# World Anti-Communist League The **World Anti-Communist League (WACL)** was an international umbrella network of anti-communist organizations founded in 1966 in Taipei, Taiwan. Over the 1970s and 1980s it became a meeting ground linking Cold War intelligence veterans, Latin American death-squad figures, European neo-fascists, and the American religious and Birchite right. In [[Dave Troy]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" synthesis it is the transnational connective tissue through which Maj. Gen. [[John Singlaub]]'s private anti-communism reached the Nicaraguan Contras. ## Origins WACL grew out of the **Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL)**, a regional alliance formed in 1954 at the urging of [[Chiang Kai-shek]] of Taiwan and Syngman Rhee of South Korea after the Korean War. At APACL's 1966 conference the charter for a global league was adopted, and WACL was constituted in Taipei, with the charter taking effect in 1967. > [!note] Dating correction > Troy's series describes the group Singlaub helped found "in 1954." That date belongs to the predecessor APACL; the worldwide WACL itself dates to 1966. Singlaub's involvement and his U.S. chapter came considerably later. ## Singlaub and the U.S. chapter [[John Singlaub]] founded WACL's American affiliate, the [[US Council for World Freedom]] (USCWF), in 1981, reportedly with a loan from the Taiwanese branch and backing from beer magnate [[Joseph Coors]]. Singlaub chaired WACL itself from 1984 to 1986. Under his leadership the league became a private fundraising and logistics channel for anti-communist insurgencies — most consequentially the Contras, after the [[Boland Amendment]] barred official U.S. assistance, drawing Singlaub and the network into the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. ## Reputation WACL was repeatedly documented (notably in Scott and Jon Lee Anderson's *Inside the League*) as a haven for figures from authoritarian and far-right movements worldwide, including former Axis collaborators and Latin American paramilitary leaders. That mix is why the league recurs in investigative frames like [[The Octopus]] as an example of anti-communism shading into covert, extralegal, and sometimes openly extremist operations. In 1990 the organization renamed itself the **World League for Freedom and Democracy**, which continues today from Taipei. ## See also - [[US Council for World Freedom]] · [[John Singlaub]] · [[Iran-Contra Affair]] · [[The Octopus]]