"Not as Proactive," General Motors receives substantial bad publicity post-WWII.

Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration

Washington Post , Michael Dobbs, Nov. 30, 1998.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm

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When American GIs invaded Europe in June 1944, they did so in jeeps, trucks and tanks manufactured by the Big Three motor companies in one of the largest crash militarization programs ever undertaken. It came as an unpleasant surprise to discover that the enemy was also driving trucks manufactured by Ford and Opel -- a 100 percent GM-owned subsidiary -- and flying Opel-built warplanes. (Chrysler's role in the German rearmament effort was much less significant.)

When the U.S. Army liberated the Ford plants in Cologne and Berlin, they found destitute foreign workers confined behind barbed wire and company documents extolling the "genius of the Fuehrer," according to reports filed by soldiers at the scene. A U.S. Army report by investigator Henry Schneider dated Sept. 5, 1945, accused the German branch of Ford of serving as "an arsenal of Nazism, at least for military vehicles" with the "consent" of the parent company in Dearborn.
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Let's suppose this pisses off a group of GI's and they decide to investigate. And they realize that if you overstate the case, you lose credibility. In fact, if you overstate by one-tenth of one percent, people feel they've been worked and played and kick at the whole thing.

So, when they get out of the service, these veterans engage in very skillful activism. As they learn more, they state 80% of the case. As they learn still more, 90%. They make sure there is evidence behind their public statements.

And U.S. Army investigator Henry Schneider may have overstated, or he may not have. The veterans realize it's a good statement to play off of, even as they engage in their own parallel investigation in a very systematic and more cautious fashion.
 
Let's suppose this pisses off a group of GI's and they decide to investigate. And they realize that if you overstate the case, you lose credibility. In fact, if you overstate by one-tenth of one percent, people feel they've been worked and played and kick at the whole thing.

So, when they get out of the service, these veterans engage in very skillful activism. As they learn more, they state 80% of the case. As they learn still more, 90%. They make sure there is evidence behind their public statements.

And U.S. Army investigator Henry Schneider may have overstated, or he may not have. The veterans realize it's a good statement to play off of, even as they engage in their own parallel investigation in a very systematic and more cautious fashion.

This is clearer evidence than you gave before, the former merely mentions mistakes , which we all make. Any contact with Nazi Germany after 1939 at the latest was highly immoral, after 1941 it was illegal. GM is much more surprising than Ford, Henry Ford was a Nazi Sympathizer after all.
 
GM is much more surprising than Ford, Henry Ford was a Nazi Sympathizer after all.

He also helped Stalin with Tractor and Truck Production
Ford AA
Model-AA-Cleaned-Up.jpg


GAZ

gaz-aa-06.jpg


Fordson Tractor
Fordon_Tractor_ModelF.jpg


Putilovets Tractor

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Was this before or after the US entered WWII?

Started in the '20s.

Ford tried to open factories in Italy, but was rebuffed.

He tried to put factories in mos areas, regardless of belief. He wanted to sell worldwide.

That's why the Ford V8 was a common engine in both Allied and Axis camps.
 
Started in the '20s.

Ford tried to open factories in Italy, but was rebuffed.

He tried to put factories in mos areas, regardless of belief. He wanted to sell worldwide.

That's why the Ford V8 was a common engine in both Allied and Axis camps.

So he didn't care which dictator he sold to. lovely. :rolleyes:
 
As the veterans continue their investigation, possibly they pick up support as the mainstream media tries to outcompete them. More likely, I think the media will nitpick.

They don't like the fact that the veterans group is undermining them by doing a better job. And frankly, the newspapers aren't really set up for putting a lot of resources into going after corporations who might be major advertisers or which might spook off other advertisers. These don't seem to be the kind of investigative stories for which young reporters are recognized and eventually promoted.

Consider the story which briefly broke in 1993 about GM and some lines of trucks with side-saddle gas tanks. At a civil trial, a head engineer testified that the company had ordered them not to write memos critical of the trunks. The company tried to paint him merely as a disgruntled employee. The mainstream media covered it in a fashion. But they didn't really dive into it because, oh no, that would be 'editorializing' or a 'crusade' or something like that. This story did not become a touchstone like the Space Shuttle Challenger launch decision, where different people talked about how good people could make such a poor decision.

And NBC Dateline lied, and that sure muddied the water. They rigged a pickup truck to explode, because the trucks don't always explode, they're just more likely to explode and catch fire with the side-saddle gas tanks. So, instead of any kind of single-test experiment, it was just an eye-catching special effect. GM sued NBC Dateline, and the media sure covered that aspect. It was like they could then cover 'both sides' and be done with it.

So, no, let's assume our veterans group does not receive a great deal of help from the mainstream media.
 
Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration

Washington Post, Michael Dobbs, Nov. 30, 1998.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm


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After the outbreak of war in September 1939, General Motors and Ford became crucial to the German military, according to contemporaneous German documents and postwar investigations by the U.S. Army. James Mooney, the GM director in charge of overseas operations, had discussions with Hitler in Berlin two weeks after the German invasion of Poland.

Typewritten notes by Mooney show that he was involved in the partial conversion of the principal GM automobile plant at Russelsheim to production of engines and other parts for the Junker "Wunderbomber," a key weapon in the German air force, under a government-brokered contract between Opel and the Junker airplane company. Mooney's notes show that he returned to Germany the following February for further discussions with Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering and a personal inspection of the Russelsheim plant.
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Okay, so after the Nazi invasion of Poland, but before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
 
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