Fear and Loathing in the American Security Council Part IV

Welcome to the fourth installment in my examination of the American Security Council (ASC). While the alternative media is awash with accounts of the influence think tank long aligned with the so-called "Eastern Establishment" such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission have upon the national debate little attention has been paid to the rising power of various far right think tanks that began to emerge in the second half the 20th century. Chief among these was the ASC, which for years served as the "voice" of the military-industrial complex (and to some extent, the oil industry), not unlike the function the CFR serves for Wall Street to this day.

The ASC brought together the titans of the defense and (to a lesser extent) oil industries (including some elements of the declining blueblood Eastern Establishment) into collaboration with the far right wing nouveau riche of the Southern Rim and extremist elements within the US intelligence community and military to form what would become a crucial component of the overall American Establishment by the end of the century. In this capacity, the ASC served as both a lobby and propaganda outfit for the institutionalization of the military-industrial complex.

But beyond this, it also pursued a rabidly anti-Communist agenda under the auspices of industrial security, a little talked about netherworld that brings together various elements of the defense industry, FBI, CIA and military as well as various private security firms and "patriotic groups" (some "overworld," such as the American Legion, and some outside the "mainstream," such as the John Birch Society) in a vast intelligence apparatus that served a far right political agenda from its very inception. In the most recent installment of this series I traced the origins of this system to World War I and the industrial security apparatus established by General Ralph Van Deman, the so-called father of military intelligence. While Van Deman's apparatus was officially disbanded in the early 1920s he was put on the payroll of both the military and the FBI in 1927 to continue his work. With the advent of World War II, the system that Van Deman had developed – which brought together intelligence from the military and FBI as well as from the security divisions of various corporations,  large-scale private detective agencies in the above-mentioned "patriot groups" – became institutionalized.

General Van Deman

It is my contention that the ASC was designed as a kind of clearinghouse for intelligence reports provided by the above-mentioned sources much as Van Deman had done in the years before the  Second World War, but on a much wider scale. At its height in the 1970s the ASC had compiled a massive collection of names of alleged "subversives" provided by the various groups – i.e., the FBI, CIA, military, Wackenhut, American Legion, the Minutemen, the John Birch Society and various pre-WWII era "non-interventionist" groups such as the American Vigilante Intelligence Federation and the American Collation of Patriotic Societies – it had mustarded in its crusade against communism (which increasingly was defined as anything to the left of Rockefeller Republicanism by the overworld). To this end, the ASC engaged in blacklisting for years in an attempt to financially marginalize as many opponents of the growing military-industrial as possible. The ASC allegedly got out of the intelligence racket in the 1970s just as public outrage over domestic spying was beginning to mount but organizations it was affiliated with continued to maintain intelligence gathering operations for years afterwards.

But while the ASC had an overworld function – i.e. the perpetuation of the military-industrial complex through lobbying and propaganda and its various intelligence functions, including stealth economic warfare –it also featured various factions within its power structure with their own agendas. In many cases these agendas were not beyond the pale of the overworld elements within the American Security Council but there were at times radical departures, especially in regards to the "Prussian" (a term I'm using to define the especially radical military and intelligence individuals within the Council) element that sought the defeat of communism at any cost. Over the course of this installment I shall examine two of the most prominent factions (which also have much overlap), with a special emphasis on the high weirdness and cultic elements surrounding them.

With this in mind, let us begin with the inevitable Nazi faction within the Council. I've already touched on this faction before – in the first two installments (which can be found here and here) I noted the ties between the ASC and the America First Committee, a notorious pre-WWII "non-interventionist" group with numerous ties to the Nazis. In the third installment I briefly considered General Albert Wedemeyer, a German-American who had been educated at the German War College during the 1930s, and who had develop close ties with members of the German military and the Nazi party during his time there. Wedemeyer was later suspected of leaking the Rainbow 5 documents, a battle plan developed by the military in case war broke out against the Axis Powers, to the Chicago Tribune (which published the plans on December 4, 1941). After the war Wedemeyer would contribute heavily to the modern day "patriot movement," but more on that in another series.

 

These were of course hardly the only ties the ASC had to Nazi Germany and its Quislings. These elements were evident from early on in the ASC's history, especially in regards to its National Military Industrial Conferences (which were discussed in greater depth in part two of this series).

"... It cosponsored a series of annual meetings 1955 to 1961, called National Military-Industrial Conferences in which elements of the Pentagon, National Security Council, and organizations linked to the CIA discussed Cold War strategy with leaders of many large corporations, such as United Fruit, Standard Oil, Honeywell, U.S. Steel, and, of course, Sears Roebuck. Robert Wood was the key organizer of these events. One conference 'cooperating organization' was the CIA-linked Foreign Policy Research Institute...

"Another sponsor of the conferences was the Aircraft Industries Association (AIA). According to Clarence Lasby's Project Paperclip, the AIA pressured the U.S. government in the 1950s to get Nazi scientists into the United States. Warner von Braun who worked on the Nazi rocket program, and General John Medaris, who supervised the Nazi scientists in the U.S. (and has opposed the investigation of the program by the Justice Department's OSI), were both conference participants...

"... In 1959, the National Military-Industrial Conferences established an Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs that included a number of representatives of big business. Also included, however, were three political figures of the anti-Semitic extreme right...  Also a member of the Advisory Committee was Martin Blank, from Germany. Blank's entry in Who's Who in Germany described him as having worked in Berlin for a mine and steel mill business group from 1922 to 1945. A study of backers of German nazism, Who Financed Hitler, says that Blank represented a secret group of twelve Ruhr industrialists called the Ruhrlade, 'the most powerful secret organization of big business that existed during the Weimer period.' Ruhrlade and its political emissary, Martin Blank, became involved in funding the rise of Hitler. The 1959 Military-Industrial Conference bulletin identifies him as a representative of German industry.

"A third member of the committee was Baron Frederick August von der Heydte, who had also been active with the 1958 conference. His entry in Who's Who in Germany and other sources say that he was an 'active officer 1935-47' in the German army. Heydte, whose family was close to the exiled Hohenzollen monarch, was reported to have written in 1953 that 'democracy is linked with collapse, defeat and foreign uniforms stalking German soil,' and that 'democracy was brought by the victorious enemy together with the army of occupation.' Von der Heydt was a cofounder and ideological leader of the Christian Democratic Union, a party that brought a variety of Nazi elements into its fold after the first postwar German elections. In recent years von der Heydte has formed an association with Lyndon LaRouche's neofascist cult group. The only foreign members of the National Military-Industrial Conference's Foreign Affairs Committee during this period were Blank and von der Heydte."

(Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, Russ Bellant, pgs. 33-36) 

Baron von der Heydte

Beyond these curious German businessmen with suspect pasts were various émigré groups of Eastern Europeans in the ASC's Coalition of Peace Through Strength network (discussed more in part two of this series) that had direct ties to the Baltic Quisling regimes the Nazi party established through the 1930s-40s.

"While the Coalition for Peace Through Strength became more involved in elections and lobbying for Reagan Administration priorities, the number of organizations in the Coalition grew from about forty in 1978 to 171 in 1986. As the Coalition grew, more bizarre groups were brought in. Many of the groups mentioned earlier are part of the Coalition: the Republican Heritage Groups Council and its Slavic, Romanian, Italian, Chinese, and Cossack Republican units; the Slavic World Congress, the Bulgarian National Front, the Byelorussian-American Association, and several other émigré fascist groups."

(ibid, pg. 41)

Earlier in the classic Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party author Russ Bellant noted that many of these Republican Heritage Groups Council organizations sitting on the ASC's Coalition for Peace Through Strength were dominated by former Nazi collaborators and fascist activists.

"Laszlo Pasztor: The founding chair in a key figure in Counsel, Pasztor began his political career and a Hungarian pro-Nazi party and served in Berlin at the end of World War II. He continues to be involved in ultrarightist groups and fascist networks while working with the GOP.

"Radi Slavoff: The Republican Heritage Groups Council's executive director is a member of a Bulgarian fascist group and leader of the Bulgarian GOP unit of the Council. He was able to get the leader of his Bulgarian nationalist group a White House invitation even though that leader was being investigated for concealing alleged World War II war crimes. He is also active in other émigré fascist groups.

"Nicolas Nazarenko: A former World War II officer in the German SS Cossack Division, Nazarenko heads a Cossack GOP unit of the Republican Heritage Groups Council, but declares that Jews are his 'ideological enemy.' He is still active with pro-Nazi elements in the U.S.

"Florian Galdau: A close associate and defender of Valerian Trifa, the Romanian archbishop prosecuted for concealing his involvement in war crimes of the pro-Nazi Romanian Iron Guard in World War II. Charged by former Iron Guardists and others with being the East Coast recruiter for the Iron Guard in the U.S., Galdau heads the Romanian Republican unit of the Republican Heritage Groups Council.

"Method Balco: Head of the Slovak GOP unit, which is filled with supporters and at least one former diplomat of the Slovak Nazi government of World War II. Balco also organizes annual commemorations of the Slovak Nazi regime.

"Walter Melianovich: Head of the Byelorussian GOP unit, which has had collaborators of the Nazi World War II occupation in leadership roles, Melianovich has worked with other fascist groups.

"Croatian GOP: Their group wrote an apology for the Croatian Ustashi's World War II alliance with Hitler, which appeared in a Republican Heritage Groups Council publication signed by GOP chair Frank Fahrenkopf."

 (ibid, pgs. 2-3)

some of the Quislings

As the above indicates, many of these groups had direct links to such notorious Nazi Quislings as the Romanian Iron Guard and the Croatian Ustashi. There is also much overlap between the Republican Heritage Groups Council and the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, an organization founded in 1943 in Nazi Germany by many of the Central and Eastern European Quisling regimes. The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations would go on to play a significant role in the founding of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), an organization with very close ties to the American Security Council. Much more will be said about the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and the World Anti-Communist League in a future series.

There are other strange and extremist groups in the ASC's Coalition for Peace Though Strength, one of which we will consider in much further depth later in this piece. But before we can get there, we must consider another of the significant factions within the ASC, namely the group of military officers who served either under or with Douglas MacArthur in the Second World War and/or Korea. While its generally been forgotten in this day and age, there was very much a cult of personality surrounding MacArthur in the mid-20th century, especially amongst the far right. To them he became a kind of modern day Flavius Aetius, the last of the American Prussians to make a real stand against communism.

MacArthur (top) and American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell (bottom), who adopted the smoking of a corncob pipe in honor of the general 

MacArthur's removal by Truman was one of the defining, if little addressed, events of the modern conservative movement. It, combined with the reorganization of the War Department into the Department of Defense, radicalized countless military men who had cut their teeth in the prior era. Old soldiers never die, you see, nor do they ever really fade away as MacArthur and his merry band proved.

Thus, to grok this faction as well as the ASC itself, it helps to understand a bit about MacArthur's removal from command in Korea. The heart of the dispute was US policy concerning China. MacArthur, like many military and CIA men who served in the Far East, developed close ties to Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang (KMT) regime. After the KMT was driven out of mainland China in the wake of the communist takeover MacArthur and countless other military and intelligence personnel began plotting ways to get him back in control of China.

Chiang Kai-shek

This was in stark contrast to the goals of Eastern Establishment, who were aware of the strain between Mao and the Soviet Union as early as the late 1940s. Even then they believed that pulling Mao and his forces (who had proven to be slightly more adept managers of China than the KMT, whose chief concern was their opium trade) into the US camp would greatly isolate the USSR. And indeed, the normalization of relations with the PCR was a crucial component of the US's Cold War victory but countless Prussian-types vigorously opposed it for decades. The Truman-MacArthur conflict represented the first major split in the American Establishment in the post-WWII era.

"The Chinese intervention in Korea, which began on October 15, 1950, was a much greater surprise than Inchon, and gave rise to one of the most bitter controversies in American political history, the so-called Truman-MacArthur controversy. The dispute arose from the fact that McArthur did not accept his government's strategic and political plans, and systematically sought to undermine and redirect them, while in constant communication with the press and with leaders of the opposition political party for this purpose.

"The Truman administration, after the victory at Inchon, did not intend to stop at the 38th parallel, and hope to reunite the country under the Seoul government. It is probable that this alone triggered the Chinese intervention, but, to reduce that possibility, Washington set certain restrictions on MacArthur's actions which he soon sought to evade. Washington and Tokyo both knew that the Chinese had about 300,000 troops ready for action in Manchuria north of the Yalu and that neither Russian or China was attempting to reequip the shattered North Korean forces. To discourage any Chinese intervention, the White House forbade any attack by Chiang on the Chinese coast, any naval blockade of China itself..., or any attack on China or Siberia north of the Yalu, or the use of non-Korean troops in the immediate vicinity of the Yalu as the conquest of North Korea was completed.

"On October 9, 1950, two of MacArthur's planes attacked a Russian airbase sixty-two miles inside Russian territory in only eighteen miles from Vladivostok. To make certain that McArthur understood the reasons for these restrictions, President Truman the next day instructed MacArthur to meet him at Wake Island on October 15. The two leaders had a lengthy discussion, in which these restrictions were reiterated, but within two months of his return to Japan, MacArthur recommenced his almost daily interviews and letters agitating against these limits.

"At Wake Island, General MacArthur assured President Truman that any Chinese intervention in the Korea would be  most unlikely, and, in any case, would be on a scale which could be handled. Even as he spoke, the first Chinese units were already crossing the Yalu River from Manchuria in the North Korea...

"The Chinese attack in MacArthur's mind reduced the American situation in the Far East to a simple choice between two extreme alternatives: either all-out war on China, and possibly Russia, to destroy world Communism once for all or the immediate evacuation of our forces from Korea. The former would have given the Soviet Union a free hand in Europe; the letter would have made it impossible for us to obtain resistance against Communist nibbling from any small states or even from our greater allies elsewhere in the world and would have destroyed our prestige in Asia and Africa. A rapid visit by  Generals J. Lawton Collins and Hoyt S. Vandenberg to Korea in January, 12-17, 1951, convinced them that the middle alternative, which was still Washington's policy, namely, to maintain the independence of South Korea, was still possible.

"Rather than accept this alternative, MacArthur intensified his press barrage against the Administration, as well as his numerous messages to isolationist Republican politicians in Washington. A directive of December 6, which ordered him to clear his public statements on foreign and military policy with the respective departments was violated, for some months, with impunity..."

(Tragedy and Hope, Carroll Quigley, pgs. 975-977)

While MacArthur's supporters have long insisted that he only bucked against the restrictions placed upon him by Truman because they hindered his ability to force a quick peace by bluffing with the nuclear card his own comments seem to indicate that he was quite serious about  going nuclear. George Mason University's History News Network notes:

"In interviews published posthumously, MacArthur said he had a plan that would have won the war in 10 days: 'I would have dropped 30 or so atomic bombs . . . strung across the neck of Manchuria.' Then he would have introduced half a million Chinese Nationalist troops at the Yalu and then 'spread behind us -- from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea -- a belt of radioactive cobalt . . . it has an active life of between 60 and 120 years. For at least 60 years there could have been no land invasion of Korea from the North.' He was certain that the Russians would have done nothing about this extreme strategy: 'My plan was a cinch.'"

Apparently the Eastern Establishment didn't view dropping over two dozen nukes and turning northern Korea into a nuclear wasteland as a "cinch." This view was surely not driven by any kind of humanitarian concerns, but purely by dollars and cents. The Eastern Establishment was totally committed to the defeat of communism, contrary to the long-standing claims of the conspiratorial right. But they were not willing to embrace any type of policy that would've put their long-term plans (namely, turning the entire world into a free trade zone dominated by transnational corporations) at risk and a possible nuclear war between the United States and the USSR over Korea could have been a major hindrance to such things. Beyond this, they surely were already aware of the economic potentials of mainland China, and were seemingly confident that its market would eventually be reopen to Western interests.

To MacArthur and many of the military men and intelligence personnel who had rallied to him over the years, this was irrefutable evidence that the Eastern Establishment was soft on (f not in league with) Communism. It was unconscionable to them that the US would sell out a staunch anticommunist fighter like Chiang Kai-shek in favor of normalizing relations with the PRC, a maneuver that would continue to divide the overall American Establishment for decades afterwards. MacArthur and Chiang Kai-shek would be at the forefront of this growing opposition both before and after the Second World War.

"Washington was fearful that Chiang Kai-shek, since he could not reconquer China himself and hoped America would do it for him, might seek to precipitate such a war by making an attack from Formosa on mainland China. There was also a strong chance that McArthur might encourage or allow Chiang to do so because that haughty general agreed with Chiang that Europe was of no importance, and that the Far East should be primary, almost the only, area of operations for American foreign policy. He had bitterly opposed the 'Germany First' strategy throughout World War II and had begrudged men or supplies sent there on the grounds that these diversions delayed his triumphant return to the Philippines. As the war drew to its close, he had said: 'Europe is a dying system. It is worn out and run down and will become an economic and industrial hegemony of Soviet Russia... The lands touching the Pacific with their billions of inhabitants will determine the course of history for the next ten thousand years.'

"These views were shared by the Right-wing isolationist groups of the Republican Party, with whom MacArthur had been in close touch for much of his life and to whom he owed some of his success. In American politics these groups had power to do considerable damage because of their influence on the Republican congressional party and the fact that the bipartisan foreign policy under Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, which operated elsewhere in the world, did not exist in regard to the Far East. The danger of any Chiang-MacArthur cooperation to build the Korean action up into a major war was intensified by the fact that this will be opposed by the United Nations and by our allies, neither of whom was considered important by the neo-isolationist or by McArthur, but whom the Truman Administration refused alienate unnecessarily because they were essential, as bases, in the containment of Russia."

(Tragedy and Hope, Carroll Quigley, pgs. 973-974)

MacArthur and Chiang Kai-shek

The possibility that Korea could have turned into World War III was very real and MacArthur was at the forefront of the push toward it. This alienated MacArthur not only from the deeply Eurocentric Eastern Establishment, but likely even gave some of his backers in the defense and oil industries pause. And yet the ASC would never shy away from invoking the specter of nuclear war. ASC member Admiral Felix Stump would call for nukes to be used in Vietnam at the height of the conflict (as discussed in part three of this series) while the ASC would back Jerry Falwell's Rapture-ization of nuclear war (discussed in part two) as recently as the 1980s.

These were almost surely views held by the "Prussian" component of the ASC and not the business elements. Thus, it would seem that the Prussians were capable of interjecting their views into the national debate regardless of how weary overworld elements may have been of such views. This is hardly surprising as funding was never a problem for MacArthur or his ilk. They had access to wealthy patrons who were every bit as extremist as themselves, many of whom had built their fortunes on the black market. But more on that later.

Some websites claim that MacArthur was a member of the American Security Council but I have been unable to verify this. But whether or not MacArthur was a member is meaningless as some of his most vigorous supporters held key positions in the ASC during the early years and seemingly had a great deal of influence on its agendas for decades to come. First and foremost was General Robert E. Wood, one of the chief architects of the ASC (as discussed in part one of this series). Wood had served under MacArthur during the First World War and would attempt to mount a presidential campaign for The Pipe in both 1944 and 1948.

General Wood

Another imposing figure in the ASC closely linked to MacArthur was his former intelligence chief, General Charles Willoughby, who will be considered at length in just a moment. Other noteworthy members of the ASC with links to MacArthur include: General Curtis LeMay (who directed MacArthur's air campaign in the final months of the Pacific theater of WWII), the above-mentioned General Albert Wedemeyer (who had links to MacArthur through the KMT) and Admiral Felix Stump (who served with MacArthur in the Pacific theater of WWII), General Edward Lansdale (who served under MacArthur and Willoughby in the Philippines at the end of WWII) and most likely General John Singlaub (I haven't been able to conclusively link Singlaub to MacArthur/Willoughby, but the CIA's official website claims he was working for military intelligence during Korea).

Lemay (top), Lansdale (middle), and Singlaub (bottom), the later of whom played a major role in both the ASC and WACL in the 1980s

Clearly, the MacArthur faction within the ASC was not insignificant. The ringleader of said faction was almost surely MacArthur's dear friend, Charles Willoughby. Willoughby is in many ways of the poster boy for the "unintended consequences" the Eastern Establishment's global empire unleashed. As MacArthur's intelligence chief from 1941 to 1951 he was able to erect a vast apparatus throughout the Far East. By all accounts this intelligence network was under the firm control of MacArthur and Willoughby and was openly hostile to the OSS and later, the CIA (though Willoughby nonetheless had close ties to several members of OSS/CIA).

"During World War II, MacArthur and Willoughby successfully staved off all efforts by the fledgling OSS to encroach on their Pacific territory. When the Korean War broke out and the CIA bivouacked a thousand-man force at the Atsugi base in Tokyo, Willoughby went so far as to put CIA personnel under surveillance by Japanese policeman working for him. As far as MacArthur and Willoughby were concerned, certain elements of the OSS/CIA had a left-wing tinge that could not be trusted."

(The Man Who Knew Too Much, Dick Russell, pg. 67)

Typically Willoughby is depicted as a rather inept and buffoonish figure in conventional accounts of the general and not without reason. He was rather inept at conventional types of military intelligence, such as assessing the strength and movements of enemy troops, and much disaster ensued throughout various campaigns. But the perception that Willoughby was only kept around because of his fierce loyalty to MacArthur is not entirely accurate either. Willoughby did in fact show a considerable degree of talent for the more nefarious aspects of intelligence work that would become increasingly crucial to the emerging American Empire: political blackmail and assassinations, terrorism, and the managing of death squads/organized crime (elements of which being frequently necessary to perform the prior listed functions).

What's more, when Willoughby "retired" in the wake of MacArthur being sacked the intelligence apparatus he had established did not simply disappear (a problem that would continue to confront the Eastern Establishment time and again when assets like Willoughby "retire"). In point of fact, he would continue to manage a rather vast private intelligence network built upon the contacts he had forged during his time in the military for years after leaving it. And yet, even the very few researchers who have addressed this network have tended to depict Willoughby as a rather marginal figure.

"... the Foreign Intelligence Digest network compounded for the Texas Hunt family by General Willoughby, with both very broad ideological goals and more hidden practical intentions, such as the entry of the Hunt Oil Company (for which General Willoughby became an agent) into Mozambique.

"Despite the Hunt family wealth, this network remained marginal, virtually impotent to achieve its stated goals. Like all other transnational connections transcending national boundaries, however, it enjoyed one relevant advantage: it was relatively unaccountable. For this very reason, it entered into play with other, better establish networks, such as the Gehlen Organization, which despite its technical nationalization into the West German intelligence agency, the BND, remained largely an unaccountable multinational transnational connection itself."

(Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, pg. 301-302)

The Gehlen Organization, or simply the Org, was one of the chief international fascists networks for decades after WWII. Naturally it was littered with former Nazis.

"With Germany looming as a pivotal battleground for the Cold War, Gehlen had a mandate from the Americans to revive his old Foreign Armies East department –or what was left of it –as quickly as possible. Upon returning to Germany in July 1946, he immediately pulled together the makings of a sophisticated intelligence apparatus known as 'the Org.' Supported by regular subsidies from the U.S. taxpayers and wealthy German industrialist, he set up his base of operations inside a mysterious, high-walled compound near Munich that had once housed the staff of Rudolf Hess and Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputies. Gehlen's most urgent task was to gather up-to-date information from the East. His American sponsors were particularly hungry for details on troop movements and other military matters in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany.

"Although Gehlen was ostensibly under U.S. Army supervision, the Org quickly threw its doors wide open to Gestapo, Wehrmacht, and SS veterans, despite his solemn promise to U.S. officials that he would not employ hard-core Nazis. Even the vilest of the vile –the senior bureaucrats who ran the central administrative apparatus of the Holocaust – were welcome in the Org..."

(The Beast Reawakens, Martin A. Lee, pg. 35)

Reinhard Gehlen, founder of the Org

Needless to say, the Org was not lacking for funds. And nor were other associates of MacArthur and Willoughby. They also had very close ties to Chiang Kai-shek's KMT regime as well as elements in the Japanese yakuzas, both of whom were major international drug traffickers. What's more, MacArthur and Willoughby had also been deeply involved in the recovery of the gold Imperial Japan had plundered during their nearly half-century long military adventures in the East. This cache, sometimes known as the Golden Lilly, was a rather staggering amount of gold and other precious metals that were used for dirty tricks in Japan and elsewhere for decades afterwards. The involvement of Willoughby and MacArthur in the Eastern drug and black market gold trade will be discussed in much greater depth in a future series.

Another likely source of funding was cult leader Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church. Moon was rescued from the North Korean communists by MacArthur in the aftermath of the Battle of Inchon. I have not been able to establish whether or not they had a relationship but the Reverend Moon certainly seemed to have held MacArthur in reverence. The Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics makes some especially peculiar allegations:

"Looking at all the times the cult has expressed its appreciation for General Douglas MacArthur, the Moonie Cult could just as well be dubbed the "MacArthur Cult". The cult's 'little angels' still regularly conduct ceremonies in honor of MacArthur."

I have been unable to confirm these charges. But the Unification Church did back one of the largest box office failures in the history of cinema in a bid to glorify The Pipe and the circumstances around it were most unusual. TV Guide reports:

"One of the worst films of all time, this recounting of the Inchon landing during the Korean War comprises mostly mismatched action shots. Amidst tanks, troops, and explosions, Laurence Olivier essays the role of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in a cheap wig, latex chin, and putty nose, using a W.C. Fields-like speech pattern (recommended by one-time secretary of state Alexander Haig, who claimed MacArthur sounded like the great comedian). Not surprisingly, the story behind the making of INCHON is infinitely more interesting than the film. Determined to finance a movie, Unification Church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Japanese newspaper publisher Mitsuharu Ishii considered the lives of Jesus and Elvis Presley as suitable subjects before settling on the Inchon landing. Using psychic Jeanne Dixon as an intermediary, Ishii then endeavored to consult MacArthur himself and was assured that the late general was behind the project 100 percent. Dixon also chose the film's director, Terence Young (DR. NO; FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE; THUNDERBALL). Shot on location, the film was beset with myriad problems, from bad weather to Jacqueline Bisset's laryngitis to political difficulties between the Korean government and the Unification Church. Later participants in the project stampeded to disavow any knowledge of the "Moonie" money that was behind the $50 million film, which took in only about $1.9 million in the US and Canada."

Beyond the film Inchon (which has rarely been seen since it was pulled from theaters due to never having been released on VHS or DVD), the Unification Church seems to have been heavily subsided by individuals associated with MacArthur, a topic that will be touched upon in a future series. Finally, Douglas MacArthur II (The Pipe's nephew) was a member of the advisory board of The Washington Times, a paper that was founded by the Reverend Moon, for some time.

Douglas MacArthur II, who was a rather dubious figure in his own right

With such ties it is grossly inaccurate to characterize MacArthur or Willoughby as marginal figures. In point of fact, they seemingly had a tremendous (if little acknowledged) influence on the modern conservative movement. They exerted a great degree of influence in both overworld organization such as the American Security Council as well as the two chief "grassroots" movements in modern conservatism: Christian fundamentalists and the "patriot" movement.

In terms of Christian fundamentalists, Willoughby himself would join the advisory board for the Reverend Billy James Hargis, one of the chief architects of the modern day Christian fundamentalist movement, and would regularly appear at rallies and speaking engagements organized by the reverend. The Hunt family, one of the major patrons of MacArthur and Willoughby, donated generously to the Reverend Hargis and would continue to provide funding to the Christian fundies for years afterwards (H.L. Hunt was one of the early benefactors of Pat Robertson, for instance, as I noted before here). The Unification Church would also become a major backer of the Christian right.

"... the Coalition for Religious Freedom, established by the Unification Church while cult leader Sun Myung Moon was in prison for tax fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice. In 1984 and 1985, Moon's followers spent millions of dollars courting Christian ministers to support Moon as a victim of government 'persecution.' Some of the Coalition for Religious Freedom ministers tried to distance themselves from the Unification Church after unflattering press reports of Tim LaHaye's acceptance of 'Moonie' money..."

(Roads to Dominion, Sara Diamond, pg. 242)

H.L. Hunt (top) and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (bottom), two major sugar daddies for the modern day Christian right

The ties between MacArthur and Willoughby and the patriot movement will be addressed in much greater depth in a future series but, suffice to say, virtually every major figure and organization in the early patriot movement had ties to the dynamic duo. Several former military men who served with/under MacArthur and/or Willoughby and who later became involved in the patriot movement include: General Albert Wedemeyer, General Curtis LeMay, General Pedro del Valle, General Bonner Fellers, General Laurence Bunker, General Edwin Walker and the one and only, Colonel William Potter Gale.

from top to bottom: Wedemeyer, del Valle, Fellers, Walker and Gale

Now, here's where things start to get weird. As is generally the case when secretive factions such as these are involved there's usually some type of secret order involved and Willoughby and the ASC are no exception. Willoughby was a member of a group known as the Shickshinny Knights of Malta, the American branch of an even more mysterious group known as the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta (SOSJ). This group did in fact claim descent from the medieval order known as the Knights Hospitalers, but through the Russian line of succession that sprang into being after the order was driven from Malta at the end of the 18th century. The SOSJ considered themselves to be the true successors to the medieval Knights Hospitalers, and viewed the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM, the "official" successor organization to the Hospitalers) to be usurpers, and later pawns of the good old Freemasonic-Judaic-Communist conspiracy. And yet, there would seem to be significant collaboration between the SOSJ and SMOM in certain instances, as will be discussed in a bit.

the SOSJ goes to Washington

Even stranger, the SOSJ was a member of the ASC's Coalition of Peace Through Strength network (discussed at the beginning of this piece). When discussing groups involved in the Coalition of Peace Through Strength, researcher Russ Bellant said of the SOSJ:

"Although it poses as a Catholic organization, the Order of St. John is a Masonic group that claims to be the real Knights of Malta. Its Grand Master for fifty years, until his death several years ago was Charles Pichel, an advisor (via correspondence from the U.S.) to Hitler aide Ernst Hanfstaengl. Pichel's Order is a secret society led by anti-Semites who have worked with quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby, and with neofascist Lyndon LaRocuhe groups."

(Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, Russ Bellant, pg. 45) 

Whether or not the SOSJ was some type of Masonic order is highly debatable though it did seem to have occultic rituals, at least according to Jim Bevilaqua in his brilliant JFK -The Final Solution (the only real study of the SOSJ published aside from Pichel's heavily embellished history of the group). Much of its membership over the years consisted of hardcore Orthodox and traditionalist Catholic followers, which immediately brings to mind Peter Levenda's "wandering bishops" (occultists have frequently sought to become ordained bishops in Catholic or Orthodox denominations so that they could perform Satanic rituals, such as an "authentic" Black Mass). The Order was still active in the 1990s under the leadership of John Grady.

"Established in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, in 1908, the OSJ claims to be the legitimate successor to the medieval Knights of Malta. The organization is opposed both to the council and the new Mass, and claims that the contemporary church has been 'infiltrated by Freemasons, Jews, Marxist, homosexuals, and radical feminist...' Currently based in Benton, Tennessee, the organization operates about fifty chapels (or traditionalist Mass centers) and three elementary schools across the country..."

(The Smoke of Satan, Michael W. Cuneo, pg. 197) 

The SOSJ being linked to the historic Knights Hospitalers is of course highly debatable but its origins being earlier than the mid-1950s, where skeptics have typically placed it, is entirely possible. The historical outline of the group written by Grady (or someone linked to him) on the group's official website (seriously) claims that the Order operated in a murky underworld of military intelligence officers, industrial security interests, Nazis and their Quislings, fanatical traditionalist Catholics and Orthodox anticommunists, pre-WWII "non-interventionists" and such like throughout the early and mid 20th century. While there are no doubt many embellishments in this account it is so like the same murky underworld that spawned the American Security Council I do not believe it can be easily dismissed.

the cross of the historic Knights Hospitalers and later the SOSJ as well as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Stranger still, as recently as the early 1990s, the SOSJ would be considered a terror threat by the FBI while it was operating in the same scene and era that spawned Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Foreign Affairs reports (also, a hat-tip to the blog Bartholomew's Notes on Religion, which chronicled many of the latter day exploits of the SOSJ, as well as commenter "John Roy Carlson," mentioned here):

"Through his contacts with Posey, Rossi secured an introduction to John Grady, head of the Tennessee-based American Pistol and Rifle Association (APRA), a militant version of the National Rifle Association that the FBI suspected of training and advising white supremacists and other extremists. Through multiple informants and Rossi, the FBI again compiled an alarming list of leads, including reports that Grady was part of Posey's Patriot alliance and that APRA had deployed six-man teams around the country to carry out acts of terrorism and infrastructure sabotage.  

"Excerpts from several FBI documents containing these allegations were e-mailed to Grady, who responded in a telephone interview.  

"'Every statement that you've shown me is false,' Grady said. He disputed the contention in FBI documents that the APRA was white supremacist in nature and said he had only a passing acquaintance with Posey.  

"A source with knowledge of the investigation and documentary materials affirmed some of the allegations found in the case file, but others did not check out. For instance, FBI records sourced to Rossi indicated that an October 1992 speech by Grady said 'a person was better off to take out as many people as they could than to be arrested and taken to jail,' but a videotape of the speech obtained from a source did not match the description.
While the intelligence continued to flow, the criminal investigation again foundered, failing to produce any evidence on which to base a prosecution.  

"In April 1993, an FBI committee reviewing the investigation of Grady expressed concern that agents were 'only obtaining intelligence and not moving forward with the criminal investigation.' PATCON undercover agents were cautioned to limit their reporting to criminal activity, rather than 'speeches or rhetoric protected by the First Amendment.' In July 1993, FBI headquarters determined 'that insufficient justification exists to justify' continued investigation.   

"Both the Grady case and the undercover operation were terminated. Agents were instructed in unusually strong terms that they 'should conduct no further investigation regarding either [The Order of St. John]...'"

John Grady (center), the Order's current Grand Master

Long time readers of this blog will remember that I've argued before that the Willoughby network led to the Oklahoma City bombing, so I find it most curious that a secret order he was involved with was still operating in the same timeframe as McVeigh. Its especially intriguing that the FBI ordered field agents to quit investigating the SOSJ in the early 1990s. But I digress.

There were also strange links between the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (the "official" Knights of Malta) and the ASC as well. But before going any further I'd like to give a shout out to the great H.P. Albarelli Jr., whose mind-blowing Amazon review of Bevilaqua's JFK -The Final Solution and most recent book, A Secret Order, were crucial in alerting me to the SMOM angle (as well as Bevilaqua's book, of course). Do yourself a favor dear reader, and pick up both works if you haven't already done so. But back to the SMOM.

 William Donovan, founder of the OSS and a major figure in creating Air America (with ASC member William Pawley, as discussed in part three of this series) was a member of the Knights of Malta. So to was James Jesus Angleton, another ASC member seemingly linked to the drug trade. And then there was CIA director William Casey, a Knight of Malta who conscripted the SMOS as well as the ASC, the Moonies, the Christian right and the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) into one final show down with communism in the 1980s. But more on that in a future series addressing the WACL.

William "Wild Bill" Donovan (top), James Jesus Angleton (middle) and William Casey (bottom), three of the most powerful figures in the history of US intelligence and all members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

What then are we to make of this obscure order, the SOSJ, that nonetheless attracted former high ranking military officers (many of whom with a background in intelligence) as members and which was given a seat in the ASC's Coalition for Peace Through Strength? Why did it seem to be operating as a terror network a decade after the height of the ASC? And what links does it have to the equally mysterious SMOM? And where do the Nazis fit into all of this (Reinhard Gehlen, founder of the Gehlen Org, is cited as a member of the SMOM across the blogosphere but I have been unable to verify this)?

And it is here that I shall wrap things up with one final observation: While the ASC and the WACL (among others) have faded away in recent decades the SMOM is still going strong and suspected of playing a curious role during America's recent Crusade in the Middle East. It even made a bizarre appearance recently in Bridgeport, Connecticut (site of the Sandy Hook school shooting) as I noted here. And yet the SMOM (as well as groups linked to it such as the ASC and WACL) is among the least written on topics in all of the "alternative media" and 99% of what has been written on it is the typical "Illuminati/Freemasonry" claptrap (the overwhelming majority of which having been dreamed up by several of the wonderful groups and individuals featured in this series). Hopefully I will be able to correct this state of affairs in the coming months. Stay tuned.