Changes

The '''John Birch Society''' is a conservative American anti-Communist organization founded in 1958 by Massachusetts businessman [[Robert Welch]] (1900-1985).

The '''John Birch Society''' is a conservative American anti-conspiracy organization founded in 1958 by Massachusetts businessman [[Robert Welch]] (1900-1985).

At its peak in 1964 the Society it claimed to have hundreds of chapters throughout the country, 100,000 members, 400 American Opinion bookstores to distribute and sell its magazine and pamphlets, and an active cadre of speakers that crisscrossed the country.  It did not endorse candidates and did not lobby for legislation, spending its energy on warnings that Communists were already in power in Washington and were about to fully take over the country.

At its peak in 1964 the Society it claimed to have hundreds of chapters throughout the country, 100,000 members, 400 American Opinion bookstores to distribute and sell its magazine and pamphlets, and an active cadre of speakers that crisscrossed the country.  It did not endorse candidates and did not lobby for legislation, spending its energy on warnings that Communists were already in power in Washington and were about to fully take over the country.

==Origins==

==Origins==

The organization was founded by [[Robert Welch]] in 1958 to fight Communist infiltration of the United States.<ref>Welch said he named the Society after [[John Birch]], the first American to die in the [[Cold War]]. </ref> He designed the Society like the Communist movement, with a strong leader at the top (himself), with each lower level following the orders they were given.  In practice the local chapters were discussion clubs and rarely engaged in much activism. Society literature denounced collectivist infiltration from Communists, the [[United Nations]], and various front groups.   

The organization was founded by [[Robert Welch]] in 1958 to fight Communist infiltration of the United States.<ref>Welch said he named the Society after [[John Birch]], the first American to die in the [[Cold War]]. </ref> He designed the Society like the Communist movement, with a strong leader at the top (himself), with each lower level following the orders they were given.  In practice the local chapters were little more than discussion clubs and rarely engaged in much activism. Society literature denounced collectivist infiltration from Communists, the [[United Nations]], and various front groups.  Welch himself decided that the root cause of most of the troubles was a two-century-long conspiracy of the "Illuminati," a group supposedly founded in Bavaria in 1776. He declared it was responsible for the French and Russian Revolutions and the two world wars, as well as evils of Lincoln's income taxes, Wilson's Federal Reserve, and Roosevelt's New Deal. Most insidious of all was the United Nations.  It also controlled the Communist party and the Trilateral Commission. The only member of the Illuminati he could identify by name was [[Nelson Rockefeller]].  Reagan was suspect beacuse he picked for vice president the choice of the Illuminati, [[George H.W. Bush]]. Welch argued that the Illuminati was subversive of good government, destructive of religion, and used professional agitators and massive terror to destroy the good people, while manufacturing smears to destroy the brave souls who tried to expose it.<ref>There's more; see Stewart (2002). </ref>

==Rejected by most conservatives==

==Rejected by most conservatives==