MR. WELCH AND HIS PUBLIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200100076-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: March 7, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

NORFOLK (Va.) STATINTL
ViRAppA ddRor Release 11999/09/16: CIA-RDP70-0
Circ.: m. 107,809
S. /140,020
Page Pays Pega
MAR'
Date: 7 IvU4 ` a. _. .. , w .w.;. M NN ~+,?.b Yaw HY~+4:
mi.. Welch, and His Public
The John Birch Society was
-ounded in 1958 by Robert H. W.
Velch, Jr., a retired Boston fudge
manufacturer. who was born 62
years ago near Edenton, N. C. Al-
most exactly a year ago it began
to attract limited attention through
public meetings, including a series
at Kinston, N.C. By April of .1961
it had become a favorite subject
of serious discussion in the national
press.
Most of 'those early articles
about the society centered on Mr.
Welch's statement that General
Eisenhower, Milt o n Eisenhower,.
the late John Foster ' Dulles, and
Allen Dulles, who then was head
of the CIA, are or were members.
of the -LTMmunist underground.
They also emphasized that the so-
ciety was campaigning for the im-
peachment of Chief Justice Warren
and had broader interests-repeal-
ing, the income tax, withdrawal
from NATO, and opposition to for-
eign aid, the United Nations, and
the social gospel.
Now'Mr. Welch is running Into
criticism. William Buckley, Jr.,.,
cently rebuked him in the National
Review, which is a pillar of con-
servatism. Perhaps more signifl-
cantly, in Berkeley over the week
end the California Republican As-
sembly, the state party's, policy-
making body, ' adopted a proposal
by former Vice President Nixon
condemning Mr. Welch.
Why has it taken so long for ~4
Mr_ Welch's ridiculously ' extreme;
much disrepute? The answer may
be that it has taken this long fo
the Far Right movement to begin
rved
-
cooly owe.
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