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Who really said it

The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic

Not Eisenhower — a 1964 fabrication No documented speaker Credited to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890–1969 · no speech, letter or interview on record
Documented as misattributed by Wikiquote and by Boller & George’s They Never Said It; denied at the time by Eisenhower’s own staff. Rights unconfirmed

This wording has never been tied to anything Eisenhower said or wrote. Wikiquote lists it under Misattributed ↗, citing an Alton Evening Telegraph editorial of 14 July 1964 and a Los Angeles Times display advertisement of 27 September 1964. Quote-forensics reference They Never Said It (1989) treats it as a fake: reporters who asked Eisenhower about the ad were told by one of his aides in Gettysburg that the quotation was “unauthorized and incorrect.”

Last verified 30 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic” Misattributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower. No speech, letter or interview contains this wording. Earliest sightings cited by Wikiquote: an editorial in the Alton Evening Telegraph, 14 July 1964, and a display advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1964 (Wikiquote does not name the advertiser). Listed as a fake quotation in Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George, "They Never Said It" (Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 24, which records the John Birch Society placing a Los Angeles Times advertisement during the 1964 campaign and an Eisenhower aide calling the quotation "unauthorized and incorrect." — Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

Evoking the themes of character, freedom and truth. Theme: "The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The paper trail

Status
Misattributed — no speech, letter, interview or diary entry
Earliest sighting cited
Editorial, Alton Evening Telegraph, 14 July 1964, A-4
Circulated in
Display advertisement, Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1964, D14 — Wikiquote does not name the advertiser
Debunked in
They Never Said It (1989), p. 24

The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don’t agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic. No original document

There is no fuller original context to show, because no original exists. The words appear as a free-floating quotation in 1964 newspaper print — first an editorial, then paid advertising — and nowhere in the Eisenhower record. Asked about them, an aide called the quotation “unauthorized and incorrect.” Even the wording is unstable: Boller and George print the line as “The Birch Society is a good patriotic society…” while Wikiquote’s form, used here, opens “The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society…”

Wikiquote: Dwight D. Eisenhower — Misattributed

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote’s Eisenhower page ↗ lists this exact wording under Misattributed, citing an editorial in the Alton Evening Telegraph (14 July 1964, A-4) and a display advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (27 September 1964, D14).
  • Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George treat it as a fake quotation in They Never Said It (1989), p. 24 ↗: the society advertised it in the Los Angeles Times during the 1964 campaign, an aide in Gettysburg told reporters it was “unauthorized and incorrect,” and the authors’ source note points to the New York Herald Tribune of 18 October 1964.
  • The background is on the record: Robert Welch, who founded the society in December 1958, circulated a 1954 letter calling Eisenhower a possible “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” ↗, and went further in The Politician, written in 1956 and privately printed in 1963, where the flat charge is the one his critics quote.
  • Eisenhower’s own archive tracked the problem: the Eisenhower Presidential Library’s subject guide ↗ lists, in the 1965 Signature File, a folder described as “Jo (1) [John Birch Society & misuse of DDE quote; Senator Kuchel]”.

No rights status can be asserted, because no work of authorship has been identified. The wording is not traceable to any Eisenhower speech, letter or interview; its earliest documented appearances are 1964 newspaper text of unknown authorship, so there is no identifiable author, publication or first-publication date on which a public-domain or in-copyright determination could rest. The modern reference work that debunks it — They Never Said It (Oxford University Press, 1989) — is itself in copyright, which is why only short phrases are quoted from it here.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

How the credit happened

No source establishes how this wording arose. What is documented is where it appears — a newspaper editorial, then paid advertising, and never in a speech, letter, interview or diary entry — and that Eisenhower’s office denied the quotation outright while conceding a much narrower remark: that among the society’s members were “many devoted citizens sincerely dedicated to the United States,” a phrase the disputed line’s second sentence partly echoes.

Dwight D. Eisenhower misattributed

Wikiquote places the line in its Misattributed section ↗, with no primary source behind it — only an Alton Evening Telegraph editorial of 14 July 1964 and a Los Angeles Times display ad of 27 September 1964.

The John Birch Society 1964 advertisement

Boller and George record that during the 1964 presidential campaign the society ran a Los Angeles Times advertisement collecting kind words about it from about half a dozen national figures, this Eisenhower statement among them — They Never Said It, p. 24 ↗.

John H. Rousselot unsupported

The society’s national public relations director ↗ insisted he had heard Eisenhower say it during a television appearance. No recording, transcript or broadcast date has ever been produced, and Boller and George note that few non-Birchers were convinced.

Eisenhower’s staff on the record

Asked about the advertisement, an aide in Gettysburg told reporters the quotation was “unauthorized and incorrect,” while conceding only that Eisenhower had sometimes said the society contained “many devoted citizens” — expressly without approving of the society and while resenting its founder’s allegations against him.

There is no Eisenhower endorsement of the John Birch Society. The only documented statement from his side is a denial plus a narrow acknowledgement about individual members — and his own archive keeps a 1965 folder labelled, in the library’s words, “John Birch Society & misuse of DDE quote” ↗.

Context

Why the line lands where it does

The John Birch Society had a founder problem. Robert Welch, who launched the society in Indianapolis in December 1958, circulated a 1954 letter calling Dwight Eisenhower a possible “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” ↗, and went further in The Politician, written in 1956 and privately printed in 1963 — the book that set off years of argument over whether he had meant to call Eisenhower a communist outright. Hanging that charge on the most popular general in America was what made the society radioactive.

A quotation in which Eisenhower shrugs that off — I don’t agree with what its founder said about me, but… — is therefore not a random feel-good line. No source says who put the words in his mouth, or why. What is on the record is where the line lands: it answers the society’s worst liability point for point, and it surfaced in print during the 1964 presidential campaign, when the society badly needed respectable cover. That is also why reporters were suspicious from the start and went looking for Eisenhower’s reaction: the one man with the best reason never to praise the John Birch Society was Eisenhower.

The quote is built to forgive the exact insult that made the society untouchable. That is the tell.

What Eisenhower’s office actually said

According to They Never Said It, an aide in Gettysburg told reporters the advertisement’s quotation was “unauthorized and incorrect,” and added a carefully fenced version of the real position: without expressing any approbation of the John Birch Society, and having specifically resented the allegations made by its head, Eisenhower had said on occasion that among its members were many devoted citizens sincerely dedicated to the United States.

The society did not concede. Its national public relations director, former congressman John H. Rousselot ↗, insisted he had heard Eisenhower make the statement during a television appearance — a claim Boller and George note convinced few outside the society, and for which no recording or transcript has been produced.

The dispute left a paper trail in Eisenhower’s own archive. The Eisenhower Presidential Library’s subject guide to Robert Welch and the John Birch Society lists, in the 1965 Signature File, a folder described as “Jo (1) [John Birch Society & misuse of DDE quote; Senator Kuchel]” and another as “KEN (1)(2) [Schulz to Kendrick, DDE misquoted in article re John Birch Society].”

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Wikiquote: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Files this exact wording under Misattributed and cites the Alton Evening Telegraph editorial of 14 July 1964 (A-4) and the Los Angeles Times display ad of 27 September 1964 (D14).
They Never Said It (1989) — full scanarchive.org

Boller and George's entry on p. 24 gives the fake quotation, the 1964 Los Angeles Times advertisement, the aide's denial, and Rousselot's television claim.
Robert Welch and the John Birch Society — subject guideeisenhowerlibrary.gov

The Eisenhower Library's own finding aid; its 1965 Signature File listing includes a folder described as "John Birch Society & misuse of DDE quote".
Robert W. Welch Jr.en.wikipedia.org

Welch (1899–1985) founded the society in Indianapolis in December 1958 and called Eisenhower "a dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy" — the insult the fake quote forgives.
John H. Rousseloten.wikipedia.org

Supports the role and the House service only: he was the society's national public relations director, and sat for California in 1961–1963 and again in 1970–1983. The television claim is not in this article — it comes from They Never Said It, p. 24.
John Birch Societyen.wikipedia.org

Background on the society and confirmation that Welch's allegation that Eisenhower was a communist agent was especially controversial.

The name that was borrowed

About Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1890–1969 · Allied supreme commander & 34th U.S. president

Eisenhower commanded the Allied invasion of Europe and then served two terms as president, from 1953 to 1961. He is the target of this quote rather than its author: the John Birch Society’s founder, Robert Welch, had branded him an agent of the communist conspiracy, which made a warm Eisenhower blessing the single most valuable endorsement the society could not get. What his office did concede, through an aide, was narrower and much colder — that among the society’s members were “many devoted citizens” loyal to the United States, said explicitly without approving of the society itself.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest sightings on record

Earliest sightings cited by Wikiquote: an editorial in the Alton Evening Telegraph, July 14, 1964, A-4, and a display advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1964, D14. Classified as a fake quotation in Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 24, whose source note cites the New York Herald Tribune, October 18, 1964.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The John Birch Society is a good, patriotic society. I don't agree with what its founder said about me, but that does not detract from the fact that its membership is comprised of many fine Americans dedicated to the preservation of our libertarian Republic’?” Last verified 30 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-john-birch-society-is-a-good-patriotic-society-i-dont/

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