Inside the John Birch Society

Table of contents :
Contents
1. The Press: 'Only 25 Minutes*
2. Black Book: 'Letter to a Friend'
3. The Man: *Separate Facts9
4. Blue Book: 'Rightly or Wrongly’
5. Some Patriots
6. White Book: Werren and Others
7. The Attack: 'Mother Article'
8« At Home: An Alarmist
9. Abroad: Defense at Sharpevllle
10. A Meeting: 'Where Are They?'

Citation preview

Robert Welch, leader of the John Birch Society, has been stirring up the biggest political hornet's nest of the decade—and it doesn't always matter who gets stung. He has launched violent attacks against such men as Chief Justice Earl Warren whose "decisions and actions . . . have definitely become a most important part of the whole advancing Communist front," according to Welch. In fact. In Welch's opinion, the "whole Supreme Court is a nest of socialists and worse . . and "the impeachment of Earl Warren would dramatize and crystallize the whole basic question of whether the United States remains the United States, or becomes gradually transformed into a province o f the world-wide Soviet system

This Is the fascinating, authoritative look at what Robert Welch believes— and why.

Th« Gold M«dal $«aV on this book moans it is not a r«print. To select an orig­ inal book, look for the Gold Medal seal.

INSIDE The lohn Birch Society by Gene Grove An Original Geld Medal Book

Gold Medal Books Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwich, Conn. Member of American Book Publishers Council, Inc.

Portions o f this book first appeared In, and are reprinted by permission of. The New York Post. Copyright © 1961 New York Post Corp., and Fawcett Publications, Inc First Gold Medal printing July 1961 All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof. Printed in the United States o f America

Contents 1. The Press: ‘ Only 25 Minutes*

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2. Black B ook: ‘ Letter to a Friend*

19

3. The Man: ‘ Separate Facts’

34

4. Blue B ook: ‘ Rightly or Wrongly*

40

L H. DL

‘ M ore W elch’

42

‘ On a White Horse*

55

T am Proposing1

73

5. Som e Patriots I. Columbus, O hio II. Jackson, M ississippi

82 82 93

m.

Wichita, Kansas

95

IV.

Wilton, Connecticut

97

6. White B ook: Warren and Others

104

7. The Attack: ‘ M other Article’

128

8. At H om e: An Alarmist

135

9. Abroad: Defense at Sharpeville

140

10.

A M eeting: ‘ Where Are They?’

147

I. The Press: 'Only 25 Minutes* A few minutes before 5 p .m . one Sunday in May, 1961, a man o f medium build, six feet tall, his gray hair parted by a wide, bald swath down the center o f his head, ducked hurriedly into a Washington tele­ vision studio. H e nodded briefly to the other occupants o f the studio, sat at a desk in front o f the cameras, opened a stuffed briefcase, and from it extracted a handful o f papers and note-filled cards. These he spread on the desk in front o f him. F or m ost o f the hour before the camera lights flashed red, R obert Henry W inbom e Welch, Jr. studied his cards and papers with a concentration so intense that he was oblivious to the dozen technicians who thrust light meters at him, poked cameras at his face and held flash cards in front of him. The founder o f the John Birch Society was nerv­ ous: his hands arranged and rearranged the notes, first into a pile here, and then into a pile there, then into two piles, spreading them out and reassembling them. H is hands darted to the hair on each side of his head, to the handkerchief in the breast pocket of his dark blue suit. Occasionally he would discover on a card a message that would freeze him. H is lips would m ove as he read, then he would again shuffle the notes. For the past six months, this man had inspired a nationwide controversy unlike anything the United

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States had known since the days o f Senator Joseph M cCarthy— a man W elch admired intensely. H e has been called, am ong other things, both a Hitler and a saviour o f the nation. W elch was not a form idable figure o f a man. H is thick glasses, his puttering with the endless notes, gave him m ore the air o f a fussy professor than either a Hitler or a saviour. This appearance on a television program was a rare occasion for R obert Welch. F or the first 60 years o f his life, even for the seven years when he was a director o f the National A ssociation o f Manufactur­ ers, his opinions had been rarely sought. When at­ tention came, after he founded the John Birch Society, he had been chary o f publicity. H e had only infrequently talked to reporters. H e was, he said, too busy. H e was persuaded also that a m ajor portion o f the nation’ s press was under the domination o f the Communist conspiracy. Anything but unequivocal praise o f the society was labeled in his monthly bul­ letin to members as an attack. T w o blow s the second week in March had led him to end all communication with the press. One was from a quarter he already considered suspect: W elch spent a day with a ‘ Time* magazine reporter that re­ sulted in an error-spotted article in the magazine. The other blow cam e as a genuine shock: the ultraconservative L os A ngeles Tim es wound up a fivepart series on the society with an editorial denounc­ ing the John Birch Society as a peril to conservatives. “. . . The Tim es does not believe that the argument for conservatism can be won by smearing as enemies and traitors those with whom we sometimes disa­ gree,”the editorial said. “Subversion, whether of the left or right, is still subversion.” Between that second week in March and the third week in May, W elch had assiduously avoided all in­ terviews, with the exception o f a few brief and stilted sessions with local reporters during a coast-to-coast

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speaking tour in April. During his speeches, he vig­ orously discouraged question-and-answer sessions. At each appearance he talked from lecture cards, keeping almost word-for-word to the same ninetyminute speech he usually delivered, seeming almost unaware o f his audience. Even in these circumstances, reciting by rote be­ fore an audience which in m ost cases was well screened for hecklers, W elch grew nervous, testy, even belligerent. Although he boasts of his “fanati­ cism ”and describes himself as the “hard-boiled, dic­ tatorial, dynamic boss” of the John Birch Society, Welch exhibits these traits only in his writings and, to a lesser extent, in his relationships within the So­ ciety. In public he adheres doggedly to his views, but seems always on the defensive, m ore ready to ward off blows than to strike his own. At one meeting a man paced up and down the aisles looking for a doctor in the audience. W elch stopped his speech abruptly and asked why the man was “walking around like that.”Without waiting for an answer he told the audience that the distraction was a typical “ dirty Communist trick.” It had taken Welch weeks to accept the invitation to appear on the television program, “ M eet the Press.”When finally he accepted, he did that defen­ sively, too. H e explained to producer Robert Spivak that, although he had earlier refused the invitation, he was “willing to make rare exceptions”to his nointerview policy. As a result of another salvo from the Luce publications, this one in 'Life’magazine, he would appear, he said, if he could be “assured of minimum standards of fair treatment.” As he sat at the desk in front of the cameras, moderator Ned Brooks took his seat next to Welch. They exchanged a few words, traded smiles, and W elch returned to his cocoon of concentration. A half-smoked cigar suddenly appeared in his hand;

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evidently he had been carrying it in a pocket. H e lit it, took several quick, deep drags that loosed a billow o f sm oke into the bright studio spotlights, then took off his glasses and held his hand over his eyes to peer through the sm oke and lights to the spot where he assumed his wife was sitting. H e smiled, then re­ turned to his notes. H e puffed furiously on the cigar until it made him cough, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and spit into it, stuffed the handkerchief into his brief case, pulled a tin box from the brief case and took a lozenge from it. Then he rose, looked around the room in quick, jerky movements and dashed into a side room. Instead o f returning to his seat, W elch walked over to where his wife was sitting with the few other guests in a row o f eight chairs. H e stood by the plain, grayhaired woman, who was dressed in a simple black and white dress, while she listened to Mrs. Spivak telling a story about her knitting. Then he coughed and said: “D o you think I should tell them about m y gas the other day?” “W hat’ s that, dear?”Mrs. W elch asked mildly. “ A bout the gas tank.”W elch had his glasses off and looked younger without them— for program pub­ licity, he had sent Spivak pictures taken in 1954, and the producer had commented on “how much he seems changed, how much he had aged” — but his eyes had the fuzzy look o f those of a man who has worn glasses all his life. H e had a faint Southern ac­ cent, a residue o f his youth in North Carolina, notice­ able in such words as “spare,”which came out “spayuh,”and “there,”which becam e “they-uh.” “Well, my office is only five minutes from the fill­ ing station where I do business. W e’ re right next to the Post Office.”— H e showed with the visual-aid gestures and the preliminary smile of the salesman he used to be, that the office is here on his right hand

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and the Post Office is right there on his left. “And to get into Belmont [Mass.] you just go around the Post Office [going around the right hand] and through the underpass [going through with the left hand] and only five minutes away is the filling station. “Well, I do shopping in town near the filling sta­ tion when I need som e shopping, and I said to my­ self ‘ I wonder what I need in town?’Then I started thinking about what I needed and started thinking what a beautiful day it is, and I might as well walk to town and buy things, so I walked all the way in town to put gas in the car ” H e paused in the manner o f the teller of anecdotes. W elch had a little body convulsion which helped spread the humor o f his story Then, a point scored, he rushed back to his seat on the platform and re­ sumed his concentration. At 5:30, m oderator Brooks went into a rehearsal. H e said, “ This is N ed Brooks inviting you to M eet the . . W elch’ s head jerked up with com ic swiftness. H e stared unblinkingly at Brooks and, although he should have realized in seconds what had happened, he continued to stare for a full minute. Finally satis­ fied, he went back to his notes. Tw o minutes before air time, W elch’ s nervousness heightened. H e ran his hand down his bald patch, caught at an ear, brought his coat lapels together, then picked at his nose. Spivak mumbled to him. “H I try not to do it,”W elch said, a boy scolded. “I have a lot of bad habits, but I’ ll try not to do it.” Then the show was on, and W elch lost his nervous­ ness as he parried, in the same way he had been doing for the past six months, against the same questions he had been asked during those six months. Spivak, who seemed to be the only member of the panel who had done any substantial homework for the program, asked Welch what led him to believe, as he had

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written, that “Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated, con­ scious agent o f the Com m unist conspiracy.** W elch cited external evidence. “In 1953, interna­ tionally the nearest Com m unist domination to us was probably East Germany— 3,500 miles away, ftasser was still a lieutenant colonel, and I w on’ t go through the rest o f the picture, but go ahead then for eight years to the end o f 1960 and see what had happened. The Communists were 90 miles from our shores, very firmly established. Y ou have seen what happened dur­ ing those years to North Viet Nam and Laos and In­ donesia, in Egypt, in many other countries— I will save time by not reviewing it— the Communists had advanced terrifically.” Granted, Spivak said, but d o those circumstances make Eisenhower an “agent o f the Communist con­ spiracy?” F or Spivak to be able to quote that phrase, W elch said, involved “a very serious breach o f confidence on the part o f a friend o f mine, som e extremely un­ ethical journalism, and a brazen violation o f my property rights in my letter.”H e had made the charge in a private letter, W elch said, not in a book intended for publication. “Regardless,”Spivak insisted, “did you ever think that of President Eisenhower?” “I never had that opinion and do not have it now, with any such assurance o f firmness that I would ever state it in public, and I never have,”Welch said. H e had no quarrel with anyone who wanted to attribute all of E isenhow er’ s actions to “ political opportunism.” Again pressed, W elch said, “I never called him a card-carrying Communist . . .” Spivak: “ N ot ‘ card-carrying* but ‘ a Communist?’” Welch: “Oh, that’ s different” Spivak: “Well, what is different?” Welch: “There is a big difference.” Spivak: “ Well, you said, for example, Tn my opin-

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ion the chances are very strong that M ilton Eisen­ hower is actually Dwight E isenhow er’ s superior and boss within the Com m unist Party.” W elch: “Okay.” Spivak: “D oes he have to have a card?” W elch: “Well, I was . . . I was accused o f calling him a card-carrying Communist in, as I say, a private document, which I never would have been willing to do in public, but I merely said that I had not, which I didn’ t. They are the ones who were putting words in my mouth.” Asked by Jack Bell, o f the A ssociated Press, if there wasn't “a matter o f morality”concerned in his charges against Eisenhower, private or not, W elch said there was n o t “And may I point out,”he added, “since you are talking about the John Birch Society primarily, the document you refer to was specifically disavow ed... as having no part in the beliefs of the John Birch Society in any way. President Eisenhower himself said t understand why so many of his friends he couldn ’ were joining the John Birch Society. Well, we can tell him why. H e has a lot of good friends that are just as anti-Communist as you and I are and they are joining the John Birch Society because they think we are able to fight Communism.” Bell thanked W elch for including him among the anti-Communists. The Society is “growing quite rapidly and has con­ tinued to grow through this storm of adverse criti­ cism,”Welch went on. “The storm broke primarily with the article in the Communist ‘ P eople’ s W orld’in San Francisco, an article on February 25th which becam e the mother article, you might call it, for all of these attacks. “Since then,”he said, “we have lost about onehalf of one per cent of our members, and we have gained more than that in membership practically

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every day since then,”and financial support “ has in­ creased materially since the 25th of February/* al­ though the Society was not willing to give out figures on either membership or income. The “26 top-flight Americans*’on the S ociety’ s council are supplied with a financial audit o f the Society, W elch said, “ but we do not supply financial reports to our members them­ selves, and they com e in knowing that, because we are bound to have Communists within our member­ ship. Y ou cannot supply com plete reports without giving away too much o f your information.” W elch would say, however, that if he ever got a million m em bers— “w e are nowhere near a sizable fraction o f it”— and the resultant minimum incom e o f $18,000,000 a year, “we will have about onethird with which to work as som e big labor union who is fighting on the other side,”presumably the Com ­ munist side. Richard W ilson o f the Cow les publications asked, since W elch had described his Society as monolithic, “Is this the kind o f government you want to im pose upon the United States, an authoritarian, monolithic government like your Society?” “No,” said Welch. “W e made it very clear time after time that we think the best of all forms of gov­ ernment is a constitutional republic, and the worst o f all form s of government is a democracy. “What we are talking about . . . is the internal structure of the John Birch Society, and as our mem­ bers all well know, that is solely for the purpose o f protecting us. W e do not want Communists com ing in and taking over our chapters, and so we are able to drop them from membership if necessary.” H e said the Society is not secret. “Our background, methods and purposes are all laid out in the Blue B ook of the John Birch Society which anybody can get for two dollars. We have absolutely nothing secret [except for] the names of our members or their num-

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bers, and I don ’ t know o f any organization that you can name o f any patriotic kind that does.” W ould he give a summary o f his evaluation o f the Kennedy Administration in view of his statement a month earlier that President Kennedy is “less a cap­ tive o f Communist influences than Eisenhower?” H e would not. “I would like to see the honeym oon go on longer. I don’ t feel qualified. W e usually talk of the past, anyway, because you can bring it out and find the facts and be fairly sure o f them.” H e ad­ mitted that he had been quite critical o f Kennedy in 1958 when the Blue B ook was written, but said that the references had now been expunged from the book. Bell: “ Mr. Welch, does this wipe the whole thing out?” Welch: “ N ot at all.” Bell: “If you just take it out o f the Blue B ook?” Welch: “N ot a bit, and we don’ t care to have it wiped o u t” (Welch perhaps had forgotten that in the Society’ s bulletin the month after K ennedy’ s election, he had written that “We want no ‘ bi-partisan honeymoons’ at the beginning o f his regim e”and that he felt quali­ fied in January to write: “The Communists still have a long way to go before their ultimate victory in this country is certain; but their members, their power, their activities— and their chances— are now far greater in America than ever before. We are not yet lost, but we are at the crossroads now. Y ou need only look at the appointments already made by the incoming President to lose all hope or illusions as to the direction, and the intentions o f the next Ad­ ministration.” (To make sure his meaning was clear, Welch added that “it makes little difference whether any of these appointees are actual Communists or not. Almost to a man they are visibly in favor of a one-world socialist

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government and will d o everything they can to bring it about.”) In other areas, he was m ore frank with his inter­ rogators. “If your society achieved its m ajor objec­ tives,”Spivak asked, “w ouldn’ t you accom plish what the Soviet Union wants to accom plish: destroy NATO, the UN, weaken our defenses, stop foreign aid?” “When you convince m e the Soviet Union wants to destroy the United Nations,” W elch answered, “then I would argue with you. I see nothing to justify any such assumption. They proceed by deception and every once in a while they pretend they are upset with the United Nations to get the American people m ore willing to accept i t “They want to destroy any possible effectiveness o f NATO, which I think has been pretty well de­ stroyed. I have never been convinced that N A TO was effective at all. “I think that perhaps the m ost significant things we have accom plished are those which brought on the attack against us. Our people have probably made m ore showings o f that film, ‘ Operation A bolition ’ , showing the Communists already starting in their usu­ al terroristic tactics toward taking over this country on a small scale, than all other groups put together . . . and we have certainly in the last few months waked up hundreds o f thousands o f our fellow citi­ zens to the difference between a dem ocracy and a republic, and to the fact that we have a republic, not a democracy, and we want to keep a republic.” Spivak: “ Mr. Welch, in your book, ‘ The Life of John Birch,’which was published in ’ 54, you had there to say about a dedicated Communist: ‘ D is­ guised as a patriot, he will distort the aims o f a true patriot and help to ruin their careers by building up the prestige of other traitors like himself.’C ouldn’ t you on the basis of that statement be charged with

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being a Communist, that there are so many things that the Communists want that you too are seeking to accom plish?” W elch: “I can certainly be charged, but we have som e tens o f thousands o f able, inform ed Americans who certainly believe otherwise and are willing to support and follow m e . . . It is just a matter o f the confidence you can obtain from intelligent people.” Bell asked him to comm ent on Attorney General Robert K ennedy’ s statement that “I think they make no contribution in my estimation to the fight against C ommunism here in the United States. In fact, I think if anything they are a hindrance.” “We disagree with him very vigorously,” W elch said, “and I was trying to show you som e o f the things I thought we were doing. We don’ t object to criticism and we are conscious enough of the solidity o f our position, we don’ t even object to ridicule. We are getting som e o f it.” For nearly thirty minutes now, W elch’ s hour of note-shuffling had been wasted. As his syntax several times showed, he had been so busy defending himself he had had no time to look at his cards. The word “ ridicule”jogged his memory now and he paused to look down at the notes on his desk. H e looked up again and said: “ We think m ost o f the ridicule today stems from the arrogance o f ignorance instead of the humility of true scholarship in those who refuse to get their opin­ ions prefabricated.” Seconds later, the ordeal was finished. Spivak approached him immediately, to show a clipping from the New York Times recounting W elch’ s opinions of Eisenhower as taken from ‘ The Politician.’W ilson and Bell stood nearby, listening. “. . . It was a violation of my common-law rights because that was copyrighted. It was printed despite

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that copyright, and you know I could take it to court, but that’ s a lifetime battle.” A reporter from United Press International ap­ proach ed “O oops,” said Welch, ducking quickly back. “Is this the press?”H e reached for the notes on his desk and m oved further away from the four reporters who now cam e near. “I never give interviews to the press.” “I just want to ask a question or two,”one reporter said. “Fm sorry,” W elch said, backing still further away. “I never answer questions from the press.”He m oved off with Spivak. “Well, who the hell does he think you people are?” the reporter asked W ilson and Bell. “H e must think w e’ re actors,”W ilson said. “ Well, at least I ’ m an anti-Communist actor,”Bell said. Spivak and W elch still were talking. Spivak thought the show had gone off rather well. “I could have done better,”W elch said. “I thought you did well,”Spivak said. “Well, I could have done better.” “It’ s only a thirty-minute show.” “N ot even thirty minutes,”W elch said, suddenly alive as he found a weak spot. “It was only twentyfive minutes. No, it w asn’ t thirty minutes. Another five minutes would have made a lot of difference. W e could have covered a lot m ore ground. And you fel­ lows could have asked a lot m ore questions.” A reporter again approached him. “ N o sir,”he said, grabbing his brief case. “I’ ve no questions to answer. I ’ ve spent my life fighting,”the pause here was very long, “publicity. I ’ m sorry.” H e dashed over to his wife, gathered her, said goodbye swiftly, and hurried to the lobby of the building. There he and his wife sat alone and silent Questioned again by a reporter, he said:

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“ I didn’ t want any o f this publicity. It was all thrust upon me. “It’ s the only one,”he protested, waggling a finger. “I f you’ ll notice, it’ s the only show I ever appeared on. W e would have been happier just organizing in our own quiet way. But this was thrust on us. W e de­ cided it might be better to appear on one show. “And now w e’ re going back up to Belmont. Have to get right back. Oh, yes.” A cab pulled up in front o f the building. “I called a cab first, so I guess that’ s mine.”H e grabbed his brief case and dashed out, Mrs. W elch follow ing a few steps behind.

2. Black Book: 'Letter to a Friend' It was 20 months after the founding o f the John Birch Society before its members received the first official word on a book R obert W elch had written years before, a book in which he called Dwight David Eisenhower a Communist. Certainly the members knew, and agreed with him, that W elch believed the government of the United States was riddled with Communists and their sym­ pathizers: the word “traitor” recurs frequently in society literature. Possibly the members were amused by the slurs cast on Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Earl Warren, John Foster Dulles, Harry Truman, and others in W elch’ s writings. It is probable that few would have caviled at the suggestion that FD R was a Communist, but President Eisenhower was another cup of borscht The discovery that their Founder had written a

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book called T h e Politician* hurt, m ore deeply than W elch will admit. It brought the society resignations, it hurt recruiting, and it turned the Founder— as he admitted on the “M eet the Press”program — into an object of ridicule and, with him, his society. It came, as W elch must have known it would, when the society began to attract attention. A lm ost as soon as the newspapers began looking with care at the so­ ciety, by the middle of 1960, T h e Politician*— also known as the ‘ Black B ook ’becam e as well known as R obert W elch and the John Birch Society. It was not well read because it had always been a secret document. W elch had to offer an explanation to his members. H e did it in August, 1960. “In December, 1954,”he wrote in one o f his monthly bulletins, “I wrote a long letter to a friend, in which I expressed very severe opinions concern­ ing the purposes o f som e of the top men in Washing­ ton. The record o f som e of these men was already full of extremely questionable actions. But the final straw that prom pted my letter was the visible betrayal of the Republican Party by this so-called Republican Administration in the congressional elections which had just taken place that fall. The deliberate uses of Administration influence, and the tricky maneuvers of Administration spokesmen, to bring about the de­ feat o f stalwart conservative Republican Congress­ men and Senators, and to turn both houses of Con­ gress over to the more left-wing Democrats, were en­ tirely obvious, and are still on the records, for any­ body who will take the trouble to study that whole campaign with careful objectivity. “Carbon copies of my letter were sent to a few other friends, who in turn asked for copies for their friends. So that by 1956 the letter had grown, through revisions and additions at the time of each new typ­ ing, to sixty thousand words. And we had begun to

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refer to it as the manuscript o f T h e Politician.’But it was still available in carbon copies only. In 1958, however, when the letter had now becom e eighty thousand words and when I had decided not to make any m ore additions or revisions, I had this final ver­ sion typed carefully in my own office, ran off a limited number o f copies o f each page by offset printing, and put those pages together in a punch-hole binding for the convenience o f any other readers to whom it would be sent— as well as to save our retyping so long a document. “ A majority o f these m ore form alized copies o f the long letter was sent to various friends during the summer and early fall o f 1958— before The John Birch Society was even founded. The document had, and still has, no connection with the Society in any way except that: ( 1) it was written by your Founder; and (2) as the Society grew I sent copies to som e of those new acquantances who had now becom e my good friends through their work for the cause. “ The introductory page to this manuscript states clearly that this is not a book, has never been in­ tended for publication, and is still o f the nature of a long letter to a friend. N ot a copy has ever been sold. Each copy has always been sent to the recipient by registered first-class mail, on loan, carefully sealed inside and labelled for his reading only, and with a covering letter stating the nature of the document— as an expression o f this w riter’ s opinions, and a col­ lection o f facts (already widely published as separate pieces) on which those opinions are based. W e are almost out o f copies. Over the past year we have been sending out very few— in lots o f five to fifteen about once a month in answer to urgent requests from good friends. Even for that purpose we have been using secondhand copies that had been returned to us by earlier readers. We had successfully resisted all pressures o f som e of our m ost influential friends to

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publish this document, com e what may. And because o f new forces and new leaders now appearing on* the scene, we were allowing this whole ‘ letter’to fade out o f the picture. It is what we still intend, if given an opportunity to d o so.” This odd letter— half again as long as this book— undoubtedly also was inspired by E isenhow er’ s defeat of R obert Taft, whom W elch regarded as the last hope for the United States in the fight against Com ­ munism, and Eisenhower’ s approval in 1954 of the reduction of Joseph McCarthy, through the ArmyM cCarthy hearings and his Senate censure, to a posi­ tion of impotence. H is explanation to his members is somewhat at variance with his answers on the “M eet the Press” program. H e told Spivak that the book was sent out with a flyleaf asking: “Will you please try to tell us what is wrong with it and what the errors are?” “I don’ t believe anybody who ever wrote a history before, or any historian involving many great— or a lot abler than I am— is held responsible for what he said in a first draft of a document that might someday be published.”Yet he told his members that the offset edition was the “final version,” made “ when I de­ cided not to make any m ore additions or revisions.” H e im plied on the Spivak program that he had stopped sending the book out before the formation of the society, yet he told his members that he continued to send it out to “new acquaintances who had now be­ com e my good friends through their work for the cause.” Welch, who in his lengthy explanation to his mem­ bers never told them what was said in ‘ The Politician,’ has stock answers to questions about the book. The flavor o f ‘ The Politician’is amply reflected in som e dozen pages from one o f the later drafts of the m anuscript It begins, as did Welch's brief attack on

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Kennedy years later in a Birch Society bulletin, with an attack on the presiden t’ s appointments: 1. M ilton Eisenhower: Presidential adviser. A t least in appearance. H ad always been an ardent New Dealer, to put it mildly, and still is. P roof o f at least pro-Communist leanings is im plicit in his support o f Owen Lattimore, and o f others like him, at Johns Hopkins. In my opinion the chances are very strong that M ilton Eisenhower is actually Dwight Eisen­ how er’ s superior and b oss within the Communist Party. F or one thing he is obviously a great deal smarter. 2. Maxwell E. Rabb: Presidential adviser, and assistant for relations with minority groups: First official title, “associate counsel” for the President; then “Secretary to the Cabinet.”N ow in private law practice. Drew a salary all during 1952, while helping to run the Eisenhower campaign, for a post he never filled with the Democratic-controUed Senate Judiciary Committee. The staff director o f this committee did not even know him. M ax R abb is a very clever and cagey man. P roof that he is a Communist would not be easy, except as a logical deduction from his overall actions and visible purposes. In masterminding the steal o f the Repub­ lican nomination at Chicago in 1952, however, he follow ed so faithfully and cleverly the exact Com ­ munist technique, o f always accusing your enemy, first and loudly, o f the very crime which you your­ self are committing, that the long arm o f coincidence would be strained in reaching so far. 3. John Foster Dulles: Secretary o f State. Amer­ ica ’ s case against Secretary Dulles and company was presented by Senator William E. Jenner in the April 1956 issue of the American Mercury. We covered a certain amount of additional ground on Pages 23 to 28 of the June 1958 issue of American Opinion.

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W ell try to summarize these and other appraisals here as briefly as we can. John Foster Dulles is the man who chiefly per­ suaded Thom as E. Dewey and the Republican op ­ position, in 1944 and 1948 to go along with, instead o f fighting, the pro-Communist foreign policies of the R oosevelt and Truman administrations. Dulles has at all times been a close friend, admirer, associate, con­ sultant, and political protege o f Dean Acheson. Senator Jenner says that “Mr. Dulles is Mr. Acheson ’ s identical twin.”Dulles becam e officially righthand man o f Acheson, in 1950; and was so com pletely a part o f the Communist-dominated Truman foreign-policy menagerie that he no longer gave ‘ W ho’ s W ho in America’his address as 18 W all Street, New York, which was his law office, but as “Office: Department o f State, Washington.” Certainly his appointment was a strange and dis­ illusioning one to be made by the kind o f Republican which President Eisenhower was pretending to be in 1952. A m ong other visible parts o f his record, Dulles had been a prominent and much publicized member o f the first meeting of the W orld Council o f Churches, at Amsterdam in 1948, when that body officially declared capitalism to be just as bad as Communism. Dulles neither protested nor disapproved the state­ ment, which was fully in accord with his own ex­ pressed convictions, and which was given so much publicity in this country that I actually heard it being loudly bleated over a radio from the clubhouse, while I was playing golf. “For many reasons and after a lot o f study, I per­ sonally believe Dulles to be a Communist agent who has had one clearly defined role to play; namely, al­ ways to say the right things and always to do the wrong ones. The Japanese Peace Treaty, the Austrian Peace Treaty, and his very definite double­ crossing of the British government in the Suez affair

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are all cases in point. In speeches and public state­ ments Dulles is always the proponent o f the real American position, the man who announces the policies and intentions which the American people want to hear, and which they recognize as right. H e thus serves to convince the American Congress and people that the administration is trying to do the right thing. Then Dulles backs down, or is overruled, or appears to be forced by circumstances and pressures he can’ t control to reverse himself; the Government does exactly the opposite of what he has said it would do; and the defeat o f our side is w orse than if he had never spoken at all. But the American people simply d o not grasp that it was all planned that way in the first place. Although it certainly will not strengthen my argu­ ment any, it may perhaps b e worth while, just to give the reader a break from so much m onotonously re­ spectable language, to quote som ebody else’ s summa­ tion o f Dulles’character. Once, in a small group, I asked a good friend o f mine and prominent Ameri­ can, whose name at least is well known to every reader o f this document but who has never held any political office, what he thought o f Dulles. After a moment of hesitation he replied so that everybody could hear: “I think John Foster Dulles is a sanc­ timonious, psalm-singing h y p ocritica l------------ , and I know him very well.”If Syngman Rhee, Chiang Kai-shek, Nuri es-Said, and other real anti-Communists in the governments of our allies throughout the world could be persuaded to voice their real thoughts, I am sure they would agree with that senti­ ment, if not with its phrasing. F or it is certain beyond dispute that Dulles (or our State Department as run by Dulles) has been selling them and their countries down the river into C ommunist hands, as cleverly as he knew how and as rapidly as he dared. 4. Martin Durkin: First Secretary of Labor. Rob-

25

ert Taft said his appointment was incredible. It was — so incredible and so revealing that even Eisen­ hower cou ldn ’ t make that one stick. But his aims are shown by the fact that he made it at alL 5. T heodore C. Streibert: First head o f the newly independent U. S. Inform ation Agency. Announced at the beginning o f his term that under him the V oice o f A m erica would avoid “going violently antiS ov iet”It certainly has. H e also stated that “where there are two sides tn a question here we shall be sure to give both sides.” Taking American taxpayers’ m oney to present, to the people o f the satellite na­ tions, the Soviet side o f the phony issues they stir up, would b e bad enough. Streibert’ s choice o f agents to present the American side, over V oice o f America, has been even worse. Eisenhower could get away with so brazen an appointment even then, simply because it seem ed to the American people too minor for them to give any o f their attention. 6. Philip C. Jessup: Reappointed by Eisenhower as an Am bassador at Large. This is the appointment, so early in E isenhow er’ s first administration, to which the adjective incredible really should have been ap­ plied. H e was able to get away with it, even by the use o f a great deal o f White H ouse pressure and insist­ ence, only because the victory happy real Republi­ cans, ecstatically gloating over their supposed return to power, were willing to look the other way while their new standard-bearer indulged himself with what seem ed to be a blind and peculiar vagary. Philip C. Jessup had been one o f the m ost im­ portant men in the IP R during all the years o f its m ost important treasonous activities. W orking hand in glove with his d o se friend, Frederick Vanderbilt Field, he had done everything he could to turn China over to the Communists and, after the mainland was lost, to see that both Korea and Form osa were aban­ doned to the Communists as well. Jessup had been

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officially listed as the sponsor o f several Communist fronts. H e was a protege o f Dean Acheson. H e was a great friend o f A lger Hiss, and had appeared as a character witness for H iss at H iss’trial. H e was a vigorous supporter o f Owen Lattimore. In hearings before the M cCarran committee, in November, 1949, he had been caught deliberately lying under oath about his previous attitude toward our recognition o f R ed China. H is reappointment by Truman, to represent the United States in the U.N. General A s­ sembly, had been refused recommendation by the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, because of his Communist associations and leanings, less than 1 year before Eisenhower was elected. The evidence o f Jessup’ s pro-Communist sympa­ thies, and of his unceasing and energetic efforts on behalf o f the Communist cause, was— and is— over­ whelming. Equally important for this discussion, those sympathies and actions were fully known to Eisenhower. But he brazened out the appointment, because he and his fellow Communists well knew the American people to be extremely short as to memory and long as to complacency. 7. Chester Bowles: Am bassador to India. This ap­ pointment was much easier for Eisenhower to get away with, because Bowles’sympathies had not been so well exposed. But it was equally revealing o f Eisen­ how er’ s purposes, to anybody who really looked be­ hind the scenes. Fortunately, we can put Bowles in his proper niche here with just one simple fact: He was one of the principal owners of the pro-Communist publication ‘ PM*. 8. Charles E. Bohlen: Am bassador to Russia. This appointment, also made so early in the Eisenhower administration, was declared even then by a discern­ ing few to be a portent of things to come. Senator McCarthy claimed that there were 16 pages of de­ rogatory material about Bohlen in the FBI security

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file on him. Senator Wayne Morse, ardently proBohlen, referred at first to “2 or 3,”then to “6 or 7,” and finally admitted 15 such derogatory reports. Bohlen was a protege o f Acheson, and another close friend o f A lger Hiss. Even at the hearings on his confirmation he still brazenly supported the Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences and agreements, in each o f which he had participated in a minor capacity. H e was vigorously endorsed by Senators Humphrey and Lehman. H e was confirmed, despite his record, because m ost of the Republican Senators put peace in the Republican Party at this stage above an honest foreign affairs policy, and shared the feeling expressed by Senator Taft that the appointment o f Bohlen was a relatively m inor question, not worth fighting over. They were wrong. F or Eisenhower was edging Com ­ munist sympathizers, right out o f the old AchesonH iss coterie, into every position o f importance that he dared. The total im pact o f this program was very impor­ tant indeed. A nd the total o f these “relatively minor matters not worth fighting over*’added up to a very clear revelation o f the gam e Eisenhower was playing. But nobody, or very few indeed, wanted to look. 9. Arthur H. Dean: Chief American negotiator in the truce with the Communists at Panmunjom. Al­ ready mentioned far earlier in these pages, so w e’ ll add little m ore about him here. H is sympathies can readily be seen from the fact that early in 1954 he stated publicly, with the prestige o f an American “Ambassador,”that we should take a “new look”at R ed China and “be prepared to admit them to the family o f nations. ”Had already given R ed China at Panrrmnjom everything they could think of to ask for except the White H ouse dome. Longtime law partner of John Foster Dulles. Arthur Dean was the one man who, m ore than any other, had blocked every effort to dean up the Institute o f Pacific Re-

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lations from the inside, and had kept it firmly and aggressively on its pro-Communist course. In addi­ tion to all o f which he is, right on the plain written record, one o f the m ost brazen and incorrigible liars that ever com peted in that category with A lger Hiss. 10. Allen W. Dulles: H ead o f the CIA. Brother o f John Foster Dufies. (They have a sister in the State Department whose pro-Communist slant is less dis­ guised.) Law partner o f Arthur Dean. Allen Dufies is the m ost protected and untouchable supporter of communism, next to Eisenhower himself, in Wash­ ington. H ow many millions o f dollars o f American tax­ payers* m oney Allen Dufies has turned over to Walter Reuther*s stooge, Irving Brown, to prom ote com ­ munism in fact while pretending to fight it (through building up the leftwing labor unions o f Europe), no­ body will ever know. H ow many millions he has turned over to David Dubinsky and Jay Lovestone, both admitted Communists but claiming to be antiStalinist Communists, on the specious excuse that it is best to fight the Kremlin through such opponents, nobody will ever know. H ow many millions he has supplied to the NTS, the phony Russian refugee anti­ com m unist organization, to enable its world-wide branches to wreck real anti-Communist organiza­ tions, none of us will ever know. N obody is allowed by the Eisenhower administration to get close enough even to ask. When a man as highly regarded and highly placed as M ajor General Trudeau, Director of Mili­ tary Intelligence, even began to suggest that the CIA under Allen Dulles was of no help in safeguarding America against Communism, Trudeau found himself quickly rem oved from office as head of Military In­ telligence and sent to routine duty in the Far East. When Senator McCarthy, at the very height of his popularity with the American people, began casting

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even random glances at the CIA, his days were im m e­ diately numbered. When a patriotic young American goes into intelli­ gence work, especially against as ruthless an enemy as the Communists, he knows that he is risking his life. H e knows that he must count on his own cour­ age, skill, and resourcefulness. But he has every right to expect loyalty to Am erica on the part o f those above him in his own agency. One month before that shuttlecock defector, Otto John, went over to the East German Communists, however, he spent a whole day in Allen Dulles’headquarters in Washington. Then, immediately after John’ s defection, our agents in central Europe began losing their lives. The inside report is that m ore than 160 were exposed and killed within the next several weeks. The inference that O tto John took with him from Washington the in­ formation that made this possible is clear. O f course there is no way to prove it. McCarthy, if he had been given the full pow er of the U. S. Senate behind his investigation, might have been able to uncover the whole rotten story, and to show that the C IA is the m ost Communist-infested of all the agencies of our Government. But Eisenhower was able to instead turn the pow er of the U.S. Senate onto the destruction of McCarthy. A nd Allen Dulles still goes his slippery way. *

*

*

*

For the sake o f honesty, however, I want to con­ fess here my own conviction that E isenhow er’ s moti­ vation is m ore ideological than opportunistic. Or, to put it bluntly, I personally think that he has been sym­ pathetic, to ultimate Communist aims, realistically willing to use Communist means to help them achieve their goals, knowingly accepting and abiding by Com ­ munist orders, and consciously serving the Commun­ ist conspiracy, for all o f his adult life.

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The role he has played, as described above, would fit just as well into one theory as the other; that he is a mere stooge, or that he is a Communist assigned the specific job o f being a political front man. In either case, the Communists are so powerfully en­ trenched by now that, even if Eisenhower disappeared from the scene, all the momentum and strength o f the forces we have seen at work would still have to be overcom e before we would be reasonably out of danger. The firm grip on our Government, of the forces that have worked through Eisenhower, is more important than Eisenhower himself. And so long as I can make clear the pow er and pervasiveness of the conspiracy, as it reaches right inside the White House, I have no wish to quarrel with any reader who finds it easier to believe that Eisenhower is a m ore person­ able Harry Truman than that he is a m ore highly placed A lger Hiss. For such an interpretation o f his conduct brings us out at almost exactly the same point as my own, so far as the disastrous effects on the present and future of our country are concerned. At this stage of the manuscript, however, perhaps it is permissible for me to take just a couple of para­ graphs to support my own belief. And it seems to me that the explanation of sheer political opportunism, to account for E isenhow er’ s Communist-aiding ca­ reer, stems merely from a deep-rooted aversion of any American to recognizing the horrible truth. M ost of the doubters, who go all the way with me except to the final logical conclusion, appear to have no trouble whatever in suspecting that Milton Eisen­ hower is an outright Communist. Yet they draw back from attaching the same suspicion to his brother, for no other real reason than that one is a professor and the other a President. While I too think that Milton Eisenhower is a Communist, and has been for 30 years, this opinion is based largely on general circum­ stances of his conduct. But my firm belief that Dwight

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Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious agent o f the Communist conspiracy is based on an accumulation o f detailed evidence so extensive and so palpable that it seems to m e to put this conviction beyond any rea­ sonable d ou b t This inevitably prom pts the third question, as to how a man b om in the American Midwest, who went through the U. S. Military Academy, could ever be­ com e a convert to communism (or even to the serv­ ice of communism for personal glory). The answer, o f course, is that very few could, or do. That’ s why there are probably not m ore than 25,000 Americanborn actual Communist traitors in the United States today— out o f a population o f 160 million. Those converts are m ost likely to occur among warped but brilliant minds, which have acquired either by inheritance or circumstances a mentality •f fanaticism. And it should be no surprise to any­ body that Eisenhower was raised with this mentality o f fanaticism, for as recently as 1942 his mother was arrested for participating in a forbidden parade of Jehovah’ s Witnesses. But whereas in m ost historical cases fanaticism takes the form of outspoken prom o­ tion of the fan atic’ s cause, at whatever petsonal cost, the Communists have sold their converts the funda­ mental principle that the goals of their fanaticism can best be achieved by cunning deception. Everything Eisenhower has done for the past 18 years can be fitted into the explanation based on that type of men­ tality. And I do not believe that the events of his per­ sonal story during those 18 years can be satisfactorily explained in any other way. The Communists can now use all the power and prestige of the Presidency of the United States to im­ plement their plans, just as fully and openly as they dare. The have arrived at this point by three stages. In the first stage, Roosevelt thought he was using the Communists to prom ote his personal ambitions and

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grandiose schemes. O f course, instead, the Com m u­ nists were using him; but without his knowledge or understanding o f his place in their game. In the sec­ ond stage, Truman was used by the Communists, with his knowledge and acquiescence, as the price he consciously paid for their making him President. In the third stage, in my own firm opinion, the Com m u­ nists have one o f their own actually in the Presidency. For this third man, Eisenhower, there is only one possible w ord to describe his purposes and his ac­ tions. That word is “ treason.** Thus ‘ The Politician.* M ilton Eisenhower is a Communist because, in W elch’ s opinion, he was a New Dealer and supporter o f Owen Lattimore. Maxwell Rabb is a Communist because he masterminded the Eisenhower candidacy for the 1952 Republican nomination. John Foster Dulles is a Communist because he was a friend of Dean Acheson, worked for a bi-partisan foreign pol­ icy, and the Communists won victories after he be­ came secretary o f state. Philip Jessup is a Com m u­ nist because he has been listed as the sponsor of several Communist fronts and was a friend of Acheson, Lattimore, and A lger Hiss. Chester Bowles Is a Communist because he was one of the owners of the liberal newspaper ‘ PM*. Charles Bohlen is a Commu­ nist because he supported the government’ s policy on the Yalta, Teheran, and Potsdam agreements. Arthur Dean is a Communist because he suggested that we should take a new look at the question of recogni­ tion o f Communist China. And Allen Dulles is a Communist because he accepts advice and help from labor leaders. Dwight Eisenhower is a Communist because he brazenly appointed these people in the face of their established records. And because he is patently a warped but brilliant mind, a hidden fanatic m olded

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In fanaticism by a mother w ho was an outright Jehovah’ s Witness. R obert H. W. W elch Jr., for all his explanations, has never recanted a w ord o f ‘ The Politician,* also known as the ‘ Black Book.’

3. The Man: *Separate Facts9 R obert W elch faces the future with equanimity. The 26-member council o f his John Birch Society has as one o f its principal functions “to select, with absolute and final authority, a successor to myself as head of The John Birch Society, if and when an accident, “suicide,” or anything sufficiently fatal is arranged for me by the Communists— or I simply die in bed o f old age and a cantankerous disposition.” The past W elch dism isses almost entirely. H e wrote in 1959 that during the year after he founded the John Birch Society, he was finally importuned to supply its members with som e information about himself. Before then there had been no personal notes in the literature o f the Society, he said, “sim­ ply because of my distaste for anything in the nature o f personal publicity. “The pressure from chapter leaders, members, and prospective m embers of the Society, however, has increased to the point of convincing me that the demand for m ore information about the founder of the Society is well justified, and even that it is unfair for me not to give at least a skeletonized biography to those who are willing to follow my leadership . . . “Even though this sketch is, at som e points, slight­ ly on the flippant side— to avoid any appearance of

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pom posity or stuffed-shirtism, which I detest— it is my hope that these few paragraphs will seem ade­ quate in substance and sufficiently dignified in treat­ ment to serve entirely satisfactorily the purpose for which they are offered.” The biography, or autobiography since W elch wrote it himself, is indeed skeletonized, exhibiting even a becom ing modesty. “B om D ecem ber 1, 1899, on a farm in Chowan County, North Carolina,”it says. “Ancestry full of fanners and Baptist preachers, traceable to one M iles Welch, who cam e to this country from W ales in 1720. Educated at University o f North Carolina (four years). United States Naval Academy (two years). Harvard Law School (two years), and school o f hard knocks (about forty years). Cam e to Boston from North Carolina in 1919. Has lived in Belmont for the past twenty years. Has one wife, tw o sons, a G olden Retriever dog, and fourteen golf clubs— none o f which he understands, but all of which he loves.” W elch was something of a dabbler as he searched for a career, but a competent dabbler. H e graduated from the University of North Carolina at the age of 17. H e was near the top o f his class at Annapolis after his first academic year, in 1918, but left because the war was over and, as he told the Naval Academy, he wanted to be a writer. Instead, he went to Har­ vard Law School, again getting good grades, but withdrew at the end o f his second year. H e ended up in the James O. Welch Co., a famous candy company run by his brother. It has been noted that he is som e­ thing o f an intellectual dabbler too, perhaps as a result of the fits and starts of his youth, who flits in rather superficial flashes from Santayana to Voltaire to Spengler to Spencer to Tennyson. “ Has been in the candy manufacturing business all o f his adult life,”the biography says. “Was for many years Vice President, in charge of sales and advertis-

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ing, o f one o f the larger candy manufacturing com ­ panies, with factories on both coasts, and o f its sub­ sidiary sales corporations in various cities through­ out the country. Is a director o f one bank, and has served as a director o f several other business corp o­ rations. “Was a m ember o f the board o f directors o f the National A ssociation o f Manufacturers for seven years. A lso served three years as a Regional V ice President of NAM, and two years as chairman o f its Educational Advisory Committee. Has been active in many other business associations and committees, and in many community and educational activities— including service on the Belm ont School Committee. “A s o f January 1, 1957, Mr. W elch gave up m ost o f his business responsibilities— and m ost o f his in­ com e— in order to devote practically all o f his time and energy to the anti-Communist cause.” R obert W elch cam e late in life to his study o f Com ­ munism. H e spent his youth as a salesman and his first book, published in 1941, was T h e R oad to Salesmanship.’During the Second W orld War Welch, who now demands an irreducible minimum o f gov­ ernment, served on the Office o f Price Administra­ tion ’ s advisory com m ittee for the candy industry. It was 1952 before he published his second book, his first on the subject of the ideological struggle, entitled ‘ May G od Forgive Us.’T w o years later, as he was for mutating ‘ The Politician,’he published his last book. T h e Life of John Birch.’It was another two years be­ fore he started his magazine, ‘ One M an’ s Operation.’ It is not atypical that W elch later changed the maga­ zin e’ s name to ‘ American Opinion.’ It was in the early 1950s that W elch first essayed an analysis of the world con flict Although he now insists that there is no possibility o f an armed clash between Russia and the U. S. and that the only dan­ ger to the nation is from internal subversion, he is-

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sued a prediction that the Russians then were plan­ ning an imminent invasion o f the United States. The W elch deadline for invasion is long since past. D espite such vagaries as the prediction, T h e Poli­ tician,* and the O PA — all o f which are om itted from his autobiography— W elch was during those years building a wide personal follow ing through his busi­ ness contacts, through the NAM, and, after the pub­ lication o f his books, through lectures. H e is com ­ pletely self-assured when in congenial circumstances, pleasant, quiet, with the appearance o f intelligence and wide scholarship. One o f the m ost striking o f his traits is an immense capacity for work. Since the organization of the John Birch Society, he has written nearly every w ord of the S ociety ’ s monthly bulletins of about two dozen pages, edited ‘ American Opinion’and frequently con­ tributed to it, maintained a crow ded speaking sched­ ule, run the S ociety ’ s hom e office, and perform ed the myriad duties necessary to a self-established autocrat H e also has a penchant for self-dramatization. Al­ though the evidence o f his devotion and industry is plain enough, W elch frequently issues m artyr’ s mes­ sages from the crypt of his office. In one o f the monthly bulletins he wrote, “Having been in this office two days and two nights without going home (but with a few quick naps on my davenport), in order to finish this bulletin on time, I shall now wind it up without any peroration.”W elch’ s com fortable home is a brief drive from the office. In the past, he has kept a rubber inflatable mattress in the office, in­ flated it after the workers had left for the day, slept on it in his clothes, and risen early to appear rumpled and bearded at the door where he greeted em ployees with the news that he had worked all night. A janitor gave away the deception. Both W elch’ s self-dramatization and his self-assur­ ance undoubtedly played a part in his departure in

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1957— a little less than two years before he founded the Society— from the candy company. Certainly there was m ore to his resignation than the autobiog­ raphy’ s cryptic note that he “gave up m ost of his business responsibilities— and m ost o f his incom e— in order to devote practically all of his time and ener­ gy to the anti-Communist cause.” In the words of brother James, R obert W elch “ be­ cam e interested in politics as a conservative Republi­ can, and gradually becam e m ore and m ore concerned with the inroads he felt the Communists were making in our country. H e started devoting m ore and more o f his time in trying to awaken the American people to the dangers o f Com m unism to the extent it becam e obvious he could not continue his activities in this connection, and at the same time properly fill his position with our company. “While his activities were not o f a controversial nature at that time, I felt strongly they had no place in a business like ours. H e elected to retire from the business in 1957.”R obert had been with the company for nearly a quarter of a century. James Welch, who feels his brother is “much too quick to condemn and criticize many good, patriotic Americans,”will not make a positive denial that his brother was forced out of the company. “I don ’ t want to imply there was a fight in the family,”he says, “al­ though frankly, we don ’ t see each other too often. I think it is distasteful to see two brothers fighting in public.” H e has issued instructions to com pany salesmen to let any inquirers know that R obert has no connection now with the company and owns no stock in it, and to insist in response to charges that the Society is antiSemitic that Robert “ has a host o f Jewish friends in and outside the candy industry.” However he left the company, his leaving gave W elch the final impetus for an idea which had been

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increasingly occupying his thoughts: the formation o f a militant, popular anti-Communist organization. H e had som e advantages. The extreme anti-Communists had had no rallying point since the death o f Joseph McCarthy. Their or­ ganizations were small, splintered, ineffective, and defensive. W elch had a wide acquaintance in con­ servative circles, a forceful personality, and a sound­ ing board for his opinions in his periodical,