11-08-2025
A New Review for an Old Book: ‘The Life of John Birch'
Who was John Birch? Was he the founder of The John Birch Society? No, the JBS was founded by Robert Welch, who, with the permission of Birch's parents, named his new anti-communist organization after their son. That was in 1958, 13 years after Birch was murdered by Chinese communists on August 25, 1945.
At the time of his murder, John Birch was a 27-year-old U.S. Army captain on a peaceful mission in mainland China. He was in uniform. The war with Japan had ended 10 days earlier. And the Chinese communists and the United States were allies—or so we were led to believe. But none of this mattered to the communists, who shot Birch in the leg and then brutally bayoneted him to death.
Or perhaps, in a twisted way, it did matter to the communists, who wanted to (and did) send a message to the Chinese people that they would be their new masters, and that the Americans were paper tigers.
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Birch was known and loved by the Chinese—but he was little known in his home country, America.
There, the circumstances of his death were covered up by his own government, whose uniform he had worn. His parents were officially informed that he had been killed by a stray bullet, without any mention of Chinese communists.
In The Life of John Birch by Robert Welch, first published in 1954, the future founder of The John Birch Society explains that, 'until a little more than a year ago,' he too 'had never heard of John Birch.'
However, Welch elaborates, 'All alone, in a committee room of the Senate Office Building in Washington, I was reading the dry type-written pages in an unpublished report of an almost forgotten congressional committee hearing. Suddenly, I was brought up sharp by a quotation of some words an army captain had spoken on the day of his death eight years before.'
Those words, which do not appear until much later in the book, were: 'It doesn't make much difference what happens to me, but it is of utmost importance that my country learn now whether these people are friend or foe.'
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As Welch points out, '[Birch] got a very clear answer to that question, which could have been of tremendous value to his country—and could have saved tens of thousands of other American boys [who died in the Korean War], as well as literally millions of the Chinese whom he loved.'
Welch may have first learned about Birch via 'the dry typewritten pages' of an unpublished committee report, but his Life of John Birch is anything but dry.
In his short biography, Welch tells the riveting story of a young Baptist missionary who went to China to preach the Gospel to the Chinese in their native language, but who, after the U.S. entry into World War II, became a key component of the war effort against Japan in the Chinese theater.
His entry into the conflagration began as a civilian, when he rescued Colonel (later General) Jimmy Doolittle and some of his men after they had famously bombed Tokyo and then ditched their planes or bailed out over Japanese-occupied China.
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This heroic rescue set the stage for Birch's induction into the U.S. Army. He set up an intelligence network in occupied China that provided invaluable information to General Claire Chennault's famed 'Flying Tigers'; he directed bombing missions on the ground; he established hidden airfields unknown to the enemy; and he rescued downed pilots.
Regarding the latter, Welch writes: 'General Chennault said, in 1945, that about ninety percent of his downed flyers had been saved by John's rescue arrangements.'
Earlier, in 1944, Chennault had awarded Birch the Legion of Merit 'for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding service.'
While fighting for his country, Birch never ceased being a minister. He had gone to China as a missionary, and in the midst of the war, he continued preaching to the Chinese (and to his own countrymen) whenever he could.
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Many Chinese grew to know and love the American missionary-soldier. Captain James Hart, who served with Birch, saw firsthand the admiration the Chinese had for Birch. He also officially recommended his compatriot for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Though that did not happen, Hart said that Birch had 'erected his own monument in the hearts of the Chinese people…. Somehow, I feel that he is still walking the dike paths in China and still helping China's 'small person.''
And not just Chinese, but also Koreans. Welch quotes in full a moving letter Korean General Kim Hak Kyu had written to Birch's mother after her son's murder. The Korean general told her, 'Your good son fought not only for your great country but also for China and Korea. In other words, he fought for the emancipation of the whole world from injustice and inhumanity.'
That theme—'emancipation of the whole world from injustice and inhumanity'—is recurring in The Life of John Birch. The communists' war against God and man is not limited to a particular country or region of the world.
'John Birch was just an American farm boy who might have been your son or mine,' Welch reflected. 'But he was the first, or very nearly the first, casualty in American uniform, in a war still being waged against us nine years later; a relentless war of which there is no end in sight.'
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Welch added: 'With his death and in his death the battle lines were drawn, in a struggle from which either Communism or Christian-style civilization must emerge with one completely triumphant and the other completely destroyed.'
The subtitle for The Life of John Birch is: 'In the story of one American boy, the ordeal of his age.' That's the story Welch tells in his book—not just the story of John Birch, but also of the struggle between communism and Christian-style civilization. He even summarizes the story of what is today called the 'Deep State,' which covered up the murder of John Birch, and over many years helped communism while ostensibly opposing it.
A new edition of The Life of John Birch was published just last year. Therein, in a new 'invitation' at the front of the book, the nephew of John Birch, whose name is also John Birch, and who is today a chapter leader in the organization named after his 'Uncle John,' writes: 'Robert Welch's inspiring book…is needed even more today than when he first published it in 1954.'
True enough: John Birch may have died 80 years ago last month, but the fight against 'injustice and inhumanity' that Birch personified continues. Birch's remarkable life should give freedom-loving people everywhere much-needed inspiration to always stand up for God, family, and country, no matter the personal cost.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
