Alfred Kohlberg

Who was Alfred Kohlberg?

Alfred Kohlberg was an American textile importer and staunch anti-Communist – a member of the "China lobby", an ally of Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy, a friend and advisor of John Birch Society founder Robert W. Welch Jr. and a member of the original national council of the John Birch Society.

Born in San Francisco, Kohlberg moved to New York and set up a business buying linen in Ireland that was then shipped to China where local weavers turned the raw linen into fine textiles. The finished products were then sent to the United States where they were sold to consumers as luxury fabrics. Kohlberg's business was highly profitable.

Due to his business interests he made many trips to China. During one of these trips in 1943, after inspecting the progress of the Chinese war-effort, he became convinced him that the many stories in the American press of Chiang Kai-shek's corruption were false and were being spread by communist-sympathizers. Subsequently he founded a journal Plain Talk intended to rebut the claims made by the China Hands and support the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-Shek, thus becoming an influential member of the "China lobby".