On a cloudy, frigid day in December 1958, a small group of wealthy businessmen met in Indianapolis and formed a new organization. They called it the John Birch Society. Their mission was to educate the American people about the communist conspiracy that they believed was infiltrating the United States.
“The founder, Robert Welch, conveyed a deep sense of grievance and anger,” says Matthew Dallek, professor of political management at George Washington University and author of Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right. “The message was very powerful: you’re losing your country to traitors, and they’re not just any traitors, they’re actually traitors within.”
G. Edward Griffin was 29 years old when he first heard about the John Birch Society. “I came across a booklet that they were distributing, The Deception of the United Nations, or something like that,” he told Radio Diaries. Griffin was skeptical at first, but after more reading, he grew convinced that the United Nations was a threat to U.S. sovereignty and in 1960, he joined the John Birch Society…