John Birch Society

THE JOHN BIRCH Society is a secretive, strongly anti-communist league formed in 1958. Founded by Robert H.W. Welch, Jr., the society was dedicated to the principles—as interpreted by Welch—of the life of John M. Birch, a captain in the U.S. Army who died on August 25, 1945, while on a military mission in China. The society was groundbreaking not only for its extremely conservative principles, but for its political organization as well.

Because of his fluency in speaking Chinese, Birch had been picked to head a mission into China just 10 days after Japan surrendered in World War II. As he moved across China with his party, they were stopped by Chinese soldiers. They took him and another leader of the group to a nearby village, leaving the rest of the group alone. Birch and the other leader were shot and stabbed by the soldiers and left for dead. A village peasant found the other leader barely alive, and managed to get him to safety. Birch, however, did not survive the soldiers' treatment. When the other leader returned to the United States, he testified at a congressional hearing about what had happened.

In the mid-1950s, Welch came across a transcript of this hearing and was taken by the story, both by the seemingly heroic figure of Birch, a modest army captain killed while carrying out his orders, and by the apparent treachery of the soldiers, because China was supposed to have been a U.S. ally at the time. These two points fit into Welch's overriding worldview, that two things were working together to cause chaos in the United States: 1) the actions of the U.S. government helped communism to flourish in places such as Korea and China, and 2) it did not take actions that would have helped stop communism's successes. Either way, clearly only one conclusion could be drawn, at least for Welch: America was under the control of a communist conspiracy. Therefore, there was only one course of action: patriotic Americans must act immediately.

Welch communicated his ideas routinely through publishing lengthy letters, which were privately distributed to the conservative-minded people he had met. Eventually, these letters were bound together, becoming known as The Black Book, and then later as The Politician. Admittedly, not all conservatives accepted Welch's views. Many were skeptical and believed the decline in America came from a decline in moral values rather than from communist infiltration. However, Welch and his ideas received enough acceptance that he decided to form the John Birch Society.

Welch identified 11 businessmen to attend the founding meeting of the John Birch Society on December 8, 1958. At this meeting, Welch argued that specific actions were needed to fight communism. What happened at this meeting was recorded and distributed through The Blue Book, therefore allowing Welch's ideas to circulate nationally. As a result, many people contacted Welch, asking for guidance in setting up their own chapters. The John Birch Society chapters met in people's homes to discuss politics.

The society grew very quickly, claiming tens of thousands of members within just a few years. More important than its official membership numbers, [Page 720]though, was its organization. Welch single-handedly led the society, but gave the impression that the ideas of other people, about where the society should go, were regularly considered. For example, the society publication American Opinion provided a channel—the Member's Monthly Messages (MMMs) Page—for individual chapters to regularly submit ideas to Welch. Each idea was acknowledged by paid headquarters staff members who simply responded with the appropriate society stance on the topic, but the acknowledgements invigorated the membership and thereby encouraged the first real grassroots conservative activism in America.

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