Another
Fine Specimen8 May 2005
Another
Fine Specimen
8 May 2005
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Things fall apart, the center cannot hold |
Let no man deceive you with vain words. |
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Ernie's Notes With a preface on the Eisenhower controversy A New Introduction I am republishing Ernie's notes. I do this in order to warn my countrymen of an internal danger. Conspiracy theory is not a harmless hobby. Timothy McVeigh was deeply enmeshed in conspiracy theory when he blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma City more than a decade ago. Many have been misled by an evil interpretation of history. And today the Internet is flooded by variations on this theme. If America enters into a time of troubles, conspiracy theory will double our trouble. I have already seen the effects of conspiracism on countless individuals. Good people influenced by evil ideas can do stupid things. And make no mistake. Conspiracy theory is evil. It is evil because the premises and conclusions of conspiracy appeal to the unrecognized dark side (i.e., the "shadow") of the individual. Late in life Carl Jung wrote The Undiscovered Self. The book begins with the following question: "What will the future bring?" Jung pointed to sinister signs. "Today ... we are again living in an age filled with apocalyptic images of universal destruction." In the late 1950s Jung was plagued by visions of a future holocaust. "We have no reason to take this threat lightly," he wrote. Jung explained that men do not know themselves. Their self-knowledge is "very limited." The broad belt of the unconscious mind, he said, "is immune to conscious criticism and control, [so] we stand defenseless, open to all kinds of influences and psychic infections." I believe conspiracy theory is a kind of psychic infection. The tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing is merely a foretaste in this regard. "As with all dangers," wrote Jung, "we can guard against the risk of psychic infection only when we know what is attacking us, and how, where and when the attack will come." The key is always self-knowledge. Modern thought has taken us away from self-knowledge toward something we call science. And science consists in rationalistic theories. Therefore, we find ourselves at the doorstep of conspiracy theory (which offers a rationalistic explanation for political irrationality). But here is the problem: The more we look for general answers in "theory," the less we suspect our own irrationality. The Bolsheviks did not see the darkness within, and they got Stalin. The Nazis did not see the darkness within (because they blamed the Jews), and central Europe was leveled. There is also the phenomenon of "groupthink." Theories that claim historical or scientific validity tend toward "mass-mindedness," wrote Jung, "which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity." In reaction to capitalist and socialist rationalization, conspiracy theory feeds off the individual's sense of helplessness before the mad march of events. The individual stands diminished, and in his feelings of diminishment the individual casts about for a perpetrator. For many conspiracy theorists today, President Bush is a tool of The Conspiracy. Fifty years ago the founder of the John Birch Society saw President Eisenhower as a tool of The Conspriacy. Ernie is a researcher who knows his subject. I highly recommend his information as an antidote to conspiracism. For those who think the John Birch Society's message is solid conservatism, a correction is needed. The leadership of the John Birch Society believes that communism is not the real conspiracy or the ultimate enemy. Birch Society leaders do not think China or Russia are serious military threats, but only Potemkin villages meant to scare us into creating a police state here at home. In their view, communism is merely a tool of a greater conspiracy operating through the Masons and other secret societies. Bircher theory holds that all of history, for many centuries, has been directed by a small conspiratorial group. This particular theory has long been discredited by serious scholars. It is similar to the favored conspiracy theories of the Nazi Party under Hitler. It dovetails with the thinking of the Black Hundreds of Russia and the Japanese imperialists. Those under the influence of unacknowledged dark impulses have held structurally similar beliefs about a master conspiracy. Birch Society founder Robert Welch was secretive about his real beliefs. Eventually Welch gave a speech in which he spoke of "the Illuminati" as the real impetus behind communism. Such statements isolated Welch as a fringe personality, and the Birch Society was marginalized as a result. Before Welch's beliefs were fully understood, the Birch Society had over 200,000 members. But after his anti-Semitic associations were exposed, and his lunatic theories about communism as a tool of a wider substratum of conspirators was understood, membership fell. Fifty years ago Welch suggested that President Eisenhower was a conspirator. This is the template of Birch Society thinking. The Birch line suggests today that President Bush is the enemy of the American people. The Birch Society denies the necessity of violent revolution to oust the conspiracy from power. They tell everyone who will listen that education is their method. But if our own leaders are the enemy, then revolution is a legitimate option; and that is what their teaching amounts to. It is amazing how this final conclusion correspondents exactly with the final conclusion of communism. -- JRN Ernie's Notes Recently, a JBS chapter leader accused me of lying when I pointed out that Robert Welch thought President Dwight D. Eisenhower was "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy." It amazes me how, even at this late date, many Birch Society members still parrot the Birch party-line with respect to this matter.
I obtained my photocopy of the unpublished version of The
Politician from G-2 Army Intelligence. The copy in their files
was first obtained circa January 1959 and appears to be an edition that was
last updated by Welch in June 1958 but printed in August 1958.
According to Robert Welch, the first edition of the unpublished manuscript
was completed in "December 1954 and
shown to about thirty of my best-informed friends. A much longer
version was finished in August, 1956 and has been read by perhaps sixty
friends."
The 1956 edition had 6000 words whereas the 1958 edition had 80,000 words
(287 pages). Ultimately, the unpublished manuscript version was sent
to "hundreds" of people before a published version appeared in
June 1963 with major editing and elimination of 3 paragraphs.
Army Intelligence, 108th CIC Group in New York, described the
unpublished version of The Politician in a January 14, 1959 memo,
as follows:
"An attack such as this one on the Chief
Executive of the United States of America can only favor those elements of
society who oppose the democratic processes by which we elect Presidents,
and as such, aids the cause of International Communism which the author
claims to abhor. The author must be considered to have become
unbalanced on his subject or to be consciously aiding the enemies of the
Republic. In view of his previous writings and background, it must be
concluded that his hate for Communism has obscured his judgement and that he
has written an unbalanced book."
In early 1959, The Boston Field Office of the FBI obtained a
copy of The Politician from Army Intelligence and forwarded it
to HQ. FBI HQ notified all of its Special Agents in Charge of Field
Offices about the manuscript and described it as "a
vicious attack" upon President Eisenhower and his
Administration.
In the Spring of 1961, Robert Welch publicly blamed "the media"
for the controversy that erupted at that time over The Politician
and he claimed that critics deliberately distorted what he wrote and
wrongly associated the Birch Society with his "private
letter".
At that time, Mr. Welch claimed that his manuscript was circulated as a
numbered "private letter" which was "on loan" to
interested, trustworthy individuals who would return it and keep it
confidential. Welch further claimed (falsely) that The Politician
had no relationship to the John Birch Society since it was written long
before the JBS was founded and was unknown to almost all its members.
As I will demonstrate in future postings in this Group, in the months
immediately following the creation of the JBS, The Politician
was used as a recruitment tool for the Society and represented a
"higher truth" which only certain "advanced" prospective
members could be trusted to understand. Welch
wrote letters in 1959-1960, to accompany copies of the
unpublished version he mailed out, in which he solicited members for
the Birch Society based upon their reading and acceptance of the themes,
evidence, and arguments presented in The Politician.
In addition: Revilo Oliver, one of the founding members of the Birch
Society, and an original member of its National Council, has written in his
1981 memoir, America's Decline: The Education of a Conservative, that
when he received his copy of the "private letter" in
October 1958, attached to it was "a
prospectus for the formation of a national society, then unnamed but later
known as the John Birch Society, and for the promotion, as an instrument of
that society, of the periodical, renamed American Opinion..."
Oliver reports that his edition of The Politician was 304 pages.
My copy (August 1958 edition) was 287 pages so it would appear that the
"prospectus" regarding formation of what would become the Birch
Society and American Opinion magazine was an additional 17 pages.
A typewritten addendum by Welch appears on page 287 of my
photocopy. It seems to support the Oliver version of this matter.
Welch begins by pointing out that he has given up his business
responsibilities "and am now devoting 'the
whole of my life'...to efforts to wake up my fellow citizens to the horror
and imminence of the Communist danger. If you would like to help me to
increase the reach and effectiveness of those efforts, there is a postscript
to this manuscript which I shall be glad to send to any reader who requests
it."
Moreover, with respect to the founding meeting of the Birch Society in
Indianapolis in December 1958, Oliver contends: "The
fact was that The Politician had presumably been read, and
had been at least tacitly approved by, every man present at the meeting in
Indianapolis, and was so far from having been 'disavowed' by anyone (except,
possibly, in private comments of which I had no knowledge) that I
recommended then and later that no one who had not read and approved the
document should be admitted to membership in the Birch Society."
According to Oliver, "Members of the
Council were requested, and members of the salaried staff were
instructed" to endorse "falsehoods"
about The Politician after the
controversy erupted in Spring of 1961.
In private, Robert Welch blamed the debacle over the
"private letter" on someone about whom most JBS members
probably had a high opinion---Frederick C. Schwarz (Christian Anti-Communism
Crusade). According to Welch, Schwarz was responsible for providing
a copy of The Politician to a Chicago newspaperman, via one of
Schwarz's employees, and it was the subsequent unfavorable publicity
resulting from Chicago and Milwaukee newspaper articles that
caused Welch so much grief.
Most Birch Society members swallowed whole everything that Welch told them
about The Politician (and most everything else for that
matter) -- and they believed that Welch never called Ike anything more
than an unprincipled, opportunistic politician.
However, one curious chapter leader in Wisconsin asked Welch to send
him a copy of the unpublished manuscript (which Welch did). After
the chapter leader confirmed that Welch did indeed call Ike a Communist,
both he and his entire chapter resigned from the Society!
Unpublished vs. Published Remarks about Ike
I have posted a scanned copy of two pages from the unpublished
version of The Politician in the "Files" section
of my Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FBIvsExtremeRight/
The pertinent paragraphs are on pages 266 and 267. In the
published edition, Welch is somewhat more guarded and theoretical in
his wording, but he still manages to defame Eisenhower and insinuate
that Ike was a traitor. After all, the chapter title in which even the
toned-down comments are made is: "The Word Is Treason"
!
Page 266, unpublished version:
"For the sake of
honesty, however, I want to confess here my own conviction that Eisenhower's
motivation is more ideological than opportunistic. Or, to put it
bluntly, I personally think that he has been sympathetic to ultimate
Communist aims, realistically willing to use Communist means to help them
achieve their goals, knowingly accepting and abiding by Communist orders,
and consciously serving the Communist conspiracy, for all of his adult
life."
Page 267, unpublished version:
"And it seems to me that the explanation of
sheer political opportunism, to account for Eisenhower's Communist-aiding
career, stems merely from a deeprooted aversion of any American to
recognizing the horrible truth. Most 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 Eisenhower 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
thirty years, this opinion is based largely on general circumstances of his
conduct. But my firm belief that Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated,
conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy is based on an accumulation of
detailed evidence so extensive and so palpable that it seems to me to put
this conviction beyond any reasonable doubt."
In the published edition which excises the section just quoted above, there
is a footnote on page 278 (# 2) and its text appears on pages
cxxxviii-cxxxix at the back of the book (the text appears below):
"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."
Welch's explanation above for excising 3 paragraphs from the original
edition makes very little sense. The themes, arguments, evidence,
premises, and conclusions contained in The Politician differ not
one iota from themes, arguments, evidence, premises, and conclusions in
official Birch Society literature from its inception. Both
attribute all of our nation's adversities and setbacks to conscious
deliberate actions by numerous prominent Americans in Administrations since
FDR occupied the White House. Explanations of motivation always center
around "treason" and "conspiracy" by numerous noxious,
subversive, and unprincipled characters.
Consequently, the most reasonable inference for why Welch felt
compelled to eliminate 3 paragraphs from the published edition of The
Politician, is the same reason why Welch initially falsely claimed
that his "private letter" had nothing to do with the JBS, namely,
Welch thought excising the "offending" paragraphs would
diminish negative publicity and retain those members (or prospective
members) of the Birch Society who might be offended by such an
unsparing denunciation and description of Eisenhower as an outright
traitor and "dedicated, conscious agent of
the Communist conspiracy."
To repeat Welch's rationale from page 267 of the unpublished version,
he was trying to accommodate those persons who could not "go
all the way with me...to the final logical conclusion."
The FBI HQ main file on the John Birch Society is 62-104401 and it consists of about 12,000 pages.
In addition, almost every FBI Field Office opened a main file on the Birch
Society. The primary FBI Field Office file is Boston 100-32899. Another
major file is the Los Angeles field file (100-59001) which totals
approximately 1800 pages.
It is almost impossible to specify the total number of pages of FBI
documents pertaining to the JBS because there are so many separate JBS-related
files totalling many thousands of pages on such topics as:
* JBS-front groups like Truth About Civil Turmoil and Support Your
Local Police.
* files on JBS publications (American Opinion magazine, JBS
Bulletin, and various
JBS-published books and pamphlets -- including Robert Welch's
unpublished
manuscript version of The Politician).
* files on numerous individuals associated with the Society such as Gen.
Edwin A.
Walker, Julia Brown, Delmar Dennis, Larry McDonald, Dan Smoot,
Harold L. Varney,
J.B. Matthews, Manning Johnson, Kent & Phoebe Courtney,
Slobodan Draskovich,
Revilo P. Oliver, Billy James Hargis and many others.
* files on numerous controversies whose primary actors
were often JBS members
including such controversies as:
+ purported
Communist infiltration of our clergy and religious institutions
+ Communist
influence or control within civil rights movement
+ local
disputes involving Birch activists -- which sometimes resulted
in lawsuits such as (a) Jonathan Goldmark (State Legislator, Spokane WA),
Joel
Dvorman (school board official, Anaheim CA), Gerda Koch (Minneapolis
MN
libel against Arnold Rose, the co-author of An American
Dilemma with
Gunnar Myrdal) and Elmer Gertz (Chicago lawyer who won his historic libel
lawsuit against JBS).
What follows is Part One of my
summary of FBI file content on the Birch Society.
The major sections of Part One are
as follows:
1. FBI Evaluations of Robert Welch and the John Birch Society
2. FBI vs. JBS on Internal Security Status of the U.S.
3. FBI vs. JBS on Communists in the Department of Health,
Education & Welfare
4. FBI vs. JBS on Dr. Harry A. Overstreet as a Communist
sympathizer or dupe
5. FBI vs. JBS on civil rights movement (Alan Stang's It's
Very Simple book)
Bibliographic citations appear in [brackets].
A major portion of Part One is devoted to the Birch
Society's attack on Dr. Harry Overstreet because it reveals how the JBS did
damage to our country by impugning the integrity and loyalty of Americans
who did not share their warped viewpoints. The Overstreet story also
reveals why top officials of the FBI viewed the Birch Society as
"extremist" and "irresponsible".
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1. FBI EVALUATIONS OF ROBERT WELCH
and THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY
In March and April 1961, news reports circulated among top Bureau officials
concerning the growth and activities of the JBS around the country.
Two memos in particular reveal the attitude of top Bureau officials.
In the first, Assistant Director C.D. DeLoach is informed about two letters
received from persons expressing concern about charges made by JBS members
in their communities.
"The Bureau has, of course, been cognizant
over a period of time of the many fanatical right-wing anti-Communist
organizations which are presently spreading widely throughout the country
and of their utterly absurd viewpoints. For your information, I am
attaching copies of letters dated March 6 and 8, 1961 from (names deleted
for privacy) which typify the absolute confusion and lack of confidence in
American institutions and one's fellow man being caused by representatives
of such organizations."
The letters attached to the memo concern two Birch Society officials.
(1) General William L. Lee, the Birch Coordinator in Amarillo Texas, and (2)
Fred Koch, a JBS National Council member from Wichita KS. Both Lee and
Koch had made what the FBI considered inflammatory comments about Communist
infiltration of our society. General Lee, in particular, was a
prominent exponent of the notion that our nation's clergy and religious
institutions had been infiltrated by Communists and Communist sympathizers.
[62-104401-789, March 15, 1961, D.C. Morrell to C.D. DeLoach].
In the second memo, Chief Inspector W.C. Sullivan informs Alan H. Belmont
(Assistant to the Director, in charge of the Bureau's Domestic Intelligence
Division) about a Time magazine article entitled "The
Americanists" which discusses the Birch Society. Sullivan
characterized the article as a "succinct
picture of a lunatic-fringe type of organization that is doing more harm
than good with a professional anticommunist attack on everything and
everyone opposing its own dictatorial policies."
Sullivan concluded his memo with the following
observation about the JBS:
"The supporters of this organization and
those influenced by the vicious propaganda it has been putting out are
typical of the fanatics who have been attempting lately to disparage and
discredit Bureau speakers who have been giving audiences a true, factual
picture concerning the nature of the threat which communist activities in
this country represent." [62-104401-791, March 9,
1961, W.C. Sullivan to A.H. Belmont].
The problem which Sullivan mentioned (attacks on FBI speakers) reached
a peak in the Fall of 1961. J. Edgar Hoover approved Sullivan's
proposal that he make several speeches around the country to address extreme
right charges that our clergy and religious institutions (especially the
Methodist Church) were significantly influenced or controlled by
subversives. Details concerning this matter will appear in Part Two of
this write-up.
Birch Society representatives in various parts of the country often made
requests for large quantities of FBI publications that they could
distribute to the public. At first, the Bureau readily provided bulk
quantities, but as the Bureau became more familiar with the ideology
espoused by the JBS, it underwent a dramatic change of mind.
In March 1961, Assistant Director C.D. DeLoach prepared a memo concerning
one particular JBS request made to the Los Angeles Field Office headed by
Special Agent Alexander. The request was for 10,000 copies of a Bureau
poster entitled "What You Can Do To Fight Communism".
DeLoach noted that "Alexander was advised
that in view of the extremist position taken by this group that we should
not, of course, have anything to do with them..." In
his concluding "Recommendation" paragraph, DeLoach said:
"In view of this irresponsible organization's
attempt to capitalize on the Bureau's prestige, it is recommended that an
SAC Letter be prepared instructing the field that no Bureau publications of
any kind are to be made available to this group or any of its
representatives." [62-104401-851, March 14,
1961, C.D. DeLoach to C. Mohr].
In a handwritten comment on the memo, J. Edgar Hoover wrote "YES"
on the recommendation and, subsequently, the SAC Letter was sent to all FBI
Field Offices
(SAC Letter 61-14, dated 3/21/61).
In April 1962, Congressman Claude Pepper of Florida ran an advertisement in
the Miami News captioned "Birchites Are Behind The Smear
Against Claude Pepper". The Bureau received an inquiry
asking whether or not Hoover had approved use of his name in the
advertisement as one of several prominent persons who had spoken out against
"smear tactics". At the bottom of a Bureau memo discussing
the matter, Hoover handwrote: "I would
no more give a boost to Pepper than I would to the Birchites. They are
two extremes and equally bad."
[62-104401-unrecorded, April 27, 1962, D.C. Morrell to C.D. DeLoach].
The Bureau received thousands of inquiries about the Birch Society and numerous
allegations that it made in its literature or in speeches/interviews by its
officials and members. The Bureau developed several standard replies
to answer people who wanted to know Director Hoover's evaluation
about the John Birch Society and its founder, Robert Welch.
One of the standard replies was as follows:
"Personally, I have little respect for the
head of the John Birch Society since he linked the names of former President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the late John Foster Dulles, and former CIA Director
Allen Dulles with communism."
[100-114578-152, October 22, 1965, J. Edgar Hoover to named deleted for
privacy. Also see 62-104401-3865, March 24, 1972].
Also see Hoover's testimony (copied below) before the Warren
Commission (Volume V, page 101) when he was asked about an article
on JFK's assassination that was published in the JBS magazine, American
Opinion:
2. FBI vs JBS EVALUATION OF INTERNAL
SECURITY STATUS OF U.S.
During the 1960's and beyond, the essence of John Birch Society thought was
that a vast conspiracy of Communists, Communist sympathizers, and Communist
dupes made substantial inroads into all areas of U.S. society.
In 1964 for example, a Birch Society pamphlet entitled "The Time
Has Come" declared: "Washington
has been taken over! By which we mean that Communist influences are
now in full working control of our Federal Government."
The annual Birch Society "Scoreboard" issue of American
Opinion magazine, reported in three consecutive years that the extent
of such Communist influence and control had reached a staggering 50-70%
level of success and in 1964 reached 60-80%. [American Opinion
Scoreboard issues, July-August 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964].
At about this time, Congressman Carl Elliott of Alabama wrote to Hoover to
request a statement concerning the status of our internal security.
Hoover's response to Elliott was published as a letter-to-the-Editor in the
Tri-Cities Daily of Sheffield, Alabama on Sunday March 31, 1963:
"The Communist Party in this country has
attempted to infiltrate and subvert every segment of our society, but its
continuing efforts have not achieved success of any substance. Too
many self-styled experts on communism, without valid credentials and without
any access whatsoever to classified factual data regarding the inner
workings of the conspiracy, have engaged in rumor-mongering and hurling
false and wholly unsubstantiated allegations against persons whose views
differ from their own. This is dangerous business. It is
divisive and unintelligent, and makes more difficult the task of the
professional investigator."
[Also see identical or comparable Hoover statements in February 5, 1962
letter 94-1-369-1676 and July 29, 1964 letter 62-109421-44 and August 6,
1964 letter 62-100942-156.].
3. FBI vs JBS on Communists in
the Department of Health, Education, Welfare
An example of the problem that Hoover described above is contained in Bureau
memoranda of February 1961 which pertain to a speech and article by JBS
National Council member Revilo P. Oliver. Oliver's statements
concerned alleged Communist infiltration into the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
ARTICLE: In his October 1959 American
Opinion article Oliver asserted that (1) between 70% and 80% of the
responsible officers in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW)
were members or accomplices of the Communist conspiracy, (2) that some DHEW
employees served as Communist couriers, and (3) that DHEW officials intended
to purge employees with anti-Communist tendencies.
SPEECH: In his March 1959 speech to
Illinois DAR, Oliver stated that "fully one-third of the top
echelon of Communist conspirators in this country" could be found
in DHEW and he cited former FBI Security Informant, Herbert A. Philbrick (of
"I Led 3 Lives" fame) as his source of information.
[62-104401-709, enclosure = "All America Must Know How Reds Work In
Government", Oliver speech before annual Illinois State
Convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution.]
ROBERT WELCH USES OLIVER INFO: At the first
meeting of the JBS National Council which was held January 1, 1960 in
Chicago at the Union League Club, Robert Welch said: "It
is estimated from many reliable sources that from 70% to 90% of the
responsible personnel in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
are Communists."
It seems clear that Welch did NOT rely upon "many reliable
sources" but, relied instead, just upon Revilo Oliver (whom
Welch once described as perhaps the "world's greatest living
scholar"). But notice that Welch garbled what Oliver said.
According to Welch, the percentage increased to a possible 90%
and he characterized all the suspect personnel as
"Communists" whereas Oliver was more ambiguous and used the
descriptive phrase "members or accomplices of the
communist conspiracy" amounting to perhaps as much as 80%
of DHEW personnel.
The FBI received numerous inquiries about this matter and HQ instructed its Boston
Field Office to contact Herbert Philbrick to discover what he allegedly
told Revilo Oliver. Here is the FBI memo summary on the matter:
"Herbert Philbrick, a former informant of the
Boston Office, has been contacted regarding Oliver's statements and has
advised he has never given Oliver any information concerning communist
infiltration of the DHEW, that he knows no one in this Department, and has
had no information concerning Communist activity in the United States
Government since at least 1944. Philbrick considers Oliver to be an
extremist in anticommunist feelings and violently anti-Semitic. The
Boston Office has advised there is no record of any statement regarding the
DHEW in its files emanating from Philbrick. Through a review of the
Bureau Security Index cards, it was determined that no employees of the DHEW
are included in the Security Index."
[62-104401-unrecorded, February 1, 1961, F.J.
Baumgardner to Alan H. Belmont]
At the conclusion of the Bureau memo concerning Oliver's DHEW charges,
Hoover handwrote: "I think we should take a closer look at
the John Birch Society. If it publishes such a publication it is
suspect."
Subsequently, Senator Milton R. Young contained Hoover to inquire into
Revilo Oliver's statement about extensive Communist infiltration into
DHEW. Hoover responded:
"This is, of course, a completely ridiculous
assertion and when a report of this matter was brought to my attention
recently it was promptly and emphatically denied as a fabrication."
[62-104401-751, March 10, 1961, J. Edgar Hoover to Sen. Milton R.
Young]
NOTE: According
to the FBI Security Index, there were 19
Communists working in the entire U.S. government as of 1959 (the
year Oliver first made his charges).
[HQ file 100-358086-2697].
It is precisely the wild statements made by
Welch and Oliver about DHEW that exemplified why the Bureau
became suspicious of anyone connected to the Birch Society and why Hoover
frequently made statements about the dangers inherent in "self-styled
experts on communism, without valid credentials" engaging
in "rumor-mongering and hurling false
and wholly unsubstantiated allegations..."
4. FBI vs. JBS on Dr. Harry A.
Overstreet as a Communist sympathizer or dupe
During its entire existence, the Birch Society has claimed that it is an
"educational" organization, "whose only weapon is the
truth". According to founder Robert Welch in the
Foreward to the Blue Book of the John Birch Society:
"For our enemy is the Communists, and
we do not intend to lose sight of that fact for a minute. We are
fighting the Communists -- nobody else."
[JBS Blue Book, 12th printing, 1961, page ii, emphasis in the original].
Nobody else??
In 1970, the JBS published a pamphlet by its founder, Robert Welch, entitled
"What Is The John Birch Society?". In it, Mr. Welch
sought to summarize the accomplishments of the JBS during its first 11 years
of existence. He singled out his 1959 campaign against Dr. Harry A.
Overstreet, author of the 1958 book, "What We Must Know About
Communism".
Mr. Welch stated that an article appearing in the October 1959 issue of the
JBS magazine, American Opinion (Edward Janisch, "What We
Must Know About Overstreet", pages 35-46), "showed
the blatant falsehoods to which Harry Overstreet has resorted in connection
with his earlier and continuing close affiliations with Communists and
support of Communist purposes."
In the American Opinion article, Janisch states that the Overstreet
book, "attempts to make palatable certain
notions which would, if accepted, by large numbers of Americans, render us
helpless in the face of the onslaught of World Communism."
[American Opinion, 10/59, page 44].
Note: Who was Edward Janisch and what are his credentials for
evaluating internal security matters? A search of all usual
databases and references discloses that Mr. Janisch had no paper trail,
i.e.no master's or doctoral dissertation listings, no articles listed in Reader's
Guide To Periodical Literature, no books or other publications in
major university and college library catalogs or in the Library of
Congress, no index listings in the New York Times, no biographical
sketch either in American Opinion or Current Biography or Who's
Who in America, or The Directory of American Scholars. In
addition, there is no record that he ever contacted or interviewed Harry
Overstreet nor anyone associated with Harry, particularly those persons who
had expertise in internal security matters. I can report, however,
that after considerable research I was able to discover that Janisch
was an Assistant Professor of Government at Slippery Rock College (now known
as Slippery Rock University) in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
In his American Opinion article, Janisch sarcastically
characterizes the philosophy underlying the adult-education career of
Dr. Overstreet as follows:
"If, on the other hand, you are one of those
'backward souls' who believes in God, love of country, free enterprise,
investigations of Communism...then you are 'immature'; and quite possibly,
according to Professor Overstreet, you are on the road to mental illness."
[American Opinion, 10/59, p. 35].
The reference to investigations of Communism will be, as the reader will
shortly discover, a particularly vapid and dishonest criticism by Janisch.
Janisch continues by describing "all of the books" by Dr.
Overstreet thusly:
"His writings are one of the little webs,
along with many other webs the Communists weave together to make up the Big
Lie of their total web of deception. He does his work with half-truth,
glittering generality, misplaced emphasis, significant omission, and other
tricks that mark the prolific popularizer and propaganda hack." [Ibid,
pg 35-36].
In case Janisch's nasty insinuations aren't transparent enough, he then
offers what he believes is the Communist evaluation of Dr. Overstreet's book
on Communism:
"And the ghost of Stalin must be whispering
to Khrushchev, 'for this, there should be dancing on our side of the
street'." [Ibid, page 35].
According to Janisch:
"Another generation--if we are still
free--may well remember the Overstreets' 'What We Know About Communism, as a
stupendous attempt that was designed to soften us at the very hour of our
crisis...because the book attempts to make palatable certain notions which
would, if accepted by large numbers of Americans, render us helpless in the
face of the onslaught of World Communism." [Ibid, pg
44].
In what will shortly become apparent as a particularly egregious
comment, Janisch criticizes Dr. Overstreet because: "Here
is a book on Communism in which not one of J. Edgar Hoover's somber warnings
is mentioned..." [Ibid, pg 44].
In a July 17, 1961 memo to all members of the JBS National Council, Welch
discussed suggestion #6 in the JBS Blue Book which was to expose "largely
through American Opinion...the real sympathies (as disclosed by their
actions) of those who are assiduously helping the Communists without their
true purposes of the significance of their actions being realized."
In particular Welch referred to the Janisch article mentioned above as one
example of the type of article he had in mind:
"And our article on Overstreet served well a
more specific purpose. It enabled our members in many parts of the country
to block completely, or offset the effect of, speaking engagements by this
octagenerian phoney, and thus materially to reduce the amount of poison he
was pouring into the minds of good Americans from his position of previously
unchallenged prestige."
Here, then, is a summary of information
contained in key
FBI documents about Dr. Harry Overstreet
and his wife Bonaro:
A November 1954 memo summarizes the Bureau relationship with Dr. and Mrs.
Overstreet:
"Years ago, Dr. Overstreet got mixed up with
some leftwing groups and the Overstreets came to Washington approximately
three years ago...to straighten out the record." They
were advised by the FBI to submit affidavits to the House Committee on
UnAmerican Activities concerning their past front associations and
contributions and they did so. The memo continues:
"In addition, the Overstreets went to the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and Bob Morris used them on a couple
of occasions as witnesses. They were very effective in testifying
against the Communist aims in education."
According to their primary Bureau contact, (Louis Nichols): "There
is no question in my mind but that if any one was ever duped through
naievety, it is the Overstreets and I think they are doing their utmost in
trying to redeem themselves."
[100-114575-28, November 22, 1954, Louis B. Nichols to Clyde Tolson].
In a September 1955 memo, Assistant Director Nichols again discusses the
Overstreets:
"We helped them 3 years ago in explaining
away contributions to front groups and the like. They have been very
grateful and I have gotten them very much interested in bringing about
better understanding in academic circles toward the Bureau."
In October 1955, J. Edgar Hoover dictated a letter of congratulations to
Harry on the occasion of his 80th birthday, with the letter to be delivered
personally. In early 1956, Hoover sent Overstreet a thank-you note in
recognition of a pro-FBI letter that Harry had published in the Washington
Post.
After the retirement of Louis Nichols, the Overstreets continued their
relationship with the Bureau through Chief Inspector William C. Sullivan.
In September 1958, a Sullivan memo mentions that he encouraged the
Overstreets to write a book "against
communism directed toward liberals and progressives, et cetera, who would
not normally read a book condemning communism."
Sullivan then observed that he provided considerable assistance to the
Overstreets during the preparation of their book entitled "What We
Must Know About Communism". The assistance consisted of loaning
public source material from FBI files and spending "approximately
one night each week (7:00pm to about 11:00pm) during the winter
months...devoted to reading and analyzing the materials the Overstreets were
preparing."
[100-114575-90, September 19, 1958, and 100-114575-88, October 1, 1958, William
C. Sullivan to Alan H. Belmont].
In another memo, Sullivan states that "while
working with the Overstreets on this book I purposely had them direct 95% of
their thinking to the world communist movement believing this would best
supplement the Director's book which was directed almost 100% to the
communist movement in the United States."
[100-114575-92, November 25, 1958, Sullivan to Belmont].
A formal review of the Overstreet book was prepared at the Bureau in October
1958 after Harry sent a copy to Hoover inscribed from both him and
his wife as follows:
"To J. Edgar Hoover -- With personal
gratitude for what you have superbly done for all of us."
The review concluded that "this new book
represents cogent advice to the thinking public. It reflects ideas
common to the thinking which has gone on in the Bureau for many years."
[100-114575-91, October 1, 1958, W.C. Sullivan to Alan H. Belmont].
It was described as a "welcome new aid" in combatting
Communism.
In December 1958, Hoover wrote to Harry after reading a newspaper article
about him:
"I have seen the interesting article about
Mrs. Overstreet and you which appeared in the December 3, 1958 issue of the
'Northern Virginia Sun'. It is always a pleasure to read about good
friends because it serves as a reminder of happy associations. It is
good to see your fine work recognized in this fitting manner, and your many
friends in the FBI join me in sending our best wishes"
[100-114575-93, December 5, 1958, J. Edgar Hoover to Harry Overstreet]
In early 1959, J. Edgar Hoover declined a dinner invitation by Harry
Overstreet but replied to him as follows:
"I do hope that your fine book 'What We Must
Know About Communism' will enjoy excellent sales and wide reading throughout
1959. We need more and more people like yourselves who will devote
their nationally recognized academic talents to the exposure and ultimate
defeat of the menace of world communism."
[100-114575-95, January 21, 1959, J.Edgar Hoover to Harry Overstreet].
In January 1959, Director Hoover was contacted by the Attorney General
to solicit his evaluation of the Overstreet book. The AG wanted to
know if Hoover agreed with a favorable review written by columnist
Roscoe Drummond which appeared in the Washington Post of 1-26-59. Hoover
replied that he did agree with the Drummond column and Hoover suggested
that all Justice Department employees should be encouraged to read the
book.
Assistant Director C.D. DeLoach requested and received Hoover's permission
to contact the Director of the Americanism Commission of the American Legion
to request that they add the Overstreet book to their recommended reading
list. Per DeLoach's letter, "We agree
that it is a good one and would you please put it on your approved list?"
[100-114575-100, February 2, 1959, W.C. Sullivan to A.H. Belmont, and,
94-1-17998-139 attachment, February 2, 1959, C.D. DeLoach to American
Legion].
The controversy over Overstreet and his book continued for years often due
to the JBS smear campaign against him and his wife which took the form of
attempting to get Harry's speaking engagements cancelled due to his alleged
pro-Communist sympathies and/or by planting hostile questioners in his
audiences.
In February 1961, J. Edgar Hoover responded to an inquiry about the
Overstreet book. The Bureau file copy has the following notation:
"We have had cordial relations with Dr. and
Mrs. Harry Allen Overstreet and have furnished them considerable assistance
in connection with their books."
[100-114575-115, February 17, 1961, Hoover to name deleted for privacy].
Overstreet 1964 book, The Strange Tactics
of Extremism
In early 1964 Overstreet was sent material to assist him in refuting charges
made by extreme right individuals and groups including Edgar Bundy (Church
League of America) and Dan Smoot (former FBI Special Agent). Bundy,
whom the FBI described as "a professional
anticommunist with whom we have absolutely no dealings" had
misrepresented Director Hoover's statements in a 1949 article on Communist
influence in religion, and, Dan Smoot was in the habit, from the Bureau's
perspective, of making "unfactual and
inaccurate statements...concerning national and international problems"
and was wrongly capitalizing on his former association with the Bureau to
inflate his credibility.
Harry Overstreet furnished advance excerpts to the Bureau of his
forthcoming book on the extreme right in the summer of 1964. The
Bureau's favorable review concluded that: "From
our point of view, there does not appear to be anything objectionable."
Assistant Director C.D. LeLoach handwrote an observation on the memo about
the Overstreet chapter on Dan Smoot:
"I'm glad they're doing this. It's about time someone called his
hand."
[100-114575-139, July 23, 1964, M.A. Jones to C.D. DeLoach].
In October 1965, J. Edgar Hoover wrote 90th birthday greetings to Harry
"on Director's note paper used for special
congratulatory purpose" which was delivered personally and
read to Harry by Assistant Director William Sullivan:
"By utilizing your unique experience and
abilities in the field of education and psychology in your analyses of
communism and its threat to freedom, you have contributed significantly to
the intelligent and, therefore, more effective opposition to
communism."
[100-114575-153, October 25, 1965, J. Edgar Hoover to Harry Overstreet].
Overstreet 1969 book on FBI
In 1969, W.W. Norton Company published The FBI In Our Open Society
by Harry and Bonaro Overstreet. Director Hoover was so impressed with
the book that he notified all Special Agents in Charge of Field Offices via
SAC Letter 69-14, dated 2/25/69: "This
is an excellent book and portrays the FBI in a most favorable way."
Hoover announced that the Bureau had made arrangements with the publisher
for a special discount price and he instructed SAC's to "survey
your personnel and advise the Bureau promptly of the number of books to be
sent to your office." The Bureau added the
new Overstreet book to its "Autograph Card Form 8-2" which
contained those publications which the FBI distributed at no charge with
"best wishes" from Hoover himself. Hoover also instructed
Special Agent J. Sizoo to prepare a synposis of each chapter so that Bureau
personnel could use the summary as a "ready
reference...in rebutting numerous unfounded claims against the
Bureau..."
[66-04-3648, SAC Letter 69-14, February 25, 1969 and
100-114575-184, June 4, 1969, A.W. Gray to W.C. Sullivan].
When Harry died in 1970, Hoover sent a condolence telegram to his wife
Bonaro:
"I was deeply saddened to learn of Dr.
Overstreet's passing and want you to know you have my deepest sympathy.
Words certainly are inadequate at a time like this but I hope you will
derive some measure of comfort from knowing that others share your
sorrow...You can be justifiably proud of the many contributions which he
made to his country and the high esteem in which he is held."
[100-114575-195, August 19, 1970, J. Edgar Hoover to Bonaro Overstreet].
In its 1959 Report, the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on
UnAmerican Activities portrayed Dr. Overstreet as an expert on communism of
the caliber of Eugene Lyons, Elizabeth Bentley, Whittaker Chambers. Louis
Budenz and others. The Report mentions that Overstreet was invited by
the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee to participate in hearings
concerning the internal menace of communism. The California
Subcommittee describes Overstreet as follows:
"Mr. Overstreet is an example of a
non-Communist liberal who was attracted to a few of these front
organizations, found out what they were all about, and had the courage to do
something about the problem instead of shrinking away from the experience
and remaining silent. Many people who have had similar experiences--in
fact the overwhelming majority of them--are content to remain
silent..." [1959 Report, pages 169 and 183].
Robert Morris, the former Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Internal Security
Subcommittee, had a close personal relationship with the Overstreets.
Morris wrote to me in March 1989 about the Overstreets. Here is an
excerpt:
"I did know Harry and Bonaro Overstreet in
the late 1950's and 1960's. They were introduced to me by Louis
Nichols when he was Assistant Director of the FBI. They were most
helpful to me in my capacity of Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Internal
Security Subcommittee...They became my friends and I am still grateful for
their friendship."
Morris invited the Overstreets to testify as expert witnesses before the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS).
[See Harry and Bonaro Overstreet testimony: "Reaching Through To
Young Minds" in Education For Survival in The Struggle Against
World Communism: A Symposium - SISS, 4/12/62 Committee Print.]
Former FBI Security Informant Herbert A. Philbrick of "I Led 3
Lives" fame wrote to Senator William Proxmire in 1961 concerning his
sources of information regarding Communist infiltration into the U.S.
Government.
"During my lectures across the country,
however, I do refer frequently to scholars and others who have extensive
knowledge in this area." Among the persons he cited
as experts were: Harry and Bonaro Overstreet, Robert Morris, James
Burnham.
[Boston FBI file 66-1020-575, February 11, 1961, Herbert A. Philbrick
to Sen. William Proxmire].
Ironically, the Birch Society attacks on Overstreet and his book What We
Must Know About Communism were echoed by Communist Party officials such
as William Z. Foster who described the book as "an
extensive collection of prejudices, distortions and so-called arguments".
He went on to say that the Overstreets "make
the usual bourgeois idealization of capitalist society...a sort of God-given
system beyond the reach of criticism." Foster stated
that the Overstreets maliciously attacked the USSR when they denied it was
either democratic or peace loving.
[William Z. Foster, The Overstreets' Kampf, Mainstream, May 1959,
pp 39-44].
A reviewer for the World Marxist Review also attacked the book and
the Overstreets and claimed that they did not understand capitalism
plus distorted facts and falsely described Communism as conspiratorial.
[E. Arab-Ogly, Executors of John F. Dulles' Will, World Marxist
Review, 10/60, pp. 83-86].
Harry probably deserves a spot in the Guiness Book of Records
because he must be the only supposed Communist sympathizer who
ever wrote a highly favorable review of J. Edgar Hoover's book, Masters
of Deceit!
[June 1958 National Parent-Teacher, pg 32] (national PTA
magazine).
5. FBI vs. JBS on civil rights
movement (Alan Stang's It's Very Simple book)
Control and domination of the civil rights movement by subversive elements
is a constant theme in JBS literature during the 1960's. In the June
1965 JBS Bulletin, Mr. Welch observed:
"Our task must be simply to make clear that
the movement known as 'civil rights' is Communist-plotted,
Communist-controlled, and in fact...serves only Communist purposes."
In the November 1965 JBS Bulletin, Mr. Welch strongly recommends
Alan Stang's book entitled It's Very Simple: The True Story of
Civil Rights because, in Welch's words,
"It gives the whole picture of the 'civil
rights' development, as a part of Communist strategy, more completely and
convincingly than anything else available."
Again, in May 1966, Mr. Welch uses the JBS Bulletin to praise the
Stang book:
"This book, because of its thoroughness,
its comprehensive coverage of the whole 'civil rights' story, and its
meticulous documentation, is the best single searchlight we have for
exposing the 'civil rights' fraud."
In May 1965, the Special Agent in Charge of the Boston FBI Field Office
forwarded proof sheets of the Stang book to FBI Headquarters, two months
before scheduled publication. An evaluation of the book was prepared
for Assistant Director W.C. Sullivan by F.J. Baumgardner:
"It's Very Simple is an
attempt to rationalize today's civil rights movement in this country as
primarily a communist operation...Practically all his documentation is to
public source material and there is no significant information in the book
which appears to be new and previously unknown to the Bureau. Stang makes
frequent use of literary license and importantly fails to include
documentation for key passages (examples appear on pages 101 and 185).
An entire chapter (14) is devoted to an attack on civil rights legislation
and the book, in general, is critical of all Administration and other
efforts aimed at improving the lot of the Negro."
[100-106670-1412, May 28, 1965, and 100-106670-1525,
June 24, 1965, both F.J. Baumgardner to W.C. Sullivan].
The concluding "Observations" paragraph states:
"The details of the book do not
support the strong conclusions reached by the author. We have had
available to us all the material which Stang has plus considerable
additional data from our investigations and we could not arrive at such
conclusions. The impression is received that Stang may have well started
with his conclusions and then developed the information and manner of
presentation which he hoped would prove his point. This work must be
viewed in the light of the author's apparent close connections with Robert
Welch and the John Birch Society." [Ibid]
J. Edgar Hoover described the civil rights movement as "a
great and too long neglected cause of human rights" in
our country [FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Introduction, April 1965].
In December 1964, he observed:
"Let me emphasize that the American civil
rights movement is not, and has never been
dominated by the communists--because the overwhelming majority of civil
rights leaders in this country, both Negro and white, have recognized and
rejected communism as a menace to the freedoms of all."
[J. Edgar Hoover, 12/12/64, Our Heritage of Greatness, pg 7 -
Hoover speech before Pennsylvania Society and the Society of Pennsylvania
Women; emphasis in original].
Ernie has filed many FOI requests from the FBI and has developed a solid data base. Those who understand the damage done by John Birch Society conspiracism will appreciate his work. - JRN |