The U.S. anti-Communist crackdowns are remembered disapprovingly as "Red Scares". The use of similar methods against Nazi supporters during the Second World War is rarely described as a "Brown Scare". Why?
This is an extremely well-researched and detailed article. I was surprised you did not mention the role of the British Security Corporation, an undercover British propaganda operation. Among other things, it worked to discredit isolationist congressmen including Hamilton Fish. The existence of the BSC was revealed in 1997, with the publication of Nigel West Ed.
British Security Corporation: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940-1945.h
This espionage was carried out with FDR’s support. The BSC worked with an American interventionist group called Fight for Freedom. The book Desperate Deception by Thomas Mahl provides more detail as well. Also The Irregulars by Jennet Conant.
Thank you. And for the tip; may follow this up in another post. As the word count exploded with this piece, this area was one of the areas that got sacrificed, to try to keep the focus tighter. I left in an allusion to the British involvement in Massachusetts, but that had originally been a paragraph and more ... could see a whole new abyss opening up before me.
One of the points made by Mahl is that the British didn’t just want the US to enter the war; they wanted the US to remain involved globally after the war - they didn’t want a return to US isolationism but wanted a close postwar partner. Many Americans didn’t trust the British (colonial empire etc) so the BSC had to create a new feeling of alliance and partnership.
George Sylvester Viereck was a German propagandist in WWI. Am reasonably certain that Fritz Duquesne and Elsbeth Schragmüller were the principal inspirations for the spy couple in the 1969 classic 'Fräulein Doktor.' Then there is Fritz von Pappen, the ridiculous WWI German spymaster in the US who became Hitler's vice chancellor. There are enough links between the two German influence campaigns ("German Scares"?) that a clever historian could write a single book about them both.
This is an extremely well-researched and detailed article. I was surprised you did not mention the role of the British Security Corporation, an undercover British propaganda operation. Among other things, it worked to discredit isolationist congressmen including Hamilton Fish. The existence of the BSC was revealed in 1997, with the publication of Nigel West Ed.
British Security Corporation: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940-1945.h
This espionage was carried out with FDR’s support. The BSC worked with an American interventionist group called Fight for Freedom. The book Desperate Deception by Thomas Mahl provides more detail as well. Also The Irregulars by Jennet Conant.
Thank you. And for the tip; may follow this up in another post. As the word count exploded with this piece, this area was one of the areas that got sacrificed, to try to keep the focus tighter. I left in an allusion to the British involvement in Massachusetts, but that had originally been a paragraph and more ... could see a whole new abyss opening up before me.
It’s an incredibly complicated time in history - your piece encompasses an incredible amount of information.
So difficult to convey even in so many words.
One of the points made by Mahl is that the British didn’t just want the US to enter the war; they wanted the US to remain involved globally after the war - they didn’t want a return to US isolationism but wanted a close postwar partner. Many Americans didn’t trust the British (colonial empire etc) so the BSC had to create a new feeling of alliance and partnership.
George Sylvester Viereck was a German propagandist in WWI. Am reasonably certain that Fritz Duquesne and Elsbeth Schragmüller were the principal inspirations for the spy couple in the 1969 classic 'Fräulein Doktor.' Then there is Fritz von Pappen, the ridiculous WWI German spymaster in the US who became Hitler's vice chancellor. There are enough links between the two German influence campaigns ("German Scares"?) that a clever historian could write a single book about them both.