Star Spangled Extremists

[Applause] communists use even music to render a generation of American youth social workers are undermining our national character encouraging sloth and robbing our workers [Music] chaparro Warren supported the communist position 95% of the time because he personally favored that position the situation in Alabama Mississippi is all part and parcel of a planned communist revolution the United States has become a vast insane asylum and the inmates are running this country [Music] these are the ideas of the star-spangled extremists the radical right a loose but powerful alliance of individuals groups and publications their organizational names have become familiar by now to many Americans the Liberty Lobby We the People the conservative Society of America the Christian crusade for America the Freedom Forum and dozens of others and the most active and powerful of them all the John Birch Society what does the radical right do mostly they do the same things that Americans have always done to advance their ideas but always with a crucial difference the star-spangled extremists exercise their constitutional right to picket but they often add a special twist of physical abuse and violence that has come to be one of their key trademarks a radical right group protested in October of 1963 against the UN Day celebration in Dallas Texas the man hit on the head with a sign was our late ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson what else does the radical right do they exercise their constitutional right to freedom of speech and press but they do so with outrageous arguments personal insults and cries of treason that destroy the very purpose of free speech to provide rational debate on critical public issues radical right literature proclaims that the United States Supreme Court has become a communist tool in America that Martin Luther King is a leading agent of the Kremlin and so on down the list of rightist fantasies one of the things keep the radical right busy they exercised their freedom of assembly and association but with the radical right this freedom often means disrupting other people's meetings Carl Paulson an engineer and United States Naval Academy graduate tells what happened at a neighborhood meeting called in his community to discuss ways of aiding racial integration there were some thirty or forty people out of an audience of about 400 they begin shouting is this a communist organization a woman dressed in red white and blue kept jumping up and down asking are you people up there on the stage communists they walked up and down the aisles slamming seats and they stamp their feet they coughed they clapped a booed and cat call so that the speaker's couldn't be heard when I asked them to send a spokesman up to the stage so that we could hear what was bothering them several of them ran up and tried to grab the microphone the evening ended in chaos which was what they wanted it's been my feeling but you mustn't let them intimidate you that you must be firm and so I brought charges against those who rushed up to the stage they were brought to trial and pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in court they were identified as local leaders of both the John Birch Society and unfortunately the local young Republican and Republican clubs for the average American the hardest problem is to put the radical right into clearer perspective first let's look at history despite vast changes in American life and society since George Washington's day or even Teddy Roosevelt's one continuing factor has been the presence of small but noisy extremist groups at both the left and right poles of ideology in the 1790s Jacobin clubs in the United States denounced Republican government in America as an aristocratic mayor urging Americans to take up the terroristic phase of the French Revolution as the proper pattern for American social development this was one of our earliest radical left movements in the 1850s the Native American party and the know-nothing movement appealed to the older white Protestant citizens to rise up against the supposed influence of German and Irish Catholics the cry was to close the gates of immigration dry up the beer barrels of America and keep the pope from taking over the land of liberty the result was no nothing riots in many cities throughout the country in the 1880s American anarchist groups urged violent resistance to the capitalist system one anarchist leaflet said stuff your lead pipe well with dynamite and throw it in a large crowd of capitalists the Haymarket explosion and riot of 1886 in Chicago illustrated the tensions caused by anarchist activity and American middle-class reactions to it from the late 1860's down to the present the Ku Klux Klan has represented the outer boundary of right-wing racist extremism during the 1920s the Klan was so large and politically powerful throughout the country that it held mass rallies in Washington DC to impress congressmen with Klan strength as always those groups whose ideas and activities soil the American flag try to wrap themselves in its protective mantle of patriotism during the 1930s the American Communist Party and its front groups protested against the rise of fascism and called for the overthrow of Hitler until the communist line changed again Stalin signed an alliance with Hitler in 1939 and the two dictatorships carved up Eastern Europe together then any war against Hitler by the democracies was called an imperialist adventure by the American communists also during the 1930s right-wing extremist groups proclaim their anti-semitic and immigrant and anti-negro messages their hero was Hitler and their cry was that political democracy and civil liberties were weak and dying systems such a leader was father Charles Coughlin I'm questionably you are one of the Christian Americans who recognizes that we are face to face in a fight with Antichrist price affinity is denied its social order is rejected is doctrine of Brotherhood it's plotted meanwhile the Jews of America have not officially condemned communism today we still have the radical left from the pro-castro supporters and the splitter groups backing Chinese or Soviet brands of communism to those who are seeking to capture the Negro civil rights cause and transform it into a revolutionary movement geared to some brand of afro-asian totalitarianism but before we look more closely at the current radical right it is worthwhile to note the direct parallels between the radical right and the radical left throughout our history and today they have at least five basic characteristics first they always assume that there are simple and easy solutions to all of the problems of war and peace social justice economic prosperity crime etc the problems that challenge American society and they believe that only some dark conspiracy in high places is keeping patriotic Americans from installing the simple answers of the radicals second both radical left and radical right reject the loyalty and good faith of accepted civic leaders and groups the churches the corporations the unions universities social reform groups all of these are portrayed as being under the control of the conspiracy third both left and right extremism reject the existing political system they brand the major political parties the Republicans and Democrats as being under the influence of the conspirators and no longer representing the true will of the people in America they say this despite the free elections by which great majorities of the nation endorsed the major parties and their candidates forth radical left and radical right reject the social and economic programs and civil liberty and civil rights principles that American liberals and conservatives agree upon as basic minimums and bipartisan measures in place of these well accepted American foundations the extremists urge radical new programs that would cause havoc to our institutions and divide the nation usually into bitterly warring camps fifth the radical groups advocate direct action to break the grip of the conspiracy on America this action ranges from conspiracy for the radical groups own activities and creation of disguised front groups to bullying tactics attempts to take over legitimate civic groups and local terror campaigns against opposition figures these are the broad historical roots of the radical right and it's parallels to the radical left how did the present radical right come together and why to answer this question we must paint some defining boundary lines when we talk about the radical right today we do not include in this camp the practical conservatives men like Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois the Republican minority leader is a conservative in economic and political affairs and basically a nationalist in foreign affairs but he has supported middle-of-the-road social reforms civil rights and key foreign policy measures of the past four presidential administrations similarly conservative groups like the Chamber of Commerce of the United States must be carefully distinguished from the radical right just as the radical right begins at the edges where Responsible conservatism ends so the contemporary radical right stops short of another ideological camp the open hate groups the radical right does not espouse the blatant anti-semitic ideas of the tiny American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell it does not engage in the cross burnings or Church bombings of the Klan or other southern terrorist organizations nor is it part of the vandalism that paints swastika Zoar synagogues or desecrates Jewish cemeteries it is just between these two ideological boundaries between the practical conservatives and the open hate groups that the radical right stands today the first big organizational drive of the present radical right came in 1958 radical right elements felt betrayed because President Eisenhower did not fulfill their fantasies by freeing Eastern Europe cutting the federal budget in half and ending such programs as TVA and Social Security all of which the radical right considers communist plots of course President Eisenhower did no such things we will never wreck the TVA it's a growing is very well concerned it's it's serially useful purpose it was put up for particular purposes and actually they to go back to the original bill I don't think many people could tell about the purposes for which even registering the worst betrayal of the 1950s to such people was the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy by the United States Senate and the end of the McCarthy era in Washington with this radical right groups became convinced that Republicans as well as Democrats the Civic establishment the whole American system was penetrated by treason a new movement was needed in between 1958 and 1961 groups like the John Birch Society were carefully organized to meet the supposed need the first confrontation between the radical right and the American Civic Center came in late 1961 and 1962 many Americans had been made uneasy by the explosion of the Soviet Union's 50 Megaton hydrogen bomb by the anxious bomb shelter debates in the United States by the unsuccessful Kennedy Khrushchev talks at Vienna in 1961 and by the disastrous Americans supported invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs with American self-confidence and prestige at a low point the radical right went public and mounted a barrage of fire on the loyalty of American leaders from Eisenhower and Nixon to Kennedy and Johnson as always they misjudged the basic good sense capacity of Americans to resist extremist prescriptions they also underestimated the power of the American press and civic groups to expose irresponsibility masking his patriotism a host of American leaders Protestant Catholic and Jewish Republican and Democratic liberal and conservative all rose to criticize the Birch Society and it's radical right colleagues well I don't think that their judgments are based on accurate information of the kinds of challenges that we face I think we faced an extremely serious and intensified struggle with the Communists but I'm not sure that the John Birch Society is wrestling with the real problems which are created by the Communist advance around the world and I would hope all those who are concerned about the advance the communism could face that problem and not concern themselves with the loyalty of President Eisenhower President Truman and mrs. Roosevelt or myself someone else by the close of 1962 the radical right had been named exposed and repulsed by a responsible American opinion this was only the first round however the second battle over extremism of the right came in 1964 when senator Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination for the presidency Goldwater a man who swung between conservative and radical right positions throughout his political career committed his party to a hard right ideological position and seemed to endorse both the ideas and the tactics of the radical rightists [Music] [Applause] though senator goldwater captured the Republican nomination the size of the Johnson victory in 1964 61.3% proved beyond doubt that flirtations with extremism had no appeal for the great mass of American voters though the American Center lost a skirmish when the Goldwater forces achieved the respectability of capturing the Republican Party nomination the center won the battle campaign when the ballots were counted in November of 1964 this too is history what about the radical right now after 1964 though its favorite senator have lost the presidential election the radical right today is in a major upsurge of organizational and financial growth for them the 1964 election was an opportunity to build not a shattering defeat the Birch Society for example has increased its membership to some 80,000 and has been founding chapters by the dozens in suburban communities throughout the nation the Society has an annual budget of over four million dollars most of this goes for payroll to pay the expenses of organizers who move throughout the country organizing new chapters in suburbs and in urban communities from California to Maine its founder Robert Welch moves busily across the country speaking at large meetings and overseeing the organizational drive he also oversees the pressure campaigns that accompany the arrival of birch society chapters in local communities in Visalia California the Birch Society mounted a campaign under a front group of course to remove a standard reference book from the library Professor Joseph king of Sequoia College tells what happened the committee asked the Board of Supervisors to remove the book from the County Library shelves they had already asked the county librarian and she had refused to remove the book she stood her ground and this took a good deal of courage her daughter received a phone call telling her that her mom was akane i received phone calls telling me that I was a communist for coming to the aid of the librarian backing up these chapter activities is a key radical right weapon radio and television programs that purport to be religious or public affairs programs but a really wholesale smear attacks on local and national leaders and groups between six and seven thousand such radical right broadcasts are heard each week in the United States some four hundred broadcasts each week here Billy James Hargis other leaders are dan smoot and Dean Clarence Mannion here is one sample of radical right broadcasting Richard Cotton's spokesman for the committee of Christian women of Karen County California and fully dedicated to exposing socialism communism one-world ISM and any other form of totalitarianism that is undermining our way of life we are for individual responsibility for a return to constitutional government for less centralization of power for states right and we are for exposing the Federal Reserve we are for the sovereignty of the United States of America and our unalterably opposed to any plan to surrender our god-fearing Republic to any form of Hotel eteri and rule now won't you join us and take one more look at the ever increasing evidence that we are indeed being surrendered to a one-world government [Music] another key tactic is the founding of radical right bookstores in local communities to distribute so-called americanist literature and to serve as the nerve center for radical right meetings in the area exactly as the Communists and communist front bookstores of the 1930s and 1940s dead typically the radical right is concentrating its fire on the public schools and on the PTA groups which influence school policy indeed this has become one of the key foci of radical right activity in the suburbs today the situation has become so serious that it is a VOC comment by the president of the National Congress of parents and teachers mrs. Janelle Moorhead how does extremism go about its damaging work in the name of anti-communism super patriotism super liberalism or some other battle cry of the moment extremism attacks textbooks that do not serve its own political economic and social goals it demands investigations and dismissals of courageous teachers and administrators in the school year 1963-64 according to an NEA staff members report one out of every 30 school districts in the nation was the object of attacks by extremist groups a major campaign of the radical right is against civil rights progress in the south and the north the Birch Society for instance works hard at painting the civil rights movement as a straight Moscow plot unsupported by good American Negroes Robert Welch head of the Birch Society maintains the march on Washington was as completely fully and inspired and how much goodness knows how much they had to pay people to get him there as you can possibly imagine another important feature of the current radical right scene is the seepage into the radical right movement of some figures from anti-semitic groups or with a record of prior anti-semitic statements backers of the Liberty Lobby such as Curtis Dahl Joseph camp Richard cotton and Kenneth Goff fall into this pattern as discussed in one of the leading books on this subject danger on the right as these activities indicate the radical right has several main areas of concentration they are responding to a number of critical social problems as well as major advances in American community life and it is important to see which these sensitive areas are racial tensions especially in northern cities and suburbs give the radical right a prime target as local groups of parents and taxpayers are organized to resist integration in schools or housing in their communities radical right members hurry into these groups spread extremist themes and often succeed in capturing these groups completely soon the protest groups against integration are calling the civil rights movement a communist plot and voicing other birch hide themes in many cities the birches have organized and control the support your local police movement again using a legitimate cause for propaganda and recruitment foreign policy tensions offers still another opportunity for the radical right communist military might continues to grow in the Soviet bloc and in communist China tensions remain in Berlin not just at the wall but in the air and land Carter's as well American commitments in South Vietnam grow larger and the war expands even in the Western Hemisphere the United States has become involved in military actions such as the one in the Dominican Republic in each of these crises the radical right poisons the genuine debates between liberals and conservatives by yelling treason and calling for atomic bombs in the area of foreign aid the radical right finds another target the hunger disease and poverty are still the daily lot in most homes throughout the world the radical right tries to exploit the continuing cost and burden of our foreign aid programs denouncing the Peace Corps food gifts and American aid missions as communist plots and pouring money down the rat holes of the world still another area which creates opportunities for the radical right is the growing religious Amity between Protestants and Catholics and between Gentiles and Jews the small Catholic protest against the liberal policies of popes John and Paul has offered an opportunity for the radical right to recruit these persons and the small Protestant anger against the entry of Jews into the last bastions of the corporate executive suite again offers the theme that there should be a blockage against the supremacy of white Christians in America these are the danger points which the radical right exploits it has plenty of money plenty of literature plenty of broadcasting time what can America do to resist this radical right pressure first of course the Civic Center must study the problems that need solving and work out constructive solutions to social economic and foreign policy issues secondly they must expose the radical right who is saying what and what kind of false charges are being used by the radical right third the Civic Center must debate the radical right openly on the field of Reason defending the field of Reason from bullying tactics by the radical right when they seek to control the process of free discussion with these responses the radical right can surely be contained and most important of all it can be contained without jeopardizing our traditions of civil liberties in this way we can only strengthen American society we can only remind American liberals and conservatives how much they had in common how important it is to defend in the local community and at the national level the ideas on which America's United from the thrusts of radical right and radical left and this is really not a tricky or difficult problem for the American Civic Center because the star-spangled extremists do not really believe in the American dream of liberty equality and justice and after all the shouting and furor is over that is what our flag our Constitution and our society are all about [Music] this program was produced with cooperation of the anti-defamation league of B'nai breath [Music] [Applause]