55 years ago today - Apr 7, 1966

John Birch President Robert Welch praised Elder Benson as "one of the really great men of our times." Also in describing the right-wing Birch Society's "recruiting efforts," Welch said that "we have no better members, or more permanently dedicated members of the Society, than those who owe their first loyalty to the Mormon Church." Of this, newspapers reported that the Birch Society regarded Mormons as "a very good recruiting ground."

[Robert Welch, "Dinner Meeting at Hotel Utah Introductory Remarks—April 7th, 1966 by Robert Welch," mimeograph, 1, Special Collections, Lee Library; Anderson, "Church and Birch In Utah," 25-26, 35n32, cites this as a publication of the American Opinion Bookstore in Salt Lake City.; "Birch Dinner in Salt Lake City Vexes Mormons," New York Times, 8 Apr. 1966, 28, published as "Welch Says Mormons Make Good Birchers," Minneapolis Tribune, 9 Apr. 1966. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]