 | |
| Abbreviation | JBS |
|---|---|
| Named after | John Birch |
| Formation | December 9, 1958; 66 years ago (1958-12-09) |
| Founder | Robert W. Welch Jr. |
| Founded at | Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Type | Not-for-profit |
| Purpose | Politicaladvocacy group |
| Headquarters | Grand Chute,Wisconsin, U.S. |
Chief executive officer | Wayne Morrow |
President | Martin Ohlson |
| Subsidiaries | The New American |
| Affiliations | American Opinion Foundation FreedomProject Academy |
| Website | jbs |
TheJohn Birch Society (JBS) is an Americanright-wing politicaladvocacy group.[1] Founded in 1958, it isanti-communist,[2][3] supportssocial conservatism,[2][3] and is associated withultraconservative,radical right,far-right,right-wing populist, andright-wing libertarian ideas.[12] Originally based inBelmont, Massachusetts, the JBS is now headquartered inGrand Chute, Wisconsin,[13] with local chapters throughout the United States. It owns American Opinion Publishing, Inc., which publishes the magazineThe New American,[7] and it is affiliated with an online school called FreedomProject Academy.[14]
The society's founder, businessmanRobert W. Welch Jr. (1899–1985), developed an organizational infrastructure of nationwide chapters in December 1958. The society rose quickly in membership and influence, and also became known for Welch'sconspiracy theories.[15][16] His allegation that Republican presidentDwight D. Eisenhower was a communist agent was especially controversial.[17][18] In the 1960s, the conservativeWilliam F. Buckley Jr. andNational Review attempted to shun the JBS to the fringes of the American right.[19][16] JBS membership is kept private but is said to have neared 100,000 in the 1960s and 1970s, declining afterward.[3][20][21]
In the 2010s and 2020s, several observers and commentators argued that, while the organization's influence peaked in the 1970s, "Bircherism" and its legacy of conspiracy theories began making a resurgence in the mid-2010s,[21] and had become the dominant strain in the conservative movement.[22] In particular, they argued that the JBS and its beliefs shaped theRepublican Party,[23][24] theChristian right,[25]: iv, 156–157 theTrump administration, and the broader conservative movement.[26][27][28]
The John Birch Society from its start opposedcollectivism as a "cancer" and by extensioncommunism andbig government.[29][30] JBS publications referred to the fight against Communism as aspiritual war against the devil.[25]: iv, 156–157 Allegations that so-called "Insiders" have conspired to control the United States through communism andworld government are a recurring theme of JBS publications.[31] The organization and its founder,Robert W. Welch Jr., promotedAmericanism as "the philosophical antithesis of Communism."[32] It contended that the United States is arepublic, not ademocracy, and argued thatstates' rights should supersede those of the federal government.[33] Welch infusedconstitutionalist andclassical liberal principles, in addition to his conspiracy theories, into the JBS's ideology and rhetoric.[34] In 1983, CongressmanLarry McDonald, then the society's newly appointed chairman, characterized the JBS as belonging to theOld Right rather than theNew Right.[35]
The society opposes "one world government", theUnited Nations (UN),[36] theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), theCentral America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), theFree Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and otherfree trade agreements. It argues theU.S. Constitution has been devalued in favor of political andeconomic globalization. It has cited the existence of the formerSecurity and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards aNorth American Union.[37][38] The JBS has soughtimmigration reduction.[citation needed]
The JBS opposed thecivil rights movement of the 1960s and theEqual Rights Amendment in the 1970s.[16][39][40] It has campaigned forstate nullification.[41][42] It opposes efforts to call anArticle V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution,[43][44] and it has been influential at promoting opposition to it among Republican legislators.[45] The JBS also supports auditing and eventually dismantling theFederal Reserve System.[46][non-primary source needed] 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 afiat currency not backed bygold orsilver.[non-primary source needed]
Its publicationThe New American has described what it sees as Americanmoral decline and threats to the family, including abortion, birth control, divorce, drugs, homosexuality, crime, violence, secular humanism, teenage pregnancy, teen suicide, environmentalism, feminism and pornography.[47] The JBS has alleged that moral degeneracy is perpetrated by a conspiracy to make the United States vulnerable to internationalism.[48] A JBS pamphlet distributed in 2024 illustrating a school on fire urged parents to withdraw children frompublic education, saying, "Reforming the schools is no longer an option. We must get them out now!"[49]
The JBS has been described as ultraconservative,[4] far-right,[7][50] extremist,[51] and fringe.[23] TheSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the society as a "Patriot" group, a group that "advocate[s] or adhere[s] to extreme antigovernment doctrines".[52] By the 1990s, the JBS was perceived as "more mainstream conservative" than in the 1960s.[53] It has also been associated with theAmerican libertarian movement,[10][11] as well asbusiness nationalism.[54] The society's worldview was noted in the early 2000s for influencing the Americanmilitia movement, although the JBS had not publicly called for paramilitary training.[55][56][57] Extremism expertGeorge Michael wrote that "a virtual who's who of the American radical right had at one time or another sojourned" in the JBS.[55]
The JBS contributed to the development of modernAmerican conservatism through its organizational tactics and its promotion of right-wing political views.[58] Despite never considering itself a religious organization, the JBS played a role in the rise of theMoral Majority and theChristian right as major political forces, ideologically and tactically influencing multiple leaders in that movement includingTim LaHaye andPhyllis Schlafly.[25]: iv, 156–157 Scholar Celestini Carmen argues that LaHaye used the JBS'sculture war methods and rhetoric of "fear, apocalyptic thought and conspiracy" to forge the Moral Majority, with "fear, anger, and disgust as essential ingredients."[25]: iv, 37, 156–157, 283, 322–325, 328–334 The historian D. J. Mulloy wrote in 2014 that the JBS has served as "a kind of bridge" between theOld Right (including theMcCarthyites) of the 1940s–50s, theNew Right of the 1970s–80s, and theTea Party right of the 21st century.[29]
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".[59]: 8–10 Miller also writes that JBS helped stop theEqual Rights Amendment and helped set the stage for theReagan Era,[59]: 330, 347–351 while Mulloy writes that the JBS "played an essential role in the revitalization of conservatism"[60] and "trained a generation of conservative activists."[14] According to Professor Matthew Dallek, modern American conservatism "bear[s] the imprint of the John Birch Society,"[61]: 2 and "the GOP has largely replaced the ideological tenets of Reaganism with a worldview inherited from the John Birch Society (JBS)."[24] According toThe Atlantic in 2024,Donald Trump's 2016 election "saw many of its core instincts finally reflected in the White House," and the JBS "now fits neatly into the mainstream of the American right."[62]
JBS took an early stance in opposing abortion and social liberalism,[59]: 347, 357–360 and its TRIM committees, which supported lower taxes, helped lead to theReagan tax cuts.[59]: 361–64 [63] 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.[27][26][64][61][28][65] Efforts ofMoms for Liberty in the 2020s to influencepublic education in the United States via school board elections andbook bans have been compared to JBS's efforts in the 1960s.[66][67] When introducing legislation to withdraw the U.S. from the UN, SenatorMike Lee used "some of the same arguments to support the bill" that the JBS "first employed."[68] By the 2020s, some national Republican and conservative figures openly associated with the JBS.[62]
The John Birch Society was established on December 9, 1958,[69] inIndianapolis, Indiana, at the conclusion of a two-day session of a group of 12 people led byRobert W. Welch Jr. Welch was a retired candy manufacturer fromBelmont, Massachusetts, who had been a stateRepublican Party official and had unsuccessfully run in its 1950 lieutenant governor primary.[3][70][71] In 1954, Welch wrote the first book aboutJohn Birch (an Air Force intelligence officer and Baptist missionary), titledThe Life of John Birch. He organized an anti-Communist society to "promote less government, more responsibility, and a better world".[70] 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 theCold War.[72] Welch alleged that a Communist conspiracy within the American government had suppressed the truth about Birch's killing.[17]
John Birch was anAmerican Baptist who went to China as amissionary in 1940, when the Japanese invasion had created suffering and chaos during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. He was a U.S.military intelligence officer under Brigadier GeneralClaire Lee Chennault in China. Chennault commanded the "Flying Tigers" and afterwardsU.S. Army Air Forces units in China. In April 1942, Birch helped Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle and his flight crew, among other crews, a few days after they bailed out of theirB-25 bomber over Japanese-held territory in China. Sixteen B-25s led by Doolittle bombed Tokyo ("Doolittle raid") off the Navy aircraft carrierUSS Hornet during the United States' first attack on Japan.[73] Beginning in July 1942, Birch, who spoke Chinese, became an Army intelligence officer. He operated alone or withNationalist 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.[73] Although he suffered from malaria, he refused furloughs.[73]
In 1945, Birch was promoted to captain and began working in China both for and with theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. wartime intelligence service in World War II.[73] In August, after the Japanese surrendered, Birch was ordered by the OSS to northern China to obtain 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.[73] After spending a night in a village, the party proceeded byhandcar 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.[73] 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.[73] The rest of Birch's party were taken prisoner. Birch's aide survived and the prisoners were later released.[73] Birch's remains were recovered, and aCatholic burial service was held with military honors on a hillside outside ofSuzhou, in eastern China.[73] The Chinese Communists, who were active in northern China andManchuria, were supposedly World War II allies with the United States. Birch believed thatMao Zedong and the Chinese Communists intended to take over China after the war and move into Korea.[73] 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.[74]
The founding members of the JBS includedHarry Lynde Bradley, co-founder of theAllen Bradley Company and theLynde and Harry Bradley Foundation,[75][76]Fred C. Koch, founder ofKoch Industries,[77][78][79][80] andRobert Waring Stoddard, president ofWyman-Gordon, a major industrial enterprise.[81] Another wasRevilo P. Oliver, aUniversity of Illinois professor who was later expelled from the Society and helped found theNational Alliance. Koch became one of the organization's primary financial supporters. According to investigative journalist Jane Mayer,David Koch andCharles Koch, Koch's sons, were also members of the JBS; however, both left it before the 1970s.[82] A transcript of Welch's two-day presentation at the founding meeting was published asThe Blue Book of the John Birch Society, and became a cornerstone of its beliefs, with each new prospective member receiving a copy.[83] Welch stated:
"[B]oth 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 collectivistNew World Order, managed by a 'one-world socialist government'."[84][85]
Welch sawcollectivism as the main threat toWestern culture, andmodern 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. He wrote: "There are many stages ofwelfarism, socialism, and collectivism in general, but Communism is the ultimate state of them all, and they all lead inevitably in that direction."[85] 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."[2]
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.[3]
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".[86] One of the first public activities of the society was a "Get US Out!" (of membership in theUN) campaign, which claimed in 1959 that the "Real nature of [the] UN is to build a One World Government".[87] The society also alleged that Communists and UN supporters were conducting an "assault on Christmas" to "destroy all religious beliefs and customs".[16] In 1960, Welch advised JBS members to: "Join your localP.T.A. at the beginning of the school year, get your conservative friends to do likewise, and go to work to take it over."[88]One Man's Opinion,[89] a magazine launched by Welch in 1956, was renamedAmerican Opinion.[90] In 1965, Welch established a JBS-affiliated publication known asThe Review of the News, which was intended for a larger readership and covered news.[91] In 1985, these magazines merged intoThe New American, a biweekly magazine published by the Society.[92]
For the first eighteen months of its existence, JBS "operated in relative obscurity".[15] Then in July 1960, theChicago Daily News published a relatively in-depth story on the Society, including the contention of founder Robert Welch, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a "dedicated, conscious agent" of the communist conspiracy in the United States. "For the next few years Birchers found themselves at the center of a storm of controversy".[15]
Welch had first made the statement in 1954 when he wrote in a widely circulated 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."[93] The controversial paragraph was removed before final publication ofThe Politician.[94]
Thesensationalism of Welch's charges against Eisenhower prompted several conservatives and Republicans, most prominently Goldwater and the intellectuals ofWilliam 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.[95] From then on, Buckley became the leading intellectual spokesman and organizer of the anti-Bircher conservatives.[96] 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 conservatismNational Review had promoted."[96] 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".[59]: 211, 258
The booklet found support fromEzra Taft Benson, then Eisenhower'sSecretary of Agriculture and later the 13thpresident of the LDS Church. In a letter to his friend FBI chiefJ. Edgar Hoover, Benson asked "how can a man [Eisenhower] who 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.[97]
In the 1960s, the JBS became known as a right-wing organization with an anti-Communist ideology.[73] It was moderately active in that decade 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 philosopherAyn Rand said in a 1964Playboy 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."[98][99] Some historians said the JBS had a large role in 1960s politics, and functioned much like a third party, forcing "the GOP, the Democrats, and conservatives of all types to respond to its agenda", in Jonathan M. Schoenwald's words.[100][101]
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 toPolitical 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.[85]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".[102]
One early campaign against the second summit between the United States and theSoviet Union (which urgedPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower, "If you go, don't come back!"[3]) 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" ofChief Justice Warren, a prime target of ultra-conservatives.[103] A June 1964 society campaign to opposeXerox corporate sponsorship of TV programs favorable to the UN produced 51,279 letters from 12,785 individuals."[85] By the middle of the decade, it had 400 American Opinion bookstores selling its literature.[2]
In 1962,William F. Buckley Jr., editor of theNational Review, an influential conservative magazine, denounced Welch and the John Birch Society as "far removed from common sense" and urged theGOP to purge itself of Welch's influence.[104] In the late 1960s, Welch insisted that theLyndon B. Johnson administration's war against Communist guerillas and North Vietnamese troops during theVietnam War, which was unpopular among liberals and leftists but not among conservatives, was part of a Communist plot aimed at taking over the United States. Welchdemanded that the United States get out of Vietnam, thus aligning the JBS with the left.[105] The society opposedwater fluoridation, which it called "mass medicine" and a Communist effort to destroy American children.[106][107][108][109]
FormerEisenhower cabinet memberEzra Taft Benson—a leadingMormon—spoke in favor of the JBS. In January 1963,The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement distancing itself from the Society.[110] 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.[111][112][non-primary source needed] 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, andMohammedans andBuddhists, can again have a decent world in which to live."[113][non-primary source needed]
In a 1963 report, theCalifornia Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, following an investigation into the JBS, found no evidence it was "a secret, fascist, subversive, un-American, [or] anti-Semitic organization."[114][115] In 1964, Welch favoredBarry Goldwater for the Republican presidential nomination, but the membership split, with two-thirds supporting Goldwater and one-third supportingRichard Nixon, who did not run. A number of Birch members and their allies were Goldwater supporters in 1964[104] and a hundred of them were delegates at the1964 Republican National Convention.[116]
In April 1966, aNew York Times article onNew Jersey 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."[117] 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 firstsex education curriculum in the United States through a division called the Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE).[118] Surviving MOTOREDE pamphlets date from 1967 to 1971. Additionally, the JBS advocated against other manifestations of social liberalism, including abortion.[59]: 347, 357–360 JBS members and activities were featured in "The Radical Americans", a series produced byNational Educational Television (NET) andWGBH-TV that aired in 1966 on NET outlets.[119] JBS membership peaked in 1965 or 1966 at an estimated 100,000.[3]
The JBS opposed the 1960scivil rights movement 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.[120][121] 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 beeninfiltrated by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost whollycreated by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years."[122] 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[39] and opposed theCivil Rights Act of 1964, claiming it violated theTenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped individual states' rights to enact laws regardingcivil rights. Some prominentblack conservatives such asGeorge Schuyler andManning 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.[123][124]
Although Welch and the JBS publicly opposed racism and anti-Semitism, and had a policy of expelling individuals who held such views,[125] in 1968, a notable faction of JBS members expressed opposition towardsdesegregation efforts and demonstrated solidarity withwhite nationalists by supportingGeorge Wallace.[126][127][128] Both the SPLC and theAnti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith have ascertained the existence in the past ofantisemitic and racist elements, such asRevilo P. Oliver andEric D. Butler.[128][129] Many of these individuals later left or were expelled from the JBS because of these views.[130] The JBS launched a "Support Your Local Police" campaign in the mid-1960s. The campaign openly advocated against the use of federal officers to enforce civil rights laws.[124]
At the organization's tenth anniversary celebration in 1968, Welch announced the creation ofJohn Birch University (now Robert Welch University),[131] which it later described as an "alternative to the socialist/internationalist/atheist education afforded by the major government-controlled colleges and universities."[132] John Birch University primarily served as a library and educational resource for decades, running summer youth camps around the United States.[133][134]
By 1976, the JBS had 90,000 members, 240 paid staffers, and a $7 million annual budget according to a paper written by the Americanlibertarian conservative tycoonCharles Koch.[20]
The JBS was at the center of afree-speech law case in the 1970s, afterAmerican 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 resultinglibel suit,Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., reached theUnited States Supreme Court, 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 inNew York Times Co. v. Sullivan, in order to recover presumed damages or punitive damages.[135] The court ordered a retrial in which Gertz prevailed.[136]
Key causes of the JBS in the 1970s included opposition to both theOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and to the establishment of diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China. The JBS claimed thatNixon's visit to mainland China had "humiliated the American people and betrayed our anti-communist allies" and that it was the primary supplier of illicit heroin into the United States.[137][138] The society also was opposed to transferring control of thePanama Canal from American to Panamanian sovereignty.[139]
During the 1970s, theKuomintang in the Republic of China underExecutive Yuan PremierChiang Ching-kuo organized apeople's diplomacy campaign in the United States in an effort to mobilize American political sentiment in opposition to the PRC through mass demonstrations and petitions.[140]: 42 Among these efforts, the John Birch Society worked with the KMT on a petition writing campaign through which Americans were urged to write their local government officials and ask them to "Cut the Red China connection."[140]: 42
The John Birch Society, along with other conservative groups such as theEagle Forum and theChristian right, successfully opposed theEqual Rights Amendment in the 1970s.[141][40] JBS played a key role in stopping the ERA's ratification – on par withPhyllis Schlafly, herself a JBS member – and it organized opposition to it across the nation.[59]: 347–351 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."[40]
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.[59]: 361–64 In the 1970s, the JBS also played a prominent role in promoting the false claim thatlaetrile was acancer cure, and in advocating for the legalization of the compound as a drug.[142][143] ANew York Times review in 1977 found JBS and other far-right groups were involved in pro-laetrile campaigns in at least nine states.[142] "Virtually all" of the officers of the "Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy," the leading pro-laetrile group, were JBS members.[143] Congressman and Birch Society leaderLawrence P. McDonald was involved in the campaign as a member of the committee.[142][144] The JBS opposedEarth Day, suggesting that it was a Communist plot and noting that the first celebration fell on the 100th anniversary ofVladimir Lenin's birth.[16]
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 JusticeEarl 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.[145][146]
After theVietnam 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 theend of the Cold War in 1991.[147][18] By the mid-1990s, membership in the JBS was estimated between 15,000 and 20,000.[148] While other anti-Communist organizations faded away following the Cold War's end, the JBS survived and experienced some growth in the 1990s.[149] News reports saidPresident George H.W. Bush's invocation of a "new world order" during the 1991Gulf War gave the society a new audience.[150][151] The society consolidated its national office in Appleton, Wisconsin, the birthplace ofSenator Joseph McCarthy.[2]
In 1984, three members of theSan Diego Padres, namelyEric Show,Mark Thurmond, andDave Dravecky, revealed they were members of the JBS.[152] The society campaigned against the ratification of theGenocide Convention, arguing it would erode U.S. national sovereignty.[153][154] 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 theUtah 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.[155]
The second head of the JBS was CongressmanLarry 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."[144] In 1982, McDonald was appointed as national chairman of the Society.[144] McDonald was killed in 1983 when airlinerKAL 007 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor.[144]
William P. Hoar, a writer for the JBS who has attacked mainstream politicians fromFranklin D. Roosevelt toGeorge W. Bush, published regularly inThe New American and its predecessorAmerican Opinion. He coauthoredThe Clinton Clique with Larry Abraham alleging thatBill Clinton was part of the Anglo-American conspiracy supposedly ruled through theCouncil on Foreign Relations and theTrilateral Commission. The Birch Society publications arm,Western Islands, published hisArchitects of Conspiracy: An Intriguing History (1984), and Huntington House Publishers published hisHandouts and Pickpockets: Our Government Gone Berserk (1996).[156][better source needed]
In 1995, the JBS campaigned against plans for a Conference of States; proponents said such a conference would reduce federal powers. The JBS feared it would lead to asecond Constitutional Convention.[157][158][159][160]
In the mid-2000s, the JBS, along with theEagle Forum, mobilized conservative opposition to a so-calledNorth American Union and theSecurity and Prosperity Partnership of North America. 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."[38] In 2007,The New American published a special issue devoted to the topic; approximately 500,000 copies were distributed.[161] The JBS also advocated for U.S. withdrawal from the UN.[36] The JBS was a co-sponsor of the 2010Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), ending its decades-long distance from the mainstream conservative movement.[162][163][14] It attended CPAC again in 2023[164] and 2024.[62][165]
In 2005, Robert Welch University, renamed from John Birch University in the 1990s, was approved as an online university by the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, granting two-year associates' degrees.[166] On June 15, 2007, the university had its first graduating class.[167] As of 2025[update], the university states its two-year program is paused while it works to develop a four-year degree program.[168]
Although JBS membership numbers are kept private, it reported a resurgence of members in the 2010s and 2020s, specifically inTexas.[21][169][170] A 2017 article inPolitico describing the group's activities in Texas listed some of its stances as opposing the UN'sAgenda 21 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 ofNAFTA, returning America to what the group calls its Christian foundations, and abolishing the federal departments ofeducation andenergy.[21] In 2012, theTennessee House of Representatives passed an anti-Agenda 21 resolution with nearly identical wording as a JBS model resolution.[171][172]
WithDonald Trump's election in 2016, the JBS "saw many of its core instincts finally reflected in the White House."[62] Political commentatorJeet Heer argued in 2016 that "Trumpism" is essentially Bircherism,[22] and journalist Andrew Reinbach called the JBS "the intellectualseed bank of the right."[173] Trump confidant and longtime advisorRoger Stone said that Trump's fatherFred Trump was a financier of the JBS and a personal friend of founder Robert Welch.[174] Trump's former Chief of StaffMick Mulvaney was the speaker at the John Birch Society's National Council dinner shortly before joining the Trump administration.[175] Former CongressmanRon 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.[176][self-published source?][177] The keynote speaker at the organization's 60th anniversary celebration was CongressmanThomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who maintained a near-perfect score on the JBS's "Freedom Index" ranking of members of Congress.[178][self-published source?] Right-wing conspiracy theoristAlex Jones, who hosted Trump on hisInfoWars radio show and claimed to have a personal relationship with the president, called Trump a "John Birch Society president",[179] and previously said Trump was "more John Birch Society than the John Birch Society."[180][better source needed] Former JBS CEOArthur R. Thompson stated, "The bulk of Trump’s campaign was Birch".[181] Trump's talk of adeep state has been described as "repeating a longtime Birch talking point."[181] In July 2021, the Republican central committees ofKootenai County, Idaho, andBenewah 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."[182] TheIdaho Republican Party declined to endorse the resolutions,[183] though the party elected a JBS member,Dorothy Moon, as chair in July 2022.[184] The JBS had been active in Idaho.[185][186]
In the early 2020s, the JBS campaigned againstcarbon-capture pipelines in Iowa, arguing they threatened property rights.[187][188][189] The JBS is affiliated with FreedomProject Academy, an online school "based on Judeo-Christian values." Between 2011 and 2020, its enrollment grew from 22 to 1,000 students.[14] The JBS publishes the Freedom Index, which rates members of Congress and state legislators "based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements."[190]
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Skousen's vocal support for the Far-right John Birch Society's claim that Communists controlled President Dwight Eisenhower cost him the support of the corporate backers who had paid for his Red-bashing lecture tours.
...there are fierce objections on the extreme right to initiatives related to international collaboration. This attitude is typified byThe New American (TNA), a print magazine published by American Opinion Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of the John Birch Society (JBS), a far-right organization.
[T]he John Birch Society perceived the amendment as an integral part of "Communist plans...at work in a now vast effort to reduce human beings to the same level as animals."
One particularly eye-catching pamphlet from the radical John Birch Society shows a public school on fire with the phrase "Get them out!" in capital letters on the front. "If the public school were on fire, and your children and grandchildren were inside, what would you do?" the back of the pamphlet read. After warning of the dangers of critical race theory and how students are allegedly being sexualized, the reader is told, "Reforming the schools is no longer an option. We must get them out now!"
Skousen's vocal support for the Far-right John Birch Society's claim that Communists controlled President Dwight Eisenhower cost him the support of the corporate backers who had paid for his Red-bashing lecture tours.Walsh, DA. (2020). "The Right-Wing Popular Front: The Far Right and American Conservatism in the 1950s".Journal of American History.107 (2):411–432.doi:10.1093/jahist/jaaa182. "But this emphasis on the 1960s and the setting of the boundaries between the 'responsible' conservatism of Buckley and Goldwater and the far-right 'fringe' of the Birchers has occluded the deep relationship between conservatives and the far right in the 1950s."
Generally, Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the 'New World Order' or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. ... Listing here does not imply that the groups advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist.
Founding member (1958) John Birch Society—reportedly after seeing Russian friends liquidated
In 1929 Koch took his process to the Soviet Union, but he grew disenchanted with Stalinism and returned home to become a founding member of the anticommunist John Birch Society.
He returned a fervent anti-Communist who would later become a founding member of the John Birch Society.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)At this point in the original manuscript, there was one paragraph in which I expressed my own personal belief as to the most likely explanation of the events and actions with this document had tried to bring into focus. In a confidential letter, neither published nor offered for sale and restricted to friends who were expected to respect the confidence but offer me in exchange their own points of view, this seemed entirely permissible and proper. It does not seem so for an edition of the letter that is now to be published and given, probably, fairly wide distribution. So that paragraph, and two explanatory paragraphs, connected with it, have been omitted here. And the reader is left entirely free to draw his own conclusions.
The John Birch Society was an active participant in Wichita's 1964 referendum that repealed fluoridation after the City Commission had voted to implement it.
From the 1940s through the 1960s, groups like the John Birch Society were vocal opponents of water fluoridation.
Nearby, conference-goers could pick up Ginger Betty Bakery's $8 gingerbread Trump-shaped cookies while browsing booths set up by groups including the John Birch Society and Moms For America.
...elections for other offices of state are more competitive between the hard right and harder right. ... Dorothy Moon, a member of the far-right John Birch Society, is a contender for secretary of state.
Title PRESIDENT Name OHLSON, MARTIN P
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