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Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 36, Number 11, March 20, 2009 At the international level, we see the emerging mul- tipolar environment developing. Russia is coming back from the trauma of the 1990s, China and India are rising, The U.S.A.: Fascism and Europe, despite its internal situation, remains none- theless an international factor of undeniable impor- Past and Present tance. We are not living in the so-called “unipolar world” by Clifford A. Kiracofe, Jr. fantasy of the American neo-conservatives and that part of the imperial faction influenced by such delu- sional policy ideas. We are living in an emerging mul- Dr. Clifford A. Kiracofe, Jr. presented the paper ex- tipolar international environment which does now, cerpted here to a June 21, 2006 New Bretton Woods and will increasingly, place constraints on United Seminar hosted by EIR in Berlin. Dr. Kiracofe is a States foreign policy, particularly as the extent of former senior professional staff member of the U.S. American internal economic and social weakness and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. His extempo- vulnerability become apparent. External polling data, raneous comments as he delivered his address, are since 2003, shows a collapse of United States prestige included. The full paper, including footnotes, was worldwide as a result of the war on Iraq and other re- published in EIR, July 7, 2006, and is available at lated factors. http://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/full_eir_pdfs.html. The imperial faction has yet to adjust itself to in- ternational reality, and this impairs U.S. national se- I would like to try to give some historical context to the curity, in the short, medium, and long term. The im- current political situation we find ourselves in, in the perial faction continues to attempt to consolidate a United States, and also to try to establish some linkages transnational oligarchy subservient to Washington, or relationships, in a historical context, between Euro- through such mechanisms as the Bilderberg Group, pean Fascism, and fascism as it has evolved in the the Trilateral Commission, and the Davos Group, United States this past century. among others. Dollar-based globalization is another In today’s political situation in the United States we mechanism. But there is resistance as, for example, are, in effect, confronting the same forces that attempted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization indicates, to impose overt fascist rule in the United States during and certainly, there are additional calls for a New the 1930s. This is a story that is not widely known in Bretton Woods to manage our international financial Europe, or even in the United States. Back then, begin- system. ning in 1933, for example, a cabal of Wall Street finan- Rather than orient United States diplomacy to play a ciers and industrialists, who were enthusiastic supporters constructive role in organizing the emerging multipolar of Italian Fascism and the German National Socialism, world on Westphalian principles, the Bush White House, plotted a coup d’état against President Franklin Roos- since 2001, has sought to impose its concept of unilat- evelt and our constitutional form of government. eral global hegemony, with disastrous consequences. My paper today considers briefly the following major points: first, the current international situation The Rise of Fascism in United States Politics and United States imperial policy; second, the rise of What is fascism? As one succinct definition has it: fascism in United States politics; third, Wall Street’s at- “Fascism is the open terrorist dictatorship of the most tempted fascist coup d’état of 1934; fourth, Wall Street reactionary, most chauvinist, and most imperialist ele- and European Fascism, particularly Synarchy; and fifth, ments of finance capital.” contemporary American fascist ideology and the post- What are the main features of fascism? They in- World War II era, that is to say, the “Conservative clude: the rise of a demagogic leader sponsored by a Movement” and “New Right” in the United States. plutocratic oligarchy, the curtailment of civil liberties, the elimination of a free press, the emasculation of labor U.S. Imperialism Constrained and the labor movement, and the destruction of intel- What is the current context of United States imperi- lectual and political opposition. alism? How did this come about? Let’s take a look at the 34 Strategy EIR March 20, 2009 © 2009 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. cism has not been quarantined, but that it is capable of leaping wide oceans. Well, what happened back in the 1930s? I would just interject, parenthetically, that this is a time when our current President’s grandfather was quite active on Wall Street—that family was quite active on Wall Street. As I said at the outset, in to- day’s political situation in the United States we are, in effect, confronting the same forces that attempted to impose fascism in the United States during the 1930s. Back then, beginning in 1933, a U.S. Ambassador to Germany William E. Dodd warned in 1937 that he had witnessed cabal of Wall Street financiers and “how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime. They extended industrialists, who were enthusi- aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there.” astic supporters of International Shown: The Nazi SS on parade in Nuremberg. Fascism in Italy and Germany, and were well introduced to the 1930s in the United States, the political situation then, higher circles of Europe, supported various move- which involved the rise of an American form of fas- ments of international Fascism in Germany, France, cism, unfortunately. Italy, and England. Many of the American business- Prof. Gaetano Salvemini, a famous anti-Fascist in- men involved, were intimately involved in business ar- tellectual and member of the Italian Socialist Party, rangements with these very European financial and in- warned of a “new brand of fascism” in the United States. dustrial circles. This cabal plotted a coup d’état against While teaching in exile at Harvard, during the 1930s, he President Franklin Roosevelt and our Constitution. Let pointed to what he called “fascism of corporate busi- me recall the words of Ambassador William E. Dodd, ness enterprise in this country.” Franklin Roosevelt’s Ambassador to Germany. While Other voices in the 1930s, confronting the fascist here in our embassy, he watched American business- challenge, were heard from members of President men, one after the other, come to Germany in support Roosevelt’s own Cabinet. of the Hitler regime. In 1937, he referred to the Ameri- Harold Ickes (1874-1952), a Progressive Republi- can section of the transnational fascist oligarchy of the can who served in Franklin Roosevelt’s Cabinet during era as follows: the New Deal, forcefully condemned fascism in a speech to the American Civil Liberties Union on Dec. A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to 8, 1937. He pointed to “the ability and willingness to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic turn the concentrated wealth of America against the government and is working closely with the fas- welfare of America.” He said, cist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to wit- Let no one sleepily believe that our democratic ness how close some of our American ruling form of government is necessarily secure for all families are to the Nazi regime. They extended time to come. We have seen dictatorships in aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, other lands reach out and destroy constitutional and they are helping to keep it there. democracies, states combine not for protection but for aggression. We have discovered that Fas- Fortunately, the 1933-34 coup plot was foiled by March 20, 2009 EIR Strategy 35 President Roosevelt. But after Roosevelt’s death, the the Constitution. The leadership of the organization cabal was able to continue its program for a fascist and comprised prominent members of the Wall Street plu- imperial America during the Truman Administration, tocracy and a number of prominent politicians, Demo- through the Cold War era, and down to today’s White crat and Republican. House and Congress. This American Liberty League was to impose a fas- Simply put, upon Franklin Roosevelt’s election in cist form of government on the United States, by work- 1932, the Wall Street cabal took a decision to use strat- ing behind the scenes to influence developments in high egies and methods that had been used by Fascist circles politics. in Europe, to gain influence and political power. The Among the key Wall Street and big business inter- Wall Street cabal was well introduced into the higher ests behind the Liberty League were the House of circles in Europe that supported the various move- Morgan, the DuPonts, and the Kuhn Loeb investment- ments of International Fascism, and the Nazi move- banking interests. Representatives of industrial inter- ment, in Germany, France, Italy, and England, because ests such as General Motors (controlled by DuPont in- many of the American businessmen involved in the terests), U.S. Steel (linked to the Morgan interests), and Wall Street cabal were intimately involved in business Remington Arms (controlled by DuPont) were also arrangements with these European financial and indus- deeply involved. The publishing industry was repre- trial circles. sented by the Hearst interests. The strategies and methods of which I am speaking Members of the Liberty League organization were include the formation of action committees and mass part of the prior “Business Plot” of 1933-34 which movements, including violent organizations, which in- had planned an armed coup d’état against President volved political as well as religious appeals to the Roosevelt.

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