--- ---  # How the John Birch Society Was Founded by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Dec 9, 2014 2:30 PM UTC  Robert Welch Jr. on June 25, 1961 Robert Welch Jr. on June 25, 1961Bill Johnson—Denver Post Archive/Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Dec 9, 2014 2:30 PM UTC Had his story ended when he retired as a candy-maker, Robert Welch Jr. might have made his mark on history as the father of the Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies and Junior Mints. But Welch, whose shrewd leadership helped grow [his brother’s Massachusetts candy business a hundred-fold](http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/08/us/robert-welch-jr-dead-at-85-john-birch-society-s-founder.html) from 1935 to 1956, shifted his aim from caramels to communists On this day, Dec. 9, in 1958, Welch — then retired from the candy business — founded the ultraconservative John Birch Society along with 11 like-minded “Americanists,” as they referred to themselves. Their goal was to expose and eradicate the growing leftist threat in America, which they believed to be [40 to 60 percent communist-controlled](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,826912,00.html), according to a 1961 TIME report. Members of the John Birch Society saw communists wherever they looked, from the Oval Office of Dwight Eisenhower (“[A conscious agent of the communist conspiracy](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,895276,00.html),” per Welch) to the Bay of Pigs (“[a theatrical performance jointly sponsored by Castro and ‘his friends in the U.S. Government’](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,829057-1,00.html) in order to strengthen the communist hold on Cuba,” as paraphrased in TIME). Repeating his candy-industry success, Welch led the group to impressive growth, with [an official membership of just under 100,000](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836290,00.html) (although most members’ names were kept secret) and an annual budget of $6 million by 1966, according to TIME. His management style was [described as dictatorial](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,826912,00.html), and the tactics he required of the society’s “cells” were extreme. According to TIME, [young members were trained to tell their cell leaders](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,826912,00.html) if a teacher exhibited any communist tendencies, so their parents could “belabor the offending teacher and his principal for apologies…” One cell began a telephone campaign “to warn homeowners that some of their neighbors were suspected Reds.” In these tactics, at least, Welch emulated the society’s namesake, who had been dead for more than a decade when the group was formed. [John Birch was an Army captain killed in China just after the end of World War II](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,872243-1,00.html), making him, in Welch’s eyes, the first casualty of the Cold War. Birch was remembered by classmates and professors at the Baptist college he attended in Georgia as an [angry zealot who organized a secret society](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,872243-1,00.html) to rout out liberals. Per TIME, “He and twelve colleagues collected examples of ‘heresy’ uttered by faculty members (example: a reference to evolution), whipped up support among Georgia’s Baptist clergy, \[and\] finally forced the school to try five men on the charge.” Birch went on to become a missionary, then a military intelligence officer. On a routine mission from his base in North China following Japan’s surrender, Birch ran into a Communist contingent. [After arguing bitterly with the Communist officer who wanted to disarm him, Birch was shot and killed](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,872243-2,00.html). However, Birch’s commanding officer, Major Gustav Krause, later said he had urged Birch and others to act with diplomacy in the delicate post-war environment. “Birch made the Communist lieutenant lose face before his own men,” Krause told TIME. “Militarily, John Birch brought about his own death.” **_Read TIME’s full 1961 report on the John Birch Society, here in the archives_**: [The Americanists](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,826912,00.html) John Birch Society History: Organization Founded in 1958 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3623761/john-birch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3623761/john-birch/"},"headline":"How the John Birch Society Was Founded","datePublished":"2014-12-09T14:30:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:39:41.710Z","description":"Dec. 9, 1958: The right-wing John Birch Society is founded","url":"https://time.com/3623761/john-birch/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bba08062f082151/69876d643c163975a6450802/welch.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8bba08062f082151/69876d643c163975a6450802/welch.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Robert Welch","caption":"Robert Welch","creditText":"Bill Johnson—Denver Post Archive/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3623761/john-birch/","name":"How the John Birch Society Was Founded"}}]}] ```