ADL Makes Charge American Party and Schmitz Called ‘tools’ of Birch Society

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith labeled today the American Party and its presidential candidate, Rep. John G. Schmitz (R. Calif.), “political tools” of the John Birch Society and charged all three with “approving and distributing anti-Semitism.”

Arnold Forster, ADL general counsel, charged that the Birch Society “has succeeded in its takeover and is now embarked on using the American Party to step up Birch activities and shore up its dwindling membership.” He said that both Schmitz and the vice presidential candidate, Thomas J. Anderson, are members of the Birch Society national council. Forster also claimed that “extremism or anti-Semitism were key themes of literature” distributed at the party convention in Louisville, Ky. Aug. 5.

According to Forster, it was “not at all surprising when the convention overwhelmingly passed a hard-line position against US support for Israel.” The adopted plank on the Middle East called for a reversal of present US policy by the passage of a new “neutrality act” which would prohibit the sale of arms to Israel or private banking loans to the Jewish State. It would also prohibit the sale of Israeli bonds in the US, the ADL reported.

Lawrence Peirez, chairman of the ADL’s Fact Finding Committee, reported that Schmitz was using a new Birch-distributed book, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy,” as a base for his presidential campaign platform. According to Peirez, the book is “saturated with a revival of anti-Jewish themes promoted in the 1920’s and 1930’s by anti-Semites and home-grown Nazis and fascists.”

Forster said that the ADL’s Los Angeles office had asked Schmitz to withdraw his endorsement of “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” last June, before he became the candidate of the American Party.