Wrapped in the Flag (46 page)

1
.   Frederik Nebeker,
Dawn of the Electronic Age: Electrical Technologies in the Shaping of the Modern World, 1914 to 1945
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009), 118.

2
.   Cardinal Stritch refusing ecumenical discussion: “Religion: Catholics Barred,”
Time
, July 19, 1954.

3
.   Mother and Dad reported some of these details to me after the meeting. We also discussed the Regina situation in a number of conversations over the years in which they filled in even more details about the evening.

4
.   Conflict over U.S. textbooks: “E Pluribus Confusion,”
Time
, September 10, 1979, and “Mississippi Mud,”
Time
, May 16, 1960.

5
.   G. Edward Griffin,
The Life and Words of Robert Welch: Founder of The John Birch Society
(Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media, 1975), 112.

6
.   Ibid., 140.

7
.   Gail Collins,
As Texas Goes . . . How The Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), 98.

8
.   More about Mel and Norma Gabler: Educational Research Analysts,
http://www.textbookreviews.org
. Collins discusses Texas’s power over textbooks in “The Textbook Wars,” in Collins,
As Texas Goes
, 98–106.

9
.   The Gablers’ views were outlined in their newsletters. Readers can see newsletters from 1997
to 2011 at Educational Research Analysts,
http://www.textbookreviews.org
.

10
. “Education: Was Robin Just a Hood?,”
Time
, December 31, 1979.

11
. History of McGuffey Readers: McGuffey Readers World,
http://www.mcguffeyreaders.com
.

12
. Donald T. Critchlow,
Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005), 98. Robert Welch described Phyllis Schlafly as a Birch member: Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Bulletin
, March 1960, in
The White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960
(Belmont, MA: John Birch Society, 1960), 13.

13
. Critchlow,
Phyllis Schlafly
, 338n37.

14
. Changes in the Texas curriculum detailed: Jeff Schweltzer, “Descending Again into Darkness: An Extraordinary Revolution of Willful Ignorance,”
Huffington Post
, January 27, 2010. More about Texas: Tim Walker, “Don’t Know Much About History,” National Education Association, June 2010,
http://www.nea.org
.

1
.   Donald T. Critchlow,
The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 56.

2
.   History and analysis of Robert Welch and the John Birch Society: Jonathan M. Schoenwald,
A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 62–99. Among his conclusions: “By 1962, it [the John Birch Society] had become by default the most quoted (and perhaps respected) of all the so-called extremist groups,” 91.

3
.   Robert Welch,
The Blue Book of the John Birch Society
(Belmont, MA: John Birch Society, 1961), 179.

4
.   Schoenwald,
A Time for Choosing
, 70.

5
.   Description of the founding meeting of the John Birch Society: G. Edward Griffin,
The Life and Words of Robert Welch: Founder of the John Birch Society
(Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media, 1975), 257–74.

6
.   Welch,
The Blue Book
, 72.

7
.   Ibid., 73.

8
.   Robert Welch,
The Life of John Birch
(Boston: Western Islands Publishers, 1961, repr. of Henry Regnery ed., 1954).

9
.   William T. Miller, “How the Chinese Killed John Birch,”
Life
, May 12, 1961.

10
. Welch,
The Life of John Birch
.

11
. The Order of the Illuminati: Manly P. Hall,
Secret Teachings of All Ages
(New York: Penguin, 2003), 566–78.

12
. Robert Welch discussed the Illuminati at length in “More Stately Mansions,” in Robert Welch,
The New Americanism and Other Speeches and Essays
(Boston: Western Islands Publishers, 1966), 125–37.

13
. The Illuminati and the New World Order: Robert Welch, “What Conspiracy?,” in
The Historical Significance of Robert Welch
(Appleton, WI: John Birch Society, 1993), 29–38.

14
. Dollar bill: Terry Melanson, “The All-Seeing Eye, The President, The Secretary and The Guru,” Illuminati Conspiracy Archive, July 2001,
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com
.

15
. Great Seal: Manly P. Hall,
The Secret Destiny of America
(Los Angeles: Philosophical Research Society, 1944, rep. 1972), 173.

16
. John Robinson,
Proofs of a Conspiracy
(Boston: Western Islands Publishers, 1967, orig. 1798).

17
. Gary Allen,
None Dare Call It Conspiracy
(San Pedro, CA: GSG & Associates, 1972), 18.

18
. Ibid., 85.

19
.
John F. McManus,
The Insiders: Architects of the New World Order
(Appleton, WI: John Birch Society, 2004).

20
. Contemporary John Birch Society and conspiracies: Dan Barry, “Holding Firm Against Plots by Evildoers,”
New York Times
, June 6, 2009.

1
.   Leonard Zeskind,
Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009), 482.

2
.  
Robert Welch,
The Blue Book of the John Birch Society
(Belmont, MA: John Birch Society, 1961), 181.

3
.   See autobiographical note in Revilo Pendleton Oliver,
The Jewish Strategy: How the Jews Have Survived Thousands of Years of Persecution and Why We of the West May Not Survive This Century
(Earlysville, VA: Kevin Alfred Strom, 2001),
http://www.heretical.com
.

4
.   Oliver’s typewriters: Carl T. Bogus,
Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism
(New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011), 181.

5
.   John B. Judis,
William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 137.

6
.   Revilo P. Oliver, “History and Biology,”
American Opinion
, December 1963 (available as an e-book download).

7
.   Comments on World War II and imposing Communism: “Americans would soon know how the Japanese had been maneuvered and tricked into destroying our fleet and killing so many of our men . . . we had fought for the sole purpose of imposing the beasts of Bolshevism on a devastated land,” Revilo P. Oliver, “What We Owe Our Parasites,” 1968, on
Revilo P. Oliver
,
http://www.revilo-oliver.com
.

8
.   Revilo Oliver, “Revised Historiography,”
Liberty Bell
, May 1980, on
Revilo P. Oliver
.

9
.   Revilo P. Oliver, “The ‘Holohoax,’” November 1984, “Biography of Revilo P. Oliver,”
The Academic JFK Assassination Site
,
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/JFK.html
.

10
. “From ’76 to 1966: The Spirit of Independence Calls You Back,” program of New England Rally for God, Family, and Country, Boston, July 2–4, 1966. Oliver’s comments at the rally: William W. Turner,
Power on the Right
(Berkeley, CA: Ramparts Press, 1971), 26; Revilo P. Oliver, “Conspiracy or Degeneracy?,” July 2, 1966, in five parts,
YouTube.com
.

11
. Oliver forced to resign from John Birch Society: “John Birch Society,” Political Research Associates website,
http://www.publiceye.org
.

12
. Arthur Goldwag,
The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right
(New York: Pantheon Books, 2012), 288.

13
. Zeskind,
Blood and Politics
, 393.

14
. My parents were correct about Mao; he was responsible for the deaths of 40–70 million people, making him a greater mass killer than Hitler or Stalin. See Jonathan Fenby,
Modern China
:
The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present
(New York: Ecco, 2008), 351. Another source: Daniel Jonah Goldhagen,
Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity
(New York: Public Affairs, 2009), 53.

1
.   Richard Hofstadter,
The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays
(New York: Vintage Books, 2008), 29–30.

2
.   David Halberstam,
The Fifties
(New York: Random House, 1993), 707–8.

3
.   CASE ad: Robert Welch,
The Blue Book of the John Birch Society
(Belmont, MA: John Birch Society, 1961), insert.

4
.   Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Monthly Bulletin
, January 1960, in
The White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960
(Belmont, MA: John Birch Society, 1960), 11.

5
.   Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Monthly Bulletin
, February 1960, in
The White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960
, 20.

6
.   Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Monthly Bulletin
, May 1960, in
The White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960
, 22.

7
.   Ibid., 24.

8
.   Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Monthly Bulletin
, June 1960, in
The White Book of the John Birch Society for 1960
, 2.

9
.   UN insignias: Robert Welch,
John Birch Society Monthly Bulletin
, October 1959, 2.

10
. War on Christmas in the 1950s and today: Michelle Goldberg, “How the Secular Humanist Grinch Didn’t Steal Christmas,”
Salon.com
, November 21, 2005.

11
. “Birch Group Lists Units in 34 States,”
New York Times
, April 12, 1961.

12
. The structure of the society: Welch,
The Blue Book
, 86 (front groups), 159 (authoritarian control), 161 (removing members).

13
. Jonathan M. Schoenwald,
A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 86.

14
. “The Americanists,”
Time
, March 10, 1961.

15
. G. Edward Griffin,
The Life and Words of Robert Welch: Founder of the John Birch Society
(Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media, 1975), 227.

16
. Welch,
The Blue Book
, 180–81.

17
. Schoenwald,
A Time for Choosing
, 78.

18
. Council members listed in Welch,
The Blue Book
, 180–81.

19
. Welch explains the Draskovich situation: Robert Welch, “False Leadership,” in
The Historical Significance of Robert Welch
(Appleton, WI: John Birch Society, 1993), 197–201.

20
. Welch,
The Blue Book
, 180.

21
. Jane Mayer, “Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who Are Waging a War against Obama,”
New Yorker
, August 30, 2010.

22
. Fred C. Koch, “Koch Answers Drew Pearson ‘Smear Job,’”
Palm Beach Post
, February 15, 1964,
http://www.scribd.com
.

23
. Fred Koch,
A Business Man Looks at Communism
(Farmville, VA: Farmville Herald, 1960), University of Southern Mississippi Digital Collections,
http://www.digilib.usm.edu
, 14.

24
. Ibid., 16.

25
. Ibid., 28.

26
. Koch brothers’ lawsuits: Brian O’Reilly and Patty De Llosa, “The Curse on the Koch Brothers: One of the Biggest Family Feuds in Business History May Soon Come to a Climax,”
Fortune
, February 17, 1997.

27
. “The Forbes 400,”
http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list
.

28
. David Weigel, “Tea Party Patrons Point New Recruits Toward 2010,”
Washington Independent
, March 15, 2010,
http://www.washingtonindependent.com
.

29
. Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele,
The Betrayal of the American Dream
(New York: Public Affairs, 2012), 33.

30
. John Birch Society Council Meeting minutes, papers of Thomas Anderson, FBI Files, and Documents Pertaining to Extreme Right Individuals, Groups, and Their Assertions,
http://sites.google.com
.

1
.   Robert Alan Goldberg,
Barry Goldwater
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 137.

2
.  
Father John Dussman,
The Clarion
, April 28, 1963.

3
.   Events described in Chicago newspaper: Jack Mabley, “Strange Threat to Democracy,”
Chicago Daily News
, July 26, 1960.

4
.   Robert Welch,
The Politician
(Belmont, MA: Belmont Publishing, 1963), 278.

5
.   G. Edward Griffin,
The Life and Words of Robert Welch: Founder of the John Birch Society
(Thousand Oaks, CA: American Media, 1975), 240.

6
.   “Confidential Classified Report of the District Intelligence Office, Ninth Naval District, September 16, 1960,” released under FOIA, unclassified March 4, 1984.

7
.   Patrick T. Reardon and Ed Baumann, “J. Mabley, Longtime Chicago Columnist,” obituary,
Chicago Tribune
, January 9, 2006.

8
.   Jack Mabley, “Bares Secrets of Red-Haters,”
Chicago Daily News
, July 25, 1960.