Robert Welch - The Blue Book of The John Birch Society [Fifth Edition]

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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

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THE BLUE BOOK OF THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

BY

ROBERT WELCH

Fifth Edition

But on one mans soul it hath broken,

A light that doth not depart;

And his look, or a word he hath spoken

Wrought flame in another mans heart.

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEBRUARY 22, 1961

DEAR READER:

The first few working chapters of The John Birch Society were formed in February, 1959, exactly two years ago. They have been a long two years.

During that period the whole world has moved, by what should be the measure of a century, further into an era of darkness, slavery, and terror. Our own country has suffered from as much turpitude and treason as would ordinarily require a generation to put together. And those of us trying to build up the strength and effectiveness of The John Birch Society, under the pressures that have prevailed, feel that we have lived through a decade on the brink of a breaking point.

Naturally we have faced extensive and malicious attacks from both the open and the disguised Left. Nothing more is required today to bring down on any mans head a torrent of smears from the liberal establishment than: (a) to deny the beauties of the welfare state; or (b) to seek to preserve the opportunities and responsibilities of the individual; or (c) to suspect the venality of any of the establishments painstakingly manufactured but clay-footed gods, with their synthetic haloes. And we have done all three.

Also we have suffered from open opposition, objective condemnation, and undercover punches by our allies of the Right. These too were to be expectedalthough we confess to surprise at the quarters from which a few of the attacks have come. Unquestionably some of the criticism has been due to sincere differences of opinion, as to ideology or as to methods. But our growing in just two years to a size and strength that many of these groups have been unable to attain in a decade, or in a lifetime, has produced inevitable resentment. So we have been able unhesitatingly to ascribe most of the confidential reports and whispering campaigns against us, on the part of other conservatives, to nothing more serious than the normal jealousies and petty hypocrisies of mankind.

We have taken them all in stride as well as we knew how. Certainly we have gone on supporting, to the best of our ability, every individual and every group that we have believed to be honestly opposing the collectivist advance, regardless of the obstacles that individual or group might be deliberately putting in the way of our own organizational efforts and our substantive activities. And we intend to continue to do so. Tackling ones own backfield does not seem to us to be a sensible way to win a ball gameor a war.

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 . Being fully aware of the imminence and horror of the danger we face from that source, we have no intention of being distracted by the carping of our friends, or of those who should be our friends and we hope will be our friends in time. For if we do there is entirely too much likelihoodas we have already said elsewhere and many timesthat in a few short years we shall all be hanging from the same lamp posts, while Communist terror reigns around us.

Our greatest problem, however, has been neither the lies of the Left nor the recriminations of the Right. It has been the difficulty of getting the ordinary patriotic American citizen to sit up and take an honest look at what is really happening. Contributing most to that difficulty are three factors which we have also identified and discussed on many earlier occasions. First is the apathy of the American people, induced by the incessant cackling of the Communist chorus: There aint nobody here but just us liberals. Second is the vested interest in error, now held by so many millions of Americans. They have accepted and believed so much Communist propaganda in the past that they must now defend it as their own. Third is a circumstance which, unlike the other two, has not been created by the Communists themselves. But it has long been depended on by the Communists, and is still depended on by them, as one of the greatest forces working in their favor. This is the fact that the fundamentally decent American mind simply refuses to grasp the kind of enemy with which it now has to deal.

As you will see, The John Birch Society gets into this fight against the Communists through incidental necessity. Visibly, we must halt and rout these organized forces of evilor help mightily to do sobefore we can get on with our positive and constructive program. And it is difficult to discuss the future improvement of the landscape and gardens around a beautiful home while a vicious enemy is throwing incendiary bombs at the house.

But it is our total program, with all of its dreams and ideals and aspirations, for which we here seek your consideration, and ultimately your support. We are fully aware that this presentation in print of the background, methods, and purposes of The John Birch Society is not nearly so effective as when I can give it personally to a selected small group of leaders, in a full two-day meetingas I have now done some twenty-eight times since the Society was founded. This Blue Book, however, will still serve to give any really interested person a clear understanding of what we are trying to do and how and why, in this huge undertaking for which we are now receiving so much help and encouragement.

Sincerely,

DECEMBER 9, 1959

DEAR READER:

The John Birch Society was founded at a meeting in Indianapolis, on December 9, 1958. Of the eleven men who had met me there on Monday morning, December 8, for the two-day session, one had come from Oregon, one from Kansas, one from Missouri, two from Wisconsin, one from Illinois, one from Indiana, one from Tennessee, one from Virginia, and two from Massachusetts.

These were all influential and very busy men. But they were also patriotic and public-spirited enough to have come to Indianapolis for the two full days, at my invitation, without knowing the reason for the meeting. For there was simply no way I could explain this reason in advance. With short breaks for coffee, for luncheons, and for brief discussions in between sections of the presentation, it required the two whole days to set forth the background, methods, and purposes of The John Birch Society. The pages that follow are simply a transcript, practically verbatim, of that presentation.