Editing William Luther Pierce (section)

== Politics ==

=== American Nazi Party ===
Beginning in 1962, he was briefly a member of the anti-communist [[John Birch Society]]. He resigned the next year, viewing the Birchers as "too passive" because the Society was uninvolved in racial issues.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|p=124}}{{sfn|Morris|2017|p=35}} In 1963, he saw on television a clip of protests against [[George Lincoln Rockwell]], the founder of the [[American Nazi Party]] (ANP); intrigued by Rockwell, he struck up a correspondence with him. He moved to Connecticut to work as a defense contractor in 1965, and began visiting Rockwell's base in [[Washington, D.C.]], also reading alarmist books about race at the [[Yale University Library]].{{sfn|Berger|2016a|p=8}} He and Rockwell became increasingly close, and Pierce was granted government clearance through his job. He was not openly racist with his coworkers; when the ANP was investigated, his coworkers described him as a "first-class physicist", but also "impenetrable", and said they had an "intense dislike of him as a person".{{sfn|Berger|2016a|p=8}} After only a few months of work, his performance worsened and he quit abruptly after less than a year of employment, claiming he had been writing hours a day for months and wished to be a writer.{{sfn|Berger|2016a|pp=8–9}}

He was the best educated associate of Rockwell, as well as the party's most enthusiastic promoter of violent action, believing that a National Socialist revolution required violence. Despite this he did not participate in the group's street actions.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=124–125}} In 1966, he became the editor of the [[World Union of National Socialists]] quarterly ideological journal, ''[[National Socialist World]]'', for which he split the production costs with Rockwell. He was a close advisor to Rockwell and functioned as the ANP's "house intellectual".{{sfn|Gardell|2003|p=134}}{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|p=124}}{{sfn|Schmaltz|1999|p=283}} Pierce advised Rockwell on power and media tactics, largely responsible for Rockwell's publicity success with the 1966 Chicago "White Power" marches.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=124–125}} Rockwell proposed a business partnership with Pierce, an "Extremist Speakers Bureau", offering a 20% commission on bookings for Pierce, who would be responsible for finding speakers. This never materialized.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|p=129}} 

Pierce advocated Nordic superiority within the movement and said the leaders of the group should only come from "pure Germanic stock".{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=124–125}} He disliked and insulted ANP member [[John Patler]] on account of his ethnically Greek background, as did high ranking ANP member [[Matt Koehl]]. When, as a result of Patler's influence, Rockwell argued for a broader definition of the [[white race]] (including [[Slavs]] and [[Mediterraneans]] as white), Pierce and Koehl abhorred the idea and resisted, resulting in a schism in the partly leadership, though Rockwell eventually prevailed.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=102, 136}} Rockwell was murdered by Patler in 1967.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|p=129}} Though most members of the ANP agreed that Patler was responsible, some disagreed, instead arguing there was a conspiracy and Koehl, Pierce, and a man named Robert Allison Lloyd had orchestrated Rockwell's murder.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=132, 137}} The day before the murder, Rockwell got into an argument with the three of them. One eyewitness claimed that he locked them out of their offices and said he would expel them. Rockwell's secretary and mistress Barbara von Goetz became convinced that the three of them had ordered Rockwell's killing and framed Patler to seize control of the party; Francis Joseph Smith, Rockwell's personal bodyguard, investigated on his own and concluded that the three of them had orchestrated Rockwell's murder.{{sfn|Simonelli|1999|pp=137–138}} 

Afterwards Pierce stayed in the ANP (now named the National Socialist White People's Party, or NSWPP), under the leadership of Koehl, becoming one of its primary leaders. He affiliated with several different movements and became prominent as an organizer and leader of the white nationalist movement; the [[FBI]] investigated him, with their file on him growing to hundreds of pages long, though he was never charged for any crime. Pierce attempted to organize university students to the cause and promoted a philosophy of "total revolution", bringing in young militant neo-Nazis into the party. Pierce felt their continual display of explicit Nazi regalia hurt their recruitment, and as a result fell out with the rest of Rockwell's successors. The "total revolution" philosophy annoyed Koehl, and he expelled Pierce in 1970.{{sfn|Berger|2016a|p=9}}{{sfn|Gardell|2003|p=134}} He then joined Youth for Wallace, an organization supporting the [[George Wallace presidential campaign, 1968|bid for the presidency]] of [[George Wallace]], the former Governor of Alabama.{{sfn|Schmaltz|1999|p=338}} In 1970, along with [[Willis Carto]] he reconfigured Youth for Wallace into the [[National Youth Alliance]]. However, a complex dispute between the two men had begun by the late 1960s. By 1971, Pierce and Carto were openly feuding with Carto accusing Pierce of the theft of the Liberty Lobby mailing list. These issues caused the NYA to split, and by 1974 Pierce's wing became known as the [[National Alliance (United States)|National Alliance]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beirich |first=Heidi |date=2008-11-30 |title=Willis Carto: The First Major Biography |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2008/willis-carto-first-major-biography |access-date=2018-12-24 |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |language=en-US |issue=Winter 2008}}</ref><ref name="ADL-Bio" />{{sfn|Schmaltz|1999|p=338}}

=== National Alliance ===
{{Main|National Alliance (United States)}}
[[File:William Pierce summer 1999 Official NA meeting.jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|Pierce at a 1999 National Alliance meeting in [[Hillsboro, West Virginia]]]]
The [[National Alliance (United States)|National Alliance]] was organized in 1974. Pierce intended the organization to be a [[Vanguardism|political vanguard]] that would ultimately bring about a [[white nationalist]] overthrow of the [[United States Federal Government]]. Pierce spent the rest of his life living in [[West Virginia]]. From this location, he hosted a weekly radio show, ''American Dissident Voices'' from 1991,<ref name="Sutherland" /> the internal newsletter ''National Alliance Bulletin'' (formerly called ''Action''), and oversaw his publications, ''National Vanguard'' magazine (originally titled ''Attack!''), ''Free Speech'' and ''Resistance'', as well as books published by his publishing firm National Vanguard Books, Inc. (many of which promoted [[Holocaust denial]]) and the "white power" record company, [[Resistance Records]], which Pierce supported from its inception around 1993 and purchased outright in 1999.<ref name="SPLC1999">{{Cite news |date=1999-12-15 |title=National Alliance Leader William Pierce Hopes to Acquire Hate Label, Resistance Records |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1999/national-alliance-leader-william-pierce-hopes-acquire-hate-label-resistance-records |access-date=2019-01-15 |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1978, claiming the National Alliance was an educational organization, Pierce applied for and was denied, [[tax exemption]] by the [[Internal Revenue Service]]. Pierce appealed, but an appellate court upheld the IRS decision.<ref name="ADL-Bio" /> An [[anti-zionism|anti-Zionist]], he attempted during the [[Yom Kippur War]] to force [[McDonnell Douglas]] into canceling military contracts that sent armaments to Israel by buying shares of the company's stock and putting forward the motion at the national shareholder's meeting. The company rejected the motion and continued supplying Israel with weapons.<ref name="ADL-Dead">{{Cite news |year=2004 |title=William Pierce, founder and leader of National Alliance, dead at 68 |url=http://www.adl.org/learn/extremism_in_america_updates/individuals/william_pierce/pierce_update_040724.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203103147/http://www.adl.org/learn/extremism_in_america_updates/individuals/william_pierce/pierce_update_040724.htm |archive-date=2006-12-03 |access-date=2007-07-18 |work=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1985, Pierce moved his operations from [[Arlington County, Virginia]], to a {{convert|346|acre|km2|adj=on}} location in [[Mill Point, West Virginia]], which he paid for with $95,000 in cash. At this location, he founded the Cosmotheist Community Church.<ref name="ADL-Bio" /> In 1986, the church applied again, this time successfully, for federal, state, and local tax exemptions. It lost its state tax exemption for all but 60 acres, which had to be exclusively used for religious purposes.<ref name="ADL-History">{{Cite news |year=2007 |title=The National Alliance: A History |url=http://www.adl.org/explosion_of_hate/history.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819110912/http://www.adl.org/explosion_of_hate/history.asp |archive-date=2007-08-19 |access-date=2007-07-18 |work=[[Anti-Defamation League]] |language=en-US}}</ref> As the leader of the National Alliance, Pierce established contacts with other nationalist groups in Europe, including the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]], the [[British National Party]] (BNP), and the Greek [[Golden Dawn (Greece)|Golden Dawn]] party.<ref name="ADL-Bio" /> He also had ties to BNP leader [[John Tyndall (far-right activist)|John Tyndall]].<ref name="Reed" /> Pierce's other attempts to recruit included a 51-minute informational video and forming an [[anti-globalization]] group – the Anti-Globalization Action Network – to protest at the [[G8]] summit in Canada in June 2002.<ref name="ADL-Dead" />

In 2000, he was profiled in a biography entitled ''[[The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds]]'' by academic Robert S. Griffin.{{sfn|Michael|2003|pp=63, 77}}{{sfn|Berger|2016a|p=20}} The biography was authorized by Pierce,{{sfn|Berger|2016a|p=20}} and was generally seen by critics as too sympathetic to him. Pierce himself praised the book.<ref name="Romano2021">{{Cite news |last=Romano |first=Aja |date=2021-01-28 |title=How a dystopian neo-Nazi novel helped fuel decades of white supremacist terrorism |url=https://www.vox.com/22232779/the-turner-diaries-novel-links-to-terrorism-william-luther-pierce |access-date=2025-02-16 |work=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Lee2002">{{Cite magazine |last=Lee |first=Martin A. |date=Fall 2002 |title=Sympathy for the Devil: A Vermont academic writes a fawning biography of America's late neo-Nazi leader |url=https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/vermont-academic-writes-fawning-biography-late-neo-nazi-leader-william-pierce/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216235339/https://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2002/fall/sympathy-for-the-devil |archive-date=2010-02-16 |access-date=2025-02-16 |magazine=Intelligence Report |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]]}}</ref><ref name="Harkavy2000">{{Cite news |last=Harkavy |first=Ward |date=2000-11-14 |title=The Nazi on the Bestseller List |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/the-nazi-on-the-bestseller-list/ |access-date=2025-02-18 |work=[[The Village Voice]] |place=New York City |language=en-US |issn=0042-6180}}</ref>