Introduction
If a member of your family were suddenly felled by a strange malady, you would quickly run to the family physician. So, too, would you hasten to a doctor's office when a more familiar disease struck, or when an accident caused a broken bone or torn flesh.
Once in the presence of the doctor, you would hardly waste his time or your own by demanding of him some assurance that he favors good health. You know he already does. And you know he opposes fever, earaches, broken legs, etc.
We mention this because the John Birch Society has often been accused of promoting only negativism, or of merely finding fault. Yet any honest survey of our literature demonstrates that such a charge is baseless. The doctor who wants healthy bodies doesn't take time to explain that he wants good health Nor do we always explain that our first and foremost goal is a strong nation and a healthy civilization.
The Insiders explains much of what has gone wrong in America and who is causing her ills. We doubt that we will be accused of presuming too greatly in believing that most Americans know something is eating away at the foundations of this great nation. Unemployment national and personal indebtedness, economic slowdown, loss of faith, declining national stature, a vaguely defined "new world order, broken families, and much more have stimulated worries from coast to coast and from all sectors of our social and economic strata.
The John Birch Society believes in America-in her magnificent Constitution, her glorious traditions, and her wonderful people. Where America is strong, we seek to preserve; where she has been weakened, we seek to rebuild. Sadly, we witness the presence of powerful forces working to destroy the marvelous foundations given us by far-seeing and noble men 200 years ago.
The information and analysis given in this book will undoubtedly upset, even anger, some readers. But if the history contained in these pages is disturbing to both the reader and ourselves, we urge that the blame be directed toward those who made it, not those who published it.
Doctors can't treat patients until they identify the causes of ailments. Similarly, no citizen can act to help his nation until he or she understands what constitutes good national health and what is ravishing it. It is our hope that the information presented in these pages will assist a great many more Americans to identify our nation's diseases — and those who spread them — and then take action to speed her back to the robust health she once enjoyed.