Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle
Awarded to Henry Ford by Adolph Hitler - 1938
So it’s the 1930s and Hitler and Mussolini, not to mention Franco have established nazism / fascism in Europe. Hitler has already opened the first concentration camp at Dachau and Mussolini has crushed any organized political opposition in Italy.
So where are America’s elite industrial barons?
Exactly where you think; getting cozy with the fascists in order to make money. After all Hitler and Mussolini were anti-communist and that was all our gilded elites needed to know.
William E, Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany, gave important insight into German and American economic alliances. He wrote of the situation in general that:
"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime. Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there."
- William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937
Some of the primary and more famous Americans with fascist sympathies included William Randolph Hearst, Joseph E. Kennedy (President Kennedy’s father), Charles Lindbergh, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon (head of Alcoa, and Secretary of the Treasury), Dupont, General Motors, Ford, ITT, Prescott Bush (grandfather of Dubya), National City Bank (now Citibank), Coca cola and General Electric.
All in all, American investment in Germany grew by 50% between 1929 - 1940 while declining in the rest of Europe.
In 1940 Graeme K. Howard, head of General Motors overseas operations, published America and the New World Order, in which he advised that America give full cooperation to the Nazi regime. In his book he blames FDR for causing the war in Europe and goes on to say that the fascists should be supported as the better alternative to the spread of Communism.
Hearst’s newspapers published a constant stream of red-baiting and anti-Soviet articles while praising Hitler and portraying him as an able bourgeois German burgher who had no intention of going to war but was preoccupied with internal problems. No mention of the camps in his articles.
In 1937 Fortune Magazine, a Hearst publication, stated that:
"The good journalist must recognize in Fascism certain ancient virtues of the race, whether or not they happen to be momentarily fashionable in his own country. Among these are Discipline, Duty, Courage, Glory, Sacrifice."
In a 1938 article published In Hearst’s Better Homes and Gardens, Hitler is portray as a humble, personable man of taste. The concentration camps were already in full swing.
Hitler (back to camera) Goering and General von Blomberg.
After the Wermacht invasion of the Soviet Union Hearst’s papers attacked FDR’s Lend/Lease policy:
"Is our free country piling up deficits, bleeding its citizens white with confiscatory taxation, rushing headlong into national bankruptcy, shoveling out our wealth abroad, and shipping our war materials to alien nations to bolster up Bolshevism in Russia to spread it over all of Europe, including Britain, and to breed it and broadcast it in our own America?"
Henry Ford’s anti-semitic newspaper, "The Dearborn Independent." published a series of articles entitled "The International Jew" which were later turned into pamphlets circulated world-wide, especially in Germany.
Ford and the other writers of Dearborn Publishing promoted the view of superiority built on race with Jews and other minorities as racially and culturally inferior. According to this view the ideas of socialism, liberalism and Marxism were plots used by inferior races to promote equality and thereby elevate themselves to the level of the superior Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Can't have that now, can we?
Henry Ford was by no means the only one to put such ideas in writing, but his publications were popular and served to spread the ideology. In fact he was very popular among the Nazis and received The Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle from Hitler for his birthday in 1938. Nice.
Henry Ford is presented with the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle - 1938
Tom Watson of IBM invested heavily in Germany and supplied them with American made punch card counting computer machines which were used for the German census, locating and tracking the whereabouts of every "undesirable" in Germany. The machines were not only used by the government but in the concentration camps to keep track of the thousands of prisoners.
IBM's punch-card system for census and categorization of citizens was a critical element in the Nazi system for racial and genetic analysis of the population. The Nazi program was based on the American eugenics programs, but taken to a higher level. Everyone in Germany filled out a highly detailed census card, including a "family tree" in duplicate. The census card was officially stamped and a portion given back to the person who had filled it out. These were "your papers" which everyone had to have. No papers and you go to a camp. Meanwhile IBM's technology was checking and crosschecking, performing analysis on family trees. Virtually every jew or gypsy in Germany was identified, located and processed for ghettoization and eventual deportation thanks to IBM.
Watson visited Germany frequently as it was IBM's biggest foreign market and he was quite aware of what was going on. After the conquest of Poland, IBM's German subsidiary was given the license to operate in Poland by IBM's head office in America. which was necessary in order to move punch card operations to Warsaw in order to find every Polish jew. IBM cooperated with Nazi Germany right up until America's entry into the war. Multi-nationalism at its finest.
Charles Lindbergh while claiming he was an America Firster spent plenty of time hob nobbing with Nazi officials, was regularly praised in the Nazi press and had no qualms over having his picture taken with high ranking Nazis officials. While he spoke neutrality out of one side of his mouth it was very obvious to anyone where his sympathies lay. Even the Nazis knew.
Charles Lindbergh at a Nazi party in Berlin -1935
There was plenty of sympathy for fascism among the American ruling class - but hey after all those fascists were anti-red. Nothing else mattered. Anti red. Anti Bolshevik. Anti liberal. Anti socialist. Anti-pinko. Anti-FDR. Anti immigrant.
Why are you not surprised?
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Missilynn
Poor Woman
Laura Wilkerson
Enemy of the State
oregami
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Comments
r
@Rw: The involvment of American industry in the rise of the Third Reich WAS mentioned at the Nuremburg trials, but only by the defense. The tribunal didn't want to hear it.
-R-
r.
The Right loves their escapades into Revisionist history: like the Holocaust did not really happen .... Roosevelt was selling the country out with his programs and onward.
I appreciate you drawing this out, as I feel it will help us see the real thing, what must be known. Good stuff.
That said, he always struck me wrong, despite his hero status here, and, it is very, very instructive to see his introduction to our precious Kipahulu was made by one Sam Pryor, former CEO of Pan Am- a, surprise, multi-national.
Further, when one looks at the anti-red faction now, and removes a false use of the word communism by Stalin, et al, the raised curtain reveals hatred, and fear, of that which they live off- human capital as described by the guy with the long beard ...
Auwe (Alas)
I had heard and read about Ford. It completely changed how I viewed him and his accomplishments. With several family members from Dearborn, you can imagine how I feel about that...disgusted. Too much is always over looked when greed is involved...too much.
Thanks for this.
When seen from this light, it makes sense that there's plenty of evidence the American military knew the Japanese were about to attack Hawaii and they let it happen. Isolationist rhetoric from our industrialists and financiers was at all time highs, warning us as a nation to just stay out of the whole European war.
Of course, had we done that, it's possible our national language could be German. US involvement, while not as manpower extensive as it was for Britain and Russia, was a decisive factor in providing supplies, materiel and tactical support that made the difference in the outcome of the second World War.
What surprises me is that, in this day and age, with history graphically showing us how this all plays out -- and we're actually watching it begin to happen, right here in this country.
--r--
When will we ever learn?
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Morgan bank also were behind a plot to install Gen. Smedley Butler and other military leaders in a coup against FDR because of his policies. It can't happen here?
The primary reason US industrialists supported the Fascists was because they were anti-communists and were seen as major bulwarks against Socialist Ideology and the Soviet Union. They saw Fascism as a good movement to co-opt socialism and redirect labor and the post ww1 social agitation and redirect it in ways beneficial and helpful for Big Business.
Antisemitism played a small if non-existent role in Italian fascism, from what I understand, until the Duce's late alliance with Hitler (which was really only cemented in the mid to late 1930s). Throughout the 1920s and early 30s, the Duce was not an anti-semitie and he actually criticized those who practiced it. Indeed, he was fond of many Jewish scientists and scholars, like Sigmund Freud.
That said, this does not excuse the Duce. I am not apologizing for him in the least. What I am saying is that the key component of Italian Fascism was its anti-communism and irredentist hypernationalism. The anti-semitism came later.
And with the Nazis, anti-communism was always there. Indeed, Hitlers ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union was marketed to Europe as a "holy crusade" to save Europe from Bolshevism, and he had hundreds of thousands of non-German troops helping him, from Spain, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Romania and many other people from occupied Europe.
If we limit Nazism and Fascism as being wholly an antisemtitic phenomenon, we are doing ourselves a disservice, because we will not recognize the earlier, Italian and Spanish (not to mention Latin American) varieties of Fascism (which were not antisemitic) should they rear their ugly head elsewhere in the world once again.
Its as if we commit a major logical fallacy by reducing a 10 trait Nazism or Fascism to a single trait, and then refusing to recognize it elsewhere when the 9 traits are present, because the one we singled out as a "key identifier" is gone.
The real problem is that we disagree so strongly on how best to deal with the problem—how best to combat it.
There are some here who apparently think the best course of action to prevent further spread of the fascist virus…is to do everything possible to damage Barack Obama and insure a victory for the Republican candidate, whom everyone recognizes will be beholden to extreme reactionary, rightwing zealots.
To me, this sound nuts…as wrongheaded and out of touch with reality as anything the fascists have ever preached.
Just sayin’!
As I said,
There are some here who apparently think the best course of action to prevent further spread of the fascist virus…is to do everything possible to damage Barack Obama and insure a victory for the Republican candidate, whom everyone recognizes will be beholden to extreme reactionary, rightwing zealots.
To me, this sound nuts…as wrongheaded and out of touch with reality as anything the fascists have ever preached.
"Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."
Only the dates are changed, but the names are interchangeable...
But some people are purposefully blind…and in so being, are part of the problem they are pretending they are fighting. You can try to reason with them…but you’d have more success teaching quantum mechanics to a ferret
I can understand the issue of weather or not to vote for the "lesser of two eveils" (assuming of course you really believe there is a lesser!).
A quote from the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani -
""Electoral abstentionism implies above all an absolute lack of confidence in the State. And this distrust, which is instinctive ... is for the anarchists the result of their historical experience with the State and its function. ... Furthermore, abstentionism has consequences which are much less superficial than the inert apathy ascribed to it. It strips the State of the constitutional fraud with which it presents itself to the gullible as the true representative of the whole nation, and in so doing, exposes its essential character as representative, procurer, and policeman of the ruling classes"
And of course there is always E. G. - "If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal!".
:-)
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these critters take a new 'form' in each generation
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they are on the hypocrite stage again each evening
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they think they are Gandhi and are bribed so easily
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if they stop at a winter yard-sale say`Make a offer
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sell them that black and white teevee you still got
*
Speak roughly to politico goons
there so little boy you see `gin
And beat them when um sneeze:
He/She woo the goons to annoy,
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CHORUS
(in which cook and the baby join)
Wow! wow! wow!
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Speak severely too
Beat when they cry
They jests sneezes
Oy! enjoy delusion
Sell pepper to them
They need to please
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CHORUS
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Wow! wow! wow!
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I read you earlier
My comment Oy!
It's jabberwocky
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I didn't know this
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with a straight face
five-time mayor tells his son
crime doesn't pay
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Thanks for informing us all.
Because he knows it only teases.
How on Earth, after what Bush did to the country and the world (thanks to Nader and those who share your views), can you keep saying Gore was just the exact same thing and expect anyone to suddenly have an epiphany, "Why YES! Jan is correct, the guy who is practically solely responsible for the tiny amount of attention we give Mother Nature is the DoubleMint Twin of Shrub, the killer of old Iraqi women."
If one steps back, your contention is Romney's, "Just let it all collapse, never mind the human cost." Except he wants to do that for money- and you want to, why again?
I am merely saying Obama is offering no alternative. And that's pretty damned obvious.
You'd almost suspect an ulterior motive. There are times I think some of these people hate America so much they will do anything to damage it...even try to help get one of the Republicans back in office so they can finish the wrecking job they've been working on these last few decades.
Yup, that must be it. Some people hate America that much!
He thinks we can wish problems away. He wants to pretend there is not going to be an election next November…or that there will be an election and people can just ignore it and “hope” that some outside agency will come along to make things right.
Apparently Jan doesn’t realize that in the real world, people have to make decisions…and often choose from among many not-especially-great choices.
He says he doesn’t understand what works.
He will get no argument from me on that.
But real life often is making choices even when none of the choices is perfect.
Since Obama has followed Bush's agenda of provoking vicious wars that install corrupt thugs into power, that sees a massively inflated military sucking monstrous amounts of money out of the country that is vitally needed for domestic purposes, Who seems energetically moving towards attacking Iran who has only the vaguest possibility of being a threat, who has done almost nothing to counter the Wall Street swindlers who are robbing the nation blind but who are generously funding Obama's political ambitions, who has made only the most feeble efforts to counter corporate pressure to lower general wages to third world standards, who has done almost nothing to protect home owners who have been swindled out of their homes, whose health plan is a grand gift to the health insurance industry that is grossly overpriced and determinedly oriented to minimize vital services, who has claimed the right to assassinate anybody, US citizen or not, on his mere whim with no basic legal protection, plus a host of other blatant failures.
It strikes me as particularly simple minded to claim this quite weird decision to support Obama is a solution to anything except a move to destroy whatever is right with the country. That the Republicans offer nothing better merely means you are choosing one form of national suicide over another. To claim that is a valid decision is merely profound stupidity.
For me, supporting Obama is not choosing the lesser of two evils, but for the people who will vote for him because they see him that way…that is a valid, reasonable decision, even if Jan is unable to see it as such.
Anyway, I’ve heard so much anger and hatred toward America from ex-patriots like Jan to realize their motivation probably contains an element of wanting revenge…wanting to do as much to hurt and harm the country—and are just pretending they have the good of America or the world in mind.
The people who truly bother me are the people still living here in America who buy into their nonsense.
Whatever you may be, Frank, you certainly are not making sense.
:-)
You guys are off on the tangent.
How about one of you writes a post on these subjects and lets the other comment all he likes? Maybe even I'll comment.
For now, I've quoted the anarchist Luigi Galleani above re abstension from voting.
I'm done here. I'm not coming back.
:-)
The question as to whether or not Obama is part of the corporate enthusiam for totalitarianism is a topic which deserves to be addressed in a full blown post - not in the comments here where no one will read them.
Write it and I will read it. Promise. I'm sure Frank will read it too!
:-)
Toritto:
Rated for your souvereign attitude and demeanor.
It helps to remember that there are actual real fascist-minded people in the USA today as there were in the past and distinguish them from those who merely disagree with us.
During the labor wars of the 1930's union activists had to fight authentic home-grown fascists and it wasn't pretty. Union activists also had to deal with people who didn't understand or want involvement with unions, but were opponents of unions, not deadly enemies. Later union activists had to put on uniforms and fight the fascists who made up the Axis powers. . Often times political opponents were together in the same foxholes fighting real political enemies.
We must always be vigilant, but without falling prey to paranoia or panicked alarmism.
My point is that when business oriented leadership becomes dominant in the area of government and politics there is a carry-over of these totalitarian attitudes into an area where, under the principles of democracy, the average citizen is granted the basic rights to have at least some control over policies and attitudes which control and restrict their lives. In business, when the welfare of the workers comes in conflict with the policies of management there is very little, if any consideration of worker welfare and only if union pressures or general economics forces the business to listen to its labor force does any accommodation take place even if these accommodations might, in the long run, benefit the business.
This, probably, is the inherent inbuilt attraction of businesses to totalitarianism.