FASCISM!

The U.S. Army’s 1945 Warning to Democracy

Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel serving in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, the series was designed “to help enlisted personnel become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers.”

On March 24, 1945, the topic of the week in Army Talks was “FASCISM!”

“You are away from home, separated from your families, no longer at a civilian job or at school, and many of you are risking your very lives,” the pamphlet explained, “because of a thing called fascism.” But what, the publication asked, is fascism? “Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze,” it continued, “nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it.”

Fascism, Army Talks explained, “is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state … The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.”

“The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence—democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law … Fascism treats women as mere breeders. ‘Children, kitchen, and the church,’ was the Nazi slogan for women,” the pamphlet said.

Fascists “make their own rules and change them when they choose … They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race,’ by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and ‘realistic’ to be pitiless and violent.”

Fascists understood that “the fundamental principle of democracy—faith in the common sense of the common people—was the direct opposite of the fascist principle of rule by the elite few,” it explained, “[s]o they fought democracy ... They played political, religious, social, and economic groups against each other and seized power while these groups struggled.”

Americans should not be fooled into thinking that fascism could not come to America, the pamphlet warned. After all, “[w]e once laughed Hitler off as a harmless little clown with a funny mustache.” And indeed, the United States had experienced “sorry instances of mob sadism, lynchings, vigilantism, terror, and suppression of civil liberties. We have had our hooded gangs, Black Legions, Silver Shirts, and racial and religious bigots. All of them, in the name of Americanism, have used undemocratic methods and doctrines which…can be properly identified as ‘fascist.’”

The War Department thought it was important for Americans to understand the tactics fascists might use to take power in the United States. They would seek power “under the guise of ‘super-patriotism’ and ‘super-Americanism.’” They would employ three techniques:

First, they would pit religious, racial, and economic groups against one another to break down national unity. Part of this divide-and-conquer effort would be a “well-planned ‘hate campaign’ against minority races, religions, and other groups.”

Second, they would reject the need for international cooperation because it conflicted with their insistence that their own nation and people were superior to everyone else. “In place of international cooperation, the fascists seek to substitute a perverted sort of ultra-nationalism which tells their people that they are the only people in the world who count. With this goes hatred and suspicion toward the people of all other nations.”

Third, fascists would insist that “the world has but two choices—either fascism or communism—and they label as ‘communists’ everyone who refuses to support them.”

It is “vitally important” to learn to spot native fascists, the pamphlet warned, “even though they adopt names and slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy.”

The only way to stop the rise of fascism in the United States “is by making our democracy work and by actively cooperating to preserve world peace and security.” In the midst of the insecurity of the modern world, the hatred at the root of fascism “fulfills a triple mission.” By dividing people, it weakens democracy. “By getting men to hate rather than to think,” it prevents them “from seeking the real cause and a democratic solution to the problem.” By falsely promising prosperity, it lures people into embracing its false sense of security.

“Fascism thrives on indifference and ignorance,” Army Talks cautioned. Freedom requires “being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our own freedom but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.”

Hitler’s successful transformation of Germany into a fascist state provides a warning that remains relevant to the threats facing democracy today. His goal was the creation of an empire that would dominate the world. Our task is the opposite: not to conquer, but to preserve democracy, and to make it stronger, fairer, and more worthy of the people it serves.