Book Review: The Bilderberg Conspiracy: Inside the World’s Most Powerful Secret Society by H. Paul Jeffers

The history of Joseph Retinger and his powerful secret society

The Bilderberg group is as real as it gets. While the existence of other secret societies often rely on second hand sources or urban legends – such as the Freemasons and the Illuminati – the Bilderberg meetings are literally covered by the media, with world leaders and business people seen in front of the cameras arriving at their very public meeting venues. They even have an official headquarter in Leiden, the Netherlands.

However, unlike the World Economic Forum or the UN General Assembly, nothing has ever officially come out from the meetings. No statement, no summary, no interview, not even a general idea of what they’re doing and discussing. This is what make them highly scrutinized, with many conspiracy theories emerged to fill the information void.

This book is attempting to shed a light into this secretive organization, by connecting the dots from various different sources, including the many meeting attendees (that wished to remain anonymous), journalists, observers, and critics.

So, first and foremost, who are they? According to the author, H. Paul Jeffers, the members of the Bilderberg group “include European royalty, national leaders, political power brokers and heads of the world’s biggest companies.” They gather together annually at different 5-stars hotels around the world, and they are named after the Bilderberg hotel in which the first meeting took place in 1954.

As further described by Jeffers, “From the beginning, Bilderberg was administered by a small core group called a Steering Committee, consisting of a permanent chair, a U.S. chair, European and North American secretaries, and a treasurer. Invitations are sent only to important and generally respected people who through their special knowledge or experience, their personal contacts, and their influence in national and international circles can further the aims set by Bilderberg.”

And what exactly are the aims of the group? This is where it dives into a grey area. For a start, Jeffers stated that their goal is “the elimination of national sovereignty, creation of a world government with a global currency, and consolidation of economic power by a small number of bankers.”

But then a testimony from a former meeting attendee played it down to just merely one of those international forums that discusses boring world affairs without any significant development coming out of it. As Jeffers noted, “As described by Rockefeller, the Bilderberg Group is as benign as other fraternal organizations and is no more menacing than the Rotary, Kiwanis, the Knights of Columbus, Freemasons, or countless professional and social bodies that constitute the phenomenon known as the old boy network.”

But then again, at different parts of the book we’d find lines like this: “One of the speakers was reported to be Senator John Edwards. He was so well received, said Bilderberg critics, that the Group saw to it that Edwards became John Kerry’s vice-presidential running mate in 2004. The Group has also been credited with the elections of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and both George H. W. Bush and his son to the presidency. The Group is also said to have been the motivating force behind the rise of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair to be British prime minister.”

Indeed, this is the core argument of the conspiracy theories surrounding this group. That it makes or breaks a career in global politics and control the process of democracies. So, is it true? The book provides some compelling arguments, but with evidence that are difficult to verify. But reading about its history might give us some clues.

The group was founded by Joseph H. Retinger, an undeniably fascinating human being with an incredible life story, where the organization was born out of his charm and social skills. As Jeffers explains, “Retinger displayed great skill and an uncanny ability to pick out people who in a few years time were to accede to the highest offices in their respective countries.” And his masterful social skills looks apparent in the growth of the organization from a small gathering into the impressive network of “statesmen and potentates of all sorts” that benefited from joining for group.

Furthermore, the group has its roots from post World War 2, when European nations were at war with each other and Ratinger was on a mission to unite the warring countries back into peace and harmony. So it started out with a noble cause. But then their “villain origins story” (if you like) began when Retinger met David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger, with their expansionary ambition to the east of Europe as well as in north America and Asia look a lot like a plan for a global domination, which are all mentioned in pretty detail manner in the book.

Moreover, things began to really changed after the USSR was dissolved. As Jeffers remarks, “With Communism checked, an increasingly frequent topic of discussion among Group members was proposals for political and economic unification of Europe.” The formation of the single-currency European Union is said to be their mastermind, as well as NAFTA in North America, and the expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe.

The book then proceeded to present the many past meetings with impeccable details, which include the date, the venue, and the attendees. It also provide the list of topics, the many disagreements within the group over various subjects, some turbulence and crisis within the group, and of course like in any big organization they began to have factions and loyalties to certain figures, most prominently those surrounding Henry Kissinger.

Mind you, however, as impressive as the details in this book are, it is almost impossible to verify the legitimacy of these claims. So a healthy dose of skepticism is needed when reading it. Especially when the book describes Alex Jones as a normal “documentary maker” rather than a conspiracy theory nut job, where the book actually uses him as one of the main sources. And as most of us now know, years later after this book was published Alex Jones became notorious for spreading hoaxes and fake news.

All in all, it is a good introductory story-telling about a secretive organization, one that understandably difficult to write. It is nevertheless a shame that it keeps repeating the same things over and over again that it feels like the book, if written with more brevity and more organized structure, could even make its points across by just 1/3 of the length.