The Tragic Murder of Missionary John Birch (Pt. 1)

Missionary John Birch in China (c. 1940)

This is the first of a three-part series on the extraordinary life and tragic murder of an American Baptist missionary to China named John Birch.

His cold-blooded murder by  Chinese communists on Saturday, August 25, 1945, should serve as a warning to all Americans who believe in liberty, individual responsibility, and government accountability.

Many have heard of the John Birch Society. 

However, few people know about the man John Birch (1918-1945), after whom the organization was named. 

John Birch, the son of missionary parents to India, would spend his school years in Georgia. God called him to be a missionary at the age of eleven. A superb student, Birch graduated from Mercer University with top academic honors at age twenty. At twenty-two, John Birch took a ship to Shanghai, where he studied Chinese at a prestigious language academy. John picked up the problematic language rather quickly and became fluent in speaking and writing Mandarin Chinese, able to imitate the local tonal dialects with precision.

A young John Birch telling the Christmas Story

John Birch served as a model Christian missionary to the Chinese people. He dressed like the Chinese people and ate rice and the local Chinese cuisine. He quickly made friendships with Chinese families as he shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with the Chinese people of northwest China. John refused to marry a British missionary woman with whom he fell in love because he felt having a wife would deter him from his mission in China. 

When World War II began, John didn't abandon his missionary post. Japan had already invaded China
in 1937, so when World War II broke out for the United States in 1941, the Republic of China was our ally, but the Empire of Japan was our enemy. John Birch continued his missionary efforts among the Chinese, moving away from the coastal areas to avoid the Japanese occupying troops. 

By God's providence, missionary John Birch guided Jimmy Doolittle and the Doolittle Raiders out of China (a story I will tell in Part II). Upon Jimmy Doolittle's recommendation, General Clairee Chennault made missionary John Birch a lieutenant in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of America's Central Intelligence Agency.

John Birch, decorated by Gen. Claire Chennault

John Birch's fluent Mandarin, his knowledge of the land and people, and his ability to get close to the Japanese without being identified as an American made John Birch the perfect spy for Allied forces. From 1942 to 1945, John Birch saved countless lives through his dangerous intelligence work for the American government, all the while continuing his missionary work. John Birch would be posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Meritt. 

After World War II ended on August 14, 1945, John Birch recognized the dangers facing the Republic of China. Communist revolutionaries, desiring to overthrow the Republic of China to turn China into a Marxist country like the Soviet Union, attacked their Chinese brothers and the Republic of China.

John Birch knew the fate of the Chinese people was at stake.  The 

The Communist Emblem

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, sought to destroy the Republic of China (ROC), led by Chiang Kai-Shek, through riots, destruction, murder, and mayhem. 

On Saturday, August 25, 1945, just ten days after the conclusion of World War II, the Chinese communists murdered John Birch in cold blood - a story I will tell in detail in Part II.

Even worse, the United States government covered up John Birch's murder for five years. In one of the blackest stains on American foreign policy, the American government covered up John Birch's murder by the communists, pulled its military and financial support from Chiang Kai-Shek and the Republic of China, allowing the country of China to fall to the communists.

Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalist Party for the Republic of China withdrew from the mainland after

Taiwan - The Republic of China (ROC)

their defeat to a Chinese island. There, Chiang Ka Shek and the Republicans established The Republic of China (1949), what Americans call Taiwan. For over seven decades now, the government of Communist China (CPC) has threatened to invade Taiwan, even if it brings about a World War. 

The common purpose of socialism/communism/Marxism is a unified, one-world government where control of the masses for the "collective" good is orchestrated through social conformity and a Big Brother mentality (e.g. "you can only do what the government allows you to do.") 

John Birch's death has been called “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”

Burial Site of John Birch in Soochow, China

Every American should know about the missionary John Birch. Every lover of liberty should respect the John Birch Society's objective. The three-fold goal of the JBS is: 

1. Less government. 
2. More individual responsibility.
3. By God's grace - a better world.

Robert Welch (1899-1985) founded the John Birch Society on the cold Monday evening of December 9, 1958, in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Welch,  who was fifty-nine years old at the time, had three decades earlier become wealthy from his candy empire that began with his invention of a caramel-bar-on-a-stick that he called Sugar Daddy.

Welch invited eleven other well-known American businessmen from around the United States to join him in Indianapolis. These twelve men became the founding members of the John Birch Society. Among them were Harry Lynde Bradley, co-founder of the Allen Bradley Company and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Fred C. Koch, founder of Koch Industries; and Robert Waring Stoddard, President of Wyman-Gordon, a major industrial enterprise. 

Five years earlier (1954), Welch had written a book entitled The Life of John Birch: In the Story of One American Boy, the Ordeal of His Age. The candy maker was no dummy. Welch began reading at age two, tackled algebra at age six, read all nine volumes of John Clark Ridpath’s formidable History of the World at age seven, and entered the University of North Carolina at age 12, graduating at 16. He was a true “Renaissance Man,” a world traveler, conversant in several languages, and an avid lifelong student of history, language, philosophy, economics, mathematics, science, geography, chess, poetry, classical literature, politics, and other subjects.

However, it was the American Baptist missionary to China, John Birch, who captured Robert Welch's mind and heart. 

At an age when most people are enjoying their retirement, Robert Welch decided to forego a life of leisure and create an organization (The John Birch Society) to promote what Welch believed to be ideals of Americanism. He wanted to battle the overwhelming wave of communism he saw taking over numerous countries, and he had already seen communism’s prominent influence in America throughout his lifetime.

Fast-forward to 2021. On Presidential Inauguration Day, it was my privilege to have lunch with Marty

(L to R) Marty, Wade, John, Clark

Ohlson, the President of the John Birch Society, Clark Curry, the Chairman of the Board for the national Board of Directors for the John Birch Society, and John Dwyer, the historian par excellence for Oklahoma. 

All three are friends of mine. They're sharp, prosperous businessmen who cherish the principles of less government, more individual responsibility, and, by God's grace, a better world. 

Fred Trump, the father of former President Donald Trump, was a member of the John Birch Society, and Fred ingrained into his son the principles of liberty, responsibility, and government accountability. 

It's no wonder Donald Trump had so much opposition.

National socialism, Marxism, and/or communism  have the following three-fold objective:

1. A powerful, expansive, and all-controlling government.
2. Minimal individual responsibility and collective (social) responsibility.
3. A utopian world by the government's control of the masses with no need for God.

Missionary John Birch saw the dangers of communism in China and worldwide. He is an example of a person who is primarily interested in the Kingdom of Christ but was willing to lay his life on the line to ensure a country remained free.

John Birch died tragically murdered by the communists, but the message he conveys lives on.

More to come.