John Birch Society history

In 1962, William F. Buckley Jr., editor of the National Review, an influential conservative magazine, denounced Welch and the John Birch Society as "far removed from common sense" and urged the GOP to purge itself of Welch's influence.

Former Eisenhower cabinet member Ezra Taft Benson—a leading Mormon—spoke in favor of the JBS, but in January 1963 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement distancing itself from the Society.

A number of Birch members and their allies were Goldwater supporters in 1964 and a hundred of them were delegates at the 1964 Republican National Convention.

In the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer titled "What's Wrong With Civil Rights?" and used the flyer as a newspaper advertisement.

The JBS claimed in 1973 that the regime of Mao Zedong had murdered 64 million Chinese as of that year and that it was the primary supplier of illicit heroin into the United States.

A New York Times review in 1977 found identified JBS and other far-right groups were involved in pro-laetrile campaigns in at least nine states. "Virtually all" of the officers of the "Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy," the leading pro-laetrile group, were JBS members.

McDonald's first wife "estimated that, over the years, he had hosted 10,000 people in his living room for Bircher-inspired lectures and documentaries." In 1982, McDonald was appointed as national chairman of the Society.

McDonald was killed in 1983 when airliner KAL 007 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor.

Former Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), has had a long and very close relationship with the JBS, celebrating its work in his 2008 keynote speech at its 50th anniversary event and saying that the JBS was leading the fight to restore freedom.

The JBS was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), ending its decades-long split with the mainstream conservative movement.