Posted on 11/11/2010 1:05:53 PM PST by USSR Didnt Fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqXVYTKKMec&feature=player_embedded
The JBS was right.
I was listening to Bernie Sanders with my wife on CSPAN last night. I wanted her to see what a true socialist was about—every statistic he used was true and entirely misleading (out of context). The biggest lies are the truth out of context.
Bernie knew exactly what he was doing.
Yep I am not sure why the Goldwater administration distanced themselves from the JBS?
Were there any credible criticisms back then?
Welch as their spokesman was dead on.
Mr. Welch was famous for suggesting that Eisenhower was a Communist.
Thank You for posting this.
What a shame the press succeeded in making the John Bircher into a radical organization in the eyes of the public. When indeed he was absolutely on the right track and was wisely warning us what to watch for in America and its coming government.
Bircher’s are still a solid organization that seeks to keep America true to the United States Constitution. They are for preserving what is good for America, and that is not socialism, communism, or Marxism.
Read their statement of purpose.
He did more than suggest. According to Welch, Ike was "a conscious, dedicated agent of the communist conspiracy." IMO this single statement was the most damaging to the credibility of the JBS than any other.
I think the charge about Eisenhower was in his “black book” which was different from the “blue book” which set up the JBS, but it certainly made it easy to paint hin as a crackpot. I remember going to a fair as a kid where there was a John Birch Society tent—they had a TV monitor playing Robert Welch making a speech (basically the “talking head” kind of thing, in black and white). Not something that would attracted a lot of the fairgoers, especially the kids.
http://www.fortliberty.org/bill-buckley-barry-goldwater-and-the-john-birch-society.html
Buckley finally denounced the society in the National Review:
How can the John Birch Society be an effective political instrument while it is led by a man whose views on current affairs are, at so many critical points . . . so far removed from common sense? That dilemma weighs on conservatives across America. . . . The underlying problem is whether conservatives can continue to acquiesce quietly in a rendition of the causes of the decline of the Republic and the entire Western world which is false, and, besides that, crucially different in practical emphasis from their own.
Goldwater risked his political career by responding supportively in the next issue of the same magazine:
I think you have clearly stated the problem which Mr. Welch’s continued leadership of the John Birch Society poses for sincere conservatives. . . . Mr. Welch is only one man, and I do not believe his views, far removed from reality and common sense as they are, represent the feelings of most members of the John Birch Society. . . . Because of this, I believe the best thing Mr. Welch could do to serve the cause of anti-Communism in the United States would be to resign. . . . We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.
This story is as important now as it was forty years ago. The wounds which Bill Buckley and Barry Goldwater gave the John Birch Society turned out to be far from fatal.
There were several connections that I have found that make the case especially having to deal with grain deals with the USSR.
To be fair to Mr. Welch, he was more than a bit dismayed that Ike did NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH to repel the obvious Communist infestation of the US Government.
Why didn't Eisenhower and his DoJ do more to help disinfect America from Communist moles? Is it not fair to state that Eisenhower was a Commie enabler?
As it turns out Welch was R-I-G-H-T about the Commie blueprint to destroy America from within. As to what Ike was or wasn't, during his watch Commie-Socialists made great progress and were never challenged as "un-American again.
Sorry, Ike was not a commie.
IMO quite frankly, Ike helped sandbag the investigation of the Commie investigation and swayed it purposely in the wrong direction. For whatever reason.
Challenging a recent WWII hero and President as strongly and personally as Welch had was not going to win the day.
If Welch had softened his claims, made the target more ambiguous, and led observers to question the circumstantial evidence, the unpleasant truth was on his side.
Not claiming he was.
History strongly suggests he was an enabler however.
Ike and the FBI knew Commies were crawling all over the place, yet the investigations got shut down before they got too deep as McCarthy got hung out to dry.
Bottom line? It was more politically expedient to ignore the heavy Commie infestation rather than embarrass the U.S. State Dept. and Eisenhower Administration, and previous Dem Administrations.
Agree with that, but "conscious, dedicated agent of the communist conspiracy" was over the top.
Ever so slightly.
;-)
I have the 1959 edition of ‘The Blue Book of the John Birch Society’. My grandfather had it and it somehow ended up with me. I have no idea if he was ever a member of the JBS and he died 40 years ago so I can’t ask him. I don’t believe he was. But that book is some very interesting reading, let me tell you. It’s a cold war primer.
‘Not claiming he was.’
Welch and the JBS did claim it, making them forever damned politically. No one with any sense would associate themselves with this. Any other truths or good they may have done is condemned forever because of it.
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