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''This article is a biographical article about LaRouche. For a discussion of LaRouche's political views, see '']''.'' ''This article is a biographical article about LaRouche. For a discussion of LaRouche's political views, see '']''.''
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'''Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr.''' (born ], ]), ] political activist, leads political organizations in the United States and other countries. Although he has no formal qualifications, he has written extensively on economic as well as political subjects. He is a ] for ], having set a record for most consecutive attempts at the office by running eight times. However, he has never gained significant electoral support. '''Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr.''' (born ], ]), ] economist and political activist, leads political organizations in the United States and other countries. He has run eight times for ], but has never gained significant electoral support.


LaRouche was born on Sept. 8, ], in Rochester, New Hampshire. His parents were Lyndon H. LaRouche, Sr., technologist and internationally active consultant in the footwear industry, and Jessie Weir LaRouche, both native-born U.S. citizens, presently deceased. Since 1977, he has been married to ], a native of ], and an international political figure. He has resided in Rochester, New Hampshire (1922-1932), Lynn, Massachusetts (1932-1954), New York City (1954-1979 and 1980-1983), Birmingham, Michigan (1979), and Loudoun County, Virginia (1983-).
LaRouche is probably the best-known exponent of ] in the United States. He is frequently described as an extremist or a ] leader, and is accused of being a ] and ]. He denies these charges, and his followers regard him as a major political figure.


He was educated in public schools in Rochester and Lynn, and attended Northeastern University in Boston, during 1940-42, and after military service, 1946-1947, but withdrew in Spring 1947 to undertake a management consulting assignment in the footwear industry. (The overseas segment of his intervening military service (AUS: 1944-1946) during World War II, was in Myitkyina, Burma and, later, Calcutta, India.) His most significant professional achievement has been a 1948-1952 research project resulting in the discovery of what became known later as the "LaRouche-Riemann method" in economics. In ] he was elected a member of the Universal Ecological Academy of Moscow, on the basis of this work.
In ] LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for conspiracy, mail fraud and tax code violations.


His employment history began as work under his father's direction during vacation periods 1938-1942, which was intended to prepare him for a future career as consultant in the footwear industry. During 1947-1948, and from 1952 through 1972, he was employed as a management consultant. Since 1972, he has withdrawn entirely from consulting practice, into full-time duties with the publishing and related activities of the philosophical and scientific association which he participated in founding.
== Early life==


His work activities since 1972 include the following highlights. In ], he organized the founding of an international news bureau, originally known as New Solidarity International Press Service. In 1974, he organized a weekly news magazine, known as ''Executive Intelligence Review'', the publication by which he is currently employed as Contributing Editor. He was a co-founder (1974) of an influential scientific association, the Fusion Energy Foundation, and participated in the founding of two associations initiated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche: The Club of Life (1982) and ] (1984). In November 1978, he designed a computer-assisted forecasting system, the EIR Quarterly Economic Forecasts for the U.S. Economy, which, during the interval 1980-1983, were the most accurate forecasts on the U.S. economy publicly available from any agency. As detailed in a widely circulated report, during the interval 1957-1994, he has made nine forecasts of major turns in the U.S. economy, of which eight have been fulfilled on schedule, and the ninth is in the process of being confirmed by events.
LaRouche, the son of Lyndon H. LaRouche, Sr. and Jessie Weir LaRouche, was born in ] and grew up in ], where his father, an immigrant from ], was a shoe salesman. He was raised as a ] and was fluent in both ] and ]. He enrolled at ] in ], but dropped out in ]. As a Quaker, he was at first a ] during ], but in ] he joined the ], serving in medical units in ]. During this period he read works by ] and was converted to ]. While travelling home from India on the troop ship ''SS General Bradley'' in ], he met Don Merrill, a fellow soldier, who was also from Lynn. Merrill converted LaRouche to ] on the journey home. Back in the United States, LaRouche attempted to resume his university education, but again dropped out of Northeastern.


During the course of the 1980s, he was a principal figure in several notable developments which were significantly products of his regular work. During approximately a twelve-month period, February 1982-February 1983, he was engaged in private exploratory talks with the ] government concerning a proposal which President ] adopted and presented, on March 23, ], as a "Strategic Defense Initiative." In an October 12, 1988 address, delivered in Berlin, and televised for later nationwide broadcast in the U.S.A., he announced the imminent collapse of the Soviet economic system, and the early reunification of ], with Berlin again as its capital. During November-December ], in close collaboration with Helga Zepp LaRouche and several others, he designed a proposal, which anticipated the later "Delors Plan," which was widely circulated through influential circles in western and eastern Europe, and ], during 1990-1992; this is known as "The Productive Triangle," a design for the recovery of the economies of north Eurasia.
==LaRouche and Trotskyism==


During the interval 1976-1992, he has sought the office of President of the United States five times. In ], he ran in the general election as a candidate of the U.S. Labor Party, an independent political association committed to the tradition of ], ], ], and President ]. In 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992, he sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and has also sought election to the U.S. Congress, as an independent Democrat, from Virginia's 10th C.D.
In ], after returning to Lyn after dropping out of college, LaRouche began attending meetings of the Trotskyist ] (SWP)'s Lyn branch. He joined the party the next year, adopting the ] '''Lyn Marcus''' for his political work.


He has written numerous published articles, pamphlets, and books. Of those books published, the most notable are: an autobiography, ''The Power of Reason'', written for the 1980 presidential campaign; ''There Are No Limits to Growth'', 1983; and a second autobiography, written for the 1988 campaign, ''The Power of Reason 1988''. The most influential books are on economics. His 1984 introductory textbook in the science of physical economy, So, ''You Wish To Learn All About Economics'', circulates internationally in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Armenian editions; the 1991 ''The Science of Christian Economy'' circulates internationally in English, German, Spanish, and Italian.
In line with the SWP's policy of "proletarianizing" their members, LaRouche obtained work at a ] factory in Lynn. In ] he suffered a ] and was fired from his job for absenteeism. Twenty years later, LaRouche said of his breakdown that he went through a serious period of introspection which involved:
:<small>stripping away all the layers of my persona, like an onion. If you take this far enough, you get to the point where you become terrified that there's nothing inside all the peelings-that you're a nobody. This put me in a suicidal state. It was only my tremendous ego-strength, which my parents had provided me, that saved me from suicide.</small>


LaRouche is the only presidential candidate to have been convicted in a Federal criminal case (see ].) According to official government documents and other legal evidence presently in the possession of the candidate's legal representatives, elements of the U.S. Government have made two clear-cut efforts to eliminate him as a political figure. In both attempts, the ] played a key, but not exclusive role.
Following his recovery, LaRouche obtained work as a ] in ] including, paradoxically for a Marxist, advising companies on how to use computers to maximise efficiency and speed-up production. In ] LaRouche married a fellow SWP member, Janice Neuberger.


The first attempt is the subject of an official FBI document dating from November ], which states, that the New York City office of the FBI, acting under the supervision of FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., attempted to persuade the leadership of the Communist Party U.S.A. that it would be to the Communists' advantage to have LaRouche "eliminated." There was an aborted attempt against LaRouche, by Communist-linked agents, during December ].
By ], LaRouche's lived in a large apartment on Central Park West. His activity in the internal life of the SWP was minimal due to his preoccupation with his career and due as well to his detachment from the membership of the SWP.


Later, in January 1983, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger succeeded in persuading his cronies on the ] (PFIAB) to issue a recommendation for a covert national-security operation against LaRouche et al., according to the provisions of Executive Order 12333. This recommendation was promptly put into effect by the FBI that same month. This operation, which grew into one of most far-reaching intelligence operations ever directed against a U.S. citizen, resulted in the fraudulent conviction of LaRouche and six of his associates on Dec. 16, 1988, approximately six years after the Kissinger-prompted PFIAB initiative of January 1983. One of the principal features of this continuing, 1983-1995, attempt to eliminate LaRouche by conviction and defamation, is the crucial role played by a concert of rogues under the direction of a New York private banker, John Train, of the Wall Street-linked firm of Smith and Train. During 1983 and 1984, Train maintained a salon which included representatives of the U.S. foreign intelligence community and national mass-media, including the ], ] News, and ], plus the FBI's private asset, the ] (ADL), and ADL lackey ]. Train's documented function was to establish the common guidelines for the "black propaganda" to be used jointly by the U.S. news media. During 1984-1988, virtually all of the often massive coverage of LaRouche in the U.S. major news media was propaganda based on the 1983-1984 formulas adopted by the Train salon. Also, many of the witnesses who were used for the grand jury and trial proceedings against LaRouche and his associates were prepared in cooperation with participants in the Train salon.
LaRouche remained in the SWP until ], making him a veteran member in a group which always had a high turnover of members. He now maintains that he was soon disillusioned with Marxism, dropped out of the SWP in the mid-1950s, and only resumed his activism at the prompting of the ] citing national security concerns. His ex-wife and other SWP members from that time dispute this, saying that he was a loyal and zealous party member. During these years LaRouche developed his interests in economics, ], ], business management and other subjects. He is undoubtedly well-read in these and other subjects. Janice left him in ] (they had one son, Daniel, born in ]) and, in the late ], she became a leader of the New York City branch of the ]. In the ]s she was a founder of ].


In a recent interview on the ] network, LaRouche claims that he returned to the SWP because he believed that only the Left was likely to combat what he calls the "utopian" danger coming from the Right, typified by the ] and the ].


In ] LaRouche, while still in the SWP, became a supporter of a faction called the Revolutionary Tendency, which had been expelled from the party (as LaRouche himself was to be expelled the next year) and was under the influence of the ] dissident Trotskyist leader ]. Healy was leader of the British ], ancestor of the later ]. Those familiar with the left in this period believe that LaRouche was heavily influenced by Healy's ] world-view and his advocacy of violence and intimidation, something foreign to the intellectual tradition of mainstream Trotskyism. For six months he worked closely with American Healyite leader ] who later wrote:

:<small>LaRouche had a gargantuan ego. Convinced he was a genius, he combined his strong conviction in his own abilities with an arrogance expressed in the cadences of upper-class New England. He assumed that the comment in the ] that "a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class..." was written specifically for him. And he believed that the working class was lucky to obtain his services.</small>

:<small>LaRouche possessed a marvelous ability to place any world happening in a larger context, which seemed to give the event additional meaning, but his thinking was schematic, lacking factual detail and depth. It was contradictory. His explanations were a bit too pat, and his mind worked so quickly that I always suspected his bravado covered over superficiality. He had an answer for everything. Sessions with him reminded me of a parlor game: present a problem, no matter how petty, and without so much as blinking his eye, LaRouche would dream up the solution. </small>

In ], LaRouche left Wohlforth's group and joined the ], another group of expelled SWP members, which had also split with Wohlforth. He left the Spartacist League after a few months and then wrote a letter to the SWP declaring that all factions and sections of the Trotskyist ] were dead, and announcing that he and his new common-law wife, Carol Larrabee (also known as Carol Schnitzer), were going to build the Fifth International.

After his break with Trotskyism LaRouche remained active in the left. In ], the LaRouches joined the ] ''Committee for Independent Political Action'' and formed a branch in New York's ]. He began giving classes for the New York ] on "]" and attracted around him a group of graduate students from ] many of whom were involved with the ] ] (PL) group which was itself very prominent in the ] (SDS). LaRouche claims in the 1988 version of his autobiography that he was not really a Marxist when he gave his lecture at the Free School but merely used his familiarity with Marxism as a "passport" in order to infiltrate the New Left counterculture which, he claims, was essentially created and financed for nefarious purposes by the ].

LaRouche's movement was heavily involved in the ] student strike and occupation of Columbia and he was able to win control of the university's SDS and PL branches by putting forward a political program linking student struggles with those of ]s in ], located just off campus. His growing following allowed him to create a third tendency within the SDS competing with the two dominant tendencies, the "Action Faction" led by ] (which soon became the ]) and the "Praxis Axis" which saw students as the vanguard of the revolution.

LaRouche organised his faction as the "SDS Labor Committee". He criticized SDS, and the ] in general, for being too oriented toward the ] and not enough toward labor. He held meetings in the Columbia area. Wohlforth attended one and writes:

:<small>Twenty to 30 students would gather in a large apartment and sit on the floor surrounding LaRouche, who now sported a very shaggy beard. The meeting would sometimes go on as long as seven hours. It was difficult to tell where discussions of tactics left off and educational presentation began. Encouraging the students, LaRouche gave them esoteric assignments, such as searching through the writings of ] to discover Rudd's anarchistic origins, or studying ]'s ''The Accumulation of Capital''. Since SDS was strong on spirit and action but rather bereft of theory, the students appeared to thoroughly enjoy this work.</small>

He was heavily involved in SDS despite not being a student, and in the PL's internal battles despite not being a member.

== LaRouche and the NCLC ==
In ], after being expelled from the SDS, the SDS Labor Committee became the ] (NCLC), a grouping of ex-SDS activists, ex-SLers and some ex-Trotskyists such as LaRouche and his partner.

Despite its name the NCLC had no significant connection with the labor movement and viewed intellectuals as the revolutionary vanguard rather than workers who were described in LaRouche's writings as "swinish" and whom the intellectuals were to lead. It soon developed the hallmarks of a ], with a charismatic leader (LaRouche), a ] and conspiratorial ideology, and an esoteric vocabulary known only to initiates. NCLC members gave up their jobs and private lives and became entirely devoted to the group and its leader. Like many cults, the LaRouche organization developed an internal discipline technique, called "ego stripping," which reinforced conformity and loyalty to LaRouche.

Initially, the NCLC had a relatively open internal regime in which debates would ensue about the proper course for the group. As the founder of the group and as the most "experienced" member being a generation older than the rest of the group, LaRouche was the group's leading authority and had the title of "Chairman". Following the breakup of the SDS and the decline of the ], a factional debate broke out within the NCLC between younger members at Columbia and ] such as Tony Papert and other ex-PLers who argued for an activist approach around local issues and a faction of more experienced members such as LaRouche and his closest followers such as ] and ] who argued for a turn towards theory and study. In January ] Papert and Steven Fraser, another ex-PLer, proposed orienting the NCLC towards the emerging ] movement in the United States. A ] broke out between LaRouche and his followers and the Fraser-Papert tendency which the LaRouchians dubbed "the Bavarians".

LaRouche and his "Positive Political Tendency" accused "the Bavarians" of being too loose and "ultra-democratic" resisting the need to tighten up the NCLC from a federation of chapters into a disciplined ] organization.

Consolidating his position, LaRouche suspended Fraser from the NCLC's executive committee. Papert defected from Fraser's tendency and joined LaRouche. The struggle intensified as LaRouche's PPT responded to Fraser's calls for developing a broad coalition with personal attacks. Ultimately, LaRouche had Fraser and his followers expelled from the NCLC for "factionalism". This allowed LaRouche to strengthen his hegemony over the movement and brought to an end any serious possibility of a political or organizational challenge to LaRouche emerging from within the NCLC. The expulsion of Fraser also removed the only serious intellectual rival to LaRouche.

==From left to right==

Under LaRouche's direction the NCLC adopted violent and disruptive tactics, physically attacking meetings of the ] and later of the SWP and other groups, who were classed by LaRouche as "left-protofascists." "Operation Mop-Up" began with LaRouche's declaration that ""We must take hegemony from the CP-from here on in, the CP cannot hold a meeting on the East Coast. We'll mop them up in two months." NCLC members engaged in a series of well-documented beatings of members of the Communist Party . Some ex-NCLC members who left the group at this time say that LaRouche was studying the career of ] and consciously adopting the tactics of the early ].

The NCLC claimed, and LaRouche's supporters continue to claim, that they acted in self-defense, even though all other accounts say that it was the NCLC that initiated the violence. LaRouche supporters claim that a document obtained through the ] shows that the FBI encouraged the CPUSA to attack the NCLC. There are no documented incidents of CPUSA or SWP members initiating attacks on NCLC members. According to a court judge who reviewed classified FBI files as part of an unrelated lawsuit by the Socialist Workers Party against the US government, the FBI sent the NCLC a list of SWP members and their home addresses, presumably in the hope that the NCLC would attack these individuals.

LaRouche became convinced that the ] was plotting to assassinate him. By 1973, Carol had left LaRouche and married a young British LaRouchian, Christopher White. On a flight from London to the NCLC's national conference, White had a nervous breakdown and declared that the CIA was planning to kill Carol and LaRouche and that he had been brainwashed to assist in the killings. White was "deprogrammed" by LaRouche in a day-long session and the conference was rocked by revelations of the supposed CIA plot. Another member of the NCLC, Alice Weitzman, was skeptical. As a result, six NCLC members were sent to her apartment, where they held her captive and forced her to listen to ], as LaRouche believed that such "therapy" could deprogram people. Weitzman was rescued by police after she managed to toss a note out of her apartment window asking for help.

In ], despite having run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, LaRouche told his followers to vote for ] in the November election. Readings of Marx and Lenin were off the reading list of LaRouche's followers, to be replaced by texts by ] and ]. By the 1980s, LaRouche had became a strong advocate of nuclear power and what later became the ], after Reagan adopted it. The LaRouche organization raised funds for the NCLC from supporters of these projects.

The group also engaged in far-right activity such as defending alleged Nazi war criminal ] (who was acquitted by the Supreme Court of ]) and associating with the far-right ] (documented by researcher Scott McLemee). The New York Supreme Court ruled that it is "fair comment" to describe LaRouche as an anti-Semite.

The LaRouche organization took a militant stand against the Reagan administration's support for ] against ] in the ] war, arguing that this violated the ]. LaRouche also strongly opposed the Reagan Administration's project to arm the ] ], which brought LaRouche into a fierce conflict with ] operative ] (see ].) The group also adopted a position against ] and ran a front group named "Club of Life" on the issue. In its 2004 assessment of presidential candidates the National Right to Life Committee gave him a grade of 75% and declared that LaRouche is "pro-life in every way (against euthanasia, capital punishment, etc)".

In the ]s LaRouche launched the ] initiative in California which would have placed AIDS back on the State List of Communicable Diseases, subject to ] law. Opponents claimed that the measure could have instituted quarantines and sexual contact tracing, which were characterized as "authoritarian" measures against victims of AIDS.

LaRouche opposes the ] and other international organizations arguing that they often interfere with the concept of the ] and the ]nic ideal of a "perfectly sovereign nation-state republic".

According to Wohlforth and Dennis Tourish:
:<small>The parallel between LaRouche's thinking and that of the classical fascist model is striking. LaRouche, like Mussolini and Hitler before him, borrowed from Marx yet changed his theories fundamentally. Most important, Marx's internationalist outlook was abandoned in favor of a narrow nation-state perspective. Marx's goal of abolishing capitalism was replaced by the model of a totalitarian state that directs an economy where ownership of the means of production is still largely in public hands. The corporations and their owners remain in place but have to take their orders from LaRouche. Hitler called the schema "national socialism". LaRouche hopes the term "the American system" will be more acceptable."</small>

==Biographical issues==

Separating fact from fiction in LaRouche's biography is made difficult by the barrages of conflicting propaganda generated both by LaRouche and by the many anti-LaRouche commentaries. According to LaRouche's writings and of the material produced by his followers, LaRouche developed his present political and economic ideas in the ] and has advocated them consistently ever since. He is represented as a respected economist and commentator on world affairs. He is credited with pioneering such ideas as the ], manned space flight to ], the ] or "Star Wars," and the so-called Eurasian Land-Bridge. It has been claimed that he regularly meets with world leaders and that they listen respectfully to his ideas. It also claimed that he was used by the ] administration as a "back-channel" for negotiations with the ].

Some of these claims are clearly untrue. LaRouche did not develop his current political and economic ideas in the 1950s or '60s: until at least ] he was a Trotskyist, although an increasingly unorthodox one. He would have been expelled from the SWP much earlier than he was had he advocated anything like his current ideas at that time. Some of his specific claims can be disproved. Although the expression "Eurasian Land-Bridge," for example, has been used to refer to the proposed ], there is no evidence that LaRouche has ever had anything to do with this project. Other claims cannot be definitely disproved, but are highly unlikely to be true.

It is true that LaRouche had some contacts with low-level officials of the Reagan Administration. Between ] and ] LaRouche met with ], then a member of the ] (NSC), and with some other NSC and ] officials. This followed a concerted campaign by LaRouche to develop close relations with the ], by publishing flattering articles about administration officials in the LaRouche press. Bailey later said that LaRouche was able to provide him with useful information, gathered by LaRouche's network of affiliates in many countries, but other intelligence officials deny the Administration gained any useful intelligence from LaRouche. The contacts between LaRouche and the administration ended after protests from former ] ] and other prominent ].

LaRouche has had contact with some foreign leaders. On May 23, ], LaRouche met with ] President ], and advised him to suspend foreign debt payments (which was done in August 1982), and to declare exchange controls and nationalize Mexico's banks (done in September 1982). Years later, on December 1, ], while sharing the podium with Helga Zepp-LaRouche before a meeting of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics in Mexico City, former President Lopez Portillo said "It is now necessary for the world to listen to the wise words of Lyndon LaRouche."

In ] a former member of LaRouche's U.S. Labor Party, ], published an article in '']'' alleging that LaRouche had established contacts with ] ] organisations such as the ] (PFLP), and also with the ] mission to the ] in ]. These contacts culminated in LaRouche's visit to ] in ], during which he made a presentation to the ] conference on the topic of his "Oasis Plan," a proposal for Arab-Israeli peace based on the joint construction of massive water projects. During ] LaRouche's newspaper ''New Solidarity'' began running articles favourable to Iraq, and extensively quoting ], at that time Iraq's vice-president. Rose also alleged that LaRouche at this time was in contact with ] diplomats. At about this time LaRouche's attacks on the pro-Soviet U.S. Communist Party ceased, and LaRouche publications began to run pro-Soviet articles.

The only substantial biography of LaRouche is ''Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism'', by ] (Doubleday, ]). King is not a historian or a political scientist, and his book is avowedly hostile to LaRouche. King's thesis is that LaRouche is both a fascist and an anti-Semite (although LaRouche expresses these views in coded language), and that his organization is the spearhead of a dangerous "new American fascism."

Demonstrating this thesis lends King's book a polemical tone which in the opinion of some reviewers weakens its credibility, but King has nevertheless researched LaRouche's writings thoroughly, and the factual basis of his book (as opposed to his opinions) has not been successfully challenged. LaRouche polemicists have made much of the fact that King received funding from the conservative ] to write the book, but there has been no clear demonstration that this funding influenced the content of the book.

==Presidential bids==

From the late 1970s to the present, LaRouche has pursued a dual strategy. He has continued to promote his apocalyptic conspiracy theories and to make regular predictions of imminent economic catastrophe. These are a staple of the extreme right, although also characteristic of Trotskyism. At the same time he has sought to enter the political mainstream by contesting elections and ]. In ] he founded the ] as a vehicle for electoral politics, but this achieved no success and was wound up in ]. In ] he ran for ] as a U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%).

Since ] LaRouche has concentrated on infiltrating his followers into the ]. In ] he formed a ] called the ] (NDPC), a name designed to convey the impression that it is part of the Democratic Party. LaRouche has run for the Democratic nomination for ] seven times beginning in ]. His current Political Action Committee is called "LaRouche PAC."

The Democratic Party has consistently asserted that LaRouche is not a Democrat, but the U.S. electoral system makes it impossible for the party to prevent LaRouche followers entering Democratic primaries. LaRouche himself has polled negligible vote totals, but continues to promote himself as a serious political candidate, a pretension which is sometimes accepted by elements of the media and some political figures. In ], however, a court ruled that the ] had the right to keep LaRouche from electing delegates to the ], based on a party requirement that a Democratic nominee must be a registered voter. LaRouche, as a convicted felon, is not eligible to be a registered voter in the state of ], where he lives.

The use of the NDPC name has, however, allowed LaRouche followers to compete seriously in Democratic primaries for lesser offices, and even occasionally to win them. The best known example was in ], when a LaRouche candidate, ], won the Democratic primary for the post of Lieutenant-Governor of ]. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Senator ], refused to run on the same ticket as Fairchild and formed the ] for the election. Fairchild's victory was attributed to low voter turnout and a poor "regular" candidate, but also to some genuine support for the LaRouche anti-establishment message. NDPC candidates have won several other Democratic primaries in various states, but LaRouche's organizations have never succeeded in entering the mainstream.

Some of the LaRouche organization's successes have come from exploiting public fears about the ], which they blame on international conspirators. In ] LaRouche wrote: "It is in the strategic interests of ] to see to it that the West does nothing to stop this pandemic; within a few years, at the present rates, the spread of AIDS in Asia, Africa, Western Europe, and the Americas would permit Moscow to take over the world almost without firing a shot."

In ], LaRouche became the second person in U.S. history (after ]) to run for President from a prison cell -- although Debs was generally considered a serious candidate. His running mate, who did the active campaigning, was the Rev. ]. Classical violinist ] endorsed LaRouche and performed a benefit concert on his behalf in Washington, D.C.; the ''Washington Post'' reviewer praised his musicianship while condemning his political message.

==Criminal conviction==

By the 1980s LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche had built a extensive political network, including the ''Schiller Institute'' in Germany, headed by Zepp-LaRouche, and branches in several other countries. The ] claimed to have affiliates in ], ], ] and several South American countries. In ], ] leads a small group of LaRouche supporters known ] as '' Solidarité &amp; Progrès'' (Solidarity and Progress). In ] LaRouche operatives took over an older extreme-right group, the ] (CEC), and regularly contest elections. The LaRouche organisation published a weekly newspaper, ''The New Federalist'', and a weekly newsmagazine, ''Executive Intelligence Review''. At one time there was a LaRouche publishing house, Benjamin Franklin Books, which issued a steady stream of works by LaRouche and his followers. The real membership of LaRouche's organisation is not known.

The size of the LaRouche empire led to investigations of the source of its apparently extensive financial resources. The LaRouche organisation devotes much of its energy to the sale of literature and the soliciting of small donations at airports and on university campuses. It also solicits donations by phone. More seriously, however, LaRouche was accused of fraudulently soliciting "loans" from vulnerable elderly people.

In October ] the FBI and Virginia state authorities raided the LaRouche headquarters in ] in search of evidence to support the persistent accusations of fraud and extortion made against LaRouche. He and six associates were charged with ] and ], and LaRouche was also charged with conspiring to hide his personal income since ], the last year he had filed a federal tax return. In December ] a federal jury in ] convicted LaRouche and his associates, and LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, of which he served five.

LaRouche and his associates maintained their innocence. After the release of LaRouche from prison, full page advertisements paid for by the LaRouche organization appeared in papers such as the ''New York Times'' and ''Washington Post'' (see .) The statement was endorsed by a number of prominent individuals from around the world (partial list) and called for LaRouche to be exonerated.

LaRouche's supporters do not believe that he was imprisoned because of a criminal wrongdoing. Instead, they maintain that a vast, worldwide conspiracy framed him, and that this conspiracy has attempted to execute him at least three times.

*''For more information on the case see ]''

==Recent events==
In the ]s, LaRouche ostensively at least, backed away from some of the far-right positions he held in the ]s. He and his movement opposed the ] of ] and attempted to infiltrate the anti-war movement. He has continued his disdain for mass democracy and public opinion's influence on political decision making. Instead, LaRouche has pointed to China as having "probably one of the best governments in the world today, in terms of quality of leadership, the kind of leadership required to get through a crisis."

LaRouche claimed that he was once again a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination in ], even though as a convicted felon he is not even a registered voter. The Democratic Party did not consider his candidacy to be legitimate and ruled him ineligible to win delegates. In any case LaRouche gained negligible electoral support.

LaRouche was present in Boston during the ] but did not try to attend the convention itself. He held a media conference in which he declared his support for ] and pledged to mobilize his organization to help defeat ] in the ]. He also claims to be leading a campaign, begun in October ] , to have ] dumped from the ] ticket. Like most LaRouch
e campaigns, this has received little if any notice in the media or among the general public.


==See also== ==See also==
*] (detailed history of the LaRouche criminal cases)

*]
*] *]
*] *]


==External links== ==External links==
'''Media reports''' ===Hostile Media reports===
* by Terry Kirby, July 2004 (]) * by Terry Kirby, July 2004 (])
* *
Line 149: Line 48:
* By Alison Howard 1990 (Washington Post) * By Alison Howard 1990 (Washington Post)
* By Peter Pae and Leef Smith 1994 (Washington Post) * By Peter Pae and Leef Smith 1994 (Washington Post)
* (''Newsday'' article on LaRouche's record of eight consecutive Presidential campaigns)
* *
* ~ ''from the website of'' ] * ~ ''from the website of'' ]


'''Critical sites''' ===Critical sites===
* ~ '']'' * ~ '']''
* *
Line 162: Line 62:
* *
* ~ '']'' (Temple Of The Screaming Electron website) * ~ '']'' (Temple Of The Screaming Electron website)

'''Recollections by former colleagues'''
* by Clara Fraser, a former colleague of LaRouche in his Trotskyist days - reproduced in the second part of this email to the Marxmail e-list. * by Clara Fraser, a former colleague of LaRouche in his Trotskyist days - reproduced in the second part of this email to the Marxmail e-list.
* 1975 article published by the ] whose members joined LaRouche's NCLC for a period in the early 1970s. * 1975 article published by the ] whose members joined LaRouche's NCLC for a period in the early 1970s.
* by ] who worked closely with LaRouche in 1964 and 1965 and also observed him afterwards.


'''LaRouche sponsored sites''' ===LaRouche sponsored sites===
* : sponsors of ] and ]
* which doesn't mention his long time membership in the Socialist Workers Party or other left-wing groups.
* (who are Dennis King and Chip Berlet?)
* *
* *
Line 180: Line 76:
* *
* *

]
] ]

Revision as of 19:37, 13 September 2004

Template:TotallyDisputed The article is undergoing a process of revision and editing. See the Talk page if you wish to participate.

This article is a biographical article about LaRouche. For a discussion of LaRouche's political views, see political views of Lyndon LaRouche.

File:Ac.larouche.jpg
Lyndon LaRouche

Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. (born September 8, 1922), American economist and political activist, leads political organizations in the United States and other countries. He has run eight times for President of the United States, but has never gained significant electoral support.

LaRouche was born on Sept. 8, 1922, in Rochester, New Hampshire. His parents were Lyndon H. LaRouche, Sr., technologist and internationally active consultant in the footwear industry, and Jessie Weir LaRouche, both native-born U.S. citizens, presently deceased. Since 1977, he has been married to Helga Zepp-LaRouche, a native of Germany, and an international political figure. He has resided in Rochester, New Hampshire (1922-1932), Lynn, Massachusetts (1932-1954), New York City (1954-1979 and 1980-1983), Birmingham, Michigan (1979), and Loudoun County, Virginia (1983-).

He was educated in public schools in Rochester and Lynn, and attended Northeastern University in Boston, during 1940-42, and after military service, 1946-1947, but withdrew in Spring 1947 to undertake a management consulting assignment in the footwear industry. (The overseas segment of his intervening military service (AUS: 1944-1946) during World War II, was in Myitkyina, Burma and, later, Calcutta, India.) His most significant professional achievement has been a 1948-1952 research project resulting in the discovery of what became known later as the "LaRouche-Riemann method" in economics. In 1994 he was elected a member of the Universal Ecological Academy of Moscow, on the basis of this work.

His employment history began as work under his father's direction during vacation periods 1938-1942, which was intended to prepare him for a future career as consultant in the footwear industry. During 1947-1948, and from 1952 through 1972, he was employed as a management consultant. Since 1972, he has withdrawn entirely from consulting practice, into full-time duties with the publishing and related activities of the philosophical and scientific association which he participated in founding.

His work activities since 1972 include the following highlights. In 1971, he organized the founding of an international news bureau, originally known as New Solidarity International Press Service. In 1974, he organized a weekly news magazine, known as Executive Intelligence Review, the publication by which he is currently employed as Contributing Editor. He was a co-founder (1974) of an influential scientific association, the Fusion Energy Foundation, and participated in the founding of two associations initiated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche: The Club of Life (1982) and Schiller Institute (1984). In November 1978, he designed a computer-assisted forecasting system, the EIR Quarterly Economic Forecasts for the U.S. Economy, which, during the interval 1980-1983, were the most accurate forecasts on the U.S. economy publicly available from any agency. As detailed in a widely circulated report, during the interval 1957-1994, he has made nine forecasts of major turns in the U.S. economy, of which eight have been fulfilled on schedule, and the ninth is in the process of being confirmed by events.

During the course of the 1980s, he was a principal figure in several notable developments which were significantly products of his regular work. During approximately a twelve-month period, February 1982-February 1983, he was engaged in private exploratory talks with the Soviet government concerning a proposal which President Ronald Reagan adopted and presented, on March 23, 1983, as a "Strategic Defense Initiative." In an October 12, 1988 address, delivered in Berlin, and televised for later nationwide broadcast in the U.S.A., he announced the imminent collapse of the Soviet economic system, and the early reunification of Germany, with Berlin again as its capital. During November-December 1989, in close collaboration with Helga Zepp LaRouche and several others, he designed a proposal, which anticipated the later "Delors Plan," which was widely circulated through influential circles in western and eastern Europe, and China, during 1990-1992; this is known as "The Productive Triangle," a design for the recovery of the economies of north Eurasia.

During the interval 1976-1992, he has sought the office of President of the United States five times. In 1976, he ran in the general election as a candidate of the U.S. Labor Party, an independent political association committed to the tradition of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Henry C. Carey, and President Abraham Lincoln. In 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992, he sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and has also sought election to the U.S. Congress, as an independent Democrat, from Virginia's 10th C.D.

He has written numerous published articles, pamphlets, and books. Of those books published, the most notable are: an autobiography, The Power of Reason, written for the 1980 presidential campaign; There Are No Limits to Growth, 1983; and a second autobiography, written for the 1988 campaign, The Power of Reason 1988. The most influential books are on economics. His 1984 introductory textbook in the science of physical economy, So, You Wish To Learn All About Economics, circulates internationally in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Armenian editions; the 1991 The Science of Christian Economy circulates internationally in English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

LaRouche is the only presidential candidate to have been convicted in a Federal criminal case (see United States v. LaRouche.) According to official government documents and other legal evidence presently in the possession of the candidate's legal representatives, elements of the U.S. Government have made two clear-cut efforts to eliminate him as a political figure. In both attempts, the Federal Bureau of Investigation played a key, but not exclusive role.

The first attempt is the subject of an official FBI document dating from November 1973, which states, that the New York City office of the FBI, acting under the supervision of FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., attempted to persuade the leadership of the Communist Party U.S.A. that it would be to the Communists' advantage to have LaRouche "eliminated." There was an aborted attempt against LaRouche, by Communist-linked agents, during December 1973.

Later, in January 1983, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger succeeded in persuading his cronies on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) to issue a recommendation for a covert national-security operation against LaRouche et al., according to the provisions of Executive Order 12333. This recommendation was promptly put into effect by the FBI that same month. This operation, which grew into one of most far-reaching intelligence operations ever directed against a U.S. citizen, resulted in the fraudulent conviction of LaRouche and six of his associates on Dec. 16, 1988, approximately six years after the Kissinger-prompted PFIAB initiative of January 1983. One of the principal features of this continuing, 1983-1995, attempt to eliminate LaRouche by conviction and defamation, is the crucial role played by a concert of rogues under the direction of a New York private banker, John Train, of the Wall Street-linked firm of Smith and Train. During 1983 and 1984, Train maintained a salon which included representatives of the U.S. foreign intelligence community and national mass-media, including the Wall Street Journal, NBC-TV News, and Readers Digest, plus the FBI's private asset, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and ADL lackey Dennis King. Train's documented function was to establish the common guidelines for the "black propaganda" to be used jointly by the U.S. news media. During 1984-1988, virtually all of the often massive coverage of LaRouche in the U.S. major news media was propaganda based on the 1983-1984 formulas adopted by the Train salon. Also, many of the witnesses who were used for the grand jury and trial proceedings against LaRouche and his associates were prepared in cooperation with participants in the Train salon.


See also

External links

Hostile Media reports

Critical sites

LaRouche sponsored sites