The Iron Curtain
speech was delivered by former British prime
minister Winston Churchill in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946. Churchill used
the speech to emphasize the necessity for
the United
States and Britain to act
as the guardians of peace and stability against the menace of Soviet communism,
which had lowered an “iron
curtain” across Europe.
The term “iron curtain” had been
employed as a metaphor since the 19th century, but Churchill used it to
refer specifically to the political, military, and ideological barrier created
by the U.S.S.R. following World
War II to prevent open
contact between itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies on
the one hand and the West and other noncommunist regions on the other.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iron-Curtain-Speech
The Iron Curtain speech alarmed many Americans, and
it led to the rise in prominence of Joseph McCarthy, the junior senator from
Wisconsin. The period from 1950 to 1953 is known as the McCarthy period, and it
was a time when McCarthy falsely claimed that many people were members of the
Communist Party. His campaign destroyed both lives and careers, but it all came
to an end in 1954, after he started investigating the United States Army in
1953.
The testimony of Army counsel Joseph Welch exposed
McCarthy to be the charlatan that he was, and he was censured by the Senate on
December 2, 1954.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army%e2%80%93McCarthy_hearings
Capt. John Birch was a
courageous Baptist missionary who went to China in 1940. When Colonel Jimmy
Doolittle led the famous World War II bombing raid on Tokyo, John was brought
to the survivors and he helped them to safety, then volunteered, creating an
intelligence network that saved countless American lives.
He earned the
rank of Captain in the 14th Air Force, as well as numerous commendations,
including the Legion of Merit. Ten days after the war officially ended, Captain
Birch was brutally killed by Chinese Communists. Mr. Robert Welch Jr. discovered
that the U.S. government had covered up Birch’s death and was so impressed by
his ideals and his character that he requested permission of George and
Ethel Birch (John’s parents) to place John’s name on the organization he was
going to create. They agreed and immediately became Life members.
https://jbs.org/about/john-birch/
The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in
1958, it is anti-communist, supports social
conservatism, and is associated
with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and right-wing libertarian ideas. Originally based in Belmont, Massachusetts, the JBS is now headquartered in Grand Chute, Wisconsin with local chapters throughout the United States.
It owns American Opinion Publishing, Inc., which publishes the magazine The New American, and it is affiliated with an online school called Freedom Project
Academy.
The society's founder, businessman Robert W. Welch Jr. (1899–1985), developed an organizational
infrastructure of nationwide chapters in December 1958. The society rose
quickly in membership and influence, and also became known for Welch's conspiracy theories. His allegation that Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist agent was especially
controversial. In the 1960s, the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review attempted to shun the JBS to the fringes of the American right. JBS
membership is kept private but is said to have neared 100,000 in the 1960s and
1970s, declining afterward.
In the 2010s and 2020s, several observers and commentators argued that,
while the organization's influence peaked in the 1970s, Bircherism and
its legacy of conspiracy theories began making a resurgence in the
mid-2010s, and had become the dominant strain in the conservative
movement. In particular, they argued that the JBS and its beliefs shaped
the Republican
Party the Trump administration, and the broader conservative movement.
If you review the JBS website, you’ll notice that their action projects
are virtually the same as the goals of the Republican Party when Trump was
president.
Anti-Communist
hysteria came to Hollywood in the
late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
One
of the Hollywood producers targeted by the House of Un-American Activities
committee is Dalton Trumbo. He is a screenwriter whose
talent places him among the elite of Hollywood. However, his active membership in the Communist Party of the USA draws the contempt of staunchly anti-Soviet entertainment-industry figures such as columnist Hedda
Hopper and actor John Wayne.
Trumbo is one of 10 screenwriters subpoenaed to testify before the House
Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) regarding Communist propaganda in Hollywood films. They refuse to directly
answer questions, confident that a liberal majority on the Supreme
Court will overturn
their convictions for contempt of Congress. Trumbo's friend Edward G. Robinson, who supports the cause, sells Vincent van Gogh's 1887 painting Portrait of Père Tanguy to raise money for their legal defense fund. The
unexpected deaths of Justices Wiley Rutledge and Frank Murphy ruin Trumbo's plan to appeal. In 1950, Trumbo
serves 11 months in Federal
Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky.
Trumbo made money for a period of
time by ghostwriting.
Industry suspicion of Trumbo's ghostwriting develops, but he is careful not to confirm it. In 1960, actor Kirk Douglas recruits him to write the screenplay for his epic film Spartacus, and director Otto Preminger recruits him to script Exodus. Both men publicly credit him as the screenwriter, despite Hopper's futile efforts to intimidate Douglas into dropping Trumbo. By early 1961, the effectiveness of the Blacklist had been broken to the point where newly elected US President John F. Kennedy publicly endorsed Spartacus, and Trumbo and others are able to begin rebuilding their careers. Ten years later, finally receiving his due accolades from Hollywood, Trumbo speaks about how the Blacklist victimized them all: those who stood by their principles and lost their jobs, and also those who compromised their principles to keep them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumbo_%282015_film%29
Claire Connor’s parents were some of the first
members of the John Birch Society in Chicago. She details her experience in her
book “Wrapper in the Flag. She came to discover that the society was very
religious, and very paternalistic – exactly like the Christian nationalists of
today.
As you should know by now, Christian nationalism is a
various dangerous thing.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2022/08/
Until 1972, we had little contact with China until
1972 until Richard Nixon, a strong anti-Communist, made a trip there, which led
to a gradual thawing of our relationship.
Prior to his visit, China embarked on a disastrous
program called the Culture Revolution, and it lasted from 1966 to 1976.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
The Culture Revolution was a disaster, but the Great
Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962 was even worse, since it led to the deaths of at
least 30 million people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
Deng – Xiaping abolished the Cultural Revolution in
1978, and incorporated elements of the free enterprise system into the Chine economy.
China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Deng-Xiaoping
Since then, China has become a very capitalistic
society.
When I was in China, I belonged to two Toastmasters
clubs. One Sunday morning, one of the clubs put on a demonstration for the
Young Communist club. When I asked why they belonged to the Communist Party,
one young lady said it was so that she could make more money. In a way,
membership in the party was roughly equivalent to belonging to a union in the
United States.
Karl Marx would be horrified.
By now, you are probably wondering why I decided to
write about the John Birch Society, and the answer is that it was inspired by
the news of the day on the History Channel.
Bob Dylan
- Talkin' John Birch Society Blues (youtube.com)
Contrary to what you might think, walking off the stage
did not destroy his career. Since the decade of the 1960’s was a period of revolution,
it actually enhances it, and the Woodstock festival of 1969 elevated protest to
an art form.
Folk-rock composer, singer and musician Bob Dylan has
an accomplished career, with numerous accolades, including the Grammy Award for
Album of the year (1998, 1973), the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best
Original Song for "Things Have Changed" (2001), and the Presidential
Medal of Freedom (2012). He even won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 for
his compositions, which "created new poetic expressions within the great
American song tradition," according to the Prize Committee.
Since releasing his first album at 20 years old,
Dylan has influenced modern pop music with rich, classic songs such as
"Blowin' in the Wind" and "Like a Rolling Stone." What's
also interesting about Dylan is how elusive and enigmatic he can still be after
decades in the industry. For instance, he chose not to attend the Nobel Prize
ceremony — he had "previous commitments," according to the BBC, and
he accepted the prize three months later.
He didn't even go to Woodstock, aka the Woodstock
Music and Art Fair, in August 1969, although he was considered a big star in
those days. Some of the biggest acts around performed, including Jimi Hendrix,
The Who, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, The Grateful Dead and Janis
Joplin, but Dylan took a hard pass. What could have been more important?
Woodstock's organizers wanted Dylan to perform and
had even started drawing up a contract when the legend decided to backed out.
Turns out Dylan lived near the concert site and saw groups of hippies
congregating and told the organizers his son was sick and he needed to stay
close to home, reported the The Real Woodstock Story. Instead, reported
Rolling Stone, he played at the Isle of Wight Festival two weeks later with
some of the Woodstock performers, including Richie Havens, The Who and Joe
Cocker. Dylan later moved out of upstate New York altogether, "complaining
that his house was being besieged by 'druggies,'" according to Ultimate
Classic Rock.
Dylan continues to create music. He released a
17-minute song, "Murder Most Foul" (posted on Youtube), about
the Kennedy assignation in April of 2020 during the pandemic shutdown, followed
by Rough and Rowdy Ways, his first album of original material since 2012, in
June. The collection "covers complex territory," according to The New
York Times, including "trances and hymns, defiant blues, love
longings, comic juxtapositions, prankster wordplay, patriotic ardor, maverick
steadfastness, lyrical Cubism, twilight-age reflections and spiritual
contentment."
Just what we'd expect from the rock legend. At the
age of 83, Dylan continues to surprise, inform and entertain us.
https://www.grunge.com/272789/the-reason-bob-dylan-backed-out-of-woodstock/
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