Many John Birch Society members and sympathizers still circulate the
falsehood that JBS founder, Robert Welch, never called President
Eisenhower "a Communist" in his book entitled "The Politician".
Usually, JBS defenders claim that Welch only referred to Ike as a
"tool" or "agent" used by the Communists or that Ike was simply an
"op****tunistic politician".
Part of this confusion arises from the fact that many people do not
know about the differences between the two versions of The Politician,
i.e.
(1) the unpublished book-length "private letter" written by Welch
during the 1950's versus
(2) the subsequent 1963 published edition of that "private letter"
which was edited to remove the most damaging comments made by Welch
against Ike.
First, by way of preface, let's begin with a comment made by Robert
Welch in The Politician, Chapter 16, which discusses Eisenhower
"associates and appointments". (page 238 of the published version and
pages 227-228 of the unpublished version.)
Even Welch acknowledges the ***ulative effect of all his statements,
innuendos, and insinuations in Chapter 16 when he wrote the following:
"So we appear to be calling almost everybody a Communist, merely
because we have no reason to be mentioning the good men in Wa****ngton,
in all branches of the government, who have no Communist sympathies
whatever."
As we keep that in mind, let's also remember that the title of the
next chapter clarifies Welch's intent with respect to the thrust of
his argument as contained in the first 16 chapters.
Chapter 17 is entitled: "The Word Is Treason".
Finally, let's keep in mind Welch's admission during his remarks to
the Birch Society National Council in January 1960, that, in his
scheme of things, "it makes no practical difference" to distinguish
between
(a) "an actual Communist"
(b) "a Communist sympathizer"
(c) "a Communist agent"
With that preface in mind, now let's consider how Welch describes
President Eisenhower.
First, let us quickly dispose of the falsehood that Welch proposed a
benign interpretation of Ike's motives. On page 278 of The Politician,
Welch summarizes the only two possible interpretations from his
perspective:
"The role he has played, as described in all the pages above, would
fit just as well into one theory as the other; that he is a mere
stooge, or that he is Communist assigned the specific job of being a
political front man."
On page 279 of the published edition of The Politician, Welch
discusses the 3 stages by which Communists came to control the U.S.
Presidency.
According to Welch, in stages 1 and 2, FDR and Truman were "used" by
Communists. In Truman's case, according to Welch, he was used "with
his knowledge and acquiescence, as the price he consciously paid for
their making him President."
Then, with respect to Ike,
"In the third stage the Communists have installed in the Presidency a
man who, for whatever reasons, appears intentionally to be carrying
forward Communist aims...With regard to this third man, Eisenhower, it
is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate
treason." ...
In the unpublished version, the paragraph above is as follows:
"In the third stage, in my own firm opinion, the Communists have one
of their own actually in the Presidency. For this third man,
Eisenhower, there is only one possible word to describe his purposes
and his actions. That word is treason."
[Politician, unpublished version, page 268].
There are many other passages in both the published and unpublished
versions of The Politician wherein Welch makes clear that he
considered Eisenhower a traitor. Below I quote a few examples.
"In my opinion the chances are very strong that Milton Eisenhower is
actually Dwight Eisenhower's superior and boss within the Communist
Party." [The Politician, unpublished version, page 210]
OVERALL SUMMARY OF EISENHOWER APPOINTMENTS AND ASSOCIATES
"We think that an objective survey of Eisenhower's associates and
appointments shows clever Communist brains, aided by willing Communist
hands, always at work to give the Communists more power, and to weaken
the anti-Communist resistance."
[Politician, unpublished version, page 239]
In discussing Eisenhower's appointment of Philip C. Jessup, Robert
Welch refers to Ike as "he and his fellow Communists"
[Politician, unpublished version, page 214]
In discussing Eisenhower's appointment of James B. Conant, Robert
Welch refers to "the appointment of Conant...made by a Communist
President..." [Politician, unpublished version, page 221]
"For Eisenhower and his Communist bosses and their pro-Communist
appointees are gradually taking over our whole government right under
the noses of the American people.
[Politician, unpublished version, page 238-239]
Welch refers to Eisenhower's actions in Europe which "show his
sympathies with the Communist cause and friend****p for the Kremlin
tyrants..."
[Politician, unpublished version, page 263]
"For the sake of honesty, however, I want to confess here my own
conviction that Eisenhower's motivation is more ideological than
op****tunistic. Or, to put it bluntly, I personally think that he has
been sympathetic to ultimate Communist aims, realistically willing to
use Communist means to help them achieve their goals, knowingly
accepting and abiding by Communist orders, and consciously serving the
Communist conspiracy for all of his adult life."
[Politician, unpublished version, page 266]
"But my firm belief that Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious
agent of the Communist conspiracy is based on an ac***ulation of
detailed evidence so extensive and so palpable that it seems to me to
put this conviction beyond any reasonable doubt."
[Politician, unpublished version, page 267]
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