prof. mulloythe john birch society is a conservative political organization formed in 1958 in indianapolis, and has its headquarters in massachusetts. it was very prominent in the 1960's in particular. >> what was the purpose behind the john birch society? prof. mulloy: they were an anti-communist organization. they opposed and feared that communism would subvert the united states. more broadly, they opposed collectivism of all times, so they were opposed to many manifestations of the welfare state. they opposed what they saw as excessive governmental interference in the economy. they opposed the civil rights movement. in terms of foreign policy, they wanted the united states to take a more active role in trying to win the cold war, to defeat communism in cuba, vietnam, those cons of places. >> who was john birch? prof. mulloy: he was an american missionary and a soldier who was killed at the end of the second world war in china. the president of the john birch society discovered his story and ide

prof. mulloy: the john birch society is a political organization formed in 1958 in indianapolis, and has headquarters in massachusetts. it was very prominent in the 1960's in particular. >> what was the purpose behind the society? prof. mulloy: they were an anti-communist organization. they opposed and feared that communism would subvert the united states. globally, they opposed collectivism of all times, so they were opposed to many manifestations of the welfare state. they opposed what they saw as excessive governmental interference in the economy. in foreign policy, they wanted the united states to take a more active role in trying to win the cold war, to defeat communism in cuba, vietnam, those cons of places. >> who was john birch? prof. mulloy: he was an american missionary and a soldier who was killed at the end of the second world war in china. the president of the john birch society discovered his story and identified birch as the first victim of this world war. >> does the party still ex

prof. mulloy: more broadly, they wanted to turn back the advance of the new deal. they wanted to reduce the influence of the government in american life. they had conspiratorial believes, so they believed most dwight eisenhower was part of a conspiracy. they were proactive. like other organizations, they actually did things. when you got their newsletter, you would be asked to write a letter, signed a petition. it was activism in doing something, rather than just complaining about things. did that conspiracy theory about eisenhower gain traction? prof. mulloy: not really. disavow thelater thing that it was a liberals, other republicans, conservatives, and the media jumped upon. you can't be serious about this, right? you are really claiming that eisenhower is a communist agent? it was the thing that discredited than the most while they were trying to gain traction. >> did their efforts have any influence politically? prof. mulloy: sure. is in recentiety times forgotten, but they were a significant

prof. mulloy: yeah. a secretive organization. it does not allow independent researchers access to their archive. ironically, you can go to moscow and look at kgb archives, but you can't look at the john birch society's. i looked at press reports, congressional records, and there is one archive called the wilcox collection, and i spent some time in their. they have a lot of john birch material and american opinions that were published. i was able to get information on those sources and archives. >> darren mulloy, thank you very much. prof. mulloy: thank you. >> general ely viewed it from a strategic standpoint. how this impacts of the outcome of the campaign. the shenandoah valley battlefield foundation hosted this talk. mr. wert: i should thank kevin but i always seem to get the timeslots -- i assure you we will be going to lunch on time. i am not very bright but i am bright enough to know that, so don't worry about that. on august 23 1864, president lincoln held a cabinet meeting. for the previous weeks, he had been getting tele

prof. mulloy: the john birch society is a political organization formed in 1958 in