The Blue book of the John Birch Society

The Blue Book of the John Birch Society was claimed to be the text of a 2-day speech by Robert Welch on December 8-9, 1958 in Indianapolis to eleven men whom he then asked for support in creating the John Birch Society. The first printed edition of The Blue Book was published in 1959 but subsequent editions were published that deleted portions from the original 1959 edition and which added new material. There is sometimes confusion because of another Robert Welch "book" which is sometimes referred to as "The Black Book". This is a reference to a "private letter" which Robert Welch started in 1954 but which was considerably expanded so that, by 1958, it consisted of over 280 pages of text. It was printed by photo offset and then spiral bound in book form with a black cover. This book-length "private letter" was entitled "The Politician". This publication (in its original form) is where Robert Welch described President Dwight D. Eisenhower with these words: " But my firm belief that Dwight Eisenhower is a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy is based on an accumulation of detailed evidence so extensive and so palpable that it seems to me to put this conviction beyond any reasonable doubt."