Early Political Activism
From his teenage years, Welch had been an opponent of Communism. He was a strong believer in various conspiracies in which he believed a wide range of individuals and organizations were part of an international Communist plot. In his own words, the American people consisted of four groups: "Communists, communist dupes or sympathizers, the uninformed who have yet to be awakened to the communist danger, and the ignorant."
Welch joined the Republican Party and then ran and lost an election for the post of Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1950. In 1952, he supported Robert Taft's unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and was a prominent campaign contributor to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy's re-election campaign.
Read more about this topic: Robert W. Welch, Jr.
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