Prelude to War: The Allies (Part I)

Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, was determined to keep Britain out of war. He acquiesced to the Nazi annexation of Poland, prompting some of his fellow MPs to split, and causing his “National Government” to collapse. He pledged to not interfere on either side when the USSR was invaded by Germany.

Even despite the reports of horrific oppression and growing discontent within his own party (especially Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden), Halifax attempted to “appease” Hitler, trying to avoid the “loss of life” during a new Great War. Halifax’s appeasement would be the rallying call for the British fascist and anti-war movement, especially the aristocratic “Blueshirts”, or the Fascist Unionist faction of the Conservative-Unionist Party” and the raucous “Blackshirts” or William Joyce’s “National Socialist and Fascist League”, both of who made clear they would like to see a German-British alliance to destroy Comintern, but accepted appeasement as a stop-gap towards that goal.

While Halifax tried to dispel the image of Nazi sympathy in his appeasement policy by expelling the Blueshirts from his cabinet and distanced himself from any fascist associations, the Blueshirts and Blackshirts did have one prominent ally in government: His Royal Highness Edward VIII. Edward, already outspoken in his support for Hitler, ramped up his campaign against intervention, along with his wife Wallis, Princess Consort. The American expatriate was rumored to have had a strong influence on Edward, pushing him to fight intervention more vigorously because of the fear of “Mongrelization” from communism. Edward began make comments attacking interventionialism as a communist plot, downplaying Nazi atrocities, and trying to push to deescalate military build-up.

In the most notorious of his various outbursts, Edward VIII would even push this line during a visit to the Dunberry Boys School in Belfast, where he accused four groups of trying to push Britain towards war: “a growing constituency of pro-war politicians such as [Winston] Churchill and [Clement] Attlee, communists and their American-Soviet masters, certain capitalists and war profiteers, and a cabal of persons of Central and Eastern European Jewish origins who control our motion picture, radio, and newspaper businesses”.

To even some allies, Edward’s comments said the quiet part too loud. Edward would be denounced for his comments even within members of the Royal Family, who forced an apology out of him a few days later. Even then, Edward would remain defiant, commenting days later to a friend, “It is not antisemitic to state the fact Jews make up a large portion of the communist, war-profiteering, and anti-war circles, nor does it diminish to imply they have a vested interest in war with Germany, for any number of reasons.”

For the two politicians, Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill, oft mentioned in Edward’s rants, the political odd couple had found common ground in their advocacy of war with Germany. Churchill, represented Conservatives who believed that British hegemony was under threat by German aggression. Meanwhile, Attlee represented Labour’s left-wing who were concerned about widespread atrocities on the front and were more than a little sympathetic to fellow socialists in America and Russia.

The two and their respective contingencies already formed a de facto alliance to push increases in defense spending and military preparedness, and they were already gaining public support. However, Halifax stayed the course, conceding only military preparedness as a means of defence.

Attlee and Churchill were bolstered in the pro-war camp by Oswald Mosley and his New Party. Both pro-imperialist and left-leaning, Mosley bridged the gap between the two, framing the war as both protecting the British working class from the atrocities of Nazism and ensuring Britain remains the main power in Europe.

Mosley would make a strong case for war on May 18th, 1941, in a radio address, stating “What remains to be seen is whether Britons will wake up and ensure that we play our part, and in doing so ensure a world that will not only see Britannia rule the waves for a thousand years hence, but where she can be part of building a new; peaceful world greater than anything that has come before,” which would make him a target for his longtime rivals, the Blackshirts, who regarded him as a traitor.

Of course, the Commonwealth Workers’ Party, now under the leadership of Comintern loyalist Rajani Palme Dutt, strongly supported entry into the war, and joined the growing pro-war coalition, encouraging party members to back Attlee or Labour if they couldn’t support their local CWP members.

Dutt was encouraged by J. Peters, the head of Comintern’s OMS, to pursue a Popular Front to push British involvement into the war. Dutt was forced to abandon the previous anti-Labour, anti-Tory stance of his party and worked even with the dreaded “Social Fascists” to push the pro-war stance in parliament.

Across the Channel, Peters pushed the French Section of Communist International (SFIC) to retain the Left Bloc arrangement with SFIO prime minister Leon Blum, despite initial fears that there might be a split. This allowed it to survive another election, though the Right and Centre did make significant gains.

This prevented Blum at first from continuing his anti-German foreign policy, especially with the Right supporting appeasement, and the far-right outright supporting Germany. The latter sentiment was especially strong in the military, coalescing in the figure of war hero Marshal Phillippe Petain, who would become the figurehead for military discontent with Blum.

Caught in the middle of this growing rift was Jean Monnet. A French businessman and former official at the League of Nations, Monnet had widely traveled for work, and was a firm internationalist. He particularly believed that there should be a “United States of Europe”.

Through his many connections, he learned that following the Polish War, the Army informed Blum that they could not stop a German invasion of the Low Countries without British support. Monnet subsequently thought that perhaps a political and military union might be useful in this regard. Indeed, such an “Anglo-French Union” could lead to his desired United Europe.

He would eventually present this proposal in a meeting with Blum and top diplomatic officials. Intrigued, Blum sent Monnet and several diplomatic officials to Britain to send this proposal to key interventionist figures, including Winston Churchill and Oswald Mosley.

Monnet would find a kindred spirit with Mosley, who was himself drawn to the idea of a United Europe (led by Britain) and saw a union between France and Great Britain as a possible first step to this, thereby ensuring British hegemony for generations to come. Mosley would be a key figure in pushing the proposal past skeptical MPs, and would draft a Union treaty in coordination with Monnet, who was coordinating with the Left Bloc to pass a similar treaty in France, gaining the support of SFIC General Secretary Jacques Doriot.

As the proposed union became clearer and the sentiment in both countries turned against Germany, Blum felt emboldened to move to rearm when German troops began building up in the Rhineland. In response, Petain and his allies, including far-right monarchist party Action francaise under Charles Murras, would organize what they termed a “military vote of no confidence” against the Blum government.

In Britain, Attlee and Mosley would take the first steps towards intervention with a bill to send aid to the Soviet Union. This would ultimately push William Joyce to enact his own plans to keep Britain out of the war..

In Cuba, surprisingly enough, a similar debate was arising under the purview of Douglas MacArthur. Since the “National Socialist People’s Vacation Utopia” came to power on the island, it was widely assumed that the Estados Unidos, which had embraced a nationalist-corporatist system similar to Fascism complete with MacArthur’s cult of personality, would be a natural ally for the Anti-Comintern Axis.

However, this was complicated by Cuba’s extensive reliance on British support, which was a deterrent for any American invasion, and MacArthur was himself ambivalent towards an association with Hitler and Mussolini, preferring to continue to mark himself as a patriot. Just as well, whilst his administration regularly utilized antisemitic dogwhistles in its attacks on the mainland and the term “Judeo-Bolshevik” appeared regularly in the press, MacArthur had a number of Jewish advisors and cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Bernard Baruch, who would become the leading anti-Nazi in the Cuban government.

Still, there was a growing fascist movement in Americuba, led predominantly by the Silver Legion. Founded by William Dudley Pelley, it would outlive his eventual exile (he would reuse the name in his SS regiment), and become a particularly raucous part of the National Salvation Front. They loudly announced their dissatisfaction that MacArthur hadn’t joined with Nazi Germany in “ridding the world of the Red Menace” by invading America simultaneously.

They would direct their aggression towards Baruch, who they believed was a “crypto-Bolshevik” and “a leading Elder of Zion”. Even after a young German American Herman Stuhl attempted to assassinate Baruch, they continued their attacks on him, often calling for his arrest for treason.

The Silver Legion, much like the British Blackshirts, had a high level ally in Vice President Charles Coughlin. While he had been captured by the Reds at the end of the Civil War, and tried for his involvement with war crimes, he escaped before execution and through the people smuggling network, emerged in Cuba. Freed in a way from his priestly duties after his excommunication, he rose through the ranks in the NSF Congress, culminating in his election as First Secretary. After the death of MacArthur’s first VP A. Mitchell Palmer in 1936, Couglin became the Vice-President, while still serving as the First Secretary simultaneously.

As opposed to Palmer’s more reserved, status quo politics, Coughlin leaned heavily into his full-on fascism. Freed from the dictates of the Vatican, his anti-communist, antisemitic messages would take an increasingly harsh tone, with Coughlin targeting certain individuals, including and especially Baruch.

The two would spar frequently, with Baruch accusing Coughlin of being a German agent and Coughlin regurgitating antisemitic talking points and accusing Baruch of planning to profit off any potential war.

Opposition to Nazism also had a newer younger leader in Baruch’s apprentice, Senator Claire Boothe. Originally a socialite and part-time writer, she fled the mainland following the death of her lover Henry Luce (killed in a halestorm of bullets as he attempted a final stand), and decided to go into politics, inspired by her mentor (and lover) Baruch.

Alongside Baruch’s mentorship, Boothe, along with political advisor John Foster Dulles, were part of a new faction within the NSF. As opposed to the staunch fascism of the Silver Legion and the conservative nationalism of MacArthur, they sought a cosmopolitan approach to Cuban foreign policy, seeking to end Americuba’s pariah status. Not by relinquishing claims to the mainland, but by showing that the United States in exile could be a player on the international stage, separate from the United Republics. With the tide turning towards interventionism in Britain and France, Boothe saw an opportunity to ensure Americuba could gain this international audience and become a world player once more, maybe one day challenging their rule.

With her opposition to Nazism, she became a target, with the Silver Legion denouncing her as a “traitor,” Coughlin being particularly outspoken. She would be forced to gain a security detail. However, her conservative internationalism was of interest to MacArthur, who sought to reenter the world stage in some capacity.

Conversely, MacArthur found Coughlin and his extremism suspicious, especially his closeness with the German government. After one too many comments, he asked William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the NBI, to investigate.

Their investigation into this closeness would expand into the Silver Legion and Coughlin’s connection. Whilst Pelley no longer ran it, his allies were still in charge, and he still had contacts.

The NBI eventually determined two aides were agents of the SD, the main intelligence arm of the SS. They were arrested, and under interrogation, revealed nearly half the organization was full of SD agents or informants, including several politicians, some of whom were former Pelley associates from Germany. They also said that these agents talked with Coughlin on several occasions, along with Joe Kennedy Sr., the ambassador to Great Britain and Breckenridge Long, Secretary of State, during state functions.

Eventually, the NBI concluded “The Silver Legion is little more than a front for the SD and the SS 5th Panzer Division ‘Silberne Legion’ to try to manipulate American politics.” The investigation would encompass the org, its members, and its supporters including Coughlin, Kennedy, and controversial radio host Ezra Pound.

The investigation was accelerated when the Warner Bros film studios were bombed. The culprit, John Mailer*, accidentally noted he was “in the estate of one Jessie Murphy”, an early Pelley supporter from before the Revolution. After raiding the estate, it turned out that “Jessie Murphy was a fake identity, and Pelley still technically owned the property with German spy Kurt Jahnke operating it for a spy ring.

Jahnke turned informant, stating that the Silver Legion had benefited from extensive patronage from Nazi Germany to try to turn Americuba to the Axis.

Jahnke pointed to Douglas Chandler, a former National Geographic reporter turned Senator of Illinois (in exile). Chandler had spent some years in Germany, and had been groomed as an internal agent in Congress.

Chandler was arrested, and after hours of interrogation, confessed to espionage and treason. He claimed that the Silver Legion planned to potentially assassinate MacArthur and pin the blame on communists, putting Coughlin in charge and allowing them to enter the war on Germany’s side. He also claimed that Coughlin’s staff was full of Nazi spies, and Joe Kennedy was aware of it and kept silent in exchange for the VP spot under Coughlin.

Chandler would name at least 15 Congressmen and three Senators as co-conspirators. Using this information, the NBI and Army made their move. On December 28th, 1941, these congressmen were arrested and the Silver Legion headquarters were raided. IT was revealed they had received millions from Nazi Germany, and that Coughlin was very heavily tied with the group. Whilst there was nothing incriminating, it was damning in how much support they gave him fiscally.

With their foreign connection revealed, MacArthur would have the pretext to outlaw the Silver Legion as a “foreign front group” on December 30th.

Whilst Americuba struggled with the question of intervention, another group of American exiles took a different approach.

Inspired by the example of Dmitri Pavlovich and his noble efforts to support his previous enemies the Soviet Union from Nazism, a group of exile American intellectuals decided that America needed their help too, in this hour of need, to fight the appalling menace in the Soviet Union.

Led by Adlai Stevenson and Dean Acheson in Toronto and Nelson Rockefeller in London, the Patriae Society (from the Latin phrase “Non sibi sed patriae, or “Not for self, but for country”) posited a liberal nationalist justification for supporting the United Republics, believing that one should support their home country, even if they disagree with the government in power. So, as American men and women died in Russia, they should support the United Republics.

In the very conservative, White sympathizing exile circles, they didn’t have much initial success. However, the Patriae Society would team up with two surprising figures to help sway public opinion.

Theodore Bilbo was a former governor of Mississippi and an avowed KKK member. An ardent racist and segregationist, he was one of the few politicians to endorse the America First ticket in 1928. His election to Senator in 1932 was disrupted by the Civil War, but as a staunch supporter of the coup, he wouldn’t mind, rising through the ranks as a propagandist and political leader in his native Mississippi, encouraging KKK attacks on black communities and rallying the troops for these attacks.

However, towards the end of the war, as he was giving one final speech, he was shot directly in the genitals in a surprise attack, and captured. Unlike many other war criminals, prosecutors were unable to link his involvement in massacres and war crimes directly, so he was ultimately convicted of treason, agitating for war, and inflammatory speech, and given a life sentence in Alcatraz. Due to his injuries, he would be confined to the prison infirmary.

Barry Goldwater was a former businessman in Arizona, convicted of using his store in Phoenix to sell weaponry to local White forces. He too would be given a life sentence at Alcatraz, where he would write a thesis on the fall of American Republicanism and the rise of what he viewed as an “illegal regime”, “Conscience of a Freedom Fighter”, a big hit in the exile community.

The two contacted the Patriae Society separately, despite both being at Alcatraz. The two, appalled by Nazism, wanted to find a way to help their cause to rally the White community.

Whilst having trepidation over two prisoners with life sentences having an international platform, the SPA ultimately allowed it to happen thanks to intervention from Hoover, believing the propaganda value to outweigh any drawbacks. The main condition was the broadcasts had to be made from Alcatraz Prison. Bilbao recorded from his hospital bed, and Goldwater was given access to the radio station on the Citadel.

In exchange, both would have favorable hearings at their parole (which allowed Bilbo’s compassionate release in 1947 and Goldwater’s parole in 1958)

Bilbo offered his services, because in his summation, Southern whites (who made up a large portion of White exiles) would be unlikely to trust Stevenson and Acheson, who were both Ivy League educated Northerners, but would be inclined to listen to him, a Southerner and MacArthurist.

Bilbo would give a surprise address on the BBC on April 29th, stating “I know all too well the evils of communism, but at this very moment, in the fields of Russia, a much greater evil threatens the free world as we know it. It is necessary to set aside our own animus against any of our fellow Americans and come together to defeat this menace.”

Goldwater offered his services because of the success of Conscience of a Freedom Fighter in the exile press. Goldwater would give his own address on August 10th, stating that the “future of freedom worldwide rests on the defeat of the Germans in Russia.”

The Patriae Society would gain a boost from these appearances, but its success would split the exile community. Whilst liberals would soon bolster the cause, many conservatives and MacArthur sympathizers were still skeptical. Some attacked the leaders as “secret stooges for American intelligence” (in fact, Hoover actually vetoed funding the Society due to concerns that they were “bourgeois, capitalistic, and untrustworthy.”). Acheson and Stevenson were even the victims of attacks by the Silver Legion or American fascists.

For Nelson Rockefeller, he would ultimately decide that he needed to do much more for his country than support it on the outside. He was inspired by the example of Pyotr Wrangel, a once hated enemy of the Soviets who was now helping their war effort. With this in mind and the support of his compatriots and friends, he sailed for Metropolis on August 20th. Upon arriving, he asked to visit Stavka to volunteer his services.

Given he was a businessman and not a soldier, he was instead redirected to the Jacobin Building in DeLeon-Debs, where Foreign Secretary Bob Minor himself would entertain him. The press, stunned by the fact a Rockefeller was openly in the United Republics and meeting a top government official, followed him extensively during his visit.

Rockefeller was given a post in the “Ware Group”, an unofficial name for a group of diplomats led by Harold Ware, who were coordinating with some diplomats and contacts in capitalist Europe. *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation