Lyndon LaRouche

Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. (born September 8, 1922) is an American political activist and founder of various political organizations in the United States and elsewhere.

1971–1979

In 1971, LaRouche founded the U.S. Labor Party as a vehicle for electoral politics, maintaining that both the major parties had abandoned the American System economic policies that the LaRouche organization had embraced (LaRouche names Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt as exemplars of this school of thought).

Related Topics:
1971 - U.S. Labor Party - American System - Abraham Lincoln - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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In 1971, LaRouche organized the New Solidarity International Press Service as a wire service for his publications. He founded the weekly Executive Intelligence Review and co-founded the Fusion Energy Foundation.

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By the mid-1970s, LaRouche and his movement were no longer promoting a socialist agenda. Readings of Marx and Lenin were off the reading list of LaRouche's followers, to be replaced by texts by Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich Schiller and Plato. A key factor in the shift may be found in the published articles of NCLC Executive Committee member Allen Salisbury on Henry Carey and the American System school of political economy, culminating in his book, The Civil War and the American System. The LaRouche organization, after some deliberation and dissent, adopted Salisbury's thesis, that the American System approach was different from, and superior to, either Marxism or laissez-faire capitalism, and the organization's publications rapidly reflected this re-assessment. Another book was published, a collection of source documents entitled The Political Economy of the American Revolution. LaRouche also became a strong advocate of nuclear energy and directed energy technologies for ballistic missile defense.

Related Topics:
Alexander Hamilton - Friedrich Schiller - Plato - Allen Salisbury - Henry Carey - Laissez-faire - Nuclear energy - Ballistic missile defense

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In 1974, a former member of LaRouche's U.S. Labor Party, Gregory Rose, published an article in National Review alleging that LaRouche had established contacts with Palestinian terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and also with the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York. These contacts culminated in LaRouche's visit to Baghdad in 1975, during which he made a presentation to the Baath Party conference on the topic of his "Oasis Plan," a proposal for Arab-Israeli peace based on the joint construction of massive water projects. During 1975, LaRouche's newspaper New Solidarity began running articles favourable to Iraq, and extensively quoting Saddam Hussein, at that time Iraq's vice-president. Rose also alleged that LaRouche at this time was in contact with Soviet diplomats.

Related Topics:
1974 - National Review - Palestinian terrorist - Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Iraqi - United Nations - Baghdad - 1975 - Baath Party - Saddam Hussein - Soviet

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In 1976, he ran for President of the United States as a U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%). This campaign was the first to broadcast a paid half-hour television address, which gave LaRouche the opportunity to air his views before a national audience. This was to become a regular feature of later campaigns during the 1980s and 1990s.

Related Topics:
1976 - President of the United States - 1980s - 1990s

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In a September 24, 1976 op-ed in the Washington Post, entitled "NCLC: A Domestic Political Menace," Stephen Rosenfeld wrote: "We of the press should be chary of offering them print or air time. There is no reason to be too delicate about it: Every day we decide whose voices to relay. A duplicitous violence prone group with fascistic proclivities should not be presented to the public unless there is reason to present it in those terms."

Related Topics:
September 24 - 1976 - Washington Post

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In 1977 he married Helga Zepp, a German political activist.

Related Topics:
1977 - Helga Zepp - German

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LaRouche asserts that much of the hostile characterizations of him and his ideas that came during this period was the result of a coordinated attack on the LaRouche movement, in conjunction with an FBI program named COINTELPRO. http://www.larouchespeaks.net/pages/usvslarouche.html

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Beginning in 1979, the LaRouche movement has also conducted some of its activities within the framework of the Democratic Party, despite the disapproval of the Democratic National Committee.

Related Topics:
1979 - Democratic National Committee

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Chip Berlet wrote his first of several articles about LaRouche in 1979 for the Chicago Sun Times. LaRouche sued Berlet and King for defamation, along with NBC News and the Anti-Defamation League, but LaRouche lost the case, and the same jury awarded damages to NBC.

Related Topics:
Chip Berlet - 1979 - NBC - Anti-Defamation League - Jury

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Beginning in the late 1970s, the Heritage Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League, and The New York Times began publishing material highly critical of the LaRouche organization, which LaRouche claims was part of a "defamatory campaign laid the political groundwork for a later, new wave of corrupt Justice Department operations launched at, once again, the instigation of Henry Kissinger." http://www.larouchespeaks.net/pages/usvslarouche.html In 1981, journalists Russ Bellant, Chip Berlet, and Dennis King released a set of documents to the press which they claimed revealed a pattern of potentially illegal activity by LaRouche and his followers. http://www.publiceye.org/larouche/Bellant_Berlet_King.html They called for government investigations.

Related Topics:
Heritage Foundation - Henry Kissinger - 1981 - Chip Berlet - Dennis King

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A New York Supreme Court ruled in a defamation suit brought by LaRouche that it is "fair comment" to describe LaRouche as an anti-Semite.

Related Topics:
New York Supreme Court - Anti-Semite

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