John Morrison Birch (May 28, 1918 – August 25, 1945) was a United States Army Air Forces military intelligence captain, OSS field agent in China during World War II, as well as former Baptist minister and missionary.

He was killed in a confrontation with Chinese Communist soldiers during an assignment he was ordered on by the OSS, ten days after the war ended.

The John Birch Society (JBS), an American right-wing political advocacy group, was named in his memory by Robert H. W. Welch Jr. in 1958.

Birch was born to Presbyterian missionaries in Landour, a hill station in the Himalayas now in the northern India state of Uttarakhand, at the time in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.

His parents, Ethel (Ellis) and George S. Birch who were college graduates,[3] were on a three-year period missionary service in the country, working under Sam Higginbottom.

[11] Norris had visited Shanghai in 1939, two years after the Japanese invasion had started the Second Sino-Japanese War, and returned full of enthusiasm for "the marvelous opportunity to proclaim Gospel and win souls.

In October 1941, he left Hangzhou, going by a harrowing foot-trip, narrowly escaping Japanese fire, to run a mission station in Shangrao, in northwest Jiangxi.

The area was poor and isolated, but Birch reassured his parents that although malaria and dengue fever had "knocked me down a bit" (weighed 155 pounds/70 kg), he was "coming back up," eating rice and vegetables with Chinese workers, and milk, besides.

On April 13, 1942, he wrote to the American Military Mission in China saying that for both patriotic and practical reasons he wanted to "jine the Army."

He explained that he had been preaching behind Japanese lines for more than a year but was "finding it increasingly hard to do on an empty stomach (no word or funds from home since November)."

After bombing Tokyo and out of fuel during their one-way flight, Doolittle and his four crewmembers bailed out over southeastern China in mountainous terrain as planned.

[17] They were rescued by Chinese civilians and smuggled by river safely out of Japanese lines by a sampan in Zhejiang Province by Birch who was informed of their being hidden in the riverboat.

His activities included setting up intelligence networks of sympathetic Chinese, supplying Chennault with information on Japanese troop movements and shipping.

[1][2] Birch's mission, under direct orders from Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer, the commander of U.S. forces in China, was to go to Shandong Province to seize Japanese documents and to obtain information on airfields from which American prisoners of war (POWs) could be flown.

[1] Halfway and 45 miles (72 km) from Xuzhou, the train was stopped at the Dangshan railway station, where the group was informed that the line ahead had been sabotaged.

Birch sent the train back to Dangshan and his group spent the night in a nearby village, which had been ravaged with men being killed by Chinese Communists.

[1] Birch and Lieutenant Tung,[clarification needed] who was his aide on the mission, were told to surrender their weapons and equipment, which included three radios.

[1] Birch, who was wearing his Army uniform, identified himself and refused to turn over his weapon; after arguing with the Communist commander, they were allowed to proceed.

[1] Miller, who was a friend of Birch, was in charge of the funeral, and Chinese officers and Japanese soldiers gave the deceased full military honors.

Senator William F. Knowland attempted unsuccessfully to obtain posthumous awards for Birch, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart, but these were not approved on the grounds that the United States was not at war with the Communist Chinese in 1945.

The John Birch Society was established in Indianapolis, Indiana, during a two-day session on December 8 and 9, 1958, by a group of twelve led by Robert W. Welch Jr., a retired candy manufacturer and Conservative political activist from Belmont, Massachusetts.

"[31][32] Welch received permission from Birch's parents to name the JBS after their son,[27][33] and both his mother and father participated in Society-related events.