The JBS: alive, well, and growing; the leader of the Americanist cause for over 40 years, the John Birch Society continues to work successfully for less government, more responsibility, and a better world. (Americanism).

If there had been even one chapter of the John Birch Society in Havana prior to 1959, working to expose Castro as [John Birch Society founder] Robert Welch was at the time, Cuba would not have fallen to Communism.

--Major Pedro Diaz Lanz

Former chief of Fidel Castro's

air force

I am going to destroy The John Birch Society.

-- William F. Buckley

Major Pedro Diaz Lanz paid the above tribute to Robert Welch and The John Birch Society after defecting to the United States in mid-1959. Like many other Cubans, he once believed in Fidel Castro. So much so, in fact, that he transported supplies to Castro's guerrilla army and became chief of his small air force, a position he continued to occupy after Castro seized control of Cuba.

And why shouldn't he have embraced Castro? Wasn't the bearded one a modern-day Robin Hood who wanted to end the exploitation of the poor by the rich? Wasn't he the George Washington of Cuba? Didn't he (in the words of Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times) possess "strong ideas of liberty, democracy, social justice, the need to restore the Constitution, to hold elections"? And weren't he and his fellow revolutionaries (again, in Matthews' words) fighting "for an ideal and for their hopes of a clean, democratic Cuba"?

Major Diaz certainly thought so. And so did many others, both in Cuba and the United States, whose only knowledge about Castro came from the media. Matthews' account was particularly significant, not only because he wrote for the Times but because he had clandestinely visited Castro while the revolutionary was holed up in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains.

Castro a "Communist"? As far as the major media were concerned, the notion was preposterous, not only prior to Castro's coming to power on January 1, 1959 but for many months afterward. In July 1959, for example, Times correspondent Matthews still claimed: "This is not a Communist revolution in any sense of the word and there are no Communists in positions of control." That attitude was so pervasive that years later, during a 1963 press conference, former President Dwight David Eisenhower claimed, "It would have taken a genius of prophecy to know that Castro was a Communist when he took control of Cuba."

But Robert Welch warned that Castro was a Communist as early as September 1958 -- three months before launching The John Birch Society, four months before Castro rode triumphantly into Havana, and 39 months before Castro boasted to the world that he was a Communist in a televised speech. In that same speech, Castro acknowledged that he had kept his Communism hidden from public view "because otherwise we might have alienated the bourgeoisie and other forces which we knew we would eventually have to fight."

Those forces included many beguiled Cubans. They even included some of Castro's fellow revolutionaries, such as Pedro Diaz Lanz. Ordinary Cubans, like ordinary Americans, didn't have a clue about Castro's evil intent. They had no awareness of Castro's Marxism-Leninism as presented in the September 1958 issue of American Opinion, wherein Welch wrote: "Now the evidence from Castro's whole past, that he is a Communist agent carrying out Communist orders and plans, is overwhelming. The evidence from his method of operation is even more so." Nor did they know that in December 1958, at the founding meeting of The John Birch Society, Welch warned: "if you have any slightest doubt that Castro is a Communist, don't. If he is successful, time will clearly reveal that he is an agent of the Kremlin."

The latter statement soon appeared in print in The Blue Book of The John Birch Society, the transcript of Welch's two-day presentation that led to the Society's founding. But very few Americans, and virtually no Cubans, were aware in 1958-1959 of Welch's warnings, or the evidence upon which those warnings were based. On the other hand, the American people were aware of what the New York Times and other major media organs were saying. The Times, Matthews boasted, is "the most powerful journalistic instrument that has ever been forged in the free world." True enough. And if the Times had told the truth about Castro (if Welch, a private citizen, knew, isn't it reasonable to believe the Times was aware?), its message would have reached Havana through the Cuban people's many American friends.

A Winning Strategy

Robert Welch built The John Birch Society to provide the organized means to circumvent the major media, to inform and activate the American people, and to resist the conspiratorial drive to destroy freedom. "We do not have to be too late, and we do not have to lose the fight," he said at the founding meeting. "Communism has its weaknesses, and the Communist conspiracy has its vulnerable points. We have many layers of strength not yet rotted by all of the infiltration and political sabotage to which we have been subjected. Our danger is both immense and imminent; but it is not beyond the possibility of being overcome by the resistance that is still available. All we must find and build and use, to win, is sufficient understanding."

What kind of understanding? Welch recognized that more than a rudimentary grasp of ideology was required. In Cuba prior to Castro, Major Diaz and others had already recognized that Communism was bad, but that amount of understanding did not save them. Obviously, if the age-old fight between freedom and slavery were limited to an ideological contest conducted on a level playing field, freedom would win every time. But there was no level playing field in Cuba or anywhere else where tyranny had already triumphed.

Despots like Castro must rely on deception to accomplish their evil ends. The same is true for the Insiders who sponsor them. They must deceive since no one wants to be enslaved. This is why shining the light of exposure on conspiracy is so necessary. As Medford Evans explained in American Opinion shortly after Robert Welch's passing, "Welch insisted, over and over, that the danger was not a body of ideas (important as those are) so much as a body of men, particularly a group of individually capable men in league with each other -- a powerful conspiracy seeking ever greater power."

In fact, the top Insiders undoubtedly do not themselves believe in Communist philosophy or, for that matter, in any of the other "snake oil" ideologies they peddle. Their intent is to acquire power, and ideology for them is nothing more than a smoke screen to hide their true purpose, the widespread knowledge of which would derail their plans.

Welch also recognized that an organized conspiracy cannot be effectively exposed unless good people are also organized. This is true even when accurate information is disseminated to counter the bad. In the April 1969 JBS Bulletin, Welch cited several examples of the "important part" the written word has played in various battles between freedom and slavery throughout history, including Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars versus the works of Cicero, the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau versus those of Robison and Abbe Augustin Barruel, and the works of Karl Marx versus those of Adam Smith. Yet Welch emphasized that "these various battles have not been decided by the books themselves. You will note that the above authors on the side of individualism lost their fight despite the moral and literary superiority of their works. The reason for their defeat is quite simple -- but extremely important. The books by the collectivists were used as part of an organized campaign -- they were part of an actio n program -- whereas the individualists tragically thought that by simply bringing out their books victory would be theirs. They were terribly mistaken."

Welch continued:

The point here is that simply publishing good books, articles, and pamphlets, and even getting them distributed, is not, by itself, enough to win this battle. This literature must be read, it must be put to use, and it must be a part of an overall, concerted plan of action. And this is exactly what The John Birch Society has been doing, and must continue to do in the future....

The members of the society have performed a Herculean task in the volume of books and pamphlets they have put into the hands of awakening Americans. But the success of this work is not in the numbers distributed and would have had no permanent value but for the fact that these various printed works fitted into an important part of the program of The John Birch Society. And herein lies an accomplishment of which to be immensely proud and one of great significance.... The discipline of the Society has done much to unify the Americanist forces and to guide them down the line of concerted action.

The organization Welch created to expose the collectivist conspiracy -- and, later, to advance the Society's long-range goals of "less government, more responsibility, and -- with God's help -- a better world" -- was not confined to a central headquarters. Nor was it based on a political quick fix, such as trying to elect an appealing candidate. Without first creating sufficient understanding, trying to elect a good candidate in the face of a hostile media would be futile. On the other hand, even leftist and opportunistic politicians will respond favorably when pressured to do so by well-informed constituents.

Welch recognized that needed understanding could develop only through grassroots organization. And this is why the JBS is organized in chapters from coast to coast. He understood that what happened in the living rooms of America would eventually determine what would happen in the halls of Congress.

Yes, the Society does have a central office. But that office -- located in Appleton, Wisconsin, and staffed by about 45 employees -- is set up, not to relieve the American people of their responsibilities in the freedom fight, but to supply those who join the JBS with the necessary tools and direction so that they can win the freedom fight themselves. That is, in fact, the only way this fight will be won.

In the July 1977 JBS Bulletin, Welch explained the importance of relying on grassroots organization and membership:

The John Birch Society set out early to build up a properly staffed educational army which was to create the only form of opposition that the Insiders of a Master Conspiracy did not know how to overwhelm or to destroy. This growing opposition consisted of exposing the background, methods, purposes, and progress of that Conspiracy so as to generate more public understanding of what was taking place, and a resulting grass-roots resistance to many of its projects. To some extent our activities have constituted primarily a continuation of the effort begun by Joe McCarthy. But with one vital difference. McCarthy had no grass-roots organization for implementing his arguments or extending his reach. And without such permanently organized popular support he and his whole effort could be, and were, completely destroyed in the six years of 1951 through 1956.

But our operation was based on the membership formula. Nor do we mean a temporary and tenuous membership in some political action group; or in some academic propaganda organization where the members' contact with headquarters was only by mail. The basic features of our organizational pattern have been continuous, palpable, and real. We required regular periodic meetings and specific activities that were carefully planned and coordinated. And the cost of supplying able officers, whom we call our field staff, for inspiring, guiding, and supervising these several thousand platoons or chapters, has been so great that not a single other American organization in this fight against the Conspiracy has even attempted to maintain a paid and professional field staff. Yet this very sound and solid core of all our effort is what caused the Insiders to be so disturbed and frightened by The John Birch Society that they set out almost at once to destroy it.

This organizational concept undergirding the Society is both effective and simply grasped. After defecting to this country, Major Pedro Diaz Lanz had the opportunity to observe that effectiveness firsthand. At the end of a Society-arranged speaking tour, he wrote to Robert Welch: "I have seen with my own eyes the magnificent work you accomplished all over this beautiful land, in alerting thousands of people through the organized effort of the John Birch Society.... Thanks with all my heart for letting me work with all of you in this magnificent task." He even told an acquaintance that "If there had been even one chapter of the John Birch Society in Havana prior to 1959, working to expose Castro as Welch was at the time, Cuba would not have fallen to Communism." To fully appreciate the value he attached to the kind of informed, organized opposition he saw in the JBS, it must be kept in mind that a single chapter seldom consists of more than a few dozen members.

A Personal Odyssey

The remainder of this chapter is best written in the first person. I have been a member of The John Birch Society since 1964 and a member of the staff since 1966. Like Major Diaz, whom I came to know, I have observed firsthand the organization's effectiveness. But the similarity between his experiences and my own does not end there. Prior to our involvement in the JBS, we were both beguiled by a supposed champion of freedom whose actions undermined the cause of freedom. In Diaz' case that man was Fidel Castro; in my own case it was William F. Buckley.

I do not mean to suggest, of course, that Buckley was ever a third world dictator, or a mass murderer, or even a Communist. Yet if it is true that the pen is mightier than the sword, the effect that Buckley's words have had in the ongoing struggle between freedom and slavery should not be ignored. Castro had a military arm, and he seized political power. Buckley commands no army and has never held public office. Yet he played a pivotal role in diverting mainstream, conservative Americans away from constitutional principles and limited government, and toward more government and more internationalism. The path he has blazed can only lead, ultimately, to the kind of total and absolute government Castro enjoys in Cuba, though on a global scale. The fact that the end result most likely will not be called "Communism" will not make it any more tolerable or benevolent.

Buckley has also harmed the cause of freedom by declaring war against The John Birch Society. He has not destroyed the JBS as he had intended to do. Yet every chapter not formed because of his efforts meant less resistance against encroaching tyranny. Moreover, he was undoubtedly far more effective than any liberal journalist could have been at stunting the growth of the JBS since he ostensibly held the same core beliefs as the conservative constituency the JBS set out to reach and organize.

I was a part of that constituency before I had heard of either the JBS or Buckley. After leaving the Marine Corps in 1960, I started employment with an electronics firm in Massachusetts. A friend at work introduced me to Buckley's National Review before the year ended, and I loved it. The conservatism I'd been reared on (my dad was a fan of John T. Flynn, Joseph McCarthy, Westbrook Pegler, George Sokolsky, and Robert Taft) enjoyed a revival after several years of lying dormant.

Early in 1961, like all Americans of that period, I learned of the existence of The John Birch Society. The mass media informed me and every other American that it was a secret, fascist, un-American collection of crazies who threatened the American dream. My own reaction to what I heard and read was sorrow that such an organization could ever have been formed in my country.

The radio, television, newspapers, and magazines continued to lambaste the JBS throughout the entire year. But Buckley and National Review said nothing, and I wondered why. Finally, in February 1962, the magazine published a six-page editorial attacking Robert Welch. According to Buckley, Welch was a dangerous screwball who was unworthy of the many good people who had signed on with the Society.

Having already been accused of being "one of those Birchers" by co-workers who heard me protesting the liberalism coming out of Washington, I developed an antipathy toward the JBS. This organization, I thought, had given liberals an opportunity to tarnish any conservative. So I read those six pages more than once, embraced Buckley's attitude, and wrote a short note thanking him for his explanation.

I was truly surprised when my letter appeared in the magazine. The very day it was delivered to my home, a letter also arrived from a JBS member who obviously had seen the magazine a day or so earlier. By simply noting my city and state appearing along with my name, he found my address easily enough in the telephone book. His letter essentially asked a simple question: Was I basing my attitude about Robert Welch because of what he had stated, or because of what others had stated about him?

Good question, I thought. Other than quotes appearing in the mass media, and the few selections chosen by Buckley, I had never seen anything written by Welch. So, I wrote back to the JBS member and offered to look at whatever he thought I ought to see. My intention at that point was to show him how wrong both Welch and he were. But I found the requested information to be well-written, reasonable, tasteful, and somewhat compelling. Still, I wasn't convinced that Welch was right and Buckley was wrong. I decided to do some more digging.

I soon found out what being a JBS member means. The man who wrote to me kept in contact. He invited me to a meeting, and I attended with two curious friends. The meeting wasn't anything special, but we chipped in to buy a set of the "One Dozen Candles," the paperbound, out-of-print books Welch had republished. Among these, I found John T. Flynn's While You Slept, Arthur Bliss Lane's I Saw Poland Betrayed, George Racey Jordan's From Major Jordan's Diaries, and other truly important books I had never come across. As I read these, I felt gratitude that Robert Welch had made them available. When I read others, both my gratitude and my concern for my country rose in tandem.

But I also wondered about Welch's condemnation of Dwight Eisenhower. Hardly any criticism of the Society failed to mention Welch's startling conclusion about the former president. "What did Welch actually say?" I asked when next contacted. And I was told that he'd written a 300-page letter that hadn't been published. I wondered silently if it hadn't been published because it couldn't be defended. So I asked a further question: "Why would you affiliate with a man who strongly condemned the former president without knowing exactly what he said or why he said it?" And the answer to that piqued my curiosity even more. The JBS member on the phone responded, "I already know enough about Eisenhower to know that the image he has been given doesn't match his performance."

I had served for three years as a Marine officer while Ike was in the White House. He had been my commander in chief. Now I was being asked to conclude that I had been seriously ill-informed about what had been occurring during those years and several before. Even though I had by now read some of those out-of-print books and become increasingly concerned about much of what they related, I decided at that point to let the Birchers go their way, and I'd go mine. But the plucky JBS member gave me a copy of The Blue Book of The John Birch Society and, after I read it, my concerns for my country grew more intense. Nevertheless, the Eisenhower issue held me back.

In the fall of 1963, another JBS member called to inform me that Robert Welch's book about Eisenhower, entitled The Politician, was now available. "How can I get a copy?" I asked. "It costs eight dollars," came the response. I honestly could not afford an extra eight dollars. (Remember, this was 1963.) I had a wonderful wife, three babies, a mortgage, and a car payment. We were a very happy family, but we were living on the edge. So I told him I'd get back to him soon.

Several months later, the two-dollar version of The Politician became available. I met still another JBS member, bought a copy from him, read it over the next few evenings, and decided right then and there that 1) Robert Welch wasn't a screwball; 2) Buckley was dead wrong about Welch; 3) I'd been deceived about Ike; and 4) I wanted to join The John Birch Society.

JBS Accomplishments

Over the ensuing three decades plus, my appreciation for Robert Welch and the crusade he launched has soared. Having been a part of the organization for most of my adult life, I am firmly convinced that Major Diaz was not exaggerating when he said that a single JBS chapter could have stopped Castro from coming to power. I also believe that we would be living in slavery today if Robert Welch had not founded the JBS and tens of thousands of members had not rallied to the cause, sometimes exhibiting the dedication usually associated with martyrs. And I believe the JBS today is the only force on Earth capable of preserving our freedoms. I cannot prove these things in the same way that a mathematician can prove a mathematical formula. But I believe them nonetheless. My belief has been shaped over many years of observing members in action. I know what Birchers can accomplish. I know that the only ingredient the organization needs in order to rout this "Master Conspiracy" (as Robert Welch identified it) is more memb ers.

These statements will undoubtedly seem strange to anyone who hasn't seen the Birch Society at work as I have. After all, the major media says little about the JBS these days, and when they do, they oftentimes dismiss it as an artifact of a bygone era. But press coverage should not be equated with accomplishment, particularly when the press views the JBS as something to be ignored, even scorned. In fact, treating the JBS as insignificant is merely a sophisticated extension of the smear campaign leveled against the organization in the 1960s. From the point of view of the smear artists, one problem with giving the JBS any attention is that some people may examine the group and decide its worth for themselves, just as I and many others did during the '60s. The smear artists' solution: Treat the JBS as if Buckley really did kill it! Or, when it is mentioned, pretend that it never had any real impact and is now a ghost of its former self.

Occasionally some truth about the organization's cumulative accomplishments seeps out. Some of it can be found even in mainstream media articles intended to smear the organization. Such was the case when the May 13, 1996 Christian Science Monitor published a rant by Ira Straus entitled, "When Conspiracy Theory Replaces Thought." Straus should know something about how the world works, since he was once executive director of the Establishment-spawned Association to Unite the Democracies (which seeks a federation of democracies, a stepping stone to world government). In his Monitor article, he complained:

For decades, the John Birch Society has spread word of the Conspiracy: The international bankers who pull all the strings. The ones who really control both the Communist conspiracy and the United States government. The Trilateral Commission. The Federal Reserve, which is ruining our money. The Council on Foreign Relations -- psst, they're out to destroy the Constitution, take away our guns, and enslave us in a United Nations One-World Communist government. Their code words: "New World Order."

So runs the Birchist fantasy, spun out in dozens of books distributed in millions of copies. An estimated 5 million to 10 million Americans believe this stuff. Tens of millions more are under its influence. Straus's estimate of JBS effectiveness could be grossly understated. The same year his article appeared, the University of Virginia and the Gallup Organization produced a joint study entitled. The State of Disunion: 1996 Survey of American Political Culture. The study included face-to-face interviews with a national sampling of to its conclusions, 77 percent of Americans agree that "the government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves." The survey additionally found that "one quarter of the population do repeatedly express the conviction that the government is run by a conspiracy; and one in ten Americans strongly subscribes to this view."

In his article, Straus disparaged Americans who hold such a viewpoint as "paranoids," "crackpots," and even "dangerous -- capable of blowing up federal buildings." He fumed: "Conspiracy theory is doing America real harm. Long incubating underground, it has grown into the greatest enslaver of human minds since communism. It irrationalizes thinking on every issue. It kills. It turns millions of Americans against their own country."

This vicious diatribe stands in sharp contrast to the University of Virginia/Gallup survey, which found: "(Their viewpoint] does not lead 'strong conspiracy' types to reject the American system as a whole or to withdraw from political participation altogether.... Not only are those who suspect an elite conspiracy likely to vote, but they are actually more engaged politically than other Americans, if writing letters and discussing politics is considered political engagement." Moreover, they "are as likely as anyone to say that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world." Unfortunately, not enough of these good Americans are involved in an organized, concerted-action program to expose the Conspiracy, or the problem would already have been solved. Buckley has always worked to keep these individuals away from The John Birch Society.

The Society has played a crucial role in creating understanding about the existence, objectives, and modus operandi of the Conspiracy for global control. The Conspiracy's key objective is to create a world government under the United Nations, ostensibly for the benefit of all mankind but in reality for the benefit of the Insiders who would rule the world. The UN threat is not in competition with the Communist threat but is in fact another route to the same end. It is no exaggeration to say that a UN-controlled world would be a Communist-style world (in substance if not in name). Under the UN, the Iron Curtain that once divided Europe would, in effect, engulf the entire planet.

During the height of the Cold War, many good Americans could easily detect the external threat of Communism but not the internal threat of betrayal by leaders who supposedly had America's best interests at heart. But only our leaders can surrender American sovereignty to the UN. Welch saw the danger early on, warning at the JBS founding meeting in 1958 that part of the conspiratorial plan "is to induce the gradual surrender of American sovereignty, piece by piece and step by step, to various international organizations -- of which the United Nations is the outstanding but far from the only example...." Soon thereafter he launched the Society's "Get US out! of the United Nations" campaign -- a campaign that has not only continued to the present day but has recently been intensified.

During the 1970s and '80s, the JBS delivered to Congress over 11 million petition signatures seeking to Get US out! of the UN. The process of collecting those signatures included the creation of much-needed understanding. It is impossible to measure the cumulative impact of the Society's decades-long Get US out! campaign on public opinion, but it must be profound. Undoubtedly, the Society's campaign has been responsible for millions of Americans rejecting the dangerous notion that the UN is "mankind's last, best hope for peace" and concluding instead that the U.S. should withdraw.

This awakening has also had a major impact on Congress. There was a time when the UN was so widely trusted that no more than a congressman or two would have dared called for U.S. withdrawal from the world body. But attitudes have changed. In 1997, the Get US out! campaign won a limited victory when, for the first time in the history of our nation's involvement in the world organization, Congress voted on a measure calling for our nation to withdraw. Fifty-four members of the House voted for it. Then, in 1999, Congress voted on a measure that would have cut off U.S. funding to the UN, thereby effectively ending U.S. participation. This time, 74 congressmen voted yea. Both measures were introduced by Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), who commented in 1998 that "the beneficial educational impact of the John Birch Society over the past four decades would be hard to overestimate."

It would take many pages to document all the accomplishments of the JBS since its founding in 1958. Because of space limitations, a couple examples from recent years will have to suffice:

* Killing Anthony Lake's nomination: After President Clinton nominated Anthony Lake to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1996, THE NEW AMERICAN (our Birch-affiliated magazine) published an important article exposing his subversive background, including his connections to the KGB-linked Institute for Policy Studies. Birchers swung expeditiously into action, alerting others about Lake's background, especially key members of the House and Senate. The result was the scuttling of the nomination, and the Birch effort did not go unnoticed in the Establishment press. During the height of the campaign, a January 17, 1997 New York Times lead editorial sought to salvage Lake's selection. It noted: "The John Birch Society and other opponents are busily assembling a Lake dossier -- widely circulated on the Internet -- that depicts him as a dangerous radical." Then, an op-ed piece by Douglas Brinkley in the February 10th New York Times complained: "After Mr. Lake was nominated for Director of Central Intel ligence, the John Birch Society and other anti-government fringe groups launched a smear campaign.... In an error-ridden article in THE NEW AMERICAN ... William F. Jasper ... found a pattern of anti-Americanism.... The diatribe would not be worth mentioning except that its ludicrous charges have been picked up, in slightly milder fashion, by mainstream conservative publications like The Washington Times...."

* Impeaching President Clinton: The Society launched its "Impeach Clinton Now!" campaign in November 1997, months before the scandal involving Monica Lewinsky surfaced. The Society's network of A.C.T.I.O.N. (Activate Congress To Improve Our Nation) committees focused on the impeachable offense of bribery. A.C.T.I.O.N. provided solid evidence that the president had accepted funds for his re-election campaign from the Chinese regime and its American high-tech collaborators. In response, Mr. Clinton arranged for shipments to Beijing of militarily sensitive equipment in a scandal known as "Chinagate." Although Clinton was not impeached for Chinagate, it is likely he wouldn't have been impeached at all without the Birch effort.

Shortly before the House voted to impeach Bill Clinton, the Washington Post noted that "early impeachment activists" included "the leaders of the John Birch Society," and that, "together, their success is a demonstration of how a determined and ideologically committed group can change the course of history...." Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.), one of the early voices calling for impeachment, noted: "I don't think we would have even gotten an impeachment inquiry vote without the efforts of A.C.T.I.O.N. and other grassroots mobilization efforts." Although Clinton was acquitted by the Senate, his impeachment sent a powerful message regarding abuse of power.

Both these successes were achieved decades after the Establishment fired its big guns at the JBS, supposedly leaving it for dead. The Establishment's number one gunner was Buckley, who had told friends: "I am going to destroy The John Birch Society." How successful was Buckley? Not terribly -- not when the organization he targeted for destruction is given credit for impeaching an elected president for the first time in American history. (*)

The JBS is now focusing most of its efforts on getting the U.S. out of the UN. To those who scoff that this is an unrealistic goal, I say, "That's exactly what the naysayers were claiming with regard to our efforts to impeach President Clinton."

Looking Ahead

When I joined The John Birch Society, I was still puzzled as to why William F. Buckley would attack such a worthwhile organization. It took me many years to conclude that Buckley knew exactly what he was doing. He attacked the JBS not because of its weaknesses but because of its strengths. He attacked it because it stood in the way of the internationalism and statism he was ushering in from the Right. He attacked it because it offered a genuine alternative to the controlled debate provided by Establishment liberals and conservatives. That controlled debate presents Americans with lose-lose choices that will lead, ultimately, to total government and world government.

Buckley is now in the twilight of his life. He has done most of the damage he could ever hope to do. Yet the counterfeit conservatism he has minted is now being circulated by others, including William Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, William Kristol, and George W. Bush. The stakes in the struggle haven't changed, even though many of the participants have. Many years ago, in his Commonweal article, Buckley recommended "a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores ... and the attendant centralization of power in Washington" as the means to fight Communism during the Cold War. Today's neoconservatives are calling for police state powers at home and a coalition of nations under the UN in order to win the war against terrorism. As the French say: "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" ("The more things change, the more they remain the same").

Unlike Buckley, the JBS may still be in the early morning hours of a long life, with its most productive years in the future. The organization struggled to survive after Robert Welch passed away in 1985, but over the past decade a new leadership team has strengthened its vitality and spurred it on to significant growth with a lengthening list of notable victories.

I am proud to be a part of that team. The key to ultimate success is not to "reinvent the wheel" but instead to focus on the organizational and philosophical principles Robert Welch established for The John Birch Society in the first place. By creating a principle-centered organization, Welch fully intended that the Society would thrive for decades if not centuries after his death, and that it would remain faithful to the purposes that attracted the early generations of Birchers.

The principles on which the JBS is based have given the organization tremendous resiliency and have kept it on course. As in Robert Welch's day, the JBS has the potential to expose the Conspiracy and to reverse America's slide into slavery. Yet that potential will only be realized if enough good Americans join the organization and become involved while freedom still exists.

Ironically, the top conspirators may recognize The John Birch Society's potential more than some JBS members do. The top Insiders know what a dedicated few can accomplish; they know what the JBS has already accomplished; and they know how much more the JBS could accomplish if it were to double, triple, or quadruple in size.

As the enemies of freedom move closer to their final destination, their true intent will become more obvious and more Americans will realize that something is wrong at the top. The Society stands poised to gather these individuals into its midst, deepen their newly acquired understanding, and enlist them in the Society's action program.

I invite readers to contact The John Birch Society. As Robert Welch often said, "Come join us in our proud companionship and in our epic undertaking."

* Andrew Johnson was impeached, but was not an elected president. He filled the vacancy created by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

This article originally appeared as a chapter in William F. Buckley, Jr.: Pied Piper for the Establishment, and is reprinted here with the permission of The John Birch Society. To order the book, see the ad on page 4.