supporting
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
, who did not run. A number of Birch members and their allies were Goldwater supporters in 1964 and a hundred of them were delegates at the
1964 Republican National Convention The 1964 Republican National Convention took place in the Cow Palace, Daly City, California, from July 13 to July 16, 1964. Before 1964, there had been only one national Republican convention on the West Coast, the 1956 Republican National Convent ...
. The JBS opposed the 1960s
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
and claimed the movement had Communists in important positions. In the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer titled "What's Wrong With Civil Rights?" and used the flyer as a newspaper advertisement. In the piece, one of the answers was: "For the civil rights movement in the United States, with all of its growing agitation and riots and bitterness, and insidious steps towards the appearance of a civil war, has not been ''infiltrated'' by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost wholly ''created'' by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years." The society believed that the ultimate aim of the civil rights movement was the creation of a " Soviet Negro Republic" in the southeastern United States and opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming it violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped individual states' rights to enact laws regarding
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
. Some prominent black conservatives such as
George Schuyler George Samuel Schuyler (; February 25, 1895 – August 31, 1977) was an American writer, journalist, and social commentator known for his conservatism after he had initially supported socialism. Early life George Samuel Schuyler was born in ...
and Manning Johnson joined forces with the JBS during this period and echoed the Society's rhetoric about the civil-rights movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In April 1966, a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' article on
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
and the society voiced—in part—a concern for "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." It then characterized the society as "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." The JBS also opposed the creation of the first sex education curriculum in the United States through a division called the Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE). Surviving MOTOREDE pamphlets date from 1967 to 1971. Additionally, the JBS advocated against other manifestations of social liberalism, including abortion. John Birch Society members and activities were featured in "The Radical Americans", a series produced by National Educational Television (NET) and WGBH-TV that aired in 1966 on NET outlets. JBS membership peaked in 1965 or 1966 at an estimated 100,000.


Eisenhower issue

Welch wrote in a widely circulated 1954 statement, ''The Politician'', "Could Eisenhower really be simply a smart politician, entirely without principles and hungry for glory, who is only the tool of the Communists? The answer is yes." He went on. "With regard to ... Eisenhower, it is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate treason." The controversial paragraph was removed before final publication of ''The Politician''. The sensationalism of Welch's charges against Eisenhower prompted several conservatives and Republicans, most prominently Goldwater and the intellectuals of William F. Buckley's circle, to renounce outright or quietly shun the group. Buckley, 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 Birch Society. From then on, Buckley became the leading intellectual spokesman and organizer of the anti-Bircher conservatives.Confounding Fathers: The Tea Party's Cold War Roots
by historian Sean Wilentz, ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', October 18, 2010
Buckley's biographer, John B. Judis, wrote that "Buckley was beginning to worry that with the John Birch Society growing so rapidly, the right-wing upsurge in the country would take an ugly, even Fascist turn rather than leading toward the kind of conservatism ''National Review'' had promoted." Despite Buckley's opposition, the author Edward H. Miller wrote, the JBS "remained a force in the conservative movement", and arguments to the contrary are "greatly exaggerated". The booklet found support from Ezra Taft Benson, then Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture and later the 13th President of the LDS Church. In a letter to his friend FBI chief
J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation  ...
, Benson asked "how can a man isenhowerwho seems to be so strong for Christian principles and base American concepts be so effectively used as a tool to serve the Communist conspiracy?" Benson privately fought to prevent the Bureau from condemning the JBS, which prompted Hoover to distance himself from Benson. At one point in 1971, Hoover directed his staff to lie to Benson to avoid having to meet with him about the issue.


1970s

By 1976 the JBS had 90,000 members, 240 paid staffers and a $7 million dollar annual budget, according to a paper written by libertarian conservative tycoon Charles Koch. The JBS was at the center of a free-speech law case in the 1970s, after ''American Opinion'' accused a Chicago lawyer, Elmer Gertz, who was 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
, which held that a state may allow a private figure such as Gertz to recover actual damages from a media defendant without proving malice, but that a public figure does have to prove actual malice, according to the standard laid out in '' New York Times Co. v. Sullivan'', in order to recover presumed damages or punitive damages. The court ordered a retrial in which Gertz prevailed. Key causes of the JBS in the 1970s included opposition to both the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration'' (OSHA ) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agen ...
(OSHA) and to the establishment of diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China. The JBS claimed in 1973 that the regime of
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
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 opposed to transferring control of the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian sovereignty. The John Birch Society, along with other conservative groups such as the
Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has ...
and the Christian right, successfully opposed the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. JBS played a key role in stopping the ERA's ratification – on par with
Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleocons ...
, herself a JBS member – and it organized opposition to it across the nation. JBS accused the ERA's supporters of subversion, asserting that the ERA was part of a Communist plot "to reduce human beings to living at the same level as animals." The JBS advocated for lower taxes, including reducing the federal income tax rate. By 1977, it had established over 200 TRIM (Tax Relief Immediately) committees across the U.S. In the 1970s, the JBS played a prominent role in promoting the false claim that laetrile was a cancer cure, and in advocating for the legalization of the compound as a drug.Richard D. Lyons
Rightists Are Linked to Laetrile's Lobby, ''The New York Times'' (July 5, 1977).
/ref>Gerald E. Markle, James C. Petersen & Morton O.Wagenfeld, "Notes from the Cancer Underground: Participation in the Laetrile Movement," '' Social Science & Medicine'' (January 1978), Vol. 12: pp. 31-37. A ''New York Times'' review in 1977 found identified JBS and other far-right groups were involved in pro-laetrile campaigns in at least nine states. "Virtually all" of the officers of the "Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy," the leading pro-laetrile group, were JBS members. Congressman and Birch Society leader Lawrence P. McDonald was involved in the campaign as a member of the committee. The JBS also opposed Earth Day, suggesting that it was a Communist plot and noting that the first celebration fell on the 100th anniversary of
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's birth. The JBS was organized into local chapters during this period. Ernest Brosang, a New Jersey regional coordinator, claimed that it was virtually impossible for opponents of the society to penetrate its policy-making levels, thereby protecting it from "anti-American" takeover attempts. Its activities included the distribution of literature critical of civil rights legislation, warnings over the influence of the United Nations, and the release of petitions to impeach United States Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. To spread their message, members held showings of documentary films and operated initiatives such as "Let Freedom Ring", a nationwide network of recorded telephone messages.


1980s and 1990s

After the Vietnam War, the JBS's membership and influence declined. This decline continued through the 1980s and 1990s due to Welch's death in 1985 (at age 85) and the end of the Cold War in 1991. By the mid-1990s, membership in the JBS was estimated between 15,000 and 20,000. While other anti-Communist organizations faded away following the Cold War's end, the JBS survived and experienced some growth in the 1990s. News reports said President George H.W. Bush's invocation of a "new world order" during the 1991
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
gave the society a new audience. The society consolidated its national office in Appleton, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1984, three members of the San Diego Padres, Eric Show, Mark Thurmond, and Dave Dravecky revealed they were members of the JBS. The society campaigned against the ratification of the
Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It wa ...
, arguing it would erode U.S. national sovereignty. The JBS continued to press for an end to United States membership in the United Nations. As evidence of its effectiveness, the society pointed to the Utah State Legislature's failed resolution calling for United States withdrawal, as well as the actions of several other states where the society's membership was active. The second head of the JBS was Congressman Larry McDonald (D) from Georgia. McDonald's first wife "estimated that, over the years, he had hosted 10,000 people in his living room for Bircher-inspired lectures and documentaries." In 1982, McDonald was appointed as national chairman of the Society. McDonald was killed in 1983 when airliner KAL 007 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor. William P. Hoar, a writer for the JBS who has attacked mainstream politicians from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, published regularly in '' The New American'' and its predecessor ''American Opinion.'' He coauthored ''The Clinton Clique'' with Larry Abraham alleging that Clinton was part of the Anglo-American conspiracy supposedly ruled through the Council on Foreign Relations and the
Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...
. The Birch Society publications arm, Western Islands, published his ''Architects of Conspiracy: An Intriguing History'' (1984), and Huntington House Publishers published his ''Handouts and Pickpockets: Our Government Gone Berserk'' (1996). In 1995, the JBS campaigned against plans for a Conference of States; proponents said such a conference would reduce federal powers, but the JBS feared it would lead to a second Constitutional Convention.


2000–present

In the mid-2000s, the JBS, along with the
Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has ...
, mobilized conservative opposition to a so-called North American Union and the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was a supra-national level dialogue with the stated purpose of providing greater cooperation on security and economic issues. The Partnership was founded in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2 ...
. As a result of two organizations' activities, 23 state legislatures saw bills introduced condemning an NAU while the Bush and Obama administrations were deterred "from any grand initiatives." In 2007, ''The New American'' published a special issue devoted to the topic; approximately 500,000 copies were distributed. The JBS also advocated for U.S. withdrawal from the UN. The JBS was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), ending its decades-long distance from the mainstream conservative movement. Although JBS membership numbers are kept private, it reported a resurgence of members in the 2010s and 2020s, specifically in
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. A 2017 article in ''Politico'' describing the group's activities in Texas listed some of its stances as opposing the UN's
Agenda 21 Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. It is an action age ...
based on a conspiracy theory that it will "establish control over all human activity", opposing a bill that would allow people who entered the United States illegally to pay in-state college tuition, pulling the United States out of NAFTA, returning America to what the group calls its Christian foundations, and abolishing the federal departments of
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
and
energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...
. The JBS was associated with the Trump presidency by political commentators such as
Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for '' The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at '' The New Republic''. As of 2014, he was writing a doctoral thesis at ...
(now of '' The Nation'' magazine), who argued while writing for ''The New Republic'' in June 2016 that " Trumpism" is essentially Bircherism. Trump confidant and longtime advisor Roger Stone said that Trump's father Fred Trump was a financier of the JBS and a personal friend of founder Robert Welch. Trump's former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was the speaker at the John Birch Society's National Council dinner shortly before joining the Trump administration. Former Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), has had a long and close relationship with the JBS, celebrating its work in his 2008 keynote speech at its 50th anniversary event and saying that the JBS was leading the fight to restore freedom. The keynote speaker at the organization's 60th anniversary celebration was Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky.), who maintained a near-perfect score on the JBS's "Freedom Index" ranking of members of Congress. Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who hosted Trump on his Infowars radio show and claimed to have a personal relationship with the president, called Trump a "John Birch Society president" and previously said Trump was "more John Birch Society than the John Birch Society." In July 2021, the Republican central committees of Kootenai County, Idaho, and Benewah County, Idaho, unanimously approved resolutions calling JBS "a valuable organization that is dedicated to restoring the Republic according to the vision of the Founding Fathers." The Idaho Republican Party declined to endorse the resolutions. The JBS had been active in Idaho. In 2022, the JBS campaigned against carbon-capture pipelines in Iowa, arguing they threatened property rights.


Officers


Chairmen and presidents

* Robert W. Welch Jr. (1958–1983) * Larry McDonald (1983), a U.S. Representative who was killed in the KAL-007 shootdown incident * Robert W. Welch Jr. (1983–1985) * Charles R. Armour (1985–1991) * John F. McManus (1991–2004) * G. Vance Smith (2004–2005) * John F. McManus (2005–2016) * Ray Clark (2016–2019) * Martin Ohlson (2019–present)


CEOs

* G. Allen Bubolz (1988–1991) * G. Vance Smith (1991–2005) * Arthur R. Thompson (2005–2020) * Bill Hahn (2020–present)


In popular culture

*
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
lampooned the John Birch Society with a song called
The Jack Ash Society
, recorded on his 1961 Folkways Records LP albu
''Gazette Vol. 2''
The name is a pun. On the surface, it's changing the name from one type of tree,
birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...
to another,
ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
. However, the name "Jack Ash" also sounds like the word " jackass" which means "a foolish person". * In 1962,
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
recorded " Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", which poked fun at the society and its tendency to see Communist conspiracies in many situations. When he attempted to perform it on the ''
Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night M ...
'' in 1963, however, CBS's Standards and Practices department forbade it, fearing that lyrics equating the Society's views with those of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
might trigger a defamation lawsuit. Dylan was offered the opportunity to perform a different song, but he responded that if he could not sing the number of his choice he would rather not appear at all. The story generated widespread media attention in the days that followed; Sullivan denounced the network's decision in published interviews. * '' Pogo'' cartoonist Walt Kelly lampooned the American anti-Communist movement, and the John Birch Society in particular, in a series of strips collected in 1962 in ''The Jack Acid Society Black Book''. * In 1962
The Chad Mitchell Trio The Chad Mitchell Trio, later known as The Mitchell Trio, were an American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed traditional folk songs and some of John Denver's early compositions. They were particularly notable for per ...
recorded a satirical song "The John Birch Society" which made its way to no. 99 in the
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online stream ...
. * In the 1964 film ''
Dr. Strangelove ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and ...
'', a deranged U.S. Air Force general claims that water fluoridation would "sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids" and is part of a communist conspiracy, a parody of JBS claims. * The 1973 song " Uneasy Rider" by Charlie Daniels contains a reference to "Brother John Birch" in the lyrics. * In 2020, American journalist Robert Evans released a multi-part series on his podcast ''Behind the Bastards'' entitled "How The John Birch Society Invented the Modern Far Right".


See also

* Edmund Burke Society * Granville Knight * Rousas Rushdoony * W. Cleon Skousen


References


General and cited references

*


Further reading


Scholarly studies

* * McGirr, Lisa. ''Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right'' (2001), focus on Los Angeles suburbs in 1960s * Schoenwald, Jonathan M. '' A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism'' (2002) pp 62–9
excerpt and text search
a national history of the party * Stone, Barbara S. "The John Birch Society: a Profile", ''Journal of Politics'' 1974 36(1): 184–197
in JSTOR
* Wander, Philip. "The John Birch and Martin Luther King, Symbols in the Radical Right", Western Speech (Western Journal of Communication), 1971 35(1): 4–14. * Wilcox, Clyde. "Sources of Support for the Old Right: A Comparison of the John Birch Society and the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade". ''Social Science History'' 1988 12(4): 429–450
in JSTOR
* Wright, Stuart A. ''Patriots, politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing.'' Cambridge University Press. June 11, 2007.


Primary sources

* Gary Allen. ''None Dare Call It Conspiracy''. G S G & Associates, Inc., 1971. * * * Robert W. Welch Jr. ''The New Americanism and Other Speeches''. Boston: Western Islands, 1966. * * * *


Criticizing the John Birch Society

* Buckley, William F. Jr. (March 2008)
"Goldwater, the John Birch Society, and Me"
''Commentary''. * * De Koster, Lester (1967). ''The Citizen and the John Birch Society''. A Reformed Journal monograph. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans. * Epstein, Benjamin R., and Arnold Forster (1966). ''The Radical Right: Report on the John Birch Society and Its Allies''. New York:
Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...
. * Grove, Gene (1961). ''Inside the John Birch Society''. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett. * Grupp, Fred W. Jr. (1969). "The Political Perspectives of Birch Society Members". In Robert A. Schoenberger, ed., ''The American Right Wing: Readings in Political Behavior''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. . * Hardisty, Jean V. (1999). ''Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers''. Boston: Beacon Press.


External links

*
''The New American''
JBS biweekly publication which publishes th
Freedom Index
congressional scorecard twice a year

at Political Research Associates
Report of the California Senate Fact finding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities on the John Birch Society

"What Is the John Birch Society?"
short excerpt of a film, released c. 1965, of Robert W. Welch Jr., explaining why he founded the John Birch Society and its aims.
Rating group positions by year
at Project Vote Smart
John Birch Society sound recordings collection
a
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library
{{Authority control 1958 establishments in Indiana Anti-communist organizations Appleton, Wisconsin Conservative political advocacy groups in the United States Critics of the United Nations Organizations established in 1958 Paleoconservative organizations Political organizations based in the United States Politics and race in the United States Right-wing populism in the United States Conservatism in the United States