-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
Inside The League
Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson�1986
Dodd, Mead & Company
79 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10016
ISBN 0-396-08517-2
322pps � out-of-print/one edition
[re-print/first edition available from:
W. Clement Stone, P M A Communications, Incorporated]
--[7]--
SEVEN
The communists have already roughly decided that the time for conquering the
world will be in 1973.
-Fred Schwarz,
American League member,
1971
BECAUSE OF ITS FINANCIAL resources and its status as the richest and most
powerful nation in the West, the United States has always been a major power
within the World Anti-Communist League. U.S. chapters have historically been
composed of mainstream conservative academics, retired military officers, and
members of the so-called New Right. But not only have they permitted
anti-Semitism and racism within their own regional branch, they have also
consistently, through their silence and timidity, given tacit approval to the
most reactionary and vicious elements within the League as a whole.
The South and Central American chapters of the League have never concealed
their theory that Jews are behind a global communist conspiracy. The South
Africans have never made secret their staunch support of the racist policy of
apartheid in their country, and the Arab chapters have never modified their
militant diatribes against Israel and Zionism.
These facts are known to the Americans. Their claims of ignorance are rather
silly, since American members have consistently been responsible for
uncovering much of the darker aspects of the League, then failing to act on
the information until forced to do so.
It was the Americans who revealed the Nazi nature of the Mexican Tecos in
1972. Not only did they not publicize their findings, but they remained in
the League for another two years. In fact, many who eventually left have
since rejoined, including the author of the Teco investigation.
American League members were alerted as far back as 1973 to the rabid racism
of Donald Martin and Ivor Benson, chairmen of the British and South African
League chapters respectively, and both listed as foreign correspondents for
the anti-Semitic, California-based Liberty Lobby. Yet both men were honored
guest speakers at the North American regional League conference in 1984.
The Americans were well aware of the allegations of death squad involvement
among the Latin American affiliates, yet those elements were not expelled
until 1984, after one of the authors helped to expose them in the press.
Their alleged explusion notwithstanding, several of these Latins were present
at the 1984 and 1985 conferences sponsored by the American League chapter.
The Americans who have belonged to the World Anti-Communist League
consistently contend that they have attempted to be a moderating influence or
that they were unaware of the unsavory nature of other League chapters. The
evidence, however, much of it compiled by the Americans themselves, shows
that they knowingly belonged to a federation of death squad leaders, Nazi war
criminals, and neo-fascists. At best, they are showcases of naivete; a more
critical observer would say that they are showcases of far worse.
The first American League Chapter was the American Council for World Freedom
(ACWF), founded in 1970 in Washington, D.C. The main force behind its
creation, and its first secretary, was Lee Edwards, head of a public
relations firm and former director of Young Americans for Freedom, the youth
arm of the John Birch Society.
Edwards was a stalwart of the emergent New Right in American politics and
brought his own questionable background and motives into the World
Anti-Communist League as a professional fund-raiser. Along with a handful of
other New Right fund-raisers such as Richard Viguerie and Patrick Gorman,
Edwards was in the business of raising donations for charitable or nonprofit
organizations and then keeping a large chunk of the 'money, sometimes over
ninety percent, for his "operation expenses." His induction as the American
League chairman in 1970 did not divert his energies from these endeavorsin
1971, he joined forces with Patrick Gorman to create Friends of the FBI.
By that time, Gorman had already achieved a certain notoriety by operating
the United Police Fund. The fund's aim, to aid the relatives of slain
policemen, had succeeded in tugging at the heart; and pursestrings of those
who received its brochures by displaying photographs of the grieving families
standing beside the fallen officers' graves. "In two years," according to
Alan Crawford in Thunder on the Right, "the project netted a reported
$110,000, almost 90 percent of which went to fundraiser Gorman."
Friends of the FBI was established to rally support for the agency and its
director, J. Edgar Hoover- the recipients of its brochures were told that
there was no better way to express that support than by sending donations to
Edwards and Gorman. With the aid of an endorsement letter signed by Efrem
Zimbalist, Jr., star of the television show The FBI, they raised nearly
$400,000 dollars in four months, 64 percent of which went toward "operation
expenses"� the rest was divided up between Gorman and Edwards and their
lieutenants. "Soon Zimbalist became suspicious, claiming he had been 'used'
by the partners, and his lawyers told the group to stop using their client's
name, accusing them in a letter of 'fraud and misrepresentation."[1]
Edwards lined up an impressive array of conservative American leaders for the
American Council for World Freedom to appear on its letterhead and to attend
World Anti-Communist League functions. Lev Dobriansky, a former OSS officer
in Germany during World War II and chairman of the National Captive Nations
Committee (and currently ambassador to the Bahamas), joined, as did Dr.
Walter H. Judd, former Republican congressman from Minnesota-, John Fisher,
executive director of the American Security Council; and Reed Irvine, a
longtime fixture of the far right. A year earlier, Irvine had established
Accuracy in Media, "a watchdog of the media by promoting accuracy and
fairness in reporting." ACWFs eventual president was retired Army Major
General Thomas LaneEleanor Schlafly represented the Cardinal Mindszenty
Foundation.[2]
The Unification Church in the United States was also involved�Neil
Salonen�president of the Church in the United States, secretary general of
the Freedom Leadership Foundation, and a director of the Moonie-owned Tong-il
Armaments Company in Korea�was on the ACWF board. In 1973 Salonen achieved
fame of sorts by joining the Reverend Moon on the Capitol steps for a
three-day fast and prayer vigil beseeching God not to allow Richard Nixon's
impeachment.
Through the prominent conservatives who made up the American Council for
World Freedom, the League was able to get American senators and congressmen
to attend conferences and serve as guest speakers. Strom Thurmond, Republican
senator from South Carolina, and Robert Dornan, Republican congressman from
California, both spoke at League conferences in the early 1970s.
Not all the council members were ecstatic over its joining the League. One,
David Rowe, the man who had been sent to reform the Korean chapter of the
Asian People's Anti-Communist League in 1965, actually quit over his
objections to the League's Taiwanese chairman, Ku Cheng-kang.[3] [*]
[*Despite his animosity for Ku Cheng-kang, Rowe rejoined the WACL and
attended League conferences in 1983 and 1984, while Ku Cheng-kang was still
honorary chairman.]
Despite Rowe's objections, the ACWF did join the League, largely through the
efforts of Stefan Possony, professor emeritus at the Hoover Institute at
Stanford University. Ironically it was also Possony who would eventually
launch an investigation which would discredit not only the Latin American
chapters of the League but also the American Council for World Freedom.
At the 1972 League conclave in Mexico City, it was decided that the next
League conference would be held in London. In accordance with one of the
League's more peculiar rules, the international chairmanship for the
following year automatically went to the sponsor of the preceding conference,
that is, to the Mexican chapter this was the Mexican Anti-Communist
Federation, or FEMACO, headed by Teco professor Raimundo Guerrero.
In reaction to the persistent rumors of extremism within FEMACO, the
Americans sent Possony to investigate their Mexican League counterpart. It
was soon apparent that FEMACO was merely a cover for the Teco secret society.
Tecos is not only anti-Semitic, it is also anti-American and opposes most of
the goals ACWF stands for, e.g., freedom. It claims to be la legion de Cristo
Rey, which is fighting for the re-establishment of a Christian order, but it
regards the Church as infiltrated by Jews and Masons, and wants Pope Paul
VI�supposedly a concealed Jew and drug addict�to be deposed as a heretic.
Although the cristero movement predates the various nazi and fascist
movements, Tecos has personal and ideological links with the remnants of the
Rumanian [sic] Iron Guard and possibly the Croat Ustashis. It seems to be
connected with several neo-fascist move-ments. Nazi traces are visible.... I
found no references to represent-
native government, none to democracy or national self-determination.
In the conclusion to his confidential report to the ACWF, Possony warned, "It
would be a mistake to forget that anti-Semitism and antimasonism serve to
conceal anti-Americanism" and that "ACWF association with enemies of the
United States is unacceptable."[4]
Confronted with this detailed investigation by one of its own most respected
members, the ACWF met in Washington in April 1973 to discuss what should be
done about the Mexicans. The meeting was a study in cowardice.
One council member felt that something had to be done about Anti-Semitism in
the League and urged the ACWF to go on record that "anti-Semitism is
incompatible with anti-communism." Another dissented, holding that "the
motion would be a political mistake as it would imply we have a guilty
conscience."
Finally, "Mr. [Reed] Irvine proposed the following amendment: 'Anti-Semitism
is incompatible with enlightened, civilized conduct and we condemn the
communist states for the practice of it.' "
Irvine's motion passed overwhelmingly. Thus the ACWF, after gathering firm
evidence of the neo-fascist sentiments of its Mexican counterpart, did
nothing. The ACWF remained in the League and would perhaps still be there if
it weren't for its own carelessness: The council initiated its
self-destruction in 1973 when it sent a copy of Possony's report to Geoffrey
Stewart-Smith, the head of the British League chapter and the proposed
sponsor of the upcoming League conference.
Stewart-Smith was a staunch anti-communist who saw the need for nations and
private groups to work together to combat what he saw to be the Soviet
strategy for global domination- the World AntiCommunist League appeared to be
a good vehicle toward this. He was not prepared, however, to count among his
comrades in the struggle Nazis, anti-Semites, and "Kuomintang geriatrics."
A former Conservative member of Parliament, Stewart-Smith was also the
director of the Foreign Affairs Circle, a think tank located outside London
that published conservative monographs on foreign policy matters. Under
Stewart-Smith, the Foreign Affairs Circle joined the League and was the
official British chapter from 1972 to 1974.
The planning for the 1973 conference in London was already in trouble before
Stewart-Smith received the Possony memos, for the Foreign Affairs Circle was
being less than acquiescent to the wishes of the League leadership.[5]
Stewart-Smith was refusing to invite the European Nazis that the Latin
American and Asian chapters had asked to attend, and he fired off angry
letters to the chapters responsible.
One case that particularly galled the Briton was that of Jesus Palacios,
Spanish representative of the World Youth Anti-Communist League, the League's
youth arm. Since Palacios had attended the 1972 League conference, and since
his organization, the Anti-Marxist Intellectual Group of Spain, was a full
associate member, he was entitled by League rules to attend the London
conference. Parliamentary technicalities notwithstanding, Stewart-Smith
balked.
Palacios was also a founder of an ultra-rightist shock troop called the
Spanish Circle of Friends of Europe (CEDADE). Founded in Barcelona in 1969,
CEDADE declared itself to be a "national-revolutionary" force with an aim "to
oppose the tendency of defaming the positive aspects of the National
Socialist Movement." As head of the group's Madrid chapter, Palacios, clad in
a brown shirt and black tie, reminded his listeners that Marxism was simply a
tool to "install the tyranny of the Jews." CEDADE published monographs such
as The Myth of Christ's Judaism and Hitler and the Church: The Lie of
Hitler's Atheism and concluded its meetings with a Nazi salute and a cheer
for the fallen idols, Hitler and Mussolini. "It would seem beyond reasonable
doubt," Stewart-Smith wrote Ku Cheng-kang in May 1973, "that Jesus Palacios
is a neo-Nazi."
When no response was forthcoming, the Foreign Affairs Circle director wrote
to Dr. Bastolme Puiggros, the head of the Spanish League chapter. "If you
need references concerning Senor Palacios," Puiggros responded, "Mr. Ku
Cheng-Kang through his government can ask for a report from the Taiwan
Delegation in Madrid; and they will certainly inform you of the cordial
relationship between the said Delegation and Senor Palacios."[6]
It was now apparent that Stewart-Smith was sending warnings about Nazism in
the League to the very people who were coordinating it, and the coordinators
were not pleased. Finally tiring of the British chapter's obstructionist
attitude, the League leadership canceled the London summit at the last
minute, sticking the Foreign Affairs Circle with a bill for eighty-four
thousand dollars. Their efforts to recover the money are still tied up in
international courts thirteen years later.
"The World Anti-Communist League," Stewart-Smith now says in retrospect, "is
largely a collection of Nazis, Fascists, anti-Semites, sellers of forgeries,
vicious racialists, and corrupt self-seekers. It has evolved into an
anti-Semitic international.... The very existence of this organization is a
total disgrace to the Free World."
Stewart-Smith was the first League member to realize the League's nature and
attempt to reform it. When he obtained the Possony memos describing the
anti-Semitic history and violent nature of the Mexicans, whose chapter was
the most powerful in Latin America, he realized the true face of some of the
"anti-communists" he was associated with. Even more, he was outraged that the
American chapter, the source of the memos, had not only made no move to
publicize their findings or leave the League but were going ahead with their
plans to host the 1974 conference. "Anti-Semitism and political extremism,"
Stewart-Smith wrote Lee Edwards in June 1973, "could destroy WACL. [If they
are not expelled] the organization will remain a collection of fringe
ultra-rightists, religious nuts, aging ex-Nazis, emigres and cranks."
The Americans did not respond to the letter. Stewart-Smith was not prepared
to assume the see-no-evil stance of the Americans; he did some investigative
work on his own. In January 1974, he wrote Edwards again, this time
threatening media exposure if the ACWF did not cancel its conference
sponsorship. "The results of a very thorough piece of research by this
organization reveals that some of the Chapters, associates and observers are
drawn from neo-Nazi, ex-Nazi, fascist, neo-fascist and anti-Semitic groups."
"You know very well," Thomas Lane, president of the ACWF, responded, "that
WACL had its origins in the struggles of the free peoples of Asia who are on
the front lines of the resistance to Communism.... As to the alleged
anti-Semitism of other chapters of WACL, your evidence seems to be based on
guilt by association and by an alleged association at that.... We shall, of
course, proceed under full sail to prepare our WACL conference in
Washington."[7]
But Stewart-Smith had powerful ammunition. He sent six hundred copies of a
report, WACL and Anti-Semitism, to all League chapters and to every associate
of the American Council for World Freedom. By including the Possony memos
along with his own findings, his report gave the appearance that the ACWF had
joined forces with the Foreign Affairs Circle against the Mexicans. It placed
Thomas Lane in the unenviable position of refuting the evidence of his own
organization. "You have apparently seriously misread the evidence you offer,"
he wrote Stewart-Smith. "The chief piece, called an 'ACWF report' is not an
ACWF report at all. It is on its face the statement of one individual....
This 'report' does not pertain to the Mexican chapter of WACL but to a secret
organization thought by the writer to have interlocking membership with the
chapter."[8]
But the damage had been done, and the ACWF, despite its desperate attempts to
maintain its position within the League, could not last. Ironically, by
including the Possony memos in his mass mailing, Stewart-Smith helped destroy
not the WACL but the ACWF. In the eyes of the Latin chapters, the Possony
memos showed the American Council for World Freedom to be not only an enemy
of anti-communism but, worse, Zionist. They rallied around the maligned Tecos
of Mexico. "Both Stewart-Smith and the American Council for World Freedom,"
the Uruguayan chapter wrote in March 1974, "with these documents and other
attitudes are doing communism the enormous service of attempting to create
divisions and problems in the WACL, acting as if they were cryptocommunists
infiltrated in the anticommunist ranks to carry out sabotage."
The Bolivian chapter was even more forceful, if less grammatic: "The absurd
memorandum of the American Council for World Freedom sent to us by
Stewart-Smith in addition to being obviously a pro-Zionist document proves
what has been said that the American council is one of the instruments of
Zionism to control the WACL and use it for benefit of Zionist interests that
use the myth of anti-Semitism to frighten or attempt to paralyze those who
refuse to become puppets of Zionism."[9]
StilI, the ACWF wasn't ready to give up. Although bearing the brunt of
venomous diatribes from the Latin League chapters, it went on to host the
1974 conference. There it made a feeble attempt to give the League at least
the appearance of respectability: the ACWF introduced a motion to declare the
League against anti-Semitism and extremism. The Latins were outraged.
It was decided, the Tecos reported afterward, "through an overwhelming
majority of votes to suppress for the time being any reference to these
problems, which are totally alien to the anticommunist fight, later on ...
very plainly and also with overwhelming majority it was agreed to reject the
project, with the result that it was not even presented for consideration to
the General Assembly.... A completely different resolution condemning the
defamation activities and the attacks of Geoffrey Stewart-Smith against WACL
was unanimously approved."[10]
Although some former council members state that they finally left in January
1975 because of the extremism in the League-extremism they had failed to
modify-at least as important a reason was that they were no longer trusted by
the Latin fascists.[11]
The American Council for World Freedom withered- its officers went off to
join other New Right organizations.
Perhaps the greatest success story among former ACWF officials is Lee
Edwards. Joining forces with Richard Viguerie, the "king of fund-raisers," he
served as editor of Conservative Digest upon that magazine's founding in
1975. Edwards also was the chief fund-raiser for the Underground Bible Fund.
According to Democratic Representative Lionel Van Deerlin, the fund
"undertook to persuade prospective donors that for every $2 that came in
there would be five Bibles [delivered] in the native tongue of an Iron
Curtain country ... [but] we couldn't ascertain whether one single Bible had
ever been delivered to one single person behind the Iron Curtain, despite
more than $200,000 that had been collected."[12]
Edwards is believed to have made off with over eighty percent of the funds
and probably nearly as much through his next operation, "Save Our Symbol,"
purportedly a campaign to protect bald eagles.
Perhaps Edwards's true colors�and the reason why he never seemed to be very
upset by anti-Semitism within the World AntiCommunist League�were shown when
he joined Viguerie in an attempt to take over the virulently racist American
Independent Party (AIP) in 1976. Aided by New Rightists Howard Phillips and
Paul Weyrich, they sought the nomination of Robert Morris (currently on the
board of directors of the new American League chapter) as AIP's presidential
candidate, with Viguerie for vice-president.[13]
Although the move failed and the AIP's perennial nominee, Lester Maddox, the
bigoted former governor of Georgia, remained at the helm, the venture serves
as another example of just how far men like Lee Edwards would go�and what
they would overlook�in their search for allies. Bankrolling themselves by
running "charities" with exorbitant operating costs, they sought out others
who shared their apocalyptic vision of the takeover of the world by
communists and their "fellow travellers," whether in the American Independent
Party or in the World Anti-Communist League. Today Edwards is president of
the Center for International Relations, a conservative think tank funded by
the Reagan Administration.
Evidence suggests that several American members of the World Anti-Communist
League were not as disgusted by the neo-Nazism as they contend they were.
Stefan Possony, Lev Dobriansky, and Jay Parker, all original ACWF members,
returned to the League fold later, this time under the banner of the United
States Council for World Freedom. They rejoined at a time when the Mexican
Tecos, whose presence had supposedly spurred their exit the first time, were
still very active. Even Edwards seemed to have a soft spot for the
organization- as late as 1982, seven years after his official departure, his
public relations firm was the registered foreign agent for the World
Anti-Communist League.
However unfounded the fears of the League's Latin representatives that the
ACWF was part of the "Zionist conspiracy" seem, they would have no such
troubles with the next American chapter.
With the resignation of the American Council for World Freedom in 1975, the
door was open for an energetic neo-Nazi to transform the face of the League
in the United States and Europe, plunging it even further into the depths of
fanaticism.
pps. 82-91
--[notes]--
SEVEN
1. Alan Crawford, Thunder on the Right (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980),
p. 66.
2. A bewildering number of conservative leaders passed through the
American Council for World Freedom, with the result that its officers
frequently changed from year to year. Not all those noted were members when
ACWF was created, but all were members at some point between 1970 and 1974.
3. David N. Rowe, The WACL: What Should ACWF Do About It? (memorandum to
American Council for World Freedom, 23 October 1970), p. 4.
Writing about Ku, Rowe charged that "he has absolutely no standing in the
more respectable intellectual circles- everyone in Taipei [capital of Taiwan]
considers him a hopeless anachronism and a bad joke."
To Rowe, the League was nothing more than an instrument for Ku to gain
prestige in Taiwan- he warned that "those who merely stand aside and tolerate
such developments in WACL, on the dubious basis that we cannot well insist
upon reforming it, must bear the burden of the consequences of their acts."
4. Stefan Possony, The 1972-3 Leadership of WACL (memorandum to the
American
Council for World Freedom, 1973).
5. Ku Cheng-kang, the honorary League chairman from Taiwan, had been
granted a visa to attend the London meeting of the League executive board in
March, provided he refrained from political activities; this was a
considerable courtesy since Britain had dropped recognition of Taiwan in
favor of mainland China. Instead, Ku used the forum to launch an attack on
the Peking regime, causing the British government to deny his visa for the
full conference in August.
6. Dr. Bastolme Puiggros to Geoffrey Stewart-Smith, July 31, 1973.
7. Thomas A. Lane to Geoffrey Stewart-Smith, January 14, 1974.
8. Ibid.
9. Replica, no. 57 (Guadalajara, Mexico: April 1974).
10. Ibid.
11. Even non-League organizations, such as the neo-Nazi Christian
Vanguard, joined the assault: "In 1974, the Jew-controlled ACWF hosted the
WACL meeting in Washington, D.C. Schwarz, Wurmbrand, Judd and their friends
introduced proZionist, pro-Jewish proposals to the conference-and the Asian
and South American bloc united to beat them at every turn.
"Thanks to the gallant work of patriots from South America, most of the Asian
delegates to the WACL are now informed and recognize the Jewish influence
behind Communism.
"The Jews are particularly worried when they see an international movement
made up of people of many races and religions, all united in opposition to
the two ends of the Jewish serpent, Zionism and Communism. Now, along with
the peoples of South America, Europe and Asia, patriots from all over America
are striving to work together in ridding our country of the Jews and their
power structure.
"We have no alternative, we international patriots-no alternative but to
strive boldly for final victory. To make anything less than the full,
international effort is to continue our downward spiral into racial and
national oblivion. Let the grand old slogan ring out once more, with feeling:
THIS TIME, THE WORLD!" Christian Vanguard (Hollywood, California), November
1974.
12. Lionel Van Deerlin, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Consumer
Protection and Finance of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,
94th Cong., lst sess., 2022 May 1975 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1975), p. 1,29.
13. Conservative columnist James J. Kilpatrick's description of the AIP
on August 26, 1976, in The Washington Star as "gun nuts, food nuts,
single-taxers, anti-fluoridationists, and a hundred passionate fellows who
write in capital letters with red typewriter ribbons" apparently did not
dissuade the New Rightist power-seekers.
"As the convention's keynote speaker held forth," Alan Crawford wrote
(Thunder, pp. 236-37), "to thunderous applause, on the dangers of
'atheistical political Zionism' (the most insidious, far-reaching murderous
force the world has ever known'), Viguerie and his operatives moved briskly
among the far-right delegates in their polyester leisure suits, passing out
expensively printed campaign literature."
--[cont]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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