Insidious Foes : The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front

Nazi Germany's efforts to weaken the United States by subversion failed miserably. Bungling spies were captured and half-hearted efforts at sabotage came to nothing. Yet anyone who lived through WWII remembers the chilling posters warning Americans that "Enemy Agents Have Big Ears" and "Loose Lips Sink Ships." Even Superman joined the struggle against these insidious foes. In 1940, polls showed that 71% of Americans believed a Nazi Fifth Column had penetrated the country. Almost half were convinced that spies, saboteurs, dupes, and rumor-mongers lurked in their own neighborhoods and work-places. These fears extended to the White House and Congress. In this book, Francis MacDonnell explains the origins and consequences of America's Fifth Column panic, arguing that conviction and expedience encouraged President Roosevelt, the FBI, Congressmen, Churchill's government, and Hollywood to legitimate and exacerbate American's fears. Gravely weakening the isolationists, fostering Congress's role in rooting out Un-American activities, and instigating the creation of the modern intelligence establishment, the Fifth Column scare did far more than sell movie tickets, comic books, and pulp fiction. Insidious Foes traces the panic from its origins in the minds of reasonable Americans who saw the vulnerability of their open society in an age of encroaching totalitarianism.

From 1938 to 1942, a case of national jitters gripped the United States - fear that a German Fifth Column had penetrated the nation, and that Nazi spies were actively engaged in a campaign of subversion. Responsible voices in the White House, Congress, the intelligence community, and citizen’s organizations voiced genuine alarm at the internal threat. Spies were everywhere in the popular media - movies, radio shows, novels, pulp fiction, and comic books all contributed to the hysteria.
In Insidious Foes, author Francis MacDonnell recaptures the spirit of the anxiety and dread that permeated the country during these years. He examines factors that led to the rise and fall of the Fifth Column panic, and its manifestations in political and cultural life. While acknowledging that actual subversion by Axis powers was minimal and quickly eliminated, MacDonnell also outlines the significant legacy the scare produced - not only for World War II, but also for the postwar anticommunist period, and our own struggle with the threat of terrorism. Since much of the rhetoric used and measures taken against the presumed Nazi threat were carried over into anticommunist crusades of the Cold War, this episode clearly contributed to what has been described as the paranoid element in American politics.

In this book, Francis MacDonnell examines the origins and consequences of America's Fifth Column panic and its manifestations in political and cultural life. He argues that conviction and expedience encouraged President Roosevelt, the FBI, Congressmen, Churchill's government, and Hollywood to legitimate and exacerbate Americans' fears. Gravely weakening the isolationists, fostering Congress's role in rooting out Un-American activities, and instigating the creation of the modern intelligence establishment, the Fifth Column scare did far more than sell movie tickets, comic books, and pulp fiction. Insidious Foes traces the panic from its foundation, as reasonable Americans saw the vulnerability of their open society to encroaching totalitarianism. Probing the intersections between domestic politics, popular culture, and foreign policy, MacDonnell provides a glimpse of a crucial moment in the history of American anxiety. Contents......Page 12 Introduction......Page 16 ONE: Prelude to the Fifth Column Scare: The Lessons of World War I......Page 24 TWO: Dangerous Demagogues, Men on Horseback, and Native Fascists......Page 42 THREE: The Opening Alarm: The Rumrich Spy Case......Page 62 FOUR: Other Fifth Columns: Italy, the Soviet Union, and Japan......Page 86 FIVE: "Perfidious Albion": Great Britain and the fifth Column......Page 112 SIX: The Fifth Column in Europe......Page 128 SEVEN: Keeping the Panic Alive: German Propaganda, Espionage, and Sabotage in the United States......Page 144 EIGHT: Franklin Roosevelt and the Fifth Column......Page 158 NINE: J. Edgar Hoover versus the Nazis......Page 178 Conclusion......Page 206 Notes......Page 214 Bibliography......Page 250 C......Page 260 F......Page 261 H......Page 262 O......Page 263 S......Page 264 Z......Page 265 The book explores the "case of national jitters" that occurred in the United States in the years 1938 to 1942 about the existence of a German fifth column movement, and how the government and citizens exaggerated what was actually a modest German effort.