Who is Willis Carto?
Willis Allison Carto was arguably the leading American antisemite and leader of the far right in the United States during the latter half of the twentieth century. As the founder and treasurer of the Liberty Lobby, Carto and his organisation formed the backbone of the network of American 'patriots'. In recent years Carto's influence has waned, primarily through a lengthy litigation battle against the Institute for Historical Review, just one of the many organisations he himself founded. Carto was a for a brief period a member of the far right John Birch Society, until he allegedly fell out with the group's founder, Robert Welch, because Carto's antisemitic views were too extreme for even the John Birch Society. In 1958 Carto created a "pressure group for patriotism", which then formed the basis for the Liberty Lobby. According to the American academic Deborah Lipstadt, "Willis Carto's political vision is encapsulated by three things: contempt and revulsion for Jews, a belief in the need for an absolutist government that would protect the 'racial heritage' of the United States, and a conviction that there exists a conspiracy designed to bring dire harm to the Western World" (Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust (London: Penguin, 1993), 145). With these tenets as a basis, over the decades Carto has created many groups that sought to address what he saw as the problems that the United States faced. One of these, the "Joint Council for Repatriation", sought to return all African Americans back to Africa. Another, the "United Republicans for America", aimed to control the American Republican Party. However, the Liberty Lobby remained as the central structure of the Carto organisation. Arguably the most important of all Carto groups was the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which was created in 1978. Primary goal of the IHR was to move denial of the Holocaust from the realm of the extreme fringe of antisemitism into mainstream academia. Hiding behind a facade of academic respectability, the IHR proclaimed to be "bringing history into accord with the facts". Its academic facade was boostered by the creation of a publication, the Journal of Historical Review, which boasted, and indeed, still does, a long list of academic qualifications among its extensive "editorial advisory committee". However, few members of the committee possessed qualifications in history. The IHR claims that it "is a public interest research, educational and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of key chapters of history, especially twentieth century history, that have social-political relevance today" and that it "is non-ideological, non-political, and non-sectarian" ("A few facts about the Institute for Historical Review"). However, such claims have little basis in fact, as the group's activities reflect more the ideology of its founder than any honest academic pursuit for historical honesty. The IHR and Carto split in 1993, following a series of disagreements, not least over a large sum of money bequeathed by the granddaughter of Thomas Edison. Carto claimed that the IHR was working for the Anti-Defamation League. Following years of legal battles, Carto has now been declared bankrupt, and the Liberty Lobby and its newspaper Spotlight have gone into receivership. |
Full name: Willis Allison Carto