Format:
1 online resource (265 pages)
ISBN:
9780195357752
Content:
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.
Content:
Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- ONE: Prelude to the Fifth Column Scare: The Lessons of World War I -- TWO: Dangerous Demagogues, Men on Horseback, and Native Fascists -- THREE: The Opening Alarm: The Rumrich Spy Case -- FOUR: Other Fifth Columns: Italy, the Soviet Union, and Japan -- FIVE: "Perfidious Albion": Great Britain and the fifth Column -- SIX: The Fifth Column in Europe -- SEVEN: Keeping the Panic Alive: German Propaganda, Espionage, and Sabotage in the United States -- EIGHT: Franklin Roosevelt and the Fifth Column -- NINE: J. Edgar Hoover versus the Nazis -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780195092684
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9780195092684
Language:
English
URL:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail.action?docID=241535
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