EXTREMISTS OF RIGHT, LEFT ARE KIN IN FANTASIES, BUT NOT IN FINANCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200020001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 15, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

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in Fantasies; but Not it Fi.ances,
Excerpts from an address by
Alan Cranston, state controller of
California.
L? T OS ANGELES, Calif. -. One morn-
ing, not too long ago, two bulky
pieces of mail landed on my desk in
Sacramento.
The first envelope contained a copy of
Progressive Labor, a monthly published
by the extremely left wing Progressive
Labor party.
The magazine told me that we Ameri
cans live in a fascist state, that Presi-
dent Johnson and Walter Reuther are
among its conspiratorial leaders and
stooges, and that President Kennedy
was assassinated by the big business,'
police state machine.
It said that all America would know
this, if the press were not controlled.
The second envelope contained a
packet of material published by the ex-
tremely right wing John Birch society.
This material told me that we Ameri-
cans live in a Communist state, that
President Johnson and Walter Reuther
are among its conspiratorial leaders
and stooges, and that President Ken-
nedy was assassinated by the Com-
Communist.
It said that all America would know
this,'if the press were not controlled.
Notion of Conspiracy
An extremist is, I think, basically and,
above all a zealous believer in a fanciful, ;Post is part of the great conspiracy. ica. and within the fabric of our own
notion that an evil conspiracy controls To the followers of H. L. Hunt's Life-' society, the extreme right has by far
or is close to controlling our land-our' Line Foundation, America's mutual se-' the more power, prestige and potential
government, our press, our schools, our! curity program was devised by no less. to become a' force, rather than a fac-
churc:hes; indeed, almost every aspect, than Joseph Stalin - in the 1920's-and tor, in our land.
of our lives. Life Lines goes on in a very big way But all of this vast, propaganda ac
To take some further examples from; from there. tivity, though worthy of our deep con-',
the hard right: And to the followers of Robert Welch 1 cern, is not, to me, the most immediate,
the CIA 1 serious danger.
To the followers of Carl McIntire of and the John Birch Societ
y,
the far right, our churches are Com NATO and de Gaulle are just three ofd _ I have, confidence, that the great ma-
munist dominated, the press is "leftist: thousands of Communist schemes andi jority of Americans have the innate good
and Vatican controlled," ad infinitum.; schemers. sense to reject flatly the patent silliness
To the followers of Dan Smoot, civil l from the screwball set, right or left.
defense programing is "planned dicta-f? Reds Poor by Contrast One very real d a n g e r, I believe, is
torshi;p," 'urban renewal a plot toward this:
a "Soviet America," and so on and The evidence indicates that more than An extremist believes and practices
so on. 3,000 such groups in America are now the philosophy that the ends justify the
To the followers of Gerald L. K. doing a 30 million dollar a year busy' means. '
ness in right wing 'extremism. From hounding librarians and teach- ..
Smith of the Christian Nationalist Cru
For comparative pu
d th rposes, govern bull in editors and public of-
ae, e upremee
tax and V~qq~~,,~~ me ro edvFgreR eesehiiCpAARDPf +Qai4 SpQ3000QA1 - -
t the e Unite Unitel4~t'i onl munist art at its
.few of the tools of the Kremlin. + p Y~ peak, never got and filAnne, to boycotting businesse
much further than raising one hiJNi'n and infiltrating Ff iiizations, to break ,rCmt niTe
Approved For Release : 1-0
dollars a year, in the United States.
And the Progressive Labor party, the
most vociferous and potentially con-
tagious new voice on the hard left'these y
days with its Peking brand of radical-?;
ism, has an estimated 500 members,
with a treasury, perhaps, commensur-
ate with its size.
In contrast, the Birch society alone'
spent-an estimated three million dollars
last year and now is aiming at adding
38,000 new members, just in California.
Its leader, Robert Welch, deems the soil';
of California so fertile that he plans to
spend half his time among us.
'?h2 point is not to belittle the Com-
munist party or other extreme left wing
splinter groups in America, as long as
their support depends, in varying de-
gree upon a treacherous element not ' s
present in the extreme right w i n g :"
Allegiance or subservience to a foreign
power.
Not Real Conservatives
In a strange way, this element is at
-Mlnncarotls Star one and the same time a source of
"This is easier to understand- strength and a cause of weakness for
it's all just a plot!" the extremists of the left. Their rela-
To the followers of the White Citizens' tionship to the Soviet Union and/or
Councils, mental health programs, the China. automatically directs a great
Ford Foundation and civil rights laws, deal of unsympathetic attention-to their
among a good deal else; are, all Com-; activities. The absence of any such alien
munist cabals. , and hostile ties on the part of the ex-
To the followers of the Minutemen,; tremists of the right causes a compara-
everything from Martin Luther King to tive lack of concern about their doings.
T
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0 ~,~~,G 151965
ing. up meetings, and training in the
hills, to the extremist this is simply pa-
triotism of the highest order-w e 1 1 .
meant, but deadly dangerous.
Another fundamental characteristic of
the extremists is their loss of faith, if
they ever had it, in the institutions of
our nation and in our democratic proc-
esses. They are not legitimate conserv-
atives or liberals in any sense. They'',
can never be. They are prepared to op-,
crate wholly outside the bounds of our<
American tradition.
Genuine conservatives and genuine
liberals believe in honest debate over
the many sides of an issue and are then ,
willing to leave the decision to the will
of the majority-and this is the very,;
essence of our democracy,
Dangerously Wrong
But to the extremist, there is no other;
side. There is nothing to debate.. There
can be no compromise. V`.'
I believe that Americans must: be!
ceaselessly alerted to hate, wherever it,
appears, and shown , again and again
and again why it is so dangerously
ominous-and so dangerously wrong.
The good people of this nation ands
state-and they form the multitude-}
must act and speak out against the
evils of extremism.
Each of us must express our, faith in
our society through words and work-it
,our
our news media, businesses, clubs;!
in our neighborhoods, communities and 1
cities; in all the channels of communi-:
cations and influence within the strut
ture of our society and our government..:
More of us need to speak out, with;
positive active faith in ourselves and'.:
our nation. Silence is not golden, my'
friends. Silence is darkness. In the dark
pess, the extremist contrives to tarnish
this Golden state. And then bend it to',
his perverted will.
Truth, faith and the clear voices of'
good men of many persuasions will
spotlight the extremists of the right and'
left, and reveal them as they really ark
-feeble and fearful, holding only tl
weapon of fear and the weapon of hat
CPYRGHT
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