A couple of years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle did a series about FBI Cold War-era activities in relation to the University of California and student protests at various campuses. One of them touched on Reagan and the John Birch Society, mentioned in my previous post: The governor's race San Francisco Chronicle 06/09/02.
The article doesn't include the famous quotation to which Mark Shields alluded. But it does give some idea of how Reagan's appeal to far-right groups dogged him in that campaign:
In 1962, Reagan raised money for a Southern California Republican congressman and John Birch Society member, John Rousselot. ...
[FBI director J. Edgar] Hoover's top aides took special note when Reagan appeared on Jan. 9, 1966, on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Reagan was asked why he hadn't disavowed the John Birch Society, a group known for its far-reaching conspiracy theories.
Robert Welch, the society's founder, contended President Eisenhower and other leading U.S. officials had been communists and traitors. The group claimed to have thousands of members nationally and chapters throughout Southern California.
Under pressure to clarify his stand on the society for months, Reagan had issued a press release saying he never was a member of the group and disagreed with Welch's "reckless and imprudent statements."
On "Meet the Press," Reagan said he had not condemned the society itself because the Burns committee had looked into the group and found "nothing of a subversive nature."
The FBI, Reagan added, "has found nothing requiring an investigation of the John Birch Society."
The article goes on to explain that the FBI was in possession of a report claiming that Reagan had been a member of the John Birch Society but the claim was never substantiated. Reagan himself denied that he was ever a member and (carefully) criticized the Birchers, as in his 10/28/66 speech to the Commonwealth Club of California: "I'm not a member, have no intention of joining, never have been a member, not going to ask their support."
2 comments:
The following comment is erroneous:
"The article goes on to explain that the FBI was in possession of a report claiming that Reagan had been a member of the John Birch Society but the claim was never substantiated."
The FBI did not receive a "report" claiming Reagan had been a member of the JBS. There is one memo in Reagan's file which discusses SPECULATION by an unnamed person who mentioned that there was a JBS chapter in Beverly Hills. This person expressed the opinion that IF Reagan was a JBS member he MIGHT have attended the Beverly Hills JBS chapter meeting.
In short --- the data in the FBI memo was entirely speculative and not based upon anything factual. Over the years, various authors have cited this FBI "memo" and contorted its substance beyond all recognition.
Thanks for the additional details. It was me who called it a "report"; the *Chronicle* article did describe it as a memo. The one they cite called the source "reliable". But this kind of political intelligence was often squishy. The article didn't give me any reason to believe that the report was accurate.
This is one reason that releasing these raw FBI files is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, transparency over these things is good. It allows historians and others to make judgments about the quality of the intelligence functions of the agencies involved.
On the other hand, FBI agents conducted investigations in the field would often report all sorts of stuff that people would tell them, even when the informants were pretty clearly liars, crooks or fools. Which is what they were supposed to do. But the fact that it's mentioned in an agent's memorandum about the conversation doesn't mean that it has any substance, or even that the agent thought it had substance.
So any information like this particular memorandum about Reagan and the JBS needs to be taken for what it is. Because in some cases, charges or claims with no foundation in fact were preserved in FBI files, where the allegations survived longer than they ever deserved to based on the merits.
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