RIGHTISTS THREATEN 'SILENCE OF FEAR'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200150109-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1999
• Sequence Number: 109
• Publication Date: March 28, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON . PQS
AND TIMES HERALD
A rov d For ase 2000`/p P~ 2 t I DP70
LgiLLLst s Threaten
"Silence of Fear" . -
By Marquis Childs .
HOW DANGEROUS-to the well-being'
of this Nation and to- America's position
as leader of the free world are' the
radicals of the right?
This is a question being asked here
seriously today as 'these radicals in-
creasingly resort to the tactics of, the
Coinmunlsts and the cryto-Commu-
nists of the "thirti er, They practice
character assassination without regard
for the truth. They spread fear, hatred
and suspicion. They advpcate infiltra?
tion of nonpolitical organizations such,
as the Parent-Teachers Assdciation and
the taking over of those organizations.
In some respects these radicals on the
extreme right more nearly resemble the,
fanatical subverters of Germany and
Italy who brought nazism and fascism
Into being.. They are often allied with
the White Citizens Councils, identifying
Integration with epmmunism. And at
the extreme end of the spectrum they
are, openly tRiti-Semitic, often referring
in propagardta I ailets to the "Jewish-
Communist conspiracy."
A. few years ago this would have been
dismissed as merely another Manifests-
tion? of what Theodore Roosevelt so ,
aptly called the lunatic fringe-this
time on, the right rather than the left.
But with -the rise of the John 'Birch
Society and its intrusion into politics
that Is not so easy to do. Founded by
Robert Welch, a former Massachusetts
candy manufacturer,. the Birch society
now claims nearly a hundred thousand
members with chapters in most states.
sva
WELCH'S secretly circulated hook,
Ao iv~htF4# Retea ee2000#O4/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200150109-3
ri cht y s..I suhecrs nn '
25X1A
ONE of the recent political targets of
the organization was Sea. Milton Y ,
Republican of North Dakota. Me>
of the four Birch societies in Bian%arck,
the state capital, were pushing in the
legislature a proposal for a codstitu?'
tAonal convention to act on an amend-,
tax-
ment abolishing the Federal income
dquidating 700 Government agencies, an
greatly restricting the Government's
treaty-making power. .
The House had, already -spprovid.the
proposal when Senator Young sent a
telegram urging the Senate to?-defeat
it and pointing out that it would mean
killing the Garrison dam ?. irr1 tlon
diversion project in North Dakota.; ..
Thereupon the l3irchists came down on
Young with their letter-writing and tele-
phone technique seeking to putsthe. ?
Communist label on one whose record`
has on the whole been Conservative.
Sen. Thomas Kuchel of California, a
moderate Republican, has also been
under fire. One of the main ggtals of
the B xch letter-writing blftz is to bring,
about the impeachment of Chief'Justice
Earl Warren who was Kuchel's sponsor- .
in politics. Asked about this at a press
conference, he called it a "contemptible.'.
and vicious thing" to suggest the tm-'
peachment of "one of the great men of
our time."
Birch Society members have. used;
their 'pressure techniques to force the,
showing of the House Un-American' Ao-,
tjvities filM, Operation Abolition. And'
they. have denounced as Communists
anyone 'questioning its accuracy or dar-'
ing to suggest that the committee may
have exceeded its rights.
For popular 'officeholders such as
Kuchel and Young this is perhaps no.
more than a nuisance, even though they;
are both up for reelection next year.,
But for citizens-professors, clergymen:
-and others--with a conviction of their,
right to speak critical and unpopular
views, it can mean community distrust,
a '-small business harmed or. even a job
lost. The silence of fear Is the-alternate
penalty the radicals of the 'right try to
Impose.
16
Both the late Jtth,n Foster Dulles and
his brother Allen, head of the Central
Intelligence Agency, are called Com-
munists, with the latter ranking next to .,.
former Ptesident Eisenhower In his
power of concealment, A signed edito-
rial following a series of articles reveal-
ing the activities of the John Birch
Society in one of the most coieervst:%o
newspapers In the country concludcd7
The Politician - now reportedly with-
drawn because it alarmed some mem-
bers---has been compared to Mein
Kampf if only in the Hitlerian view
that the greater the lie the more likely
that Simple minds will fall victim to it.
He calls every Presjdent beginning with
Franklin Roosevelt a Communist. Of
the Eisenhower brothers he writes.
"While 1, too, think that Milton
Eisenhower is a Communist and has
been for 30 years, this opinion is based
largely on general circumstances of his
conduct.
"But* my firm belief that Dwight
Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious
agent of the Communist, conspiracy is
based on an accumulation of detailed
e/idence. sb extensive and so palpable
that it seems to put this conviction be-
yond any reasonable doubt."