Wars start when one nation moves into the territory of another; depressions occur when markets take unexpected downturns; inflations occur when prices are driven up by shortages; revolutions start when the people, always spontaneously, rise up to overthrow the existing government. These are the traditional explanations of historical events. Events happen by accident. There do not seem to be any causes. But this explanation of history leaves gnawing questions in the minds of serious students.
Is it possible that government leaders and others planned these events and then orchestrated them to their desired conclusions? Is it possible that even the great catastrophes of history were part of this plan? There is an explanation of historical events that answers these questions in the affirmative. It is called the Conspiratorial View of History and it is the alternative to the Accidental View, the view that is commonly held today. It is possible, therefore, to summarize the major events of history into two alternative schools of thought:
The Accidental View of History: historical events occur by accident, for no apparent reason. Rulers are powerless to intervene.
The Conspiratorial View of History: historical events occur by design for reasons that are not generally made known to the people.
James Warburg in his book, The West In Crisis, explains the Accidental view thus: “History is written more by accident than design, often by the wholly irrational acts of madmen.” Another who has offered the Accidental View as the explanation of the major events of the world is Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter‘s National Security Advisor. He has written: “History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy. … increasingly, policy makers are overwhelmed by events and information.”
But there are those who disagree with the positions of Warburg and Brzezinski. One, for instance, was Franklin D. Roosevelt who certainly saw many monumental events occur during his consecutive administrations. President Roosevelt has been quoted as saying:
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way.
If harmful events are planned, it follows that the people who were about to suffer through the scheduled event would act to prevent the event from occurring if they knew about it in advance. The people expect government to protect them from harmful events. But if the events still occur after the government officials had been expected to prevent them, the government officials have failed in their assigned duties. There are only two explanations as to why they failed:
- The events overwhelmed them, and could not have been prevented; or
- The events were allowed to occur because the officials wanted them to occur.
It is difficult for the casual observer to believe that these incredible events could not have been prevented, as humane people of conscience do not allow harmful events to occur. If a planned and unwanted event is allowed to happen, those who planned the event would have to have acted in secret so as to prevent discovery of their plans by those who would be adversely affected. Planners working in secret to plan an event that the people do not wish to occur are, by definition, members of a conspiracy. Webster’s dictionary defines conspiracy as a “combination of people, working in secret, for an evil or unlawful purpose.” Not only must the Conspirators work in secret, they must make every effort to insure that their plans are not made public. The first task of a conspiracy, then, becomes that of convincing the people that the conspiracy itself does not exist. This makes the task of uncovering the machinations of the conspiracy all the more difficult.
There are three ways of exposing a Conspiracy:
One is for any of the participants in the conspiracy to break with it and to expose his or her involvement. This takes an extremely courageous individual, and that type of exposure is indeed rare.
The second group of exposers are those who have unknowingly participated in a conspiratorial planning of an event but who didn’t realize it until later. These individuals, and there aren’t many in the history of the world, have also exposed the inner workings of the conspiracy at great peril to themselves.
The third method of exposing a conspiracy is for researchers to uncover conspiratorial designs in the events of the past.
Notice that if the Conspiracy does exist, it will do everything it can to deny the charges of both those who seek to expose it and those who claim to have been a part of it. There are those, perhaps not knowing the importance of their contributions to the study of the conspiracy, who have added estimates of the size of misruling group. One was Walter Rathenau, who in 1909 controlled German General Electric. He said:
Three hundred men, all of whom know one another, direct the economic destiny of Europe and choose their successors from among themselves.
Another informed observer, Joseph Kennedy, the father of the late president John Kennedy, identified the number of individuals who run America. He said:
Fifty men have run America and that’s a high figure.
Dr. Carroll Quigley, a professor of History at Georgetown University’s Foreign Service School, and who formerly taught at Princeton and Harvard, has written a thirteen hundred page book entitled Tragedy and Hope. This book, published in 1966, was, according to the author, the result of twenty years of research into the Conspiracy.
Dr. Quigley concludes:
There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any group, and frequently does so. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960’s, to examine its papers and secret records.
But Quigley took a step none of the exposers have publicly taken. He admits that he is a supporter of the Conspiracy he has written about:
I have no aversion to it or most of its aims, and have, for much of my life, been close to it and many of its instruments. I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies… but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known.
The ultimate purpose of this Conspiracy is power. There are some who desire this more than even material goods, although the two frequently go together. One such individual was the previously mentioned Joseph Kennedy. Family admirer and author Pearl Buck wrote the following in her book, The Kennedy Women: “Rose Kennedy (the wife of Joseph Kennedy) knew that the man she loved, loved a power beyond the power of money. He wanted the power of government, and he would have it.”
The Conspiracy that Dr. Quigley and others saw, then, needs conspirators, and it is logical to ask why illustrious men of wealth and fortune would join such an enterprise. One who answered this question was author Blair Coan who wrote in his book, The Red Web: “The answer is quite the reverse of the question: These men (involved with the Conspiracy) became illustrious primarily because they were part of the Conspiracy.”
So those involved do not become rich and/or illustrious and then join the Conspiracy; they become rich and illustrious because they are members of the Conspiracy. But what is their motive? What prompts men to seek wealth and position? Former Congressman John Schmitz explains that there is an additional goal: Power! Men join the Conspiracy to gain money and then power. Schmitz wrote: “When a person has all the money he needs, his goal becomes power.” Benjamin Franklin explained this connection between money and power when he said:
There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men.
These are… love of power and love of money…. When united… they have the most violent effects.
However, power itself has a corrupting influence on those who seek it. In an oft-quoted truth, Lord Acton explained power thus: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The delight in the possession of power over others was explained by another observer of the power-seeking Joseph Kennedy: “I like Joe Kennedy. He understands power. Power is the end. What other delight is there but to enjoy the sheer sense of control? He would say: ‘Let me see any other motive in the people who command.’ ” So the motive of the Conspirators has been identified: It is Power!
Ralph Epperson
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