The American Racism and Fascism in World War II

Why was the Abraham Lincoln Brigade looked down upon for their ties to communism rather than praised for their fight against fascism? When the Spanish Civil War erupted an estimated 2,800 volunteers selflessly ventured over to Spain to help fight for the same values and beliefs the United States held so dearly. Nearly 900 would never return from the war torn Spain. It is evident that America had no desire to offer aid in favor of Loyalist Spain against their insurgent military; however, the treatment of these courageous veterans was unprecedented once they arrived back home. Many of these brave individuals had their reputations slandered and personal lives relentlessly harassed. The undeserving treatment these veterans received had little to do with their character and everything to do with the fascist roots deep within the country they were returning to.

Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the State Department tied America’s isolation policy directly to the conflict. The Department proclaimed, “this government will, of course, scrupulously refrain from any interference whatsoever in the unfortunate Spanish situation.” The United States government began doing everything in their power to discourage Americans from enlisting within Spanish Armies and on January 11, 1937, they labeled nearly all United States passports as being invalid for Spain. At the same time, Congress made volunteering increasingly difficult for the future Lincolns by prohibiting travel by American nationals on the vessels of belligerents and even threatening the loss of citizenship. The 2,800 brave Americans who decided to risk their lives and then their reputations if they were lucky enough to return from combat, were doing so because of, “a compelling conviction that democracy was at stake, not just Spanish democracy, but democracy everywhere. They were convinced that if the fascist powers obtained the upper hand in Spain, they would dominate America and eventually the world.” These patriots were not entering the war stricken Spain due to communist beliefs, they were doing what they believed was right in the name of democracy.

A substantial portion of the Lincolns did not sympathize with communism; however, they did sympathize with the ideals which characterized their own American government. They had faith in democratically elected governments, which Spain had in place prior to the arrival of Francisco Franco and his insurgent forces. In the documentary, The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, Dave Thompson summarized his view on Spain’s conflict perfectly, “they were fighting for all the things that we had. A little less power to one church, a little less land for the nobility, universal education, all the things that America stood for... Next thing you know Congress has voted Non-Intervention, following the lead of Neville Chamberlain and this was just cutting off the Republic's chance to defend itself.” The Non-Intervention policies of the western civilizations left loyalist Spain with nobody to back them except for the Soviet Union. Germany and Italy took advantage of the opportunity that appeasement provided by gaining combat experience with their new technology before committing to a world war.

Just as many of the Lincolns came from unique backgrounds, many experienced unique journeys on their way to Spain. 2,800 men and women found ways around the numerous road blocks hoping to prevent them from joining the Spanish conflict, many arriving in January of 1937. The early months of the Lincolns’ time in Spain coul…. “A postwar inventory would find among Republican armaments 49 different typres of rifles, 41 models of machine guns, and an astonishing 60 varieties of artillery.” A third of the American volunteers never returned from Spain. Nevertheless, the immense death and carnage of the Spanish Civil War did nothing to discourage an estimated 500 of the surviving Lincolns from answering the call to action once again when Germany disobeyed the Non-Aggression Pact and invaded Russia. However, what the Lincoln’s encountered while serving in World War II was unlike anything they experienced during Spain’s Civil War. These men who had begun the fight against fascism years prior to any other American serving in World War II were being discriminated against and labeled “premature antifascists”. As of 1943, many veterans were being denied commissions and active overseas duties, while others found themselves transferred to limited-service units along with pro-fascists and Nazi sympathizers. Over time with much determination and public scrutiny, the Lincolns were finally having their applications for regular service approved and they were rightfully deployed overseas.

Following the war, many Lincoln Brigade Veterans were looking forward to what the future held in store for themselves and the rest of the world. Many Lincolns hoped that the success of the New Deal would allow the nation to build upon the progressive movements of the 1930s. However, Lincoln veterans began to realize that the emerging Cold War was strongly encouraging conservative domestic politics. The conflict with the Soviet Union allowed the fascist roots of the United States to surface once again. The government was focused on creating a new enemy after the fall of the Nazis and communism was just that.

Anti-Communism was already a discernible part of the American make up due to the Red Scare of 1919. The Red Scare created a national fear that any institution supportive of left-wing politics was not just supportive of social equality but also international Bolshevik Revolution. Groups such as the National Security League, American Defense Society, and National Civic Federation rallied behind a patriotic defense against Bolshevism that, according to author Robert Murray, “was based on prejudice, hatred, and emotion, rather than on intelligence, truth, and confidence” (Murray 103). Universities became suspect of teaching radicalism, the Socialist Party was outlawed, publicly elected officials who were members of the Socialist Party were thrown out of office, and ten thousand people were incarcerated for being associated with socialism even though many were simply members of labor unions. Hysteria took hold in America from the fear of Bolshevism; however, the so called patriotic groups played no role in protecting the nation from radical revolution. This moment in U.S. history laid another layer of groundwork for what had become an anti-communist yet pro-fascist country.

As was the case in Germany and Italy, people began to look more and more to the State, and to Roosevelt himself, as their savior. The State was playing a much larger role in people's lives under Roosevelt than at any other time in American history. The Great Depression caused worldwide panic and American citizens began to look at Franklin Roosevelt as their savior. Roosevelt’s New Deal presented a series of highly progressive programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations centered on assisting the United States in its recovery from the Depression. A significant monetary reform Roosevelt enacted was the nation’s Gold Reserve Act of 1934. Christina Romer is an economics professor at the University California of Berkely and a former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration and she argues that the passage of the 1934 act raised industrial production by 25% until 1937 and by 50% until 1942, while succeeding in correcting the United States Treasury’s gold holdings value. Many economists hold the opinion that countries not on the gold standard were mostly able to avoid the Great Depression, while countries still on it experienced hardship until the moment they finally abandoned it. While the detachment from the gold standard had a positive impact on economies all across the world, the 1934 Gold Reserve Act did not lack its opponents.

The American Legion was a group that was less than enthralled about Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and desired to do away with the gold standard. Legion member, Gerald MacGuire, came up with what would be known as the Business Plot and was being supported by captains of industry who were willing to supply up to $3 million for President Roosevelt’s removal from office. The men behind the Business Plot viewed Major General Smedley Butler as the perfect person to lead this coup due to his strong support from American veterans. In order to obtain a second witness, Smedley sent a reporter to interview American Legion member, Gerald MacGuire, who proclaimed, “We need a Fascist government in this country to save the nation from the communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America.” While this plot was put to an end once it had the whistle blown, it potentially had the men, guns, and money necessary for a successful revolution. The quote from Gerald MacGuire alone shows American citizens’ willingness to welcome fascism with open arms.

Members of the wealthy elite viewed fascism as the perfect counter against their ideological problem that was communism. William E. Dodd, who was very familiar with the relationships of U.S. companies and fascist countries due to his position as the U.S. ambassador to Germany in 1937, had reason to believe, “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.” Ford and General Motors are two companies who specifically supplied Nazi Germany with armored half-tracks and other materials used during World War II. Once the war had finally come to an end, these so called titans of industry had no shame in collecting reparations for damage done while the United States was bombing Axis war plants. In Spain in our Hearts, author Adam Hoschild writes about the gas companies involved with fascist Spain, “Texaco was not the only U.S. oil company supplying him [Franco]. Following Rieber's lead, Shell, Socony, Atlantic Rifining, and Standard Oil of New Jersey also found a customer in the Generalissimo” (Hoschild 173). These wealthy elites were proven to have supported fascism throughout Europe and some of them were even doing so against the laws of the U.S. government.

Eugenics is a common characteristic held by many fascist groups, so naturally it has a place in United States history. The pseudoscience of eugenics is based on the belief that you can improve a human population by controlled breeding in order to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. In 1923, the American Eugenics Society was created and it quickly implanted 29 chapters throughout the country. Eugenicists used every opportunity they had to encourage “better breeding”, while also discouraging “poor breeding”. Supporters of Eugenics believed there were two actions which would promote the wellbeing of the American population: segregation and sterilization. Many of the terrible acts associated with the Nazis were carried out on the pretense of Eugenics. The fact that this inconceivable joke of a science was at the root of American history during the Progressive Era says a lot about the type of country our Lincoln’s were returning to once the dust of World War II had settled.

Fascist Spain still hung over the heads of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Veterans. When the United States welcomed Franco and Spain as their ally against communism, it sent a message to the Lincoln’s. The United States did not care about the atrocities committed in Spain because they were somehow less important than their fear of communism. After all, the United States shared more common beliefs with the fascist regimes of Europe than their communist enemies. The Lincoln Brigade experienced an increasing amount of harassment in December 1947 when Attorney General Tom Clark released a list of subversive organizations which included both the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 forced the VALB to register as an agent of a foreign government and left many of the Lincolns with no choice other than to retire or be put on trial.

The United States’ knack for creating scapegoats has long been a common theme in the history of our country. It is no coincidence that finding both internal and external scapegoats is associated with fascist regimes as well. The Lincolns and anybody else connected to Marxist beliefs were targeted for investigation throughout the 1950s. Federal agents relentlessly interviewed their employers, neighbors, and landlords, completely disregarding that some of these men were in fact anti-communist. America of the early 19th century was racist to its core. Radical right groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have been prominent in the United States since the end of the Civil War and reached their peak of an estimated 4 million members, or about 3.5 percent of the population in the 1920s. The philosophies of this white supremacy group centered on the concepts of eugenics and the aims to create a better American population. While the KKK was certainly dominant in the South, their presence was undoubtedly nationwide and they clearly shared many ideologies with the Nazi party which was developing in Germany. According to the Chicago Tribune, as late as July 1942, a Gallup poll showed that 1 in 6 Americans thought Hitler was “doing the right thing” to the Jews, while a 1940 poll found that nearly a fifth of Americans saw Jews as a national 'menace' — more than any other group, including Germans.

When being aware of all the fascist roots which were thriving in 20th century America, it is not surprising why the Abraham Lincoln Brigade faced such scrutiny following their efforts in the Spanish Civil War. The culture of the United States sadly sympathized with that of the fascist regimes throughout Europe, which is why they sided with them ahead of their fight against communism. America was in the hands of white patriarchal capitalist that wished to protect their system which benefitted the few through the sacrifices of the majority. Traces of fascism have largely gone unnoticed in the United States because it is efficient at taking on many diverse forms. A CPUSA study on the perils of fascism stated, “In order to win popular support’, fascism ‘must appeal to the ideals and slogans in which most Americans still believe — to liberty and freedom. It must even pronounce itself anti-fascist.” I don’t believe we would be mistaken to throw “Make America Great Again” in that list as well. If you think that Fascism is not present in America because we are not a mirror image of what occurred in Germany, Italy and Spain then you are terribly wrong.

It is important to be aware of this era of American history because we truly are not very far removed from it. Much of the racism that was present in the 19th and 20th century still lingers today, just disguised in new forms. The anti-semitism of the 20th century has evolved into islamophobia. Fascists seize power through the assistance of traditional elites and it is not a coincidence that the elections of the United States are heavily funded by the powerful corporations lobbying for their own interests to be represented through legislation. Nearly $6.5 billion was spent during the 2016 presidential election, while $4.0 billion was spent during congressional elections. The most ridiculous thing surrounding all of this money is that we have no idea where it is coming from due to lobbying being protected by the U.S. Constitution.