SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This weekend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, if elected, President Donald Trump would work to remove fluoride from all public drinking water in the U.S. Trump has said that Kennedy, who endorsed the Republican after ending his independent White House bid, would play a major role in health policy if Trump wins. The crusade against that widespread public health policy is something that gained prominence back in the 1960s, due in part to one organization that elevated fringe theories.
The John Birch Society was started by a small group of wealthy businessmen, including Robert Welch and Fred Koch. It expanded with chapters of likeminded Americans meeting in private living rooms and finished basements across the country, fueled by conspiracy theories that caused a schism in presidential politics. While the John Birch Society's influence has waned, its impact is still felt today. Radio Diaries brings us that story.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDMUND L. GRUBER SONG, "THE CAISSONS GO ROLLING ALONG")
CATHERINE SIEGEL: OK. Here it goes. (Singing) Over hill, over dale, we will hit the Commies' trail as we Birchers go marching along.
My name is Catherine Siegel. I'm here with my sister, Charlotte Meehan.
CHARLOTTE MEEHAN: Our father was James Edward Meehan, an electrical engineer and a leader in the John Birch Society. We lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut in a Spanish-style stucco house, and people would pile on down into the basement. And the meetings would happen there.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We will now open our meeting with the pledge of allegiance for the flag.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: I pledge allegiance to the flag...
SIEGEL: They would start with the pledge. And then they would go through the John Birch bulletin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: No. 2 on our permanent agenda, and that is - the United Nations, get us out. The United Nations were conceived by communists and is being used to further communist objectives.
SIEGEL: Our parents were Jim and Olive, and they had five children. And it was in the '60s - right? - at a time when there were a lot of, like, funky things going on in society, and it completely freaked them out.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDMUND L. GRUBER SONG, "THE CAISSONS GO ROLLING ALONG")
ED GRIFFIN: When I was a coordinator for the Birch Society, my job was to go out and promote the formation of chapters and recruit some people. My name is Ed Griffin. I'm an author. If you look me up in Wikipedia, it starts off - G. Edward Griffin, well-known conspiracy theorist (laughter). They want to communicate to all the readers that this is a guy you don't want to listen to. I stumbled across the John Birch Society way back in 1960. I was 29 years old. I came across a booklet that they were distributing - "The Deception Of The United Nations" or something like that. And I thought, what? United Nations was our last best hope for peace. I got some books on the United Nations and so forth. And I suddenly realized, oh, my gosh, this booklet is right.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT WELCH: Today, the truth I am bringing you is simple, incontrovertible and deadly.
MATTHEW DALLEK: My name is Matthew Dallek. My book is "Birchers: How The John Birch Society Radicalized The American Right." The founder, Robert Welch, conveyed a deep sense of grievance and anger. You're losing your country to traitors. And they're not just any traitors. They're actually traitors within.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WELCH: We have only a few more years before the country in which we live will become four separate provinces in a worldwide communist dominion ruled by police state methods from the Kremlin.
DALLEK: The Birch Society was best known for its conspiracy theories. For example, the Civil Rights Movement was a plot directed by the Kremlin.
SIEGEL: We were taught that Martin Luther King was a red and a communist.
MEEHAN: Our father had a kind of paranoia. He had this feeling that there are a lot of enemies out there.
SIEGEL: The other person that was demonized in our household was Mr. Rogers because he was a red.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
FRED ROGERS: (As Mr. Rogers) Oh, there's Officer Clemmons. Hi, Officer Clemmons. Come in.
SIEGEL: Especially when he put his feet in the pool with the Black policeman.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
FRANCOIS SCARBOROUGH CLEMMONS: (As Officer Clemmons) That looks awfully enjoyable, but I don't have a towel or anything.
ROGERS: (As Mr. Rogers) Oh, you can share mine.
CLEMMONS: (As Officer Clemmons) OK.
ROGERS: (As Mr. Rogers) Sure.
CLEMMONS: (As Officer Clemmons, singing) Who can put...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DR. STRANGELOVE")
STERLING HAYDEN: (As General Jack D. Ripper) Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation - fluoridation of water?
PETER SELLERS: (As Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake) Yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes.
DALLEK: The Birch Society argued that fluoride in the drinking water was a massive wedge for socialized medicine, which was spoofed in the Stanley Kubrick film, "Dr. Strangelove."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DR. STRANGELOVE")
HAYDEN: (As General Jack D. Ripper) Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?
SIEGEL: As long as I can remember, we did not drink the top water in our house. We would fill up the back of our station wagon with 50 empty water jugs, and we would go up to Oyster Bay. There was, like, a spigot. And it was considered, like, very good spring water.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOE PYNE: Good evening, everybody. My name is Joe Pyne.
DALLEK: One of the most infamous conspiracy theories that exploded into the public conscience was the Birch founder Robert Welch accused Dwight Eisenhower of being an agent of the communist conspiracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PYNE: And here was the leader of this new group questioning the patriotism of the man that the people of America sent twice to the White House. Some nights when you go to bed, and before you close your eyes and sleep, don't you say to yourself, d*** it, Bob, I wish I hadn't said that about Eisenhower?
WELCH: No, I don't.
DALLEK: The Birch Society grew to 60 to 100,000 members. It was all over the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED NEWSCASTER: Not for many years has the issue of political extremism been given the attention it's getting in this presidential year.
DALLEK: The 1964 Republican Convention was pretty raucous, tense atmosphere. Republicans from all over the country came to the Cow Palace in San Francisco. There was a major ideological clash of extremism and moderation within the Republican Party.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The governor of the state of New York, Governor Rockefeller.
DALLEK: Nelson Rockefeller had lost the nomination. As soon as he gets up to the microphone, he has this really uncomfortable smile on his face. I think he understands that he is facing a deeply hostile crowd, including some members of the John Birch Society, who really hated him. He mentions the Birchers and denounces extremism.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NELSON ROCKEFELLER: It is essential that this convention repudiate here and now any doctrine, any indoctrinator, militant minority, whether communist, Ku Klux Klan or Bircher.
DALLEK: The crowd is booing him. They're saying, we want Barry, we want Barry.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We want Barry. We want Barry.
DALLEK: Barry Goldwater, who was really seen as the hero of modern conservatism, he is associated with being the Birch candidate. He made a full-throated, very unusual defense of extremism.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARRY GOLDWATER: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
GRIFFIN: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. That was a very strong statement and probably earned more votes than anything else during the whole campaign.
DALLEK: Goldwater won the nomination, but in the election, he lost in one of the greatest landslides in American political history. Lyndon Johnson just crushed him. Many of commentators at the time thought that this was the death knell of extremism.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WALTER CRONKITE: And now, Eric Sevareid, maybe you can give us some views of what's been happening to extremism.
ERIC SEVAREID: One question is this - does this mean that their presence in this campaign, with so much noise, has immunized us against this kind of strong emotional poison almost one could call it, or have their activities rather desensitized us and lowered our moral standards in politics so that we've come to expect this kind of thing? I must confess, I don't know what the answer is.
GRIFFIN: When I first started back in the '60s, they thought I was wacko. That used to bother me more than it does today because now there's a change in public opinion about conspiracies. People recognize that, wait a minute, conspiracies are common. I think they're becoming aware that many of the most important things we really believe in - many of them are lies, they're illusions.
DALLEK: The Birch Society as an organization still exists today. You can see elements of Birch conspiracy theories about a deep state or the New World Order, as it's referred to by Alex Jones or Steve Bannon, really echo Birch conspiracy theories as well. As an organization, they have shriveled, but their ideas, I think, have become mainstream.
DETROW: This story was produced by Nellie Gilles of Radio Diaries and edited by Deborah George. You can find more stories like this on the Radio Diaries podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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