A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism

Great Book But Contains Major Errors

Dr. Miller has written the definitive biography of Robert Welch. Significantly, Miller is the first scholar to get access to a portion of Mr. Welch's personal papers.

There are some errors in Millers' book particularly with respect to the number of actual members in the Birch Society and there is not enough recognition of Mr. Welch's very cozy or polite relationships with bigots (such as Verne Kaub, Gerald L.K. Smith and Merwin K. Hart) as well as Robert Welch praise or recommendation of bigoted sources of information.

Not many authors recognize that Welch invited life-long segregationists into the JBS as members, as employees, as authors/speakers, and as senior JBS officials including at least 4 JBS National Council members (T. Coleman Andrews Sr., A.G. Heinsohn Jr., Thomas J. Anderson, and Dr. Thomas Parker).

Parker was President of his local chapter of the White Citizens Council in Greenville SC. Andrews and Heinsohn created pro-segregation organizations and both were also members of other racist groups such as the Federation for Constitutional Government. Tom Anderson was a life-long white supremacist who even wrote an article justifying slavery that was published in the racist publication, The Councilor edited by Ned Touchstone. The FBI described Ned Touchstone, as "a rabid segregationist" and as a member of the KKK. [FBI-HQ 105-44536, serial #37, J. Edgar Hoover 07/27/66 reply to inquiry about Citizens Councils of Louisiana.]

Another example pertains to Rev. Ferrell Griswold of Alabama who was hired by the JBS to be one of their paid speakers. In 1963, Griswold contacted the FBI because he wanted them to send him 500 copies of an FBI publication which he could hand out at his speeches. The FBI memo on the matter makes the following comments:

"Griswold was interviewed by Agents of the Birmingham office on 09-26-63. During that interview he advised he was a member of the local JBS and attends meetings of that group regularly. Rev. Griswold stated he is a segregationist and is frequently invited to speak on the subject of constitutional rights and communism at local meetings of the Klan and other conservative organizations." [Griswold described the KKK as a "patriotic and conservative" organization. However, since 1947, the KKK was listed as "subversive" by the U.S. Attorney General and the House Committee on Un-American Activities also listed the Klan as subversive]

In addition, many people connected to the racist and anti-semitic Gerald L.K. Smith (and his organization, Christian Nationalist Crusade) were JBS members and/or financial supporters. Examples include: George B. Fowler (Holyoke MA), Dr. Hugh S. Ramsay (Bloomington IN), Olive Simes (Boston MA and she was a stockholder in Robert Welch Inc), Franklin Farrel Jr. (New Haven CT; he also was a financial contributor to the racist National States Rights Party in 1963), Edgar A. Scheubert (Chicago IL), and Paul H. Talbert (Beverly Hills CA, a JBS National Council member and in 1959 he gave $120 to Smith's organization which is equivalent to $1146 in 2021 dollars.)

In 1956, Robert Welch, left the GOP to campaign and vote for T. Coleman Andrews Sr., the Presidential candidate of the pro-segregation States' Rights Party. The Party motto at that time was "Segregation Forever!" In 1976, Welch again voted for a life-long white supremacist (Tom Anderson, American Party).

Several senior officials of the White Citizens Council movement were JBS members or employees (for example: William J. Simmons, Louis W. Hollis, and Medford Evans). Evans was a particularly virulent racist who also was employed by the JBS as a Coordinator and as a paid speaker. Evans edited the national publication of the White Citizens Council movement entitled "The Citizen"

In several instances, Robert Welch recommended publications (or authors) that were pro-Hitler during World War II such as Edward Delaney. In other cases, Welch recommended people or organizations that were described by the FBI as flirting with fascism -- such as Merwin K. Hart (National Economic Council, Inc.) and the American Flag Committee. In addition, the JBS recommended and sold publications by UK fascist, Nesta Webster. In 1926, Webster gave a speech entitled "The Need For Fascism in Great Britain".

Another bigot hired by the JBS was Australian Eric Dudley Butler who became the Far East Correspondent for the JBS magazine (American Opinion). He also became a paid speaker under the auspices of the JBS Speakers Bureau. In the September 12, 1958 issue of New Times, Butler wrote:

"What is meant by the word gentleman does not exist among Jews. The genuine Jew fails in this innate good breeding" and in 1960 Butler declared that "the constant repetition of the statement that the Germans murdered six million Jews is without doubt one of the most frightening examples of the successful use of the big lie technique to exaggerate the number of Jews murdered in order to make it easier for the Political Zionists to try and justify their own murderous and totalitarian policies."

In addition, Welch and the JBS recommended racist authors and publications in other countries such as S.E.D. Brown. Brown was a notorious anti-semitic, ultra-conservative, and pro-apartheid publisher of The South African Observer which promoted "scientific racism" articles by people like University of North Carolina Professor Wesley Critz George. Professor George wrote articles on the genetics of race and he was an ally of Alabama segregationist Governor George C. Wallace. Brown's views were so extreme that they were repudiated in 1967 by South African Prime Minister John Vorster. During World War II, Vorster was interned for his pro-Nazi and anti-government activities.

Many authors present false information re: the resignation of Revilo P. Oliver from the JBS in 1966. Often, Robert Welch is described as "purging" Oliver from the JBS because of Oliver's racist and anti-semitic beliefs. However, in reality, Oliver resigned from the JBS and Oliver initiated his own departure. Welch traveled to Olivers home in Urbana IL to encourage Oliver to withdraw his resignation and when Oliver did resign Welch told his National Council that he accepted the resignation with "reluctance". It should also be recalled that former FBI informant Herbert Philbrick (of I Led Three Lives fame) told the FBI in 1961 that based upon his contacts with Oliver in 1959, he (Philbrick) considered Oliver "to be an extremist in anti-Communist feelings and violently anti-Semitic." [FBI-HQ file 65-45027, serial #29, 2/1/61 memo from F.J. Baumgardner to Assistant Director Alan H. Belmont, page 2 which is FBI file on Revilo P. Oliver; also, in JBS HQ file 62-104401, unrecorded but just after serial #621]

But these types of errors must be understood in the context of the fact that our academic community has rarely done the granular research into Welch and the JBS (and the extreme right in general) which is required to discover the type of information which I have summarized above. There are numerous archives of personal papers at our colleges, universities, and state historical societies which have not been seriously researched by our academic community. In addition, the JBS is very reluctant to grant access to its own archives to any independent researcher so JBS history is mostly opaque, including information about its internal disputes or with respect to factual demographic information about