Birchers Confirm Resignation of Top Leader Labeled Anti-semitic

The John Birch Society’s national director of public relations, former Rep. John Rousselot, has confirmed officially that Dr. Revilo P. Oliver, University of Illinois professor, who has delivered anti-Semitic speeches at right-wing rallies, has resigned from the national council of the Birch group, according to The New York Times. Until now, the John Birch Society’s headquarters at Belmont, Mass., had refused to comment on the reports about Prof. Oliver’s resignation. Now, however, Mr. Rousselot conceded that not only Dr. Oliver but also another member of the Birch Society’s national council, Slobadan M. Draskovich, had quit.

The Times also revealed today, through a report from Gordon D. Hall, a Boston authority on extremism, that Dr. Oliver had been given a “roaring, standing” ovation at the conclusion of an anti-Semitic speech in Boston, last July, before a rally labeled “For God, Family and Country.”