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Home , Charles Koch, John Birch (missionary), Rampart College, Robert LeFevre, Roger Milliken, Willis Carto

“Was I, perhaps, hallucinating? Or was I, in reality, nothing more than a con man, taking advantage of others?” —Robert LeFevre

by mark known as “”), School] is where I was first exposed which his backers wanted to turn in-depth to such thinkers as Mises ames into the nation’s premier libertarian and Hayek.” indoctrination camp. Awkwardly for Koch, Freedom What makes Charles Koch tick? There are plenty of secondary School didn’t just teach radical Despite decades of building the sources placing Koch at LeFevre’s pro- , it also nation’s most impressive ideological Freedom School. Libertarian court published a series of Holocaust- and influence-peddling network, historian Brian Doherty—who has denial articles through its house from ideas-mills to think-tanks to spent most of his adult life on the magazine, Ramparts Journal. The policy-lobbying machines, the Koch Koch brothers’ payroll—described first of those articles was published brothers only really came to public LeFevre as “an anarchist figure in 1966, two years after Charles prominence in the past couple of who stole Charles Koch’s heart;” Koch joined Freedom School as years. Since then we’ve learned a , who co-founded executive, trustee and funder. lot about the billionaire siblings’ the with Charles “Even if one were to accept vast web of influence and power in Koch in 1977, wrote that Charles the most extreme and American politics and ideas. “had been converted as a youth to exaggerated indictment Yet, for all that attention, there libertarianism by LeFevre.” of Hitler and the national are still big holes in our knowledge But perhaps the most credible socialists for their activities of the Kochs. In particular source of all is Charles Koch after 1939 made by anybody what drives them and who their himself. In a speech he gave to fit to remain outside a mental influences are. And that’s a shame an audience of libertarians in the hospital, it is almost alarmingly because, in the case of Charles late 1990s, Koch revealed that his easy to demonstrate that Koch, his influences are in many conversion came in 1964, when the atrocities of the Allies in ways more interesting, and more he enrolled in Freedom School the same period were more sinister, than the man himself. in an intensive two-week total numerous as to victims and Back in the early-mid 1960s, immersion program in radical were carried out for the most Charles Koch was just another libertarian ideology, where part by methods more brutal 20-something oil heir. It was property is the basis of human and painful than alleged then that he first encountered a freedom, and the state—along with extermination in gas ovens.” libertarian guru by the name of any public organization or even Robert LeFevre. the notion of “public good”—is the Harry Elmer Barnes, In the decade or so before very definition of “tyranny.” Rampart Journal, 1966 gaining influence over Charles As Koch explained in a speech Koch’s world, Robert LeFevre before the Institute for Humane -denial articles in made his living as a professional Studies—the first of what would Ramparts Journal were significant Red-baiter, union-buster, and loyal become countless libertarian enough to be included today on the lieutenant for one of the nation’s think-tanks under his control—it Holocaust Memorial most notorious anti-Semites. was at “Bob LeFevre’s Freedom Museum’s “ Working his way up the fringes of School where I began developing a Timeline.” Also under Koch’s the far-right during the McCarthy passionate commitment to watch, LeFevre created a history Era, he finally landed his own as the form of social organization program headed by one of the corporate-funded free-market most in harmony with reality and biggest names in early Holocaust- gig, “the Freedom School,” (also man’s nature, because [Freedom , James J. Martin.

4 After LeFevre’s Freedom School as “sister organizations” with the mill of the past three decades. collapsed in 1968, Charles Koch Cato Institute, with whom they Today, that fringe-right element continued to promote the works “coordinate their plans and their has been wiped out of the official and careers of Holocaust deniers programs.” libertarian record, buried and through his growing network of When won forgotten. libertarian organizations, including the presidency in November Exhuming the lost story the Institute for Humane Studies, 1980, Koch quickly revamped the of Charles Koch’s guru and the Cato Institute and Reason. libertarianism he’d been building up demystifying his libertarian As late as 1980, the Cato Institute for over a decade, cutting free the movement’s ideology by setting it was still publishing works by more extremist far-right proponents in its proper historical context will notorious “revisionists” including from his network. To make his not bring progressives any comfort. Martin, and Harry Elmer Barnes movement mainstream, he cut Rather, the story that follows will (the inspiration for the neo-Nazi his official ties with the far-right confirm many of our worst fears Barnes Review journal, described radicals like LeFevre, with the about Koch’s political intentions, by the Southern Poverty Law libertarian Holocaust deniers like and should raise a bevy of new Center as “one of the most Martin, and with co-founder of things to worry about. It also serves virulent anti-Semitic organizations Cato Institute Murray Rothbard as a wake-up call to progressives around”). Indeed, in the late 1970s (who backed ), among who think libertarians are our Martin even had a seat on the others. He then moved his more natural allies, and yet who know board of trustees at the Koch- mainstream libertarian machine so little about libertarianism’s past, founded Center for Libertarian into D.C., where it has which has been lost in the fog of Studies, which described itself remained the most influential ideas- history and cultural amnesia.

5 stripped of tragedy or comedy or budget deficits, and of taxing what narrative arc. he called “the producers.” This was Robert LeFevre’s first “I think Roosevelt is a Socialist,” Robert LeFevre was born in lesson in free-market capitalism, his father grimly warned him. 1911, and raised in and he hated it. He wanted to be “Coolidge and Hoover had the by a single mother after his an actor or a radio celebrity, so as right idea.” father, a school teacher turned soon as he’d stolen enough money Here was something Steinbeck failed entrepreneur, abandoned for himself, he left his father to never imagined: a laissez- their home when LeFevre was chase his Hollywood dream. He faire tramp; the soup-kitchen just nine. failed, went broke and hungry, and goldbug. LeFevre headed back to Father and son wouldn’t meet contemplated suicide on the ledge Minneapolis, to his abandoned again until the onset of the Great of a Pasadena bridge. wife and daughter, convinced that Depression, when LeFevre, a Oddly enough, it was at this his problems were all the fault of college drop-out desperate for very moment, in 1933, in the FDR and envious shirkers who work, abandoned his own wife depths of the were robbing “producers” like and daughter to join his father on and of his own personal failure, LeFevre and his father of their a traveling scam. They puttered that LeFevre had his first rightful due. throughout the rural Midwest libertarian political awakening. together, fleecing housewives by In his memoir, “A Way to Be taking down-payments on picture Free,” he recalled how his father, a frames they never delivered. It was Republican hobo, first opened his Naturally, it was FDR and Big a kind of real-life “Paper Moon,” eyes to the evils of fiat money, of that saved LeFevre

6 from starvation. Like his hero shows, with chants such as, “If they Shirts, Guy and Edna Ballard Ronald Reagan, Robert LeFevre be of human creation, annihilate quickly enlisted his senior staff, found a job subsidized by the them!” and plagiarized his books and New Deal’s biggest employment Although LeFevre’s time in ideas to create the “I AM” cult. program, the WPA, which paid the cult has been downplayed or For instance, in the late 1920s, a Minneapolis radio station, spun as a mere eccentric detour Pelley wrote a book claiming he’d WRHM, to hire LeFevre and by libertarians, LeFevre himself had an out-of-body experience launch his career as propagandist, made it clear in his memoirs that and that his spirit met the spirit of product spokesman and cult leader. his time in the “I AM” cult had Saint Germain over Lake Shasta; The irony was lost on LeFevre. a profound influence on him that after Pelley went into hiding, Guy In his memoirs, he is neither carried through to his libertarian Ballard wrote a book claiming he’d grateful for nor interested in the period. To LeFevre, the libertarian had an out-of-body experience WPA program, nor in the larger philosophy he adopted in the 1950s floating over mountains in politics of the 30’s that made it was substantively no different from , where he met the spirit possible for him to survive. Instead, the “I AM” cult teachings of the of Saint Germain. he only thought of how he might 1930s, except in the rhetorical Guy Ballard claimed he was please his abusive station manager presentation of the ideas: one the reincarnation of George boss: “A word of praise from him— used “logical” language, the other Washington, and his wife Edna and it came on occasion—was the “metaphysical.” was a reincarnated Jeanne d’Arc. one bright sign in an otherwise More importantly, LeFevre The “I AM” cult demanded its flat and empty horizon,” he later learned from the cult how ideas followers avoid a bizarre catalogue reminisced. and tales—no matter how bizarre of evils, including bowling, onions, LeFevre would do anything and disconnected from reality— pets, saxophones (but not harps), to impress his station manager— can empower the priest, and liquor, sex, family and family including joining a bizarre captivate minds. For this reason, it’s members not given over to the new cult, the Mighty “I AM” worth taking some time to describe “I AM” cult. They even forbade Movement, at his boss’s suggestion just how bizarre the Mighty “I followers from getting out of a (the cult was an advertising sponsor AM” cult really was. swimming pool without having a of LeFevre’s radio station). During The Mighty “I AM” towel handy. the 1930s, the crypto-Nazi “I AM” Movement was founded in the LeFevre claimed that he came cult became a national sensation, early 1930s by a Chicago huckster to the cult via a paranormal filling large auditoriums across the named Guy Ballard, a notorious experience he had while alone in country, its followers numbering in conman on the run after fleecing his radio station studio: the hundreds of thousands. widows who paid him to invest “It is as vivid in my mind today Nation editor Carey in a fake “lake of gold”—and his as when it occurred nearly forty- McWilliams went to an “I AM” wife, Edna Ballard, who ran a five years ago… I heard a series event in Los Angeles and came small shop selling cult books and of clicks in my mind. With each away shaken by the spectacle of wares. The founding ideas and of those clicks, a question about what he called the “Hitlerian” cult: myths for their “I AM” cult were ultimate reality that had baffled “By the time an I AM audience directly lifted from the pro-Nazi me had an answer. On the instant, repeat a chant for the fourth time, “Silver Shirts” movement of every doubt and fear I had ever they are shouting with all the William Dudley Pelley, “America’s known vanished. ‘I Am,’ was the frenzy of a mob of Nazis yelling Hitler,” who was jailed during answer.” Sieg Heil!” World War II charged with There also happened to be a The Ballards led auditoriums sedition. In the early-mid 1930s, workers’ strike at LeFevre’s radio in chants calling for the murders Pelley created the Silver Shirts, station. LeFevre didn’t want to of President Roosevelt and the enlisting thousands of followers, join his fellow workers—his only First Lady: “Blast, blast, blast their who were given military training interest was in pleasing his boss. carcasses from the face of the earth then armed for a violent takeover. To LeFevre’s disappointment, his forever!” Their shows increasingly When Pelley went into hiding boss didn’t appreciate him crossing turned into mass-murder freak- in 1934, abandoning his Silver the picket lines to keep the

7 radio station on-air—he accused from the spirit of Saint Germain. LeFevre of “betraying your own One married woman he lusted after class” and the radio station agreed invited LeFevre to live with her and to a contract with the union. In 1939, three years after her husband in their Let down by his boss, LeFevre first joining the “I AM” cult, penthouse, causing her husband to wrote a gushing letter to “I AM” Robert LeFevre quit his radio drink himself almost to death. cult leader, “Daddy” Ballard, asking job, abandoned his wife and child It’s hard to tell if LeFevre him if he’d done right by breaking again, and joined the Ballards’ genuinely anguished over his con the strike at his radio station. traveling road show as their job; in his memoirs, his language “Daddy” Ballard gave LeFevre what stage emcee. In 1940, LeFevre suggests that more than anything, he was looking for, a condemnation published his first book, “I AM: he feared being found out: of unions as “black magicians” and America’s Destiny,” claiming “… What if I suddenly “an instrument of evil.” He warned that he had once driven his car announced to all these good people Charles Koch’s future guru, “A for twenty minutes with his eyes that the whole thing was a sham? I Communist conspiracy was at work, shut while his soul cavorted with was tempted to do it.” seeking to undermine and destroy Saint Germain somewhere over “Was I guilty of fraud? Had the United States.” California’s Lake Shasta. “Now, I (subliminally) perhaps been “‘Daddy’ explained that people as I watched, and listened, Saint engaged in some monstrous who owned property had a right to Germain talked to me. He was pretense?” do what they wished with it.” real! The world I lived in was LeFevre’s stint as cult leader LeFevre, always the eager unreal. He was the true reality.” was short-lived. In late 1940, the bottomer to the rich and powerful, LeFevre quickly discovered how FBI indicted him and 23 other top had finally found his Master: popular he became by claiming this “I AM” figures with felony mail “‘Daddy’ Ballard was my idol. I power. Women made themselves fraud. LeFevre immediately turned yearned for his approval… I sought available; crowds would gather in states’ witness, and charges against to be a better slave.” apartments to hear his “dictations” him were dropped, while Edna Ballard and her son were sentenced to prison. LeFevre was alleged to have joined another fascist cult at that time called “Mankind United,” whose leader was jailed for sedition during World War II for calling on his followers to help Japan defeat the United States.

After spending the war years in the Special Services branch, LeFevre moved to San Francisco to become a real estate entrepreneur. Within a couple of years, LeFevre had built up a mountain of debt that couldn’t be serviced, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Despite being the free-market guru to today’s most powerful billionaire oligarch, LeFevre couldn’t run a lemonade stand if his life depended on it. Rather than

8 take personal responsibility, LeFevre by a couple with known ties to showed that LeFevre became an blamed the same forces that Guy organized . FBI informant and propagandist at Ballard, now dead for nearly a As soon as LeFevre and his the onset of hysteria and decade, had once told LeFevre to handful of “I AM” cultists took McCarthyism. blame: “Communists, I was told, over Valentino’s mansion in the Now, suddenly, everything had infiltrated the government. late 1940s, they turned it into the went his way: The underworld They were casting a malevolent spell headquarters of a sex cult called partner in his hotel property on the American way of life.” “Falcon’s Lair.” Newspapers across swap was found dead of a bullet LeFevre’s biggest asset in his the country printed sensational wound to his head; it was ruled a real estate portfolio was a wino stories accusing LeFevre’s cult suicide. Meanwhile, Republican hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin of holding séances that ended in Party bosses in Southern district. LeFevre protected the orgies. California tapped LeFevre to hotel from creditors by creating Creditors chased him down run for Congress as their Red- a legally registered religious to Beverly Hills, but LeFevre no baiting Republican. He lost in organization called “The San longer owned the hotel, let alone the primary to a more moderate Francisco Group” and “donating” Valentino’s mansion. Republican, and was hustled the hotel to his religious outfit. Then the FBI came looking off to his next gig working for a Then, LeFevre’s religious group for him. But instead of going to union-busting outfit that Red- organized a property swap to get jail, the strangest thing happened: baited Hollywood liberals. Two of rid of the hotel, exchanging it for Everything in Robert LeFevre’s LeFevre’s targets, “High Noon” Rudolph Valentino’s mansion in life took a turn for the better. director Stanley Kramer, and Beverly Hills, which was owned Declassified FBI documents later future B’nai B’rith chairman Dore

9 Schary, slapped LeFevre with a $5 million libel suit. LeFevre vanished from town, and appeared shortly afterwards in Ft. Lauderdale, , working with the local FBI bureau developing a news program for a new TV station. Recently declassified FBI documents reveal that LeFevre collaborated extensively with the FBI at the height of McCarthyism, working as both an informant and as their propaganda tool. LeFevre collaborated with his FBI handlers to develop the TV news show, cleared his scripts with his FBI handler, and cleared the names of on-air guests with the FBI. LeFevre’s collaboration was rewarded by a long sought-after interview with his hero, Joseph McCarthy, at the height of his terror campaign. He also shamelessly abused his relationship with his powerful handlers to destroy his enemies, no matter how petty the offense. According to one declassified FBI report, LeFevre turned in a heckler who interrupted his speech against the UN—he told the FBI that the heckler, whose name is blacked out, led a “Communist cell” in Ft. Lauderdale. Just one more reason why Charles Koch and libertarians don’t like the rest of the world knowing too much about libertarianism’s founding father, Robert LeFevre.

Why did LeFevre rise from the desperate world of cults and fraud to such prominence so quickly? After World War II, corporate America waged war on the countervailing power of New Deal government, labor unions,

10 and leftist ideology. Their weapons being a Communist. The Girl chapter until his death. in that war were Red-baiting Scouts announced they’d made Right up to the end, LeFevre McCarthyism, and corporate dozens of changes to their guide praised Merwin K. Hart as a America’s economic might. What book, and LeFevre was now a great libertarian, “one of the they lacked was talent, willing national figure within the well- few conservative voices who collaborators, to wage their war funded McCarthyist right wing. had consistently supported on Americans. After Americans It was one of the last, and the Constitutional government, human fought and defeated the Axis weirdest, of the McCarthy-era liberty and the free enterprise powers and the Great Depression, witch-hunts, and it made Robert system.” they weren’t easily persuaded to LeFevre popular among the far- turn against their compatriots right. He was hired as the vice or government to do corporate president of one of the best-funded “LeFevre and Christian America’s dirty work. Idealism and right-wing lobbying outfits of nationalism triumphed.” trust in government were high; the the post-war era, the National —The Reporter , 1955 pool of potential rats and snitches Economic Council, whose leader, was extremely limited. The only Merwin K. Hart, was not only a people corporate America could self-described “libertarian” but also a Merwin K. Hart hired reliably hire to front for their war Fascist sympathizer and anti-Semite. LeFevre in 1953 as vice president on the New Deal were dregs Few Americans today know of his National Economic Council. like LeFevre: crooks, fraudsters, the name Merwin K. Hart, but in LeFevre’s work for Merwin K. degenerates, bankrupts—people so his day he was the most notorious Hart largely involved campaigns desperate or so compromised they and dangerous fascist sympathizer attacking the had no choice, or no soul. in America, and one of the first and fighting internationalism: LeFevre was all of that, with an major Holocaust deniers. Supreme “Our foreign policy is perhaps the added bonus: From an early age, Court Justice Robert Jackson, most vulnerable place in which LeFevre had always worshipped who prosecuted the Nuremberg to attack the Red influence in those wealthier and more powerful Trials, called Hart “America’s this country,” LeFevre explained than he. Ideologically, LeFevre leading Fascist.” After the war, he in a letter. “We must oppose the had already shown he was at home engineered the 1946 election of trend toward internationalism if among fascists and Nazi cultists. Joseph McCarthy, and waged a we are to preserve our Union.” In What would possibly prevent him, Red-baiting culture war through our time, this sort of libertarian then, from collaborating with the the National Economic Council, anti-interventionist rhetoric, hardly FBI and Red-baiting Americans? which was funded by some of the changed from the days of Merwin Just how far LeFevre was biggest names in corporate America K. Hart and Robert LeFevre, willing to go to please the FBI and including the DuPonts, Monsanto, would be misinterpreted and McCarthyites was shown when Sears, and the Mellon-controlled revered by many on the left as a LeFevre spearheaded a Red-baiting Gulf Oil. It was Merwin K. Hart’s principled stand against overseas campaign against the Girl Scouts of NEC that destroyed the career of wars. Forgotten in all of this is America. LeFevre made headlines America’s most promising Keynsian the early libertarians’ coupling by accusing the Girl Scouts guide economist, Lorie Tarshis, in the of anti-interventionism with book of harboring subversive anti- late 1940s. extreme McCarthyism and with American messages. The campaign In 1958, Merwin K. Hart brutal attacks on labor and leftist quickly transformed from absurd drew up plans for the John Birch intellectuals. Indeed, Merwin to terrifying when the House Un- , and handed it over to K. Hart engineered McCarthy’s American Activities Committee a younger reactionary 1946 Senate campaign victory called hearings on the Girl Scouts lobbyist named Robert Welch. against a true left-wing isolationist, in response to LeFevre’s PR war. Welch recruited Charles Koch’s Robert LaFollette, who was both One Girl Scouts troop leader hauled father, Fred Koch, as one of his an America First isolationist before the committee was thrown 11 founding directors of the John as well as a strong supporter of out of the organization when she Birch Society. Merwin K. Hart labor rights and one of corporate refused to answer questions about was honored as the JBS head of the America’s biggest enemies. In our

11 time, the Koch libertarians would denier outfit, the Institute for unseat another anti- Historical Review. interventionist progressive, Russ LeFevre was fully aware of In 1956, a far-right newspaper Feingold, in favor of a pro-corporate Willis Carto’s rabid anti-Semitism magnate named R. C. Hoiles Republican. Likewise, in LeFevre’s and neo-Nazi leanings, but as with brought LeFevre out to time, anti-interventionism was only Merwin K. Hart, it didn’t seem to Springs, Colorado, and gave useful insofar as it served corporate bother him except as bad strategy. him a job as editorial writer at America’s goal of weakening trust in In 1956, after Carto launched his his Colorado Gazette, run by government, the left and labor. first rabidly anti-Semitic, racist R.C.’s son, Harry Hoiles. The LeFevre’s biggest assignment newsletter, called Right, LeFevre Colorado Gazette was part of for Merwin K. Hart was leading sent him a congratulatory letter: Hoiles’ Freedom Newspaper chain, a front group of his called the notorious for dividing communities “Dear Willis, Congress of Freedom, an umbrella across the country and for spewing group of all the far-right, pro- anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-   I am more and more segregationist, and libertarian democracy and anti-labor vitriol. impressed with ‘Right.’ There opposition to Eisenhower, to the Freedom Newspaper columnists has long been a need for Earl Warren Supreme Court and included Nazi sympathizers. R.C. such a publication as this and to both parties. LeFevre’s high Hoiles was so far to the right he it seems to me that you are point as head of the Congress makes Rupert Murdoch look like filling the bill. If you can keep of Freedom came in 1955, when Rachel Maddow. on the ball, you should have an he forced the United Nations to In the same year, also in ever increasing circulation. I cancel a meeting in San Francisco Colorado Springs, LeFevre helped certainly hope that you do.” by timing a Congress of Freedom Hoiles to set up the Freedom meeting at the same time. School. The school’s early Board of LeFevre’s point man in his San It was only years later, when Fellows reads like a Who’s Who of Francisco triumph was Willis Willis Carto questioned free- the post-war far-right: Holocaust- Carto, the founder of America’s trade policies, that LeFevre felt denier Merwin K. Hart, LeFevre’s neo-Nazi movement. In later years, compelled to criticize him: “I was former boss; Roger Milliken, the Willis Carto launched David very sorry to see you [advocate pro-segregationist textile magnate Duke’s political career, and he tariffs], Willis, and I suspect you who bankrolled William Buckley’s founded the leading Holocaust- will live long enough to regret it.” and later helped

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12 lead the ; and “survival of the fittest,” not Darwin opposed publicly funded schools retired Brig. General Bonner (whose evolutionary theory favored (Hoiles equated teachers with Fellers, the radical right-winger survival of the adaptive, not the prostitutes), publicly-funded parks demoted by Eisenhower early in strong). Spencer believed that the and roads, municipal police and World War II for “inadvertently” was Nature itself, and fire departments, standing armies leaking British war plans to the he vigorously opposed anything and drug laws that put users in Nazis (Rommel, who benefited that intervened in the free-market’s prison; Hoiles also opposed Civil from the leak, affectionately referred “natural” ways. Spencer opposed Rights laws, interracial marriage to Fellers as “my bonnie feller”). public education, state support for and most of all he opposed labor Hoiles described himself a the needy and efforts to relieve unions and taxes. Hoiles called “libertarian” in the 1950s and the Irish Famine as much as he taxes “violent coercion” and ’60s, but he gave his own brand of opposed British imperialism and instead proposed a extremist anti-state, pro-property military interventionism, all for the based on markets and “voluntary” authoritarianism another name as same reasons: They interfered in agreements, pitting well: “.” This was the the free-market’s “natural” ways. against individual, without labor same name used in 19th-century It’s the same reason libertarians unions or but with Britain by a movement of Social oppose imperialist wars abroad— corporations—in other words, Darwinists who were influenced not because they cause human survival of capitalism’s fittest, by the writings of Herbert Spencer, suffering, but because they interfere unencumbered by countervailing the founder of Social Darwinism in market interests. democratic or labor power. and a forefather of libertarianism. It As a Spencer-influenced Hoiles’ “Voluntaryism” was was Spencer who coined the term “Voluntaryist,” R. C. Hoiles adopted by LeFevre wholesale, and

13 14 repackaged as his own philosophy, Reagan as GE spokesman. generously funded of all the which LeFevre rebranded under The pro-business lobby had been conservative pressure groups” of the name “autarchy” in the mid- talking about creating an outfit its time, boasting a donor list that 1960s. But “autarchy” was an like the Freedom School since the included 16 of America’s 50 largest unfortunate choice for LeFevre’s end of World War II. Polls taken corporations: The Big Three car name brand of libertarianism: in the mid-late ’40s showed that makers, five of the eight largest “Autarky” or “Autarchy” was a the American public was wary steel companies, General Electric term popularized in the 1930s by of big business, while support for and DuPont, Standard Oil, Chase fascist governments in Italy, Nazi government programs and labor National Bank, Union Carbide, Germany, Spain and elsewhere—a unions was high. and so on. The head of the FEE word that described a self-reliant poured hundreds was an old Chamber of Commerce totalitarian system (the original of millions into a propaganda pitch-man named , Greek means quite literally campaign fronted by lobbying and one of the first propagandists “autocratic” or “totalitarianism”). outfits like The Foundation for that he hired to churn out pro- In later years, the label “autarchy” Economic Education (FEE) business pamphlets was the was used to describe the economic and Merwin K. Hart’s National libertarian guru Ludwig von systems of tyrants like Idi Amin Economic Council, both of which Mises. The library and literature and Pol Pot. This might explain contributed to the propaganda. at LeFevre’s Freedom School why LeFevre’s failed label The FEE specialized in the mass- was stacked with Foundation for was quietly dropped from the production of libertarian pamphlets Economic Education literature, libertarian lexicon, while the term and books; Merwin K. Hart’s paid for by DuPont donations. “Voluntaryism” today describes a group fell more on the Red-baiting Members of the FEE board small but thriving faction of anti- terror side, pressuring schools and included George Gallup’s partner state libertarian free-marketeers, universities. in his polling business, and a future many of whom have been Different pro-business outfits chairman of the notorious United sponsored and trained in Koch- served different segments of Fruit Company. funded programs. the population. The purpose of Today, in Keene, New Freedom School was to indoctrinate Hampshire, thousands of an elite hardcore of future executives libertarians live in a “Voluntaryist” and leaders in a radicalized free- The Ultimate commune called “Free Keene”— market ideology, a sort of Corporate Libertarian Sacrifice the brainchild of a Mercatus Komsomol vanguard. Another early libertarian Center economist funded by The biggest challenge was to who played an important role Charles Koch. convince the public that these in the Freedom School was a advocates of a pro-business Red-baiting union buster named ideology were honest and authentic. . He first made The promoters of this laissez-faire, a name for himself in the early As LeFevre slowly grew the anti-government campaign had to 1920s after crushing a union drive Freedom School into a libertarian look as if their interest was purely textile mill, in the indoctrination camp, checks poured intellectual, not underhanded and height of the first Red Scare.. in from other funders, including mercenary. They couldn’t appear to Harvard Business School invited an anti-Semitic steel magnate seem like the corporate pitch-men Chodorov to talk about his union- named Robert Donner (who once they were. busting strategy, but some of the waged a campaign to ban The That was an understandable MBA students raised concerns Nation from Colorado College), worry for outfits like the about Chodorov’s methods, leading the Allen-Bradley Foundation, the Foundation for Economic him to conclude that Harvard Kochs, Adolph Coors, the DuPont- Education, which libertarians Business School was a nest of backed Curran Foundation, often point to as the origins of Communist subversives. Deering-Milliken, even GE their movement. Congressional Chodorov went broke in the executive Lemeul Boulware, the investigations in the late 1940s Great Depression, and spent the man responsible for hiring Ronald exposed the FEE as “the most rest of his life on the fringes of the

15 far right living off handouts rather wing activists and trolls. advancing the cause of freedom. than his own profits. Chodorov Chodorov’s ideas were in In LeFevre’s memoirs about was born a Jew but hid it until late sync with LeFevre’s and those Chodorov’s last lecture at the in life. In fact, he spent World of LeFevre’s main backer, R. C. Freedom School, there’s a gruesome War II working for anti-Semites Hoiles. LeFevre didn’t consider anecdote that captures the weird like Merwin K. Hart. Right after himself much of a thinker or a reptilian malevolence of the the war ended, Chodorov formed teacher, and he asked Chodorov libertarian front-man’s world. a “committee” to free a pro-Nazi, to become the Freedom School’s It’s 1961, the Freedom School is anti-Semitic U.S. diplomat jailed lead instructor in its early years. graduating another class of students for passing secrets to Hitler’s spies. Chodorov taught that democracy is indoctrinated in “liberty,” and In the early 1950s, Chodorov evil, that income taxes are evil, that Chodorov steps up to the podium was given funds to launch a campus public schools are evil, unions are to give his usual graduation speech libertarian outfit aimed at university evil, John Dewey is evil, voting is denouncing democracy and students. Chodorov called his evil—only the individual is good, government. It begins normally, but strategy “The Fifty Year Plan.” Fifty unless that individual organizes after a few minutes, LeFevre notices years later, Chodorov’s libertarian with other to form a something is wrong with Chodorov: outfit, the Intercollegiate Studies business corporation. If individuals “His face turned a pasty white. Institute (ISI), runs the network organize into labor unions or He continued to talk, groping of right-wing college newspapers governments, they become slaves for words and saying nothing that launched the careers of Dinesh party to the “violent coercion” of that made sense. He spoke of his D’Souza, Laura Ingraham, James others; if individuals organize in mother and of ‘pretty little girls.’ O’Keefe, and scores of other right- corporate entities, they are free and Then, he began to ramble, giving

16 out words without a context.” moved to take up his post as Instead of rushing him to a LeFevre realized something speaker. I intercepted and got him hospital, LeFevre and some others was wrong—he tried loudly to sit down again.” dragged Chodorov off to his cabin whispering, “Please take a seat!” This was how Frank Chodorov room, and called his sister in New but Chodorov seemed frozen. So spent his final conscious moments: York to take him away. Frank LeFevre stood up, pried his fingers In a death struggle with a rival shill. Chodorov spent the next five years loose from the lectern, sat him in LeFevre was as determined as the a bedridden vegetable before finally a chair, and continued Chodorov’s zombie-Chodorov—this wasn’t expiring. speech for him, which LeFevre even about the students anymore. But his message lives on. was able to improvise having seen What mattered was faithfully it several times. LeFevre didn’t serving the Master’s cause with at think of Chodorov’s health; what least as much fanatical devotion as mattered most was completing the the Chodorov-zombie: Almost from the start, the job, serving the Master faithfully. “No one looked at me during Freedom School attracted Incredibly, the same servile motor the talk and it is probable that no controversy. A group of school function was the last thing to die in one heard a thing I said. They all teachers from Rockford, Frank Chodorov’s stroke-damaged focused on Frank. But, at least, were sent to a summer session in brain, and he charged for the I made Frank’s point. I had the 1959 by the Rockford Chamber podium with the determination of feeling that should I hesitate, Frank of Commerce. They returned in a Romero zombie: would have come reeling to the shock over what LeFevre was trying “One of the ladies was crying. podium to correct me, yet he was to teach them. Upon returning, Frank came out of his chair and nearly comatose.” they published an outraged letter

17 to the local newspaper detailing The Chamber voted and agreed to graduate school called Rampart what they’d been taught: “President release the teachers from having to College, a local Colorado Springs LeFevre says that he is opposed to teach LeFevre’s ideas. radio station attacked what it called the government doing anything By the time Charles Koch “Rampage College” and the station’s that private enterprise can do enrolled in the Freedom School’s popular Jewish radio host accused better; since he can think of no two-week Executive Program LeFevre of having a history of such area—no government.” They in 1964, the school had already anti-Semitism. Actually the entire demanded that the Chamber release attracted controversy both locally Freedom School operation was to the teachers from having to teach and further afield. The mayor be renamed “Rampart College” in the Freedom School’s ideas to their of Colorado Springs publicly order not to be identified with the own students in Rockford: “We denounced the Freedom School Civil Rights movement’s “freedom do not believe that the Chamber and LeFevre for making Colorado schools” spreading throughout the subscribes to the theory that the Springs look like “the home south. Bill of Rights of the Constitution of crackpots,” blaming the bad In 1965, a year after Charles should be replaced by a single right: publicity for scaring away investors. Koch joined the Freedom School the right to own property. We A Colorado Springs Chamber board of trustees and had himself doubt if the Chamber agrees with a of Commerce director told Time elected as a vice president, the New philosophy that opposes voting since magazine that LeFevre’s outfit York Times profiled the Freedom the act of voting marks approval was as welcome as “a skunk at a School, portraying it as an arm of of government. These are not stray family picnic.” And when LeFevre the John Birch Society, and a nest of remarks taken from context; they announced a $5 million expansion segregationism: are the foundation of the course.” program to build a fully-accredited “So far all the [nearly 1,000]

18 students have been white. their father Fred Koch, an oilman, letters obtained by NSFWCORP Applicants are required to state their and by Robert Love, a Wichita heir Welch describes the “Illuminati” as race and religion on application to a cardboard-box fortune. In the “the Zionist conspiracy” and makes forms. Negroes have applied, 1950s, Fred Koch and Robert Love it clear he can’t talk directly about Mr. LeFevre said, but so far have had led the “Right to Work” the global Jewish plot in public. This not been enrolled. They would anti-union campaign. In 1958, Fred is another area where progressives be if qualified, he said, though it Koch co-founded the John Birch totally misread libertarians— might present a housing problem Society; Love joined the Birchers’ ignorant of libertarianism’s history, because some of his students are National Council alongside Fred. they dismiss all the far-right segregationists.” Charles and were also conspiracy theory material as The more people got to know members of the John Birch Society, incidental, when in fact far-right about LeFevre’s libertarian program, resigning only in mid-1968. conspiracy theory thinking is in the more they started calling it out The “fuhrer” of the John Birch libertarian ideology’s DNA… as an elaborate swindle hatched Society was another of the hick Charles and David Koch were by wealthy interests, designed to fascist vacuum-cleaner salesmen also members of the John Birch talk the public into dismantling types that dominated the early Society when they and the other their own government power and libertarian movement. His name top Bircher executives enrolled in institutions—the only power that was Robert Welch; he’d gone LeFevre’s Freedom School, which, protected the public from the sort of from selling Sugar Daddy candies during the winter of 1963-64, was a corporate abuse that had brought on manufactured by his brother, kind of Libertarian Woodstock – or the Great Depression. to serving the interests of Big a Libertarian Jekyll Island. Among The purpose of Freedom Business sugar daddies as a lobbyist the major libertarian figures who School’s teachings, it was becoming for the National Manufacturers gathered under Robert LeFevre’s increasingly clear, was to turn the Association. Welch was also a rabid watch to teach future leaders such as American public against their own McCarthyite who never forgave Charles Koch were the following: government, to free up corporations Eisenhower’s abandonment of the and the rich to do as they pleased, by witch-hunting senator. The Birchers’ • and Friedrich selling it as “freedom” and to tarnish founding book makes the case that von Hayek, both future advisors the forces that impeded corporate America was being subverted by to Chilean dictator Augusto power—government, democracy, high-placed Communist agents Pinochet (Hayek also admired labor unions—as “tyranny.” headed by President Eisenhower, South Africa’s “libertarian” whom Welch described as a regime); “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” controlled • , longtime Charles Koch enrolled in the by Moscow for decades. Birchers head of the Vienna Chamber Freedom School in early 1964, when spread propaganda and films around of Commerce, interwar the school was testing out its most the country to persuade people that admirer of Mussolini, escaped ambitious program ever, named the Civil Rights movement was to the U.S. near the end of “The Phrontistery,” which brought a Communist plot, that Moscow WWII and went to work as in some of the biggest names in the directly controlled figures such a PR lobbyist for the National free-market movement to teach an as Martin Luther King Jr., Chief Association of Manufacturers; expanded, cross-discipline approach Justice Earl Warren, the National to libertarianism, incorporating Council of Churches, and President • , a founding , history, politics and Kennedy (Birchers argued that JFK father of the free-market “Law philosophy. was assassinated in a Communist and Economics” movement The Phrontistery program ran for conspiracy, because Kennedy had whose biggest adherents were six months, from late 1963 through planned to “turn American” and and Richard early 1964, and it attracted enrollees betray his Communist handlers). Posner; from the cream of the libertarian It was Welch and the Birchers world. The Koch brothers were who popularized the “Illuminati” • , co-founder convinced to attend the program by conspiracy theories—in private of the “ Theory”

19 movement which argues that “[They] enabled me to integrate and business agenda by disguising it as public servants are inherently apply these ideas in a much more daring, eccentric, profound, counter- selfish and antagonistic productive way. My compulsion to intuitive scholarship. The idea had towards the public they serve, internally integrate all my beliefs always been, since the New Deal, and therefore the only answer ensured that I would radically to turn Americans against their is privatization because the free change the way I viewed the government, leaving them prey once market serves the consumer; world in all arenas—life, business, again to powerful and predatory non-profits, government, and business interests. It was Charles • G. Warren Nutter. Argued society. In short, market principles Koch’s unique business genius to business monopolies are the have changed my life and guide see how a radical fringe version of government’s fault, and only everything I do. Following Hayek’s pro-corporate ideas could give him total deregulation can end model of the free society as an leverage for his business interests, business monopolies. Nutter experimental discovery process, I and advance his family’s larger also worked for the CIA, an have engaged in a large variety of vision of an idealized America odd choice for a “Public Choice activities to advance the free society before labor rights, regulations Theory” scholar. over the past 30 some years.” and universal suffrage made doing By Charles Koch’s own account, business trickier. The influence of these figures these were the people and the ideas But ultimately LeFevre couldn’t and their ideas on Charles Koch’s that shaped his worldview and his keep up with Charles Koch’s thinking became apparent over libertarian politics, a politics which ambitious plans to turn Freedom the next few decades, when he set he spent the next half-century School into a more sophisticated up his own multi-layered, multi- promoting and investing in, so that operation, a Cato Institute or an dimensional network of libertarian now these ideas are woven into the Institute for Humane Studies. idea-mills and influence-peddling American cultural fabric at every Funding ramped up under Charles operations. In a speech Charles level: political, academic, media, Koch’s guidance: a 1966 Ramparts Koch gave in the late 1990s, he economic, religious, corporate, even College brochure features a photo explained how his Freedom School pop culture. of a young, healthy Charles Koch, experience influenced him: And it was all done under the shovel in hand, ceremoniously “[Freedom School] was where supervision of Koch’s guru, Robert “breaking ground” on a new building I began developing a passionate LeFevre. addition for a planned accredited commitment to liberty as the form graduate school program, as a white- of social organization most in haired LeFevre, in a check-pattered harmony with reality and man’s blazer and tie, stands by looking like nature, because it’s where I was first LeFevre was useful to Charles a Buick car lot manager. exposed [to] in-depth to thinkers Koch for introducing him to a LeFevre had reached his such as Mises and Hayek,” he said. powerful means of pushing a pro- pinnacle—backed by Charles

NSFWCOMICS | Jen Sorensen

20 Koch and Koch’s rich friends, with graduate programs. Heading the materials or reports. As the cut-off millions pledged to expand his economics department was W. date approached, LeFevre grew libertarian indoctrination camp. But H. Hutt, a South African free- obsessed with a fatherless 14-year- at heart, LeFevre was just a petty market economist who opposed old girl named . scam artist in way over his head. A the concept of majority rule as “Although I am appalled to mud slide had caused some damage; often as he defended South Africa’s admit it, I actually loved this funds went missing; LeFevre was apartheid regime and Rhodesia’s brilliant wisp of a girl,” he later constantly scheming to undermine white supremacist leader, Ian Smith. wrote. “I was astonished at myself other rival libertarian front-men LeFevre and Koch chose “revisionist” and I was outraged by feelings that who fed at the same donor trough historian James J. Martin—one welled up within me, beyond my as he feasted at. Nothing got done; of the leaders of the American ability to control.” the promised new buildings weren’t Holocaust denial industry—to head Somehow, he managed to built; the promised accreditation the history department. convince the girl’s mother to sign never happened. Donors began But LeFevre himself couldn’t even over legal guardianship of her grumbling; colleagues resigned. manage the payroll, despite a boost in daughter to LeFevre and his wife, Other, duller, more responsible funding. In 1968, LeFevre’s investors joining them and the two other businessmen were brought in to lost confidence and demanded that women who had followed LeFevre keep an eye on LeFevre and the he run Freedom School on the same since his cult days, and who lived money pouring in, while LeFevre for-profit principles that he preached under one roof with him and his was tasked with focusing on his so fanatically. wife. strengths as a libertarian “guru.” At By 1968, Charles Koch was LeFevre later published a book Koch’s urging, LeFevre recruited the distancing himself to the extent titled “Lift Her Up, Tenderly,” billed putative heads of Rampart College’s that his name barely appears in the as a “free-market ‘Lolita’” about

21 an old sage, “Papa,” and his love LeFevre from the abyss was a new state equaled Vietnam War, the affair with his 12-year-old daughter, opportunity for libertarianism Draft, Chicago ’68, CIA, J. Edgar “Ginny”—all “based on the real life provided by the radical leftism of Hoover. The hope was that enough of Robert Lefevre”—only instead the Baby Boomer generation. It could be peeled away from socialist of Nabokov’s explicitly described was an opportunity that Charles and anti-corporate tendencies, by pedophilia, LeFevre details Koch grasped, with help from selling libertarianism as a kind salacious free-market dialogues in another Freedom School lecturer of Yogurt ’n’ Yoga Free-Market which “Papa” always at his desk, named Murray Rothbard, the Radicalism. Almost immediately, always interrupted by his naive founder of “anarcho-capitalism,” the new student libertarian radicals attention-seeking daughter, lectures who advised his new oil patron to received an unusual amount of her on the theories of Ludwig latch Old Right libertarianism on mainstream media attention and von Mises and the evils of big to the anti-government radicalism praise. The student movement government, occasionally stopping of the Baby Boomers. turned into the Libertarian Party, to observe the development of her In 1967, a year before Ramparts journals sprouted up, the Charles G. “budding breasts.” The book failed, College collapsed, Fred Koch died. Koch Foundation in Wichita was except among a handful of home- Charles was now consumed with formed (soon to be renamed “The schooling fanatics. taking sole control of and expanding Cato Institute”). Libertarians wore As soon as LeFevre was forced the newly-renamed their hair long, raised their fists, into the free market in 1968, that his father had bequeathed to denounced Nixon and wars, and Ramparts College collapsed in his family. David Koch acquiesced; called for drug legalization. They bankruptcy and debt, as had his last David’s twin brother William fought also called for the elimination of free-market venture in real estate Charles, and lost, after decades of environmental regulations, slashing two decades earlier. A desperate bruising lawsuits. In control of both taxes on the rich, privatizing Social and broke LeFevre packed his the oil-chemicals company and of his Security, school vouchers, and wife and adopted “daughter” into political strategy, in the decades to busting union power. Except for their car, and drove out to Orange come Charles would merge business, the long hair and the “groovy” talk, County to seek money from the first politics and ideology-manufacturing their ideas were no different from Freedom School sponsor who had into a grand strategy, becoming one R. C. Hoiles’, or from those of his brought him to Colorado Springs of the richest and most powerful disciple, Robert LeFevre. Fellow old over a decade earlier, R. C. Hoiles, men in the world. right “libertarian” William Buckley, who was now retired in Orange Almost immediately after his himself an heir to his father’s oil County and nearing death at age father’s death, Charles started fortune, dismissed the Kochs’ 90. LeFevre was back in the life introducing change. In 1968 Libertarian Party movement as of a traveling huckster, a life he’d Charles Koch let Freedom School “anarcho-totalitarianism.” escaped for a decade—only now die and he resigned from the LeFevre also latched on to the with a pre-pubescent girl he loved. John Birch Society. (Until that hippie movement, rebranding Hoiles reacted to LeFevre’s time, it had not been made public himself as an “anarchist” and begging just as LeFevre had taught that Charles Koch was himself a “pacifist.” One of the leaders of a “producer” should: by running member of the JBS.) The Birchers, the student hippie-libertarians LeFevre out of his Santa Ana he understood, were history; for was Republican Congressman mansion with his cane, screaming laissez-faire libertarianism to survive Dana Rohrabacher, who grew abuse, calling LeFevre a “bum” with the Baby Boomer generation, it his hair out and formed a hippie- and a shirker. Hoiles was by would need a complete rebranding. libertarian folk band singing songs then one of the richest men in In 1969, a new Student at college campuses about LeFevre, Orange County—his Freedom Libertarian movement was formed, rebranding him as some sort of Communications media empire, aping the surface-stylistics of both crazy old radical hippie-before- worth billions, went bankrupt the SDS and to some degree Yippie there-were-hippies, a free-market during the late Bush years, as radicals, only substituting “free- Alan Ginsberg. A flyer for a 1974 Hoiles’ squabbling heirs drove it market anarchism” for socialism Libertarian Alliance-sponsored into the ground. on the grounds that socialism “Anarchist Conference” at The only thing that saved meant state intervention, and the College, with Robert LeFevre as

22 the main speaker, pandered to As soon as the hippie movement More importantly, Charles Koch Yippie radicals with its facsimile faded, Rohrabacher became a kept alive and expanded upon the of President Nixon with a gun to founding member of Charles ideas and structures he first learned his head, with the caption scrawled Koch’s “Libertarian Supper Club,” from his guru. in capital letters: “THE ONLY promoted the anti-tax campaigns of In 1973, for example, Charles DOPE WORTH SHOOTING the 1970s, and finally, after getting Koch wrote a personal letter to IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE”. elected to Congress in the Reagan Robert LeFevre informing him The flyer announced, “The Hunter Revolution, Rohrabacher dropped that he planned to take control of College Libertarian Alliance will the libertarian act and came out as his own libertarian think-tank, hold an Anarchist Conference and a far-right hawk opposed to taxes, the Institute for Humane Studies, all Yippies are invited!” government, and labor unions. which Charles had first joined An FBI informant passed the LeFevre, meanwhile was up with in 1964, the same year flyer to the FBI, but according to reduced to the life of a traveling he’d joined LeFevre’s Freedom the declassified FBI files, specific salesman to survive—the hippies School. Back then, the Institute instructions were given to leave the never took to him, despite Dana for Humane Studies had been libertarians alone; they were only Rohrabacher’s efforts. For a while a mere shadow of LeFevre’s interested in the left-wing Yippies: he had a strong disciple in Samuel operation; the head of the IHS, F. “No information is desired… Konkin III, who later joined Willis A. “Baldy” Harper, had taught at concerning persons planning to Carto’s Holocaust-denial outfit. the Freedom School and helped attend the above conference unless Despite what Koch Industries design LeFevre’s teaching course. it concerns the YIP,” the memo claims, although publicly Charles One of the IHS’s early backers was reads. “No investigation is being Koch distanced himself from R. C. Hoiles; another was Warren conducted of the Hunter College LeFevre, privately he maintained Buffett’s father, Howard Buffett. Libertarian Alliance, which is respectful contact with LeFevre well Harper died in 1973, and sponsoring the conference.” after Freedom School collapsed. Charles Koch immediately took control of the IHS, which offered NSFWCOMICS | Scott Bateman seminars and programs lifted directly from LeFevre’s Freedom School. One of Charles Koch’s first acts as the new IHS head was to write a letter to Robert LeFevre, asking for his personal blessing: “The Board directed me to ask you for a reaffirmation of the endorsement which you gave the Institute under [Harper’s] direction,” Charles wrote. It was oddly flattering in a Byzantine court sort of way, and LeFevre eagerly gave his blessing in a written reply playing the role of guru while simultaneously groveling to his on-again/off-again benefactor. Even so, it must have pained LeFevre to receive that letter from his former sponsor, Charles Koch. It was Harper who first pushed the idea of a Freedom School on Robert LeFevre in the early 1950s, but at the time Harper claimed such a libertarian-indoctrination program

24 could never get off the ground; and Carto’s Holocaust denial outfit), Even as he nurtured the far- when LeFevre made it happen, his and Austin J. App, another figure right libertarian fringe, Koch sponsors told LeFevre he wasn’t named in the Holocaust Museum’s simultaneously invested in building a serious enough intellectual to “Holocaust Denial Timeline.” up a mainstream wing of liber- give the Freedom School the sort It was under Charles Koch’s tarianism. In 1978, Reason editor of credibility needed to advance executive watch that one of the Robert Poole wrote to LeFevre their agenda. So in the late 1950s, biggest names in American describing his magazine’s new quasi- LeFevre’s big business funders Holocaust denial literature—James mainstream editorial direction: instructed him to woo F. A. Harper J. Martin—had been hired to “Dear Bob: to take control of the Freedom head the Rampart College history School, leaving LeFevre in charge department. When the program Thanks for your comments of fundraising and promotion. But collapsed in 1968, an angry Martin about REASON’s Harper snubbed LeFevre’s offer—he demanded that he be paid in full improvements. I appreciate didn’t want his own reputation as a for the remainder of his contract, them greatly, but, to repeat former Cornell University professor and to his surprise, he was paid. As an old cliche—you ain’t seen ruined by associating with an Martin later told it, nothing, yet. Just give us indicted fraudster, cultist, and crypto- ”I had read so much stuff by another year or so. Fascist crackpot like LeFevre. The LeFevre over the years… raw wound opened again. When all the bawling about the I must explain a little about the Freedom School closed down sacredness of contracts, where REASON is going. We in 1968, LeFevre admitted “feeling that I said to myself, ‘Well, are making a very concerted rather badly used” by Harper. for once I’m going to hold effort to broaden REASON’s Seedy cretins like LeFevre were him to one and see what he base beyond the libertarian now being nudged further out does.’… .I expected him to just movement. Already, only about of the movement’s public face, as walk away. But he had the 60% of our readers think of Koch upped his investments into backing of two, three, four themselves as ‘libertarians,’ libertarianism and needed a more millionaires, Charles Koch, all per se. What we want to do presentable face for his radical these other guys in Wichita, is to expand ahead of the right-wing ideas. and sixty-thousand dollars movement—to be something of Still, Charles Koch and his new was no money to them. Hell, a recruiting ground, reaching top guard never forgot LeFevre. they spent that maybe at the out to the broad general public When the Kochs bought and casinos on weekends.” of intelligent, educated people developed Reason magazine in the and offering them an exciting 1970s, with Robert Poole (who alternative to Harper’s, New still edits today), the magazine Koch continued promoting Republic, National Review, etc. regularly consulted with LeFevre to the works and ideas of James J. In terms of our editorial policy, get his blessing on their ideological Martin right up through 1980, this does not mean watering directions. even after Martin joined the down our libertarian views, but One of LeFevre’s teachings that editorial board of Willis Carto’s it does mean a change in focus Koch kept alive after Freedom neo-Nazi Holocaust-denial outfit, away from the movement School’s collapse was so-called the Institute for Historical Review: itself, and its heroes, villains, “historical revisionism”—a Martin served as a director at and in-group controversies…” euphemism for Holocaust the Koch-funded Center for denialism. In early 1976, Poole Libertarian Studies, spoke at ran an entire issue devoted to numerous conferences on historical In 1979, Charles Koch founded “historical revisionism” featuring revisionism put on by Koch’s Cato the first of his many Washington Holocaust deniers including James Institute and Institute for Humane D.C.-based lobby outfits, The J. Martin, Percy Greaves (one of Studies, and in 1980, the Cato Council for a Competitive the first instructors and trustees of Institute published works by James Economy, with Charles Koch as LeFevre’s Freedom School, later J. Martin and another Holocaust chairman and David Boaz (now on the editorial board of Willis denier, Harry Elmer Barnes. at Cato) as executive director.

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