JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

[Ernie Lazar]

Within the past week or so, several John Birch Society members have been posting messages all over the internet in response to an opinion columnist's article published in the Washington Post newspaper by Marc A. Thiessen (link below) and reprinted in many other papers nationwide.   

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-antifa-is-the-moral-equivalent-of-neo-nazis/2017/08/30/9a13b2f6-8d00-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html?utm_term=.d7637cccdabe

Mr. Thiessen's "crime" from the standpoint of the Birchers was his comment that:

"Both the left and the right have a responsibility to police their own movements. In the 1960s, William F. Buckley excommunicated the John Birch Society, widely believed then to be anti-Semitic and a proponent of nutty conspiracy theories, from the respectable right, and today, conservatives have a responsibility to do the same with the white nationalists of the alt-right."

The responses by JBS members were uniformly hostile and abusive toward Thiessen and the Post and they accused Thiessen of lying.  For example, one Bircher replied as follows:

"This false attack on the John Birch Society is disgraceful and totally untrue. The JBS has had Jews on its national council since day 1 and it always has expelled anti-Semites. When the state of California investigated the allegation they said: 'At any rate, our investigations have disclosed no evidence of anti-Semitism on the part of anyone connected with the John Birch Society in California, and much evidence to the effect that it opposes racism in all forms.' So now that that lie is exposed, let's turn to William Buckley, the "excommunicator." In his magazine, he wrote that whites whom he called the "advanced race" were doing the right thing by denying voting rights to blacks whom Buckley said were backward and uncivilized. Also Theissen's "American Enterprise Institute" employs a man designated by the SPLC as a 'white nationalist.' C'mon Denver Post, what's wrong with you? You should delete this ridiculous post and apologize for printing the lies of a racist loon."

There are so many misrepresentations and historical falsehoods contained in these Bircher replies that I have responded at length to their claims.  However, the most compelling counter-evidence comes from several former JBS members who had specific first-hand knowledge about a controversy over remarks made by former JBS President John McManus before Catholic organizations.  I have posted some of that material online on Internet Archive (links below) for anybody who wants to pursue this subject:

John Birch Society CEO Vance Smith letter re: anti-semitic speeches by John McManus:

https://archive.org/details/032206GVanceSmithToJBSNCReMcManusAntiSemiticStatements

John Birch Society CEO Art Thompson Audio Re John McManus

https://archive.org/details/ArtThompsonAudioReMcManus

07-25-06 Wayne Rickert Reply To David Eisenberg Re McManus

https://archive.org/details/072506RickertReplyToDavidEisenbergReMcManus

 

1963 Report--Calif Senate Factfinding Subcommittee On Un American Activities (pages 1-61 on JBS)

https://archive.org/details/1963ReportOfCalifSenateFactfindingSubcommitteeOnUnAmericanActivities

1965 Calif Senate Factfinding Subcommittee Report on John Birch Society (which reported "a dangerous increase" in anti-Semitism within the JBS.

https://archive.org/details/1965CalifSenateFactfindingSubcommitteeReportJohnBirchSociety

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Ernie Lazar

[H.L Arledge]

I recently finished reading a book on this subject, written by a young lady who grew up with JBS leaders as parents in the '60s. Fascinating read.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ED6ATA

 

[Ernie Lazar]

11 minutes ago, H.L Arledge said:

I recently finished reading a book on this subject, written by a young lady who grew up with JBS leaders as parents in the '60s. Fascinating read.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ED6ATA

 

Yes, Claire's book gives a very good idea of what it is like to live in a very dark ideological environment.  She mentions me in her book because I sent her some information which she wanted.

[Michael Clark]

In my reading today, I came away believing the Goldwater would have been embraced by the JBS, and, likewise Goldwater would have embraced the JBS if they could have backed away from claims similar to the "Eisenhower is a Communist" claims.

[Ernie Lazar]

 

FOR THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED:

I recently created two PDF files which combine all of the individual chapters which I have posted online that comprise my “Report on the John Birch Society”. 

My Report is based primarily upon data appearing in FBI investigative files along with material I discovered in Special Collections which are archived at various colleges and universities or in state historical societies.

(1)    The first PDF file is now uploaded into my Internet Archive website at the link appearing below. This is a 291-page file which is a combination of all 12 textual chapters of my Report on the John Birch Society -- updated through February 2019.

https://archive.org/details/JohnBirchSocietyReport2019Combined

(2)    The second PDF file is a 125-page file which combines 5 webpages which I created to present an annotated "Documentary History of the John Birch Society".  Most of the documents which I originally posted on these five webpages are not available publicly elsewhere. The PDF version is on Internet Archive at the following link:

https://archive.org/details/DocumentaryHistoryOfJBS

The combination of my JBS textual report (291 pages) plus my Documentary History file (125 pages) represents a total of 416 pages that currently comprises my JBS Report.  This Report has been researched and written over a period of more than three decades.

Subsequent revisions to my JBS Report will appear online on the original webpages that I created. The URL links to each chapter of my JBS Report as well links to other reports I have written are available on my Research Homepage here:   https://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/home

PDF files for all my other online Reports will be uploaded onto my Internet Archive webpage in the future.

Additional info available from:  ernie1241@aol.com 

 

My JBS Report consists of the following chapters:

 

Chap #	Comment	URL
1	FBI Evaluations of Robert Welch and the Birch Society –including an introduction to Mr. Welch’s book length “private letter”, entitled The Politician FBI HQ instructions to FBI field offices regarding Welch, the JBS, and incoming requests for FBI publications from JBS representatives are discussed in three "SAC Letters" reproduced in this Chapter.	http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-1
2	FBI vs. JBS on Internal Security Status of United States	Same as above
3	FBI vs. JBS on Alleged Communist Infiltration of Clergy and Religious Institutions	Same as above
4	FBI vs. JBS on Alleged Communist Infiltration of the Department of Health, Education, Welfare	Same as above
5	FBI vs. JBS on Alleged Communist Sympathies of Harry A. Overstreet, author of the 1958 book, What We Must Know About Communism	http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-2
6	FBI vs. JBS on Civil Rights Movement in the United States.  Includes discussion of: Communist strategy regarding “Negro Soviet Republic” Alan Stang’s 1965 JBS-published book, It’s Very Simple: The True Story of Civil Rights Highlander Folk School described by the JBS as a “Communist Training School” Gary Allen’s article in the JBS magazine (American Opinion) on the August 1965 Watts Riot – entitled “The Plan To Burn Los Angeles” Birch Society Comments About African American Civil Rights and Labor Leader A. Philip Randolph	http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-3
7	FBI vs. JBS on Persons Whom JBS Claims Are “Experts” on Communism – includes discussion of former FBI Special Agents and FBI informants who endorsed the Birch Society and often were speakers under the auspices of the JBS Speakers Bureau – such as Dan Smoot, W. Cleon Skousen, Julia Brown and Lola Belle Holmes, plus material on David Gumaer, Matt Cvetic, and Karl Prussion	Same as above
8	Right-Wing Critics of Robert Welch and the Birch Society	http://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-4 ALSO SEE correspondence by JBS members which I have posted on Internet Archive website here: https://archive.org/stream/JBS_CRITICS_INSIDE_JBS-1#page/n0/mode/2up
9	Documentary History of John Birch Society Documents generally not previously publicly available – including private correspondence between Robert Welch and JBS National Council members. JBS9005a also includes links to selected newspaper articles re: JBS appearing in in the Google News Archive	https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241/ https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241a/ https://sites.google.com/site/ernie1241b/ https://sites.google.com/site/jbs9004/ https://sites.google.com/site/jbs9005a/
10	AMERICAN OPINION SPEAKERS BUREAU Background re: individuals hired by JBS as speakers under auspices of JBS American Opinion Speakers Bureau	https://sites.google.com/site/xrt013/home/jbs
11	NEW!  “Racism and the JBS" This chapter is a 3-part discussion regarding the Birch Society's assertion that it is NOT a racist organization. November 2018 / 89 pages = part one September 2018 / 21 pages = part two February 2019 / 79 pages = part three	PART ONE-Racism and JBS https://sites.google.com/site/aboutxr/ PART TWO-Racism and JBS https://sites.google.com/site/aboutxr/home/racism-and-john-birch-society-2 PART THREE-Racism and JBS https://sites.google.com/site/aboutxr/home/jbs-racism3
12	NEW!   The Fraudulent Investigation of the JBS by Efficiency Research Bureau--Anaheim, California February 2019 / 15 pages https://sites.google.com/site/aboutxr/home/erb NOTE:    Chapter 12 is the first section of a multi-part rebuttal to a February 2018 article by Bircher Alex Newman. Newman responded to anti-JBS comments that appeared on The Federalist website earlier in February. Chapter 13 will discuss JBS falsehoods regarding the 1963 Report by the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities. That Subcommittee devoted 62 pages to their investigation regarding the JBS.

 

[Ernie Lazar]

A newly revised edition of Chapter 14 of my online Report on the JBS is now available.  This Chapter is devoted to presenting what is probably the best available information concerning JBS membership.   https://sites.google.com/site/aboutxr/jbs-members

The first section concerns the number of JBS members. 

The second section lists some of the more prominent members/endorsers of the Society 

The third section is devoted to summarizing demographic information about JBS members. 

The last section provides miscellaneous information about the JBS. 

More info: ernie1241@aol.com   

MY RESEARCH:  https://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/home

[Calvin Ye]

The book Age of Surveillance stated that the John Birch Society was the link between the US Intelligence Community and the private sector

[Michael Griffith]

Believe it or not, I actually belonged to the JBS for a number of years, starting when I was 18. By the time I decided that the JBS was no longer for me, I had belonged to three JBS chapters in three states and had attended several large JBS conferences. Virtually everyone I met in the society was very pro-Israeli. I think I only encountered two members who I suspected of being anti-Semitic.  In the three chapters that I was in, you could get your membership revoked in a hurry for expressing anti-Semitic ideas, since most members were pro-Israeli and since the JBS leadership voiced opposition to anti-Semitism. 

As a previous post noted, the California Senate investigated this issue and found “no evidence of anti-Semitism on the part of anyone connected with the John Birch Society in California, and much evidence to the effect that it opposes racism in all forms.”

However, the JBS did, and I suspect still does, float some far-fetched conspiracy theories, which was one reason that I left the group. Another reason I left was the group's all-or-nothing attitude. Politicians who did not agree with at least 90% of the society's positions were viewed with suspicion. Some JBS members believed that Goldwater and Reagan were phony conservatives who were doing the bidding of our enemies.

I think Marc Thiessen has a point about the need for both liberals and conservatives to repudiate the extremists in their ranks.

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Leslie Sharp]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:37 AM, Michael Griffith said:

Believe it or not, I actually belonged to the JBS for a number of years, starting when I was 18. By the time I decided that the JBS was no longer for me, I had belonged to three JBS chapters in three states and had attended several large JBS conferences. Virtually everyone I met in the society was very pro-Israeli. I think I only encountered two members who I suspected of being anti-Semitic.  In the three chapters that I was in, you could get your membership revoked in a hurry for expressing anti-Semitic ideas, since most members were pro-Israeli and since the JBS leadership voiced opposition to anti-Semitism. 

As a previous post noted, the California Senate investigated this issue and found “no evidence of anti-Semitism on the part of anyone connected with the John Birch Society in California, and much evidence to the effect that it opposes racism in all forms.”

However, the JBS did, and I suspect still does, float some far-fetched conspiracy theories, which was one reason that I left the group. Another reason I left was the group's all-or-nothing attitude. Politicians who did not agree with at least 90% of the society's positions were viewed with suspicion. Some JBS members believed that Goldwater and Reagan were phony conservatives who were doing the bidding of our enemies.

I think Marc Thiessen has a point about the need for both liberals and conservatives to repudiate the extremists in their ranks.

 

Of possible interest, Michael, related to the plot to assassinate Kennedy in Dallas . . .

A portentous January 1968 affidavit sworn by Aginter Press assassin and Jean Rene Souetre associate Jacques Godard reveals the group’s relationship with certain American persons and organizations: “In the course of our services we had relations with certain persons and organizations like, for example, President Tschombe and with Biafra. We likewise were in charge of relations with the John Birch Society, which was an American political group financed especially by Texas oil producers whose activity is absolutely anti-communist. Everywhere where there is a struggle, either open or covert, with communists, the John Birch Society [JBS] lends its financial aid to the people who are struggling against international communism.”               The reader encounters the significance of the Texas oil producers and the Dallas branch of the JBS in Chapter 1, “Lay of the Land,” to further understand the width and breadth of influence of Aginter Press and similar fascist organizations. . . .

Lester Logue was a political associate of US Representative John Rousselot, an ardent member of the John Birch Society which received significant funding from among others, H. L. Hunt. In 1975, a man named Harry Dean, who claimed to have been a former undercover agent for the FBI and the CIA, reported that, in 1963, he had covertly infiltrated the John Birch Society where he learned that Rousselot, in partnership with fellow archconservative and Dallas resident, US Army General Edwin Walker, had hired soldier of fortune, Loran Hall, and Trafficante associate and gun for hire Eladio del Valle who had been a young legislature in Batista’s government, to kill President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Dean had no evidence to back up this bold claim, but credible reports that Hall and del Valle had been in Dallas on the fateful day made easy dismissal difficult. Lee Harvey Oswald, it may be recalled, allegedly had attempted to murder General Walker. Walker will be dealt with in depth in a later chapter. 

As mentioned previously, Loran Hall intimated that he initially met Tom Davis through Carolyn Hawley Davis who had briefly worked in Texas “doing accounting chores” for H. L. Hunt . . .

When questioned by the FBI, Albert Osborne advised that he was an ordained Baptist Minister, and that he had not seen John Bowen since October 1963, contravening claims that Bowen had died in the late 1950s, but he believed that Bowen could be located at the Hotel Jung in New Orleans. According to a Louisiana State Police document, on November 20, 1963, General Edwin Walker met with some thirty-five conservative business leaders at the Hotel Jung, and again on the 21st, he was meeting with another ninety people at the Jung. Two years prior to these meetings, President John Kennedy had encouraged Walker to resign from his leadership role when in 1961, he violated his military oath by distributing political literature produced by the John Birch Society. That literature promoted accusations that his commander-in-chief was a traitor.