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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. The plot was exposed by the very U.S. middle and working classes. The elite circles involved Marine Corps general the Wall Street cabal thought in the Wall Street cabal established their own higher- they had recruited to lead the coup, Maj. Gen. Smed- level organizations to coordinate their own activities ley Butler, the man they sought to impose as dictator and the activities of the mass organizations which they on the United States. He played along with the plot, caused to come into being. and then immediately revealed the plot to President Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, and then ex- Wall Street’s Fascist ‘Liberty League’ posed it publicly in newspaper interviews and during But let me explain a little bit more about some of the testimony before a special investigative committee in forces behind this business plot. the United States House of Representatives, the Mc- Let me comment briefly on the activities of the so- Cormack-Dickstein Committee. The coup d’état was called “American Liberty League” (or simply “Liberty foiled. League”) organization, a powerful elite organization Nonetheless, this organization continued to operate, that the Wall Street cabal formed in 1933 and 1934, and publicly, and included very top leaders of both the which operated until 1940. I will place particular em- Democratic Party and the Republican Party. phasis on the relationship between the fascist U.S. or- So now we can see a picture developing in our inter- ganizations and their counterparts in Europe. nal politics in the 1930s, involving top-level Demo- The Liberty League was interfaced with a variety of cratic Party persons, including the chairman of the Na- fascist organizations, specifically modeled on European tional Democratic Party himself, even Al Smith, former Fascist organizations such as the French Croix de Feu. Democratic Party Presidential candidate, and top Re- The financial and big business interests behind the Lib- publican Congressmen and Senators, aligning against erty League in the United States paralleled and worked the New Deal, and aligning behind fascism. So this is a with the Confederazione dell’Industria—Olivetti, penetration of both political parties, which I would like Agnelli, and that cabal—that put Mussolini into power, us to bear in mind. and the Thyssen-Krupp-Voegeler-Flick network that The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was estab- put Hitler into power. lished to investigate the events of 1933-34 to determine The formation of the “American Liberty League” to what extent an actual coup plot, had been in motion. was announced on Aug. 23, 1934. Its intent was to over- The committee concluded there had been such a plot turn the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt, and but specific information and testimony as to the Wall

36 Strategy EIR March 20, 2009 Street connection was suppressed. According to the Street cabal and General Butler. MacGuire was em- Committee report: ployed as a bond salesman by Robert Sterling Clark (1877-1956), Yale graduate and heir to the Singer In the last few weeks of the committee’s official Sewing Machine fortune, and an art collector who lived life it received evidence showing that certain in Paris. MacGuire had been active in the American persons had made an attempt to establish a fas- Legion, a World War I veterans’ organization estab- cist government in this country. There is no ques- lished by the Morgan interests. tion that these attempts were discussed, were With Clark in the plot planned, and might have been placed in execu- was Grayson Mallet-Pre- tion when and if the financial backers deemed it vost Murphy, head of a expedient. This committee received evidence Wall Street brokerage from Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler (retired), house and director of twice decorated by the Congress of the United Morgan-aligned compa- States. He testified before the committee as to nies. Murphy, a founder of conversations with one Gerald C. MacGuire, in the American Legion, which the latter is alleged to have suggested the became the treasurer of formation of a fascist army under the leadership the Liberty League. of General Butler. Murphy, who was a grad- MacGuire denied these allegations under uate of West Point, had a oath, but your committee was able to verify all prior record of interna- the pertinent statements made by General tional intrigue and was Grayson Mallet-Prevost Butler, with the exception of the direct state- used by President Theo- Murphy ment suggesting the creation of the organiza- dore Roosevelt for secret tion. This, however, was corroborated in the missions, particularly in Latin America. correspondence of MacGuire with his princi- The American Legion war veterans’ organization pal, Robert Sterling Clark, of New York City, was established in 1919. The National Commander of while MacGuire was abroad studying the vari- the American Legion in 1922-23, Col. Alvin Owsley ous forms of veterans organizations of Fascist (1888-1967), put the matter clearly when he said, “If character. ever needed, the American Legion stands ready to pro- tect our country’s institutions and ideals as the Fascisti The work of this committee later led to the forma- dealt with the destruction- tion of the U.S. House Un-American Activities Com- ists who menaced Italy. mittee (HUAC) which was authorized to investigate Do not forget that the Fas- subversive Communist and fascist activity in the United cisti are to Italy what the States. Congressman John McCormack later became American Legion is to the Speaker of the House, United States.” In 1931, 1961-71. the National Commander With respect to the of the American Legion, Business Plot, certain fea- Ralph T. O’Neill, gave the tures deserve scrutiny. Italian Ambassador to the MacGuire, a Wall Street United States, a copy of a bond salesman, was re- resolution of the Ameri- cruited by a circle of fi- can Legion Executive nanciers to first collect in- Committee praising Mus- Col. Alvin Owsley formation in Europe in solini as a great leader. 1933 about the methods The president of the Liberty League was Jouett of Fascist organizations, Shouse (1879-1968), a former member of the U.S. Con- and then to be the inter- gress from Kansas (1915-19), and President Woodrow mediary between the Wall Robert Sterling Clark Wilson’s Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1919-20).

March 20, 2009 EIR Strategy 37 Shouse, a former chairman Farmers’ Independence Council, and the Sentinels of of the Democratic Party’s the Republic. National Executive Com- I want to give you a little flavor, just as an example, mittee, was married to a of the thinking of one of the participants in this business daughter of the Boston group, Mr. William Randolf Hearst, a well-known pub- merchant Filene family. lishing magnate in our country, who owned hundreds of The key members of the newspapers. Liberty League itself were Hearst’s involvement with the Liberty League is such business and financial significant. The Hearst interests interfaced with the fi- personalities as: William nancial interests of West Coast financier A.P. Giannini’s Knudson of General TransAmerica company, and Bank of America. This Motors; Nathan L. Miller, bank reportedly handled Mussolini’s financial interests counsel of U.S. Steel; Jouett Shouse in the United States. The Hearst interests also interfaced Irene, Pierre, and Lammot with the British imperial interests of Sir Henry Deterd- DuPont; Jacob Raskob of DuPont and General Motors, ing and his Royal Dutch Shell group, as well as with and the Hearst interests. Political personalities included Lord Rothermere’s interests in Canada. Deterding and former Gov. Al Smith of New York, the Democratic pres- Rothermere provided financial support to Sir Oswald idential candidate of 1928. Raskob was a former chair- Moseley’s Fascist movement in the United Kingdom. man of the Democratic Party National Committee. Deterding made use of the shipping company operated Closely associated with the activities of the Liberty by Hypolite Worms to move Royal Dutch Shell oil League, and its satellite action organizations such as the around the world. The Lazard Frères Paris office han- “Crusaders,” were influential members of the board of dled Royal Dutch Shell business in France. Further- the American Jewish Committee: Irving Lehman, of more, it was the Lazard group that organized the Banque Lehman Brothers; Lessing J. Rosenwald, chairman of Worms in the late 1920s. Sears Roebuck; Roger W. Strauss, director of Revere The Hearst interests controlled an important share Copper and Brass; Louis Edward Kirstein, vice presi- of the Remington Arms Corporation of which the dent of Filene’s; Joseph M. Proskauer, who was a direc- DuPont interests had the controlling share. Remington tor of the American Liberty League; Henry Ittleson, small arms were reportedly to have been made avail- who was president of the Commercial Investment Trust able to 500,000 para-military forces operating in the A.G. of Berlin; and Albert D. Lasker, who served on the service of the Business Plot which planned to seize Crusaders board. Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, by force. The American Jewish Committee was founded in For clarity, let me illustrate press baron William 1906 as a foreign-policy lobby group that focussed on Randolph Hearst’s attitude toward European Fascism human rights in Russia. Its publication Commentary, and National Socialism, a perspective also promoted by edited from 1960-95 by Norman Podhoretz, has been the Time-Life-Fortune publishing empire of Henry the leading vector for decades promoting so-called Luce. Let me quote Hearst, speaking in the 1930s: “neo-conservative” foreign policy and the destabiliza- tion of the Middle East. The fascist party of Italy was organized to quell As for the Crusaders organization I just mentioned, the disturbances and disorders of communism. it was an anti-labor organization opposed to New Deal The fascist party of Germany was organized for policies whose board included Albert D. Lasker, as just the same purpose. It was intended to and very noted; James P. Warburg; and John W. Davis (1873- likely did prevent Germany from going commu- 1955), legal counsel for the Morgan interests and U.S. nist and cooperating with Soviet Russia. This is Steel among others. Davis was the former Democratic the great policy, the great achievement that makes Party Presidential candidate in 1924, and lost to Repub- the Hitler regime popular with the German people. lican Calvin Coolidge. Prior to this he had served as the U.S. Ambassador at London, 1918-21. That’s probably the major publishing magnate in the Additional satellites of the Liberty League were: the United States during the 1930s. And if you just take a Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution, the look at Time magazine during the similar period, you

38 Strategy EIR March 20, 2009 will note that Mr. Mussolini’s of our earlier conferences here picture appeared on the cover of in Berlin. Let me just make a Time magazine five times. few brief comments today in The “Business Plot” conspir- that regard. Synarchy provided ators of 1933, with additional ideological orientation for Wall supporters, created the Liberty Street circles with respect to League in 1934. This time, the economic, political, and social objective was to combat the New organization. Deal and replace Roosevelt in For example, the American the Presidential election of 1936 Liberty League itself promoted by getting behind a Republican the social ideas of Dr. Alexis opponent, which came to be Carrel, French biologist and eu- Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas, a genicist associated with French moderate, and ironically, him- Synarchist circles. He had writ- self, a mild supporter of the New ten a number of best-selling Deal. Publicly, Landon—and the books in the 1930s. Carrel’s Republican Party—rejected Lib- controlling ideas were clearly erty League endorsement. expressed in his book Man, This Moderate advisors of Landon, Unknown (L’Homme cet In- however, were pushed aside connu), in which he argued for through Liberty League influ- mankind to follow the guidance ence. One case in point was Prof. Library of Congress of an elite class and to imple- William Randolph Hearst was part of the plot Andrew Cordier, who was advis- against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933-34. ment enforced eugenics for pop- ing Landon on foreign policy and He was the major publishing magnate in the ulation management. It was international relations. A few United States in the 1930s, and spoke approvingly Carrel who had first suggested years ago, a relative of mine, who of the fascist parties in Italy and Germany. the use of gas chambers for eu- was a friend of Cordier and one genic purposes on a mass basis. of his former students, told me the story of how the Lib- Carrel, in 1937, joined a well-funded French research erty League intrigued against the professor. But Cordier institute called the Centre d’Études des Problèmes Hu- went on to become Undersecretary of the United Na- mains (CEPH) operated by Jean Coutrot, an eminence tions in charge of the General Assembly and Related of the French Synarchy who also had ties to the British Affairs from 1946 to 1961. He then joined the faculty of Fabian Society via the Huxleys and others. Columbia University and rose to become its president. I would note in passing that Carrel’s ideas have in- As the 1936 election turned out, Roosevelt crushed fluenced the ideology of contemporary Islamic terror- Landon, although this did not stop the intrigues of the ism via Sayyed Qutb of the Egyptian Muslim Brother- Liberty League network and its successors. For example, hood and Maulana Maududi of the Pakistani during the Truman Administration, Dean Acheson (1893- Jamaat-i-Islaami. 1971), an influential Washington, D.C. attorney, became The word “Synarchy,” and its associated ideology, Secretary of State under President Truman. Acheson had was invented by the 19th-Century French occultist Al- been a member of the American Liberty League. exandre St. Yves d’Alveydre (1842-1909), who headed Is it any coincidence today that Condi Rice praises the esoteric Martinist Order. Born in 1842, he adopted Acheson and President Bush praises Truman? Certainly the outlook of leading European intellectuals of the ex- not. We can recall the close business connection between treme right, , , and the Bush family and pro-Nazi financial and industrial the mystical occultism of Fabre d’Olivet (1767-1825), circles in Germany, particularly the Thyssen interests. Napoleon’s personal occult advisor. St. Yves created an extreme right ideology to oppose Wall Street and Synarchy what he perceived to be “anarchy,” particularly what he How did all this come about? perceived to be anarchy among nations. He called his I mentioned the matter of “Synarchy” briefly at one new ideology “Synarchy” and revealed it in quite some

March 20, 2009 EIR Strategy 39 detail in his book Mission des Souverains, first pub- the framework of a so-called “National Security State.” lished in 1882. But the foundations for this were prepared for a number The economic dimension of Synarchy influenced of decades. the “corporatist” political ideologies and movements of After World War II, the so-called “Conservative the early 20th Century such as Fascism. Corporative Movement” in the United States undertook the penetra- ideology called for the organization of society with tion of the Republican Party. I would like to make it control held by the ruling oligarchic and plutocratic clear that the traditional Republican Party, as estab- class. Labor was to be crushed and parliamentary gov- lished by Abraham Lincoln, has nothing in common ernment was to be eliminated. with the radical right-wing ideology of the pre-World St. Yves’ vision for Europe, as outlined in Chapter War II Liberty League or the post-World War II “Con- XII of his book, called for organizing Europe through a servative Movement” and “New Right.” regional (Europe-wide) council composed of corpora- Nonetheless, today’s Republican Party is in the grip tive chambers of economists, financiers, and industrial- of the Wall Street-backed “Conservative Movement” ists. At the national level, each country would have such and “New Right” linked to a mass political base of reli- a council of its own. Through this process, finance and gious Fundamentalists committed to theocracy. industry would be concentrated, and become the main The post-World War II “Conservative Movement” political power governing society, a society in which and “New Right” are nothing more than the pre-war labor was to be coerced into submission. Liberty League operation in a more sophisticated form. After World War I, we find in Europe the establish- The Presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater in ment of a number of Fascist movements beginning with 1960 opened the door to a penetration of the Republi- Mussolini in Italy in 1919, but then spreading to France, can Party by the “Conservative Movement.” As I Italy, Spain, , and elsewhere. A remarkable fea- pointed out in my paper here this March, the Nixon ture of this political phenomenon was the spread of Administration, influenced in particular by George secret underground networks promoting Synarchy in Shultz and his circle, took a dramatic turn toward the order to create Fascist states and five Fascist regional erection of an imperial Presidency and National Secu- blocs such as Pan-Europe, Pan-America, Pan-Eurasia, rity State. Pan-Asia, and a Fascist British Commonwealth. Today, the Bush Administration, unfortunately, rep- One significant vector in all this was the esoteric licates the Nixon Administration, but is worse. Martinist Order, which penetrated many regular free- Radical Right ideology is promoted through the masonic lodges, creating a certain dangerous dissi- organized intellectual activity funded by a small dence. The French Synarchists formed their secret po- group of private foundations backing a so-called litical society in 1922 which was called the Mouvement “conservative” and “neo-conservative” ideology that Synarchique d’Empire, as the French police and intel- is, in fact, similar to the European Fascist ideology of ligence services discovered over a decade later. the 1920s and 1930s. These foundations include: the This overall political phenomenon can be justly Bradley Foundation, the Koch Foundations, the Smith viewed as a continuation of the well-organized 19th- Richardson Foundation, and the Olin Foundation. As- Century reaction against progressive liberal fraternal sociated “think tanks” would include the Heritage organizations and political movements that fought for Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, national unity, democracy, constitutionalism, and par- both of Washington, D.C. These organizations are, in liamentary government. One significant feature of 19th- essence, continuing the work of the American Liberty Century European politics was the creation of what we League. can characterize as police states based to a large degree The main intent, of either the American version of on the Napoleonic model. In the 20th Century, police fascism, or the European version, is to increase the states reemerge under republican guise. power and influence of international finance and big business in the internal politics of the United States, Fascist Ideology: The U.S. ‘Conservative first by attacking state institutions and their proper role Movement’ and ‘New Right’ of oversight and regulation and, secondly by coercing Since 9/11, we can see an incipient police-state pro- labor. Promotion of the so-called “Chicago School” and cess developing more openly in the United States under “Austrian School” of economics is one method used in

40 Strategy EIR March 20, 2009 this program to promote oligarchic and plutocratic eco- frank and say the Federalist Society for over two de- nomic and political power. A significant consequence cades had been reviving the “Führerprinzip.” of this process for external policy is, of course, the pro- I discussed the revival of Carl Schmitt’s foreign motion of an imperial foreign policy in the service of policy concepts by Paul Nitze, and others, here in international finance and big business, and the promo- March. These concepts include the concept of perma- tion of so-called “globalization” to empower a certain nent “enmity” and “enemies,” and the necessity for transnational oligarchy. “states of emergency.” Such ideas were derived in part Key features of the contemporary “New Right” and from the writings of the Gustav Ratzenhofer (1842- “neo-conservative” ideology in the United States are 1904), an Austrian General and Social Darwinist soci- drawn from three main European sources: Italian na- ologist. tionalism and Fascism, French Integralism, and German We can place the American Christian Right today National Socialism. within the context of the Gleichschaltung [Nazification With respect to Italian nationalism and Fascism, we of all institutions] of 1933 and the formation of the can see the influence of Michael Ledeen, a specialist on Protestant Reich Church. I would suggest that the 25 Italian political thought, who is a major neo-conserva- million hard-core fundamentalists forming President tive thinker in the United States. neo-conservatives, Bush’s “political base” in the United States—the 16 who control our foreign policy, by the way, appear to million Southern Baptists, in particular, and another 9 incorporate elements of the nationalist thought of million Adventists and Pentacostalists, for example— Enrico Corradini (1865-1931) together with the Fascist parallel, although in a different form and in a different program of Benito Mussolini. Most striking is the neo- time, the German Reich Church. conservative call for the United States to have a foreign In closing, I would like to suggest, with a sense of policy of “national greatness,” which is precisely the some urgency, that colleagues here make an effort in formulation of Corradini that inspired two Italian impe- their research and writing to focus on comparative study rial wars against Ethiopia. One can argue that, for the of contemporary United States internal politics, and ex- neo-conservatives, Iraq is Mussolini’s Ethiopia policy ternal policy, with that of International Fascism of the revisited. 1920s and 1930s. The French integralism of is paral- Let me again quote Harold Ickes, the man who organ­ leled in the American “New Right,” in both Protestant ized progressive Republican support for President and Catholic manifestations. Maurras himself was Roosevelt and the New Deal. Being a Republican, I like linked to the Martinist Order through his friendship to quote Mr. Ickes. In 1943, in the middle of World War with its then Grand Master, Gérard Encausse (1865- II, he said: 1916), who was a follower of St. Yves d’Alveydre. The Christian Coalition organization which emerged in We should never forget that, in an era of unrest, 1988, is but one example. In the last few years, we have a demagogue even as fantastic as Hitler first ap- seen a revival of the ideas of the integralist Catholic, peared to be can develop at such a pace that, Jean Ousset, himself a vector of Synarchy, and once the before we realize it, he is beyond our catching. private secretary of Charles Maurras, and, some French There are men here, and in England and in France colleagues inform me, that Mr. Ousset’s operations as well, who believe in their hearts that a dicta- after World War II, were financed by the Banque Worms torship is more desirable than democratic self- group. government. . . . That type of American big busi- With respect to German Fascism, we can see in the ness and concentrated wealth are not afraid of a United States today the revival, over the last several de- dictatorship, even such a one as Hitler’s, is at- cades, of the ideology of Carl Schmitt, the Nazi jurist. tested by recent shocking disclosures with re- This ideology, many believe, is directly responsible for spect to secret and intimate business alliances the police-state stance taken by the neo-fascist “Feder- between them and German big business-alli- alist Society” of lawyers, established in the United ances that deliberately strike at the common States in 1982, who have worked inside and outside the man. Bush Administration to erect what they call the “Uni- tary Executive.” In Berlin today, I think we should be @2006 by Clifford A. Kiracofe, Jr. All Rights Reserved

March 20, 2009 EIR Strategy 41