(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Foreign Influence: the Battle for American Hearts and Minds in the 1930s [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-19 In this reality warp, FDR shows how to do a winning propaganda counter-strike The Players The American political landscape was a battleground of persuasion years before the start of World War II. Both Italy and Germany tried to sway U.S. public opinion with propaganda. Mussolini’s propaganda was directed at U.S. Italian immigrants, who liked the idea of a strong leader back home. Germany wanted U.S. citizens to support isolationism and keep the U.S. out of the impending war. Germany worked through the German American Bund, an organization ostensibly created to promote German culture. But there was another group very interested in American’s growing antisemitic sentiment: Jewish gangsters. They recognized the language from their families’ experiences back in Europe. The corrupt New York political machine known as Tammany Hall was run by these criminal groups and was part of the system of combat for the gangsters. Share Persuasion Tactics Laws Attorneys affiliated with the German American Bund advocated for laws to deny American Jews business ownership and property rights. The United States, New York and New Jersey passed laws that forced the Bund to declare itself as an agent of a foreign government. Cultural Events The Bund printed pamphlets and newsletters and sponsored cultural events like children’s summer camps, German singing festivals and “German days” to recruit German-Americans to the Nazi cause. 250,000 people were on the German-American Bund mailing list at one time. And they flew the Nazi flag at every event. Fists Prominent Jewish gangsters, having escaped pogroms in Europe, knew what was happening. So Meyer Lansky would send his enforcers to beat up Nazi rally attendees. The early American Nazi movement was a specific target of the Jewish mob. Sunlight When it became public that the money supporting Nazi events in the U.S. was from Germany, and not from Americans, it severely hurt the effectiveness of the Bund’s propaganda. A law was passed a law to stop foreign funding of these German American Bund events. Then the Bund got American-born citizens of German ancestry to organize the work. After that, Lansky pushed for the Alien Registration Bill with his Tammany Hall political influence that required the German American Bund to register as foreign agents. The Neutrality Acts, supported by FDR, embargoed weapons and shipping to Nazi Germany which hurt them financially. Thanks for reading The Tell with Christine Axsmith! This part of the post is public so feel free to share it. Share An Anti-Nazi law in New Jersey made it illegal to appear in public in a military uniform similar to one of a foreign government. The effect of that law was that “the Nazis couldn’t have their dress-up military and spy training communities for children masquerading as camps.” (see podcast The World Beneath, ep. 13) Misuse of American Patriotism All this pushback was raising anti-Nazi sentiment. So the German American Bund tried another tactic. They connected Hitler and George Washington in people’s minds by saying Hitler did so much for Germany that he was just like George Washington. Now being a Nazi was patriotic and Nazi rallies were held in the U.S. on George Washington’s birthday. Over 20,000 Americans did the Nazi salute to George Washington in Madison Square Garden during one of these events. Speakers started calling Roosevelt “Roosefelt” and accused him of being in the pocket of rich Jews. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat of February, 1942 The Tell with Christine Axsmith is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In a rhetorical counter-strike after the U.S. entered World War II, President Roosevelt reminded that nation of George Washington’s moral stamina, and how American that is during his 1942 fireside chat. [George] Washington's conduct in those hard times has provided the model for all Americans ever since- a model of moral stamina. He held to his course, as it had been charted in the Declaration of Independence. He and the brave men who served with him knew that no man's life or fortune was secure, without freedom and free institutions. The present great struggle has taught us increasingly that freedom of person and security of property anywhere in the world depend upon the security of the rights and obligations of liberty and justice everywhere in the world. FDR then systematically undermined isolationism by explaining how allowing the U.S. to be disconnected from the world would lead to certain war with Japan and Germany after they have gained significant advantage. He also decried defeatist propaganda from the Axis about our Navy being destroyed: Almost every Axis broadcast--Berlin, Rome, Tokyo--directly quotes Americans who, by speech or in the press, make damnable misstatements such as these. But they do not wish to help the enemy any more than our fighting forces do; and they will pay little attention to the rumormongers and the poison peddlers in our midst. FDR tied isolationists to un-Americanism and accuses them of supporting the side that bombed our Naval ships in Hawaii. The Axis propagandists have tried in various evil ways to destroy our determination and our morale. Roosevelt called isolationists “summer soldier” and “sunshine patriot,” and exactly the kind of fear that George Washington himself had to contend with. With one speech, FDR associated isolationism with tactical stupidity and fair-weather patriotism, as well as anyone who repeated stories about American forces being depleted. It was a master move, one well worth studying to understand the very high stakes of persuasion in those years. Share The Tell with Christine Axsmith Much of this article is based on episode 13 of the podcast The World Beneath. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/19/2264224/-Foreign-Influence-the-Battle-for-American-Hearts-and-Minds-in-the-1930s?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/