Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Artist Statement
Clandestinely established in 1958 by candy tycoon Robert Welch after the death of Joseph McCarthy, the John Birch Society had a significant presence in Montana, particularly eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley, throughout the 1960s. Correspondence from this time between U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield and his Montana constituents is rife with examples of attempts by society members to root out the subversive communist plots that they saw existing in even the most routine elements of community life. Broadly, this paper will serve as an exploratory essay of the origins of the group in Montana. Anyone acquainted with the John Birch Society, mocked and satirized as it often was in mainstream discourse throughout its heyday in the 1960s, might very well marvel at the fact that ideas propagated by a “lunatic fringe” group managed to wend their way into institutions like the National Security Council and the Oval Office circa 2017. Yet the Society is survived by more than its ideas – it is still an actively-recruiting organization dedicated to the credo of “less government, more responsibility.” Granted, its founding obsession with rooting out subversive communist plots in all levels of government and elements of community life is long gone, but some of its twenty-first century goals will seem familiar to anyone parsing various ideologies espoused by both the present-day Republican Party and the Trump White House. It may come as little surprise to followers of Montana politics that the group once had a significant presence in the Treasure State. By examining the collections and constituent correspondence of Montana politicians Mike Mansfield and Arnold Olsen as well as records from KGVO Radio, the Montana Attorney General’s Office, and the Educational Cooperative Publishing Company of Montana, this paper explores the Society’s origins and influence in areas such as eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. How did right-wing extremism affect education and academic freedom in Montana? How did the national spread of Birchism, Cold War conspiracy culture and the politics of division play out on the local level in Montana communities? What impact did the Society have on state government? What connections, if any, were drawn between (waning) behemoths such as the Anaconda Company and the Montana Power Company and sponsored Birchist activity? These are some of the questions that an examination of these archival collections brought to light. Although the hotbed of Birch activity in Montana was located in eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley, letters about the Society – both favorable and unfavorable – reached Mansfield and Olsen from all over Big Sky Country: Libby, Kalispell, Hot Springs, Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings, and elsewhere. By the 1970s, stories about the John Birch Society had largely disappeared from Montana headlines, but reverberations of its effects can arguably still be felt in communities around the state today.
Montana and the Backwater of Birchism
UC 326
Clandestinely established in 1958 by candy tycoon Robert Welch after the death of Joseph McCarthy, the John Birch Society had a significant presence in Montana, particularly eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley, throughout the 1960s. Correspondence from this time between U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield and his Montana constituents is rife with examples of attempts by society members to root out the subversive communist plots that they saw existing in even the most routine elements of community life. Broadly, this paper will serve as an exploratory essay of the origins of the group in Montana. Anyone acquainted with the John Birch Society, mocked and satirized as it often was in mainstream discourse throughout its heyday in the 1960s, might very well marvel at the fact that ideas propagated by a “lunatic fringe” group managed to wend their way into institutions like the National Security Council and the Oval Office circa 2017. Yet the Society is survived by more than its ideas – it is still an actively-recruiting organization dedicated to the credo of “less government, more responsibility.” Granted, its founding obsession with rooting out subversive communist plots in all levels of government and elements of community life is long gone, but some of its twenty-first century goals will seem familiar to anyone parsing various ideologies espoused by both the present-day Republican Party and the Trump White House. It may come as little surprise to followers of Montana politics that the group once had a significant presence in the Treasure State. By examining the collections and constituent correspondence of Montana politicians Mike Mansfield and Arnold Olsen as well as records from KGVO Radio, the Montana Attorney General’s Office, and the Educational Cooperative Publishing Company of Montana, this paper explores the Society’s origins and influence in areas such as eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. How did right-wing extremism affect education and academic freedom in Montana? How did the national spread of Birchism, Cold War conspiracy culture and the politics of division play out on the local level in Montana communities? What impact did the Society have on state government? What connections, if any, were drawn between (waning) behemoths such as the Anaconda Company and the Montana Power Company and sponsored Birchist activity? These are some of the questions that an examination of these archival collections brought to light. Although the hotbed of Birch activity in Montana was located in eastern Montana and the Bitterroot Valley, letters about the Society – both favorable and unfavorable – reached Mansfield and Olsen from all over Big Sky Country: Libby, Kalispell, Hot Springs, Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman, Billings, and elsewhere. By the 1970s, stories about the John Birch Society had largely disappeared from Montana headlines, but reverberations of its effects can arguably still be felt in communities around the state today.