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Huntington-Dissertation-2016 © Copyright by John S. Huntington May, 2016 RIGHT-WING PARANOID BLUES: THE ROLE OF RADICALISM IN MODERN CONSERVATISM _______________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By John S. Huntington May, 2016 RIGHT-WING PARANOID BLUES: THE ROLE OF RADICALISM IN MODERN CONSERVATISM _______________ An Abstract of a Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By John S. Huntington May, 2016 ABSTRACT This study examines the role of radicalism within the conservative movement of the mid- twentieth century United States, specifically by analyzing the strategies and activism of the Radical Right. The onset of the Cold War after World War II created an atmosphere ripe for anti-communism, and it also paved the way for a conservative backlash to liberalism and the mid-century revival of fundamentalist evangelicalism. This zeitgeist of Cold War anti- communism and frustrations with liberalism facilitated the formation of the Radical Right—a loose network of ultraconservative organizations and leaders that used conspiracy theories and grassroots tactics to energize the right-wing base. This dissertation examines multiple groups and individuals within the Radical Right that promoted far-right ideals and functioned as a vocal minority within modern conservatism: Robert W. Welch Jr., and the John Birch Society; Billy James Hargis and the Christian Crusade; Protestants and Other Americans United For the Separation Between Church and State (POAU); Texas cowman-agitator J. Evetts Haley; and Kent Courtney and the Conservative Society of America (CSA). The leadership of these groups mattered because the organizations were often dominated by ideologues that incorrectly conflated liberalism with communism and employed conspiratorial rhetoric to foment political change. The Radical Right found a modest constituency in the Sunbelt; organizational chapters for the John Birch Society and the CSA proliferated in key states like Texas and California. Though far-right activists had limited electoral success, the Radical Right played a role in the ascent of modern conservatism by acting as a foil for, and thereby helping legitimize, mainstream right-wing values. iv Right-Wing Paranoid Blues: The Role of Radicalism in Modern Conservatism Table of Contents Introduction 1 Right-Wing Paranoid Blues: The Role of Radicalism in Modern Conservatism Chapter One 32 Extremism in the Defense of Liberty: Robert W. Welch and the John Birch Society Chapter Two 81 The Crusading Watchman: Billy James Hargis and the Christian Crusade Chapter Three 137 Divided Loyalty: Protestants and Other Americans United and Anti-Catholicism Chapter Four 184 The Voice of Many Hatreds: J. Evetts Haley and Texas Ultraconservatism Chapter Five 238 The Third-Party Architect: Kent Courtney and the Conservative Society of America Conclusion 302 The Impact of the Radical Right Bibliography 312 v Common Abbreviations in Texts and Notes Organizations AU Americans United for the Separation of Church and State CASE Committee Against Summit Entanglements CEM Christian Echoes Ministry CFR Citizens for Religious Freedom CRA California Republican Assembly CSA Conservative Society of America FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation GHMA Greater Houston Ministerial Association HUAC House Un-American Activities Committee IOP Ideological Organizations Project IRS Internal Revenue Service JBS John Birch Society JDT Jeffersonian Democrats of Texas NAE National Evangelical Association NAM National Association of Manufacturers NCC National Council of Churches NCNP National Committee for a New Party POAU Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State SBC Southern Baptist Convention SIECUS Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States vi TFA Texans for America TVA Tennessee Valley Authority YAF Young Americans for Freedom Archives DDEL Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library ODDE Office of Dwight D. Eisenhower PPP Post-Presidential Papers HML The Haley Memorial Library and History Center JEH J. Evetts Haley Collection JFK John F. Kennedy Digital Library NWSU Northwestern State University CGHRC Cammie G. Henry Research Center KCC Kent Courtney Collection UASC University of Arkansas Special Collections BJHP Billy James Hargis Papers vii Introduction Right-Wing Paranoid Blues: The Role of Radicalism in Modern Conservatism In the founding document of the John Birch Society, The Blue Book, Robert H. W. Welch discussed what he believed was the leviathan of communist infiltration. Welch declared, “This octopus is so large that its tentacles now reach into all of the legislative halls, all of the union labor meetings, a majority of the religious gatherings, and most of the schools of the whole world.”1 Welch turned legitimate Cold War concerns, like global communist aggression, into conspiracy theories. He founded the John Birch Society in 1958 to oppose the perceived infiltration of communism in the United States, and his platform conflated liberal policies like welfare spending with socialism and communism. The Birch Society built an active constituency by using communist conspiracies to stoke anxieties about internal subversion and the erosion of socio-cultural traditions. This conspiratorial thinking epitomized the Radical Right of the 1950s and 1960s—a loose coalition of disillusioned far- right conservatives that contested liberalism through anti-communism and grassroots strategies. Multiple Radical Right organizations and leaders promoted far-right ideals and functioned as a vocal minority within modern conservatism, and this dissertation focuses on a select few that were especially prevalent in the Sunbelt: Robert W. Welch, Jr., and the John Birch Society; Billy James Hargis and the Christian Crusade; Protestants and Other Americans United For the Separation Between Church and State (POAU); Texas cowman- agitator J. Evetts Haley; and Kent Courtney and the Conservative Society of America (CSA). 1 Robert W. Welch, The Blue Book of the John Birch Society (Belmont, Mass.: Western Islands, 1959), 60. These groups and leaders exemplified the Radical Right by incorrectly viewing liberalism and communism as the same, promoting conspiracy theories, appealing to Sunbelt voters, and building grassroots movements to foment political and societal change. Organizations like the Christian Crusade and POAU attracted religious conservatives while the Birch Society and Courtney’s CSA energized politically-oriented right-wingers. I argue that the ultraconservative movement galvanized millions of Americans disenchanted with the trajectory of U.S. politics, and, more broadly, the far-right served as a foil for mainstream conservatives. Additionally, Radical Right leaders mattered because they employed conspiratorial anti-communism and grassroots strategies in an attempt to shift the American polity rightward. These far-rightists contended that the political zeitgeist of the mid-twentieth century—liberalism—had failed ultraconservative voters. The radicalism of these activists and organizations, especially their anti-communist conspiracy theories, helped delineate the divide between mainstream conservatism and the right-wing fringe. The Radical Right coalesced during the mid-twentieth century to oppose socio- political liberalism in the United States, but this network of far-right agitators differed from previous iterations of conservatism. In general, conservatism in the United States embodied a distrust of reform, a suspicion of centralized power, and a desire to maintain the socio- political status quo.2 George H. Nash postulated that these tendencies manifested in the post- World War II era as libertarian fears of federal encroachment, “new conservatism” and the rejection of cultural relativism, and evangelical anti-communism. 3 These tenets roughly 2 Clinton Rossiter articulated this view in Conservatism in America: The Thankless Persuasion (New York: Knopf, 1962), 11-15. George Nash referred to the general terms used by Rossiter as “inadequate and tendentious,” but his definition of post-World War II conservatism offers similar themes with more nuanced divisions (libertarianism, evangelical anti-communism, and traditionalism). George Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 (New York: Basic Books, 1976), xiv-xv. 3 Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, xv. 2 defined mainstream conservatism during the Cold War, but the political spectrum resembled a gradient rather than a series of rigid definitions. Two central issues separated ultraconservatives from their mainstream counterparts: a belief in a vast communist conspiracy and a black-or-white view dividing U.S. politics into a false binary of conservatism and communism. The gap between the Radical Right and mainstream conservatives was narrow and their platforms frequently overlapped even if their methods did not. For example, prominent conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr., was a staunch anti-communist; Buckley viewed the Cold War as an apocalyptic struggle between good and evil, but he rejected the conspiratorial views of Robert W. Welch and the Birch Society.4 Buckley’s interpretation illustrated the disconnect between actual Cold War dangers and the conspiracy
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