How the US Army described fascism in 1945

Fascism is a contested concept. It is hard to explain or describe. The following are portions of a 1945 Army orientation fact sheet.

WAR DEPARTMENT — WASHINGTON 25, D. C. 

24 March 1945 

FASCISM! 

Note For This Week's Discussion: Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze; nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it. Points to stress are: (1) Fascism is more apt to come to power at a time of economic crisis; (2) fascism inevitably leads to war; (3) it can come to any country; (4) we can best combat it by making our democracy work.

"Fascism" is a word that's been used a great deal these last few years. We come across it in our news- papers, we hear it in our newsreels, it comes up in our bull sessions. We've heard about the cruelties of fascism, its terror, its conquest of country after country. We've heard of its concentration camps — like Dachau in Germany and its torture chambers — like Majdanek (Lublin) in Poland. We've heard of its planned mass murder of whole peoples — which scholars call "genocide." 

Some of the things that have been done to people by fascists seem too horrible to believe, especially to Americans who believe in "live and let live." Hard- boiled American correspondents, formerly skeptical, now believe because they have seen. (See page 6.)

Do we know how fascism leads men to do the things done to people at Majdanek? Do we know how it leads them to attack helpless nations? Are Majdaneks and war inevitable results of fascism? Do all fascists speak only German, Italian or Japanese — or do some of them speak our language? Will military victory in this War automatically kill fascism? Or could fascism rise in the United States after it's been crushed abroad? What can we do to prevent it? 

Perhaps we ought to get to know the answers. If we don't understand fascism and recognize fascism when we see it, it might crop up again — under another label — and cause another war.

Fascism is a way to run a country — it's the way Italy was run, and the way Germany and Japan are run. Fascism is the precise opposite of democracy. The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.

Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: (1) conducting business; (2) living with their fellow-men; (3) having the final say in matters concerning others, as well as themselves. The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence — democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he's told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law. They make their own rules and change them when they choose. If you don't like it, it's "T.S." 

They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of "blood" and "race," by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and "realistic" to be pitiless and violent.

Question: How does fascism get in power? How can a violent program that enslaves the people win any support?

Fascism came to power in Germany, Italy, and Japan at a time of social and economic unrest. A small group of men, supported in secret by powerful financial and military interests, convinced enough insecure people that fascism would give them the things they wanted. 

They did so partly by clever propaganda and deception. They promised the people that fascism would bring them great power and prosperity. The details differed from country to country but the general pattern was the same. The Japanese spoke of a "greater Asia co-prosperity sphere." Mussolini mouthed humanitarian ideals and promised a re-born Roman empire. Hitler and his associates adopted the name of National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi) and announced objectives that attracted many German people. The official title of the Nazi party was deliberately worded for its propaganda value, appealing to "nationalists," "socialists," "workers," and all others who might be favorably influenced by these labels. At the very time that the fascists proclaimed that their party was the party of the "average citizen," they were in the pay of certain big industrialists and financiers who wanted to run the people with an iron hand. 

The fascists promised everything to everyone: They would make the poor rich and the rich richer. To the farmers, the fascists promised land through elimination of large estates. To the workers they promised elimination of unemployment — jobs for all at high wages. To the small business men they promised more customers and profits through the elimination of large business enterprises. To big business men and the industrialists they secretly promised greater security and profits through the elimination of small business competitors and trade unions and the crushing of socialists and communists. To the whole nation they promised glory and wealth by conquest. They asserted it was their right, as a "superior people," to rule the world. 

As soon as these methods had won them enough of a following to form their Storm Troops, the fascists began using force to stifle and wipe out any opposition. Those who saw through the false front of fascism and opposed them were beaten, tortured, and killed.

The fascists knew that all believers in democracy were their enemies. They knew that the fundamental principle of democracy — faith in the common sense of the common people — was the direct opposite of the fascist principle of rule by the elite few. So they fought democracy in all its phases. At the same time that they proclaimed the "superiority" of the Germans, the Italians, the Japanese, they proclaimed also that the German, the Italian, the Japanese peoples were really unfit to rule themselves. It became "Heil Hitler" in Germany, and "Believe, obey, fight" in Italy. 

They played political, religious, social, and eco- nomic groups against each other and seized power while these groups struggled against each other.

Question: How could the fascists keep their contradictory promises, once they got in power? How did their program actually work out?

It was easy enough for the fascists to promise all things to all people before they were in power. Once they were actually in power, they could not, of course, keep their contradictory promises. They had intended in advance to break some, and they did break those they had made to the middle classes, the workers, and the farmers. 

As soon as the fascists were in control of the government, the torturings and the killings were no longer the unlawful acts of a political party and its hoodlum gangs. They became official government policy. Among the first victims of this official policy were those farmers, workers, and small business men who had believed the promises that had been made to them and who complained that they had been "sucked in." Some simply vanished. Often they came home to their families by return mail in little jars of ashes. 

The concentration camps and graves filled with the opponents of fascism. Out went equality before the law, free elections and free political parties, independent trade unions and independent schools, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and, in time, freedom of religion.

Question: Have any groups in America used fascist tactics and appeals? 

Most of the people in America like to be good neighbors. But, at various times and places in our history, we have had sorry instances of mob sadism, lynchings, vigilantism, terror, and suppression of civil liberties. We have had our hooded gangs, Black Legions, Silver Shirts, and racial and religious bigots. All of them, in the name of Americanism, have used undemocratic methods and doctrines which experience has shown can be properly identified as "fascist." 

Can we afford to brush them off as mere crackpots? We once laughed Hitler off as a harmless little clown with a funny mustache. 

In January 1944, 30 Americans, many of them native born, were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on charges of conspiring with "the Nazi party to accomplish the objectives of said Nazi party in the United States." These objectives, according to the indictment, included undermining and impairing "the loyalty and morale of the military and naval forces of the United States." The case ended in a mistrial caused by the death of the presiding judge. The question of re-indictment is still under consideration. 

Whenever free governments anywhere fail to solve their basic economic and social problems, there is always the danger that a native brand of fascism will arise to exploit the situation and the people. 

Fascists in America may differ slightly from fascists in other countries, but there are a number of attitudes and practices that they have in common. Following are three. Every person who has one of them is not necessarily a fascist. But he is in a mental state that lends itself to the acceptance of fascist aims. 

1. Pitting of religious, racial, and economic groups against one another in order to break down national unity is a device of the "divide and conquer" technique used by Hitler to gain power in Germany and in other countries. With slight variations, to suit local conditions, fascists everywhere have used this Hitler method. In many countries, anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews) is a dominant device of fascism. In the United States, native fascists have often been anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-Negro, anti-Labor, anti- foreign-born. In South America, the native fascists use the same scapegoats except that they substitute anti-Protestantism for anti-Catholicism.

Interwoven with the "master race" theory of fascism is a well-planned "hate campaign" against minority races, religions, and other groups. To suit their particular needs and aims, fascists will use any one or a combination of such groups as a convenient scapegoat. 

2. Fascism cannot tolerate such religious and ethical concepts as the "brotherhood of man." Fascists deny the need for international cooperation. These ideas contradict the fascist theory of the "master race." The brotherhood of man implies that all people — regardless of color, race, creed, or nationality have rights. International cooperation, as expressed in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, runs counter to the fascist program of war and world domination.

In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations. Right now our native fascists are spreading anti-British, anti-Soviet, anti-French, and anti-United Nations propaganda. They know that allied unity now foretells the certain defeat of fascism abroad. They know that post-war allied unity means world peace and security. They realize that fascism cannot thrive or grow under these conditions. 

3. It is accurate to call a member of a communist party a "communist." For short, he is often called a "Red." Indiscriminate pinning of the label "Red" on people and proposals which one opposes is a common political device. It is a favorite trick of native as well as foreign fascists. 

Many fascists make the spurious claim that the world has but two choices — either fascism or communism, and they label as "communist" everyone who refuses to support them. By attacking our free enterprise, capitalist democracy and by denying the effectiveness of our way of life they hope to trap many people.

Hitler insisted that only fascism could save Europe and the world from the "communist menace." There were many people inside and outside Germany and Italy who welcomed and supported Hitler and Mussolini because they believed fascism was the only safe- guard against communism. The "Red bogey" was a convincing enough argument to help Hitler take and maintain power. The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, whose aggressions plunged the world into global war, was called the "Anti-Comintern Axis." It was proclaimed by Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito as a "bulwark against communism." 

Learning to identify native fascists and to detect their techniques is not easy. They plan it that way. But it is vitally important to learn to spot them, even though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy. (emphasis added)

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The thing to compare that with is modern American radical right authoritarianism (ARRA). The three major strains of ARRA vying for wealth and power are (1) DJT’s desire for dictatorship and armed with his demagoguery (dark free speech), (2) plutocrats armed with brass knuckles capitalist ideology and demagoguery, and (3) Christian fundamentalist theocrats armed with Christian nationalist dogma and demagoguery. All three are greedy and kleptocratic. None has much or any social conscience, including concern for the environment or for protecting civil liberties.

The Army’s description of fascist ideology and tactics sounds a lot like the ARRA wealth and power movement. But there seems to be two significant differences that I think I see.

• It is hard to see any form of the ARRA movement starting to commit mass murder once democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties have been snuffed out. Repression and oppression, yes, mass murder, no. However, at present that outcome cannot be predicted with a high degree of rational confidence. The odds seem to be low, but not zero.

• It is hard to see any form of the three-headed ARRA movement imploding and morphing into a single headed dictatorship that brutalizes and minimizes the power of the theocrats and plutocrats once democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties have been snuffed out. But, that too cannot be predicted with a high degree of rational confidence. If DJT gets replaced by a more competent and charismatic tyrant wannabe, a dictatorship only outcome becomes more plausible.

Other than those two apparent major differences, what the Army described in 1945 in terms of the fascist mindset and tactics sounds a lot like the mindset and tactics of the one, two or all three strains of the modern ARRA wealth and power movement. Prominent examples are, (i) ARRA propaganda routinely calls the Democratic Party socialist or communist, and (ii) DJT constantly claims the mantle of fighting for the little guy, despite being a blatant elitist who despises the rank and file who support him.

Q: What other significant differences are there between the fascist mindset and tactics and the mindset and tactics of the ARRA movement?

Thanks to Freeze Peach for bringing this gem to my attention.