UNDER COVER My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld of America The
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UNDER COVER My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld of America The Amazing Revelation of How Axis Agents and Our Enemies Within Are Now Plotting to Destroy the United States By JOHN ROY CARLSON Dedicated to SAM and STEVE, ROY and JOHN and to those other official under cover men and women who, unnamed and unsung, are fighting the common enemy of Democracy on the military front abroad and the psychological front at home As investigator of subversive activity, the author joined or be- came affiliated with many self-styled "patriotic" groups, some ofwhich are liste d below. The endpaper pattern was based on hismembership cards and buttons. American National-Socialist Party German-American Bund Christian Front The Ultra-American Nationalist Party American Nationalist Party American Women Against Communism The Gray Shirts America First Committee No Foreign War Committee Christian Mobilizers American Destiny Party American Brotherhood of Christians Congress The Ethiopian Pacific Movement Citizens Protective League Social Justice Distributors Club The American Defense Society Anglo-Saxon Federation of America Paul Revere Sentinels Ra-Con Klub Crusaders for Americanism, Inc. We the Fathers, Auxiliary to We the Mothers Mobilize for America The Christian Mobilizer Phalanx, PAX (secret gun club) National Workers League Yankee Freemen Cross and the Flag Committee of One Million Flanders Hall, Nazi publishers American Patriots American Bulletin National Gentile League CONTENTS Page Author's Preface BOOK IBEFORE PEARL HARBOR Chapter i. A Black Christmas 15 ii. School at Stahrenberg's 22 iii. The Hate Crusade 38 iv. Coughlin's "Christian Crusade" 54 v. Native Fuehrer 70 vi. Drilling for Der Tag 91 vii. Puppets of Adolf Hitler 108 vni. The Pied Pipers of "Patriotism" 132 ix. Hitler and Hirohito in Harlem 154 x. Poison in the Pulpit 164 xi. Spies! 177 XII. Park Avenue "Patriots" 187 xiii. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle 211 xiv. Behold Our Liberators! 227 xv. America's Doom Squad 239 BOOK IIAFTER PEARL HARBOR i. Underground 263 ii. The Bill of Rights-Heil! 277 iii. Inner Circle of the N.W.L. 291 7 8 CONTENTS Chapter Page iv. Outer Circle of the N.W.L. 304 v. Detroit Is Dynamite 321 vi. Fake Yankees 337 VII. Serpents and Vipers 357 VIII. The Mormon City 373 ix. Midwest Roundup 386 x. Attorney General Biddle Cracks Down 409 xi. Proselytes of the "New Order" 417 XII. Treason in Liberty's Cradle 439 xiii. Grave Diggers of Democracy 456 xiv. Liberty's Hangmen 481 xv. Democracy Must Win the Peace! 501 Index 523 Four-page photographic insert between pages 264 and 265 AUTHOR'S PREFACE "Thunder on! stride on, Democracy! Strike with vengeful stroke!" WALT WHITMAN "UNDER COVER" is not so much an expose of the work ofalien Nazi or Fascist agent s as it is, ultimately, a warning to America of those factors which have led to the developmentof a nativist, nationa list, American Nazi or American Fascist movement which, like a spearhead, is poised to stab at Democracy. Defeatist and dissensionist propaganda continues while our country is at war, despite the arrest of nearly all the known foreign agents. This is not surprising. The Kuhns and Vierecksturned the torch o ver to the Pelleys and Laura Ingallses, and these American-born operatives of a foreign power symbolically relayed it to the thirty-three men and women indicted on charges of sedition. Unfortunately, the trail that may lead to the destruction of Democracy does not end, but actually begins with these thirty-three men and women. Their missionary efforts and the misguided zeal of a thousand others like them still at large, have permeated deep into the American mind. And after many refining processes, the viewpoints originally promotedby the Kuhns and Vier ecks and Shishmarovas have becomepalatable to many Americans whenever mouthed by neighbors without an accent. In the course of my investigations, I found that many otherwise fine Americans were propagating the lies and the "party line" originally advanced by Hitler's agents and doing it sincerely in what they believed to be good Americanism. This state of mindthe most dangerous obstacle to Amer- ica's future Democracycould become a fatal issue when we are seated around the peace table, and be a factor in influenc- AUTHOR'S PREFACE ing us to lose the peace after winning the war. It was to helpillustrate the man y facets of this "clear and present" dangerof Nazified "Americanism" that I unde rtook to live, then write Under Cover. I want my fellow Americans to learn torecognize the American Fascist whenever he drapes the flag around himself, and to detect his Nazi mouthings regardless of how subtle his approach. I have applied the terms fascist, fascist-minded, nationalist, American Fascist and American Nazi to those who, according to the record, have subverted Democracy by morally or financially supporting the racial, political or social doctrines of Hitler's National-Socialism, Mussolini's corporate-state Fascism or Franco's clericalist-Falangism; and have promoted an American species of Axis ideology in the name of super "patriotism" and super "Americanism." Actual member- ship in authoritarian regimes is not necessary for an American, native-born or naturalized, to qualify as fascist-minded. I regard as blasphemy the stunt of those "super-patriots" who seek to whitewash their native Nazism by falling back on ancestors who died in order that Democracy might live. One need only recall that Major Vidkun Quisling was a "pure-blooded" Norwegian, and Pierre Laval was a "pureblooded" Frenchman from the heart of Auvergne, to realize that "Democracy" like "fascism" is a state of mind, not of physical boundaries or hallowed ancestry. My criterion for true patriotism is found in Elihu Root's definition: True love of country is not mere blind partisanship. It is regard for the people of one's country and all of them; it is a feeling offellowship an d brotherhood for all of them; it is a desire for the prosperity and happiness of all of them; it is kindly and con- siderate judgment toward all of them. The essential condition oftrue progress is that it shall be based upon grounds of reason, and not of prejudice. This definition differs so radically from the "patriotism" of American Fascists that if I know them at all, I am certain they will eventually brand Elihu Root either as a Jew, a Communist, or both. They will manage it somehow. I an- ticipate the same compliment myself. AUTHOR'S PREFACE 11 "Under Cover" went through many adventures before it was ready to see the light in the form of printer's ink. I began writing it almost as soon as I started my investigations, since it was with a book in mind that I continued in my work. In nearly four and a half years I estimate that I've written about five million words. My files on the Christian Mobilizers alone contain more than 175 individual reports totalling 250,000 words. It was inevitable that this mass outpouring "in the heat of battle," should have affected my writing. Consequently I tried to work with a collaborator in the preparation of Under Cover, but after a few weeks we parted company and once again I started out from scratch. I've had many offers of help on the part of groups and individuals who, while well-meaning and engaged in the demo- cratic cause, each had an obvious axe to grind. All extraneous "advice" and "suggestions"one of which included the deletion of three consecutive chapters now in Book IIwere po- litely rejected, and the independence of the writing main- tained. For better or worse, this book is the author's own work, though of course it has gone through a certain amount of editorial trimming and pruning. I am grateful for the moral support and foresight of a number of friends, who I hope will remain my friends after read- ing Under Cover. I am indebted to the publishers of Fortune magazine, and in particular to Russell W. Davenport, then its managing editor, for engaging me early in 1939 to make a preliminary survey of the New York fascist scene. That is how I happened to get my start. I am indebted to the patient and kindly Reverend L. M. Birkhead for his permission to use the extensive and orderly files of his militant organization, Friends of Democracy, for some of my background material. I am indebted to Joseph Roos of Los Angeles for information on West Coast Nazis; to Kenneth M. Birkhead (now in the army), Mrs. Marion Hart and Miss Anne Simmons. I wish also to pay my grateful respects to E. G. Morris for his zealous and untiring efforts in my behalf over a period of two years. He has been my friend as well as my literary agent. AUTHOR'S PREFACE And, finally, I wish to pay tribute to the loving inspiration of Marie and Robert, without which this book would never have been realized nor, indeed, could I have survived the ex- perience of living it. April 9, 1943 BOOK ONE BEFORE PEARL HARBOR "We National Socialists have never maintained that w were representatives of a democratic viewpoint, but w have openly declared that w only made use of democratic means in order to gain paver, and that after the seizure of power we would ruthlessly deny to our oppo- nents all those means which they had granted to us during the time of our opposition. PROPAGANDA MINISTER DR. PAUL JOSEPH GOEB- BELS CHAPTER I A BLACK CHRISTMAS "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE MY STORY actually begins in December, 1933, with an episode that blazed across newspaper headlines for months thereafter.