Politics: Thunder Against the Right

Since last spring, when the John Birch Society was flushed from the secrecy of its chapter meetings into public view, a new and militant minority of the far right has increasingly become a force to reckon with in U.S. political life. But last week came the reaction—and across the land, there was thunder against the ultra right.

At the annual meeting of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in Washington, the U.S. Roman Catholic hierarchy accepted a study report from the conference’s Department of Social Action, which attacked chauvinistic extremists who “divert attention from critical Communist gains in Asia, Africa and Latin America.” The report was presented by Archbishop William E. Cousins of Milwaukee and written by Father John F. Cronin, the N.C.W.C.’s famed expert on Communist infiltration of labor unions. Without mentioning the Birchers by name, it made clear that the warning was aimed at groups “which emphasize the danger of domestic subversion, and give little attention to the worldwide activities of Communist parties” and also “use tactics and methods borrowed from the Communist Party.” The report’s conclusion: “These groups are unwittingly aiding the Communist cause by dividing and confusing Americans.”

Division & Hysteria. A similar conclusion was reached by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents more than 1,000,000 Reform Jews. At the close of its 46th General Assembly in Washington, the Union accused the right-wing extremists of weakening the nation by “stirring division and hysteria.” “We are fearful,” the Union resolved, in a statement that was also directed against left-wing radicals, “that rational discussion is being corrupted by the hatred and fear fomented by ultra-right-wing groups which exploit cold-war anxieties and the frictions engendered by integration and other social problems.”

Still another attack came from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. In Dallas, where the ultras have a politically powerful group of adherents, Kennedy lashed the Birchers and their allies as a “tremendous danger” to the U.S. First making it clear that he had no sympathy for defeatists “who would rather be Red than dead,” Kennedy went on to say: “Nor do I have any sympathy with those, who in the name of fighting Communism, sow the seeds of suspicion and distrust by making false or irresponsible charges, not only against their neighbors but against courageous teachers and public officials and against the foundations of our Government—Congress, the Supreme Court, and even the presidency itself.”*

Easy Solution, Now. The most telling criticisms of the extremist groups were delivered by President John Kennedy in two speeches on his first trip to the West Coast since his inauguration. Wearing the crimson academic robe of a Harvard LL.B., and speaking above the pink geraniums in the Edmundson Pavilion of the University of Washington, Kennedy defended his foreign policies against those who “lack confidence in our long-run capacity to survive” and those who “want some quick and cheap and easy solution, now.” Most Americans, he said, accept the reality that “we must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy, quick or permanent solutions. And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient, and that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity, and that therefore there cannot be an American solution for every world problem.”

The essential reality of a tangled world, the President continued, is that “diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either, alone, would fail … At a time when a single clash could escalate overnight into a holocaust of mushroom clouds, a great power does not prove its firmness by leaving the task of exploring the other’s intentions to sentries or those without full responsibility. Nor can ultimate weapons rightfully be employed, or the ultimate sacrifice rightfully demanded of our citizens, until every reasonable solution has been explored.

“In short, we are neither warmongers nor appeasers, neither hard nor soft. We are Americans, determined to defend the frontiers of freedom by an honorable peace, if peace is possible, but by arms if arms are used against us.”

Return to a Theme. It was a speech, said aides, that Kennedy had long wanted to get off his chest. Once having done so, the President returned to the theme time and again in his talks during a three-day tour that took him to Seattle for a banquet honoring Senator Warren Magnuson (see box), to Bonham, Texas, for the funeral of Sam Rayburn, to Phoenix for another ceremonial dinner for Arizona’s venerable Democratic Senator Carl Hayden, 84, and finally to Los Angeles for a Democratic fund-raising dinner.

In Los Angeles, as in Seattle, Kennedy spoke soberly against “those on the fringes of our society who have sought to escape their own responsibility by finding a simple solution, an appealing slogan or a convenient scapegoat.” These “discordant voices,” said the President, “look suspiciously at their neighbors and their leaders. They call for a man on horseback because they do not trust the people. They find treason in our finest churches, in our highest court, and even in the treatment of our water. They equate the Democratic Party with the welfare state, the welfare state with socialism, and socialism with communism. They quite rightly object to politics intruding on the military—but they, are anxious for the military to engage in politics.”

A Different View. “But you and I and most Americans take a different view of our peril. We know that it comes from without, not within. It must be met by quiet preparedness, not provocative speeches … So let us not heed these counsels of fear and suspicion. Let us concentrate more on keeping enemy bombers and missiles away from our shores, and less on keeping neighbors away from our shelters. Let us devote more energy to organizing the free and friendly nations of the world, with common trade and strategic goals, and less energy to organizing armed bands of civilian guerrillas that are more likely to supply local vigilantes than national vigilance.”

Concluded the President, in a plea for national maturity and national judgment in which most of the U.S. could join: “Let our patriotism be reflected in the creation of confidence rather than crusades of suspicion. The one great irreversible trend in world history is on the side of liberty—and so, for all time to come, are we.”

*In a joking aside, Bob Kennedy noted that the “only Communist the John Birchers have uncovered is President Eisenhower”—a reference to the absurd charge in Birch Society President Robert Welch’s Blue Book that Ike was “a conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.”