[John McManus] said the Reagan years were tough on the John Birch Society. Although membership increased last year, he said, it declined during most of the Administration of President Reagan, apparently because some people thought that a strong conservative in the White House made the work of the John Birch Society less important. McManus said the society told its members that Reagan's "rhetoric would not be matched by his deeds," but it took a while for people to see that.

The John Birch Society was founded by retired businessman Robert Welch in 1958 to combat communism. It was named after Army Capt. John Birch, who was killed in 1945 by Chinese Communists and is considered by the society to be the first martyr of the Cold War. The society called for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren and for U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, and it claimed that communist influence was at work at the top levels of government.

McManus said it is ironic that the John Birch Society had its largest membership in the 1960s, when it was under the strongest attack. He said that since the mid-1960s, the society has "had no real national attention," apart from a few news stories when its chairman was killed in the Soviet downing of a Korean airliner in 1983 and when its founder died in 1985. McManus said that it is almost as if someone decided more than 20 years ago that the best way to hurt the John Birch Society would be to ignore it.