And in answer to that here’s one of the many people with acces to the Soviet Archives has to say.
It’s safe to say General Kobyakov’s hat remains uneaten
Red Spies in the White House: An Alternate Cold War
- Thread starter Ulysses Orbis
- Start date
Have the NKVD, KGB, GRU, ever outed agents who were still alive and living in the West?
Not only them. None at all, nor the Western agencies. This is a VERY bad politics. If your agents fear you'll turn them in for political expediency, they'll either decide the private sector is great, or defect themselves before you turn them in.
It's heavily implied in that "Bop Battle" that in TTL's present day Holocaust denial is the majority position in the western world.
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Thinking about this theme of "The flashforwards of the future" gave me to think of a very curious consequence.
Namely, since Adam Tooze's direct ancestors were Soviet spies at this time, it's almost certain that (assuming he's not butterflied) his attempts to publish Wages of Destruction will be dismissed as "Soviet propaganda by an Stalin's bootlicker who is shitting the memory of the most sensible government in history with lies"
and of course his book would be ridiculed as a compendium of economic lies that nobody cares about instead of being "the gold standard of how Nazi Germany worked".
Namely, since Adam Tooze's direct ancestors were Soviet spies at this time, it's almost certain that (assuming he's not butterflied) his attempts to publish Wages of Destruction will be dismissed as "Soviet propaganda by an Stalin's bootlicker who is shitting the memory of the most sensible government in history with lies"
and of course his book would be ridiculed as a compendium of economic lies that nobody cares about instead of being "the gold standard of how Nazi Germany worked".
The Two Hoovers
The Two Hoovers
The two most prominent Americans named Hoover took divergent approaches towards the White scandal after the President was publicly accused of espionage.
Following the publication of the Chambers allegations, J. Edgar Hoover mounted a public relations campaign intended to persuade the public that the executive branch of the United States government had fallen under the control of Communist agents. The former director of the FBI traveled on a nationwide speaking tour advancing this theory. Hoover appeared before numerous civic organizations, colleges, and audiences. Hoover traveled with paid bodyguards, as he was occasionally harassed or heckled at his appearances by left-wing protesters, including members of the American Communist Party. In his appearances, Hoover portrayed himself as an apolitical civil servant, a patriot not motivated by partisan concerns or personal ambition but purely by loyalty to his country. J. Edgar Hoover thus avoided making any comments endorsing or praising any political candidate beyond generalities, and did not make any appearances before Republican Party-affiliated groups. During these speeches, Hoover outlined his theory of which government officials were Communists and which actions by the U.S government were intended to promote communism. While Hoover primarily criticized the White administration’s foreign policy actions, he would always end his speeches by warning about the end goal of the Communist Party- world domination, including the subjugation of the United States. Hoover warned that if President White succeeded in weakening the international position of the United States, then America could be forced to capitulate to Communist rule. Hoover warned of a totalitarian America in which democracy, civic society and freedom were extinct. The Communist Party, Hoover declared, would have absolute control over every American and control every aspect of their life. Hoover compared the infiltration of the United States government by Communist spies to the storming of the Winter Palace and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Hoover noted that while only a tiny minority of Americans were active Communists, this did not preclude their taking over the United States. Before 1917, the Bolsheviks had been a small minority of Russians, and yet this did not prevent them from seizing power over the whole country. Harry Dexter White, postulated Hoover, was at the front of a Communist vanguard who intended to convert the United States into a Communist country in the same manner as the Bolsheviks. Hoover declared that complacency was the enemy, and that the complacency of the Roosevelt administration towards the Soviet Union and the American Communist Party had allowed Harry Dexter White to take power. If Americans continued to be complacent, Hoover said to rapt audiences, they could wake up one morning and find themselves under the thrall of a Communist regime.
The detective additionally conducted numerous interviews with the press. He agreed to an interview with Walter Winchell, a prominent radio broadcaster and his personal friend. Winchell was a Jewish Democrat and a supporter of the New Deal. Hoover sought to persuade Winchell to publicly speak against the President, as his ethnicity and antifascist credentials made it harder for the White Administration to smear him as an antisemite or a conservative Republican motivated by partisan hatred. Winchell had no prior history of opposition to the President; thus Hoover believed that Winchell’s support would lend him some credibility. However, Winchell, as a columnist at the New York Daily Mirror, was on the payroll of William Randolph Hearst, and supporters of the President suggested that Winchell’s source of pay had affected his judgment in the matter.
Clyde Tolson reviewed and approved all the questions Winchell had for Hoover beforehand. The questions were largely friendly, but Tolson approved a few questions that appeared tough in order to preserve Winchell’s credibility as an interviewer, as well as to give Hoover a chance to respond to common criticisms that had been aired against him. Specifically, Winchell asked Hoover if the charges against President White were motivated by antisemitism, and whether the claim that President White was a spy was comparable to the Dreyfus Affair. Hoover firmly denied that was the case. He pointed out that Isaac Don Levine, a Jewish journalist, had been the confidante of Whittaker Chambers, and that Levine had played a crucial role in bringing the Berle-Chambers meeting to public attention. Hoover further stated that the atheistic nature of Communism meant that the Soviet Union was inherently hostile to Judaism and was thus anti-Semitic. Hoover stated that the vast majority of Jews were loyal Americans, and that he hoped that Jewish-Americans would support ousting the Communists from the government. Hoover acknowledged the existence of anti-Semitic critics of White, but maintained they were few in number and were not associated with the “evidence-based” opponents of the President.
Herbert Hoover, the only former president alive during the White administration, emerged as an unlikely defender of the beleaguered Harry Dexter White. Hoover had no fondness for White’s policies- Hoover had doubled down on conservatism after World War II, attacking the New Deal and advocating for a hawkish line towards the Soviet Union. Hoover did not hide his opposition to the President’s politics. But he did not take kindly towards attacks on the President’s character. Herbert Hoover remembered how he had been maligned and blamed for the Great Depression- unfairly, he felt. Hoover thus responded negatively to what he saw as hyperbolic criticisms of President White. He could emphasize more fully with Harry Dexter White than any other American alive- for he had been in the same position, receiving mountains of unfair, terrible vitriol. Hoover had criticized the White administration’s foreign policy as naïve and misguided, saying the President was strengthening the power of the Soviet Union. But Hoover did not accuse the President of possessing traitorous motives. He had advocated limited cooperation with the Soviet Union in the past- Hoover had organized famine relief in the Soviet Union during the 1920s, delivering food to millions of Russians. Hoover had further supported isolationism in the 1930s, and felt that they had been unfairly accused of Nazi sympathies. He was under the impression that President White had a genuine desire for peace and that he was not secretly trying to bring about communist world domination.
Before the publication of Red Spies in the White House, Harry Dexter White had met with Hoover on a few occasions. White sought general advice from Hoover on the pressures of the presidency. Like White, Hoover had no experience as an elected politician before he ascended to the Presidency- both men were technocrats. Thus Hoover emphasized with White’s complaints about the pressures of public office- he had similar complaints himself. Hoover thought of himself as an elder statesman, and not a committed partisan- he had worked across ideological lines before. He was happy to help the President if he could- he felt it was his patriotic duty. In the summer of 1946, President White had dispatched Hoover on a trip to Europe to investigate the post-war food shortage. Hoover visited several countries and wrote a report lining out a series of recommendations. Hoover wrote a scathing critique of the Morgenthau Plan, condemning the induced food shortages in Germany. White, however, accepted Hoover’s recommendations for famine relief for the allied countries in Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc. The interaction between Hoover and White during this period was cordial.
When President White was accused of being a Communist spy, Herbert Hoover broke with his fellow Republicans and eschewed partisan attacks against the President, instead taking a more balanced response. “It is indeed a serious thing that the President and the men in his administration are accused of doing. But in the United States, we operate by a principle of innocence until proven guilty. We should not rush towards an immediate judgment of the President. Republicans should not open this session of Congress by impeaching the President. They should investigate the evidence, but fairly and impartially. It is premature to assume White’s guilt- and much speculation I have heard is nonsensical,” Hoover declared to the New York Times.
Lauchlan Currie informed Harry Dexter White of Hoover’s quote and suggested that Hoover could be recruited as an ally, or at least a foil, against the attacks of congressional Republicans. Hoover met again with White in the Oval Office. In January 1947, at the start of the 80th Congress, President White announced that Herbert Hoover would chair a commission on famine relief in Europe, and that the purview of this commission would include famine relief in Germany. The President thus appeared to be scaling back the severity of the Morgenthau Plan. Much of the hunger and death in Germany had been caused indirectly by Allied policy- the seizure of industrial equipment and wealth had led to widespread unemployment and poverty among the Germans, who thus lacked the money to buy food. White had maintained, amidst intense criticism of the Morgenthau Plan, that there was no deliberate policy to starve the Germans. The famine in West Germany could be attributed to both administrative incompetence as well as hostile intent towards the Germans. White had previously blocked plans to provide famine relief in the occupied zones, insisting the Army was doing a sufficient job of distributing food. The appointment of Hoover was thus a concession to the critics of the Morgenthau Plan, an implicit admission that the President had gone too far. While allowing for the delivery of food, the President otherwise maintained the Morgenthau Plan’s severe limits on German economic activity. The President appeared to be moderating in an attempt to stave off impeachment. The President sought to raise the question: Would a Communist spy really appoint Herbert Hoover, of all people, to a high ranking government office? Hoover’s appointment thus served to confuse public opinion about the President, and stymie the momentum for impeachment which was building at the start of 1947.
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947
One of the first priorities for the 80th Congress was changing the Presidential Line of Succession. The issue of the presidential line of succession had attracted public scrutiny following the death of President Winant and the ascension of President White due to the absence of a Vice President. Since White had assumed the Presidency in the midst of war, few in Washington wished to immediately challenge White's legitimacy for fear of undermining the war effort. There was some speculation that since White had assumed office due to the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, and not the Constitution, that White would only qualify as the Acting President. White himself never used the title or alluded to the possibility he was only Acting President- his administration immediately began referring to him just as President. Even before the allegations of espionage against the President went public, many Republicans viewed White's legitimacy dubiously. White had only been confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury a few months before President Winant's death. Nobody in the Senate had expected that this confirmation vote would lead to White assuming the Presidency. Cabinet nominations were rarely rejected, and the confirmation of White as Secretary of the Treasury had not been subject to any particularly intense scrutiny. Arthur Vandenburg said that if they had been aware there was a possibility that White would become President, Senate Republicans would have actively fought White's confirmation. The allegations of espionage against the President had now forced the issue.
Republican congressional leaders were already considering impeachment of the President at the beginning of the congressional term. The issue with impeachment, however, was that if President White was removed from office, the Secretary of State, Laurence Duggan, was next in the line of succession- and Duggan had also been accused of being a Communist spy. Many other members of the cabinet had been accused of espionage. Anyone appointed to office by President White was suspect- the President had apparently filled the government with Communist agents. Even those who had not been specifically accused by Hoover were compromised, and the Senate would reject any nominee proposed by White to replace any members of his cabinet who resigned, died, or were impeached. Without amending the Presidential Line of Succession, Congress would not be able to start impeachment proceedings. They would have to impeach White's entire cabinet first, and then impeach White. But this would leave nobody left in the line of succession, meaning that not only would there be no cabinet, there would be no President at all. Such a situation could lead to the collapse of constitutional government completely, or leave the United States adrift until a new President was elected in 1949. Thus amending the Presidential Line of Succession was a prerequisite for impeachment.
Prior to 1886, the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House had been after the Vice President in the line of succession. The bill introduced at the start of Congress by Senator Kenneth Wherry would have reinstated their presence. The Speaker of the House would come first, and then the President Pro Tempore. If the act was implemented and President White was impeached, Speaker of the House Joseph Martin would assume the Presidency. The Secretary of State and the other cabinet members would remain in the line of succession after the President Pro Tempore. There was discussion of allowing the President to nominate a Vice President in the event of a vacancy, but the lawyers consulted advised this would require a constitutional amendment. In any case, the Senate would not confirm any Vice President nominated by President White, under the same principle that a suspected spy could not be trusted to select his successor. The issue would thus be moot for the remainder of President White's term, and the issue of replacing a Vice President was not included in Wherry's bill. Majority Leader Wallace White indicated he would move quickly to pass Wherry's bill through the Senate.
The main obstacle to passage of the bill was the man it was intended to replace- President White himself. White recognized the Wherry bill was intended to not just allow for his impeachment, but to retroactively render his ascension to the Presidency illegitimate. White publicly declared that the Wherry bill was a Republican coup d'etat- an attempt to overturn the results of the 1944 Presidential Election and prematurely end the Democratic Administration, prematurely installing a Republican President without an official vote from the American people. His own popularity being rather low, White positioned the Wherry bill as an attack on the legitimacy of the Democratic Party itself. He thus intended to make a partisan issue out of the line of succession and rally the Democrats against the Wherry bill. DNC Chair Hannegan declared that protecting the President should be the top priority of congressional Democrats. Sam Rayburn and Alben Barkley were thus enlisted by the President to vote against passage of the Wherry bill. Congressional Republicans quickly shepherded the Wherry bill through the House and Senate, sending it to the President's desk by February of 1947. The President, as expected, vetoed the bill which was intended to bring an end to his administration. While Barkley and Rayburn favored congressional investigation into communist infiltration of the government, they were repelled by the speed at which the Republicans had acted to remove the President. Barkley had suggested to Wallace White that in the event of a White impeachment that congressional Republicans and Democrats could agree on a prospective compromise candidate without any credible suggestion of disloyalty- preferably a Democrat- to replace White as President. Barkley would present this candidate to the President, and ask that he be appointed Secretary of State, thus preventing the collapse of the entire executive branch. Barkley further suggested that Congress could elect a Democrat to a congressional office, who could then replace White. Hardline Republicans in the House scoffed at this suggestion- the entire Democratic Party and New Deal coalition was compromised. They would not vote for Rayburn as Speaker, or for any Democrat. Joseph Martin was going to be President, whether or not the Democrats liked it. Articles of impeachment had already been filed and directed to the House Judiciary Committee. If the Wherry bill passed, Republicans would move immediately to impeach President White. Congressional Democrats were only willing to impeach White if a preponderance of evidence proved it- and at the start of 1947, the Democrats felt that such a preponderance did not exist. While a few southern Democrats voted with the Republicans to override White's veto of the Wherry bill, the majority of the Democrats voted against it, again. The House failed to override President White's veto, and the Wherry bill failed to become law. Speaker Martin promised that the House would take up the bill again if the impeachment of the President was imminent. The Republicans, however, had failed to bring a quick end to the White administration, and the impeachment process appeared likely to last for several months.
Richard Nixon speaks to the women of Los Angeles
Representative Richard Nixon had never been fully comfortable around women’s groups. Not that Richard Nixon was ever very comfortable in general- he was frequently neurotic and ill at ease. But Nixon in particular did not care for women’s political organizations- he found such affairs vapid and dull. Nixon had returned home from Washington D.C for the week to attend various constituent events. He had been invited to address the Los Angeles branch of the California Women’s Republican Club. While Nixon represented parts of Los Angeles County, strictly speaking downtown Los Angeles was not in his congressional district, and neither was the women’s luncheon he was attending. The congressman had been scheduled to give a speech to the luncheon, but at the moment there was no particular organization to the luncheon. Wasn’t he supposed to be giving a speech now? But there was nobody to introduce him, and the women at the event were engaged in idle chit-chat. Nixon found himself standing awkwardly around a table by himself, while plain middle-aged housewives hobnobbed with each other over appetizers. Do I really have to be here?, Nixon thought. It’s useful politically to go to this kind of crap. There was organizational overlap between the Republican groups of Los Angeles proper and the suburbs Nixon represented. Besides, it was necessary to build relations with groups outside his district in preparation for his eventual run for statewide office.
Nixon smiled at the women and said idle pleasantries but did not engage in any real conversation. Lacking any else to do, Nixon eavesdropped on the women surrounding him. Some of the women were saying nothing of any substance or interest. Nixon’s keen ears nevertheless overheard a few choice remarks he found intriguing. The women were not fond of the President, as was to be expected. But there was a certain ethnic group the women were not fond of- Nixon’s ears perked up as he heard one woman expound on a “Jewish Plot” to her group of friends. This woman seemed convinced that it was not an accident that the nation’s most prominent Jew had been accused of espionage- she seemed to think that the allegations against the President proved the whole lot was suspect. Nor did her friends say anything to disagree with her- they nodded and spoke words of affirmation.
This was not the first time Nixon had been exposed to this view on this particular subject. After the accusations against the President went public, he had heard passerby and acquaintances spout similar diatribes against American Jewry. Nixon’s public condemnations of communist infiltration of the Democratic Party and his placement on the prominent House Un-American Activities Committee had invited a wave of correspondence to his office. Nixon had not read all of these letters personally, but his secretary had summarized the most common themes of the letters. The correspondents included ruminations of Communist conspiracies in their letters, and the praise of Nixon for fighting the hidden Communist menace. Quite a few of the letters singled out the Jews in particular. When Nixon, stopping to chat with John Rankin in the halls of Congress about the House Un-American Activities Committee, casually mentioned this fact, Rankin giggled. “Someone’s going to split wide open the Jewish issue real soon, Dick.”
Nixon did not entirely disagree with Rankin. There was something very odd about the role of the Jews in the government. Roosevelt had been elected on a platform of fighting the Great Depression, and brought in a bunch of Jews into his administration without making that clear beforehand. These officials were not elected- the public, thought Nixon, wasn’t aware that in voting for Roosevelt they were giving power to the Morgenthaus and Frankfurters. They certainly had not expected that a vote for Roosevelt in 1944 was a vote for Harry Dexter White, and total capitulation to Communism.
Perhaps it was indeed time, as Congressman Rankin had suggested, for a politician to finally address the Jewish issue. Republican Party leadership had generally skated around the subject- not mentioning the President’s religion, or that of his advisors, denying allegations of bigotry or discrimination. Among the common, rank and file Republicans, however, a different attitude prevailed. Not all, or even a majority of Republicans, espoused anti-Semitism or were sympathetic to those with anti-Semitic views. But there were enough of them, and their number was surely growing. There was a vacuum to be filled, an opening for a leader to mobilize these sort of voters.
Nixon took a wad of notes out of his suit pocket. The notes contained a general outline for the speech Nixon had intended to give to the luncheon. Nixon read his notes, finding his speech wanting. The contents of the speech were anodyne and dull. Surely nobody would care for or remember it. Nixon ripped up the notes and shoved the scraps of paper back into his pocket. He would give a rather different speech today.
Nixon mulled around the crowd for a few more minutes before taking his seat at a luncheon table. The Republican women finished grabbing their plates and gradually all sat down, and the luncheon assumed a more formal air. Eventually, a Mrs. Hughes got up and gave a few introductory remarks as well as a few jokes Nixon supposed she had intended to be witty. Nixon politely laughed at Mrs. Hughes’ jokes with the rest of her audience. I should have brought along Patricia. Mrs. Hughes eventually announced it was Nixon’s time to speak, and Nixon walked over the podium, shaking hands with Mrs. Hughes.
Nixon thanked the audience and then got into the meat of his speech. “During my campaign against Jerry Voorhis, you may have heard me make mention of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Mr. Voorhis, as you may know, had some small association with those fellows- he was endorsed by the CIO PAC, a communist controlled group, no matter how much he denies it. The dangerous influence of the CIO- we need to discuss it in greater depth. One of the main lawyers for the CIO- Lee Pressman- he was one of the names on Mr. Hoover’s list of spies. A very suspicious character indeed. The whole outfit seems to be a Communist operation and the Secretary of Agriculture- Calvin Baldwin- worked there alongside Pressman. The Communist influence goes all the way to the top. One aspect of the CIO-PAC that I think has been overlooked was their role at the Democratic Convention in 1944. We know, of course, how ill-fated Roosevelt’s selection of a Vice President that year was. And who should play a key role in the selection of the Vice President, but Sidney Hillman, chair of the CIO-PAC. It was Hillman who greenlighted the selection of John Winant- remember that Roosevelt said he wanted to “clear it with Sidney”. Now the late Mr. Hillman was not born in this country- he was in fact born in Lithuania. And his approval of John Winant paved the way for our esteemed Commander-in-Chief- who happens to be another Lithuanian. And the President, he appoints another Lithuanian to be his Attorney General. Now why are there so many Lithuanians in our government? There are probably more Lithuanians in power here than in Lithuania. Lee Pressman, of course, is of a similar extraction.
This is not a coincidence. The CIO-PAC intervened with Roosevelt to secure appointments for their favored men- and these men are now running Washington. Through a series of backroom meetings, union bureaucrats, red lawyers, radical intellectuals and economists manipulated themselves into key positions from which they seized control of the government. And this secretive inner circle, which gave us the administration of Harry Dexter Red, predominantly consists of radical leftists of Jewish and Eastern European extraction.
No this is not a coincidence- it is a Jewish-Communist Plot that has taken control of the White House and dismantled our defenses against Communism. The rapid growth of communism across the globe is the result of a deliberate policy set by a secret Jewish interest within our government- not so secret anymore. We can not afford to ignore the Jewish element of the communist invasion of the United States any longer.
Of course these men are all Jewish. The Jews are natural born spies.* They are naturally rootless, without loyalty to the countries in which they left. The Jewish immigrants and their children in this country- far too many of them have rejected the faith of their ancestors and adopted godless communism as their new creed. They came to this country having accepted Communism as their God, with the deliberate aim of contaminating America with the false gospel of Marxism. These Communist rabble-rousers should never have been admitted to the United States. We would not be in such danger today if we had kept them out. The East Coast elites, the lily-livered Ivy-League set, embraced these Marxist Jews with open arms. They admitted them to their institutions- they gave old Harry a professorship at Harvard! Our leaders were not vigilant, and became susceptible to Communist manipulation, and now we are paying the price.
The Jewish issue is not contained to that of the President and his friends- the Jewish community in this country deliberately allowed a culture of radicalism and decadence to fester, of disloyalty and envy which bred men like the President. It is not just the President- there is a broader Jewish problem. It is a problem we can no longer ignore. All the politicians are cowed by fear they will be accused of being intolerant and discriminatory. But we must reject this attitude. This is a matter of national security that must be addressed quickly. Congress must enact legislation creating a public registry of all Jewish employees in the government. We have reached this point because we did not investigate the backgrounds of the men we put in positions of power. No more. The Jewish interest in the government must be laid open, for all to see. We must include in this registry all the Jewish professors at our universities and members of political and civic organizations. We can’t afford to let them hide any longer- we must expose them, and fast. Only then can we determine who is loyal to the United States, and who is loyal to the Soviet Union. This registry of Jews will allow us to investigate who is a Communist spy. It’s about time that the Jew in America realizes he’s an American first and a Jew second.*”
Nixon paused, and the Women’s Republican Club erupted into applause. Nixon glared at a reporter for the Los Angeles Times sitting at the luncheon. The reporter was furiously transcribing Nixon’s entire speech into his notebook. The reporter glanced up, and saw Nixon staring at him. The reporter had raised his eyebrows and his face was blank with shock.
Nixon smirked. This ought to make some waves.
* Real Quotes from Richard Nixon
A Few Days Later
Richard Nixon bristled as the telephone rang for the third time. “Get the damn phone, Patricia!”
“Dick, it’s Murray Chotiner!”
“Put him on, then!”
Patricia handed the phone to her husband. “Good evening, Murray.”
“Dick, what the hell was that speech at the Women’s Club? It’s in all the papers! Your rhetoric is really bad for the Jews, all the cranks are coming out of the woodwork! Gerald K. Smith- you know, an actual Nazi sympathizer, just called you a hero and said you’re his ally against the ‘Jewish Menace’. You’re disgraceful! I helped put you in office, and now you’re attacking my people? You’re a double-crosser!”
Gerald K. Smith- he has a lot of admirers in Los Angeles. Could be useful, if kept at arms’ length. “Murray, it is not fair to call me anti-Semitic. I was criticizing a particular subset of Jews who are sympathetic to Communism, and Jews who are not loyal to the United States- of whom the President is one- that can’t be denied. I called for Jews to be more loyal to the United States- how is it objectionable to call upon Americans to be loyal to their country?”
“Most Jews are loyal Americans, Dick. There are Christians in the government who Hoover says are spies for the Commies- and you didn’t call upon the Christians in the United States to reaffirm their loyalties to America. You impugned the loyalties of all Jewish-Americans, myself, included. You want the government to make a list of Jews? Doesn’t that remind you at all of a certain country?”
“Murray, I merely called for closer scrutiny of the background of men in important positions. I didn’t call for Jews to be barred from any particular profession, or to be barred from any organizations or schools. I did not call for Jews to be banned from certain social organizations- in fact I think they should be admitted to country clubs and the like. The universities- they have quotas you know, of Jews, but they do let them in. Now you may question the fairness of such policies- and you may be right- but there is no comparison to Nazi Germany, that is not accurate.” Nixon wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Honestly, that sounds like phooey. You’re engaging in cheap demagoguery, chasing the mood of the moment. But you made an amateur mistake, Dick. This will come to bite you in the ass. There are a lot of Jews in Los Angeles- and they won’t forget this disgraceful performance of yours. You’re a dreadful liar, and you just made a lot of enemies.”
“Now I have no antagonism for the Jewish community of Los Angeles. But if you’re suggesting you might rally the Jews of Los Angeles against me- then you should tread lightly, Murray. There aren’t enough Jews in the state to swing any elections. If you are trying to divide the electorate on religious lines- then know you will be outvoted. That’s the sort of thing, that brash ethnic chauvinism, which has attracted animosity towards the Jews in other countries. You want to try fundraising in Hollywood against me? I think you’ll find that people are sick of all the liberal claptrap coming out of Hollywood- you will win me more friends than enemies. Now- I will continue to serve my constituents of all religious denominations. But I’d feel woe for those who’d try to kick me around.”
“I took a chance on you, working for your campaign last year. You weren’t anyone in particular before I sent you to Washington. Maybe I shouldn’t have. You should have just stuck to attacking Communism- there was no reason to bring the Jews into this. I don’t think I’ll be able to work with you in the future, unfortunately. I hereby resign. Your speech- it was too much.”
“Your services to the Nixon campaign were appreciated. But I do not need you to win elections. I can do that on my own.” Nixon paused. “Goodbye, Murray.” Nixon hung up the phone.
Port of Corfu, Greece
The sun was setting as the cargo ship pulled into the harbor of Corfu. The ship flew a Panamanian flag. Nikolaus and his men watched the ship from the docks of Corfu. As the ship approached an empty pier, Nikolaus’ group collectively ran to the pier to greet it. The Captain, standing near the bow of the ship, waved at the crowd as the ship stopped beside the pier. The sailors aboard the Panamanian vessel moved a gangway onto the pier. The captain and a few sailors walked across the gangway to the pier. Nikolaus approached the Captain. “Are you a friend?” asked the Captain.
“I am a son of the bear who lives at the feet of Mount Olympus,” Nikolaus replied in proficient Albanian.
“Then you are the one for whom this cargo is intended. We are friends of your… political group.”
The “political group” to which the Captain referred was the Democratic Army of Greece, the armed wing of the Greek Communist Party. Of course, there was no need to speak this aloud. Nikolaus nodded. “I want to remove the cargo as quickly as we can. We don’t really have control over the port. The Customs Authority was devastated during the occupation and they are understaffed. We may or may not have friends in the Customs Authority. But still, if you stay here too long-” Nikolaus cut his finger across his throat. “Do you have the ship’s manifest? I’d like a full accounting of the ship’s cargo.”
“Perhaps it is best if you come aboard the ship,” replied the Captain. Nikolaus followed the Captain and his sailors across the gangway into the bridge of the ship. The Captain handed a sheet of papers to Nikolaus. “All of the cargo listed here is located below decks- we didn’t want to risk it being seen by passing ships. The manifest is written in Albanian, I’m not sure if that is convenient for your colleagues.”
“I can translate this paper into Greek if necessary. Hmmm.” Nikolaus examined the ship's manifest. “Yes, this equipment matches the items we requested. The Yugoslavs have of course been able to ship us rifles over the border, we have no shortage of those. But these goods will allow us to match the King’s forces in terms of sophisticated weaponry. Mortars which are light enough to carry in the mountains- perfect for guerilla warfare. Artillery shells, anti-aircraft guns- yes, we are at a disadvantage against the government air force, they'll make us less vulnerable. This machine gun- it is called an M2 Browning and you have over a hundred of them. Browning- is that not an American weapon? How did you get these?”
“You shouldn’t ask such sensitive questions,” the Captain replied. “You don’t need to know. If possible, we will deliver more of these shipments- it will help even the odds in your struggle.”
“We have allies with access to these American guns. Does that mean-” The Captain stared at Nikolaus, stone-faced. “Sorry! I won’t ask silly questions. I will just translate ‘Browning gun’ as ‘Hoxha gun.’ Nobody else needs to know.” So we have a friend who wants to paint Greece red!
Across the sea to the west hundreds of kilometers away, in a modest Italian hotel, the OSS man wondered if the shipment had gone without a hitch.
The two most prominent Americans named Hoover took divergent approaches towards the White scandal after the President was publicly accused of espionage.
Following the publication of the Chambers allegations, J. Edgar Hoover mounted a public relations campaign intended to persuade the public that the executive branch of the United States government had fallen under the control of Communist agents. The former director of the FBI traveled on a nationwide speaking tour advancing this theory. Hoover appeared before numerous civic organizations, colleges, and audiences. Hoover traveled with paid bodyguards, as he was occasionally harassed or heckled at his appearances by left-wing protesters, including members of the American Communist Party. In his appearances, Hoover portrayed himself as an apolitical civil servant, a patriot not motivated by partisan concerns or personal ambition but purely by loyalty to his country. J. Edgar Hoover thus avoided making any comments endorsing or praising any political candidate beyond generalities, and did not make any appearances before Republican Party-affiliated groups. During these speeches, Hoover outlined his theory of which government officials were Communists and which actions by the U.S government were intended to promote communism. While Hoover primarily criticized the White administration’s foreign policy actions, he would always end his speeches by warning about the end goal of the Communist Party- world domination, including the subjugation of the United States. Hoover warned that if President White succeeded in weakening the international position of the United States, then America could be forced to capitulate to Communist rule. Hoover warned of a totalitarian America in which democracy, civic society and freedom were extinct. The Communist Party, Hoover declared, would have absolute control over every American and control every aspect of their life. Hoover compared the infiltration of the United States government by Communist spies to the storming of the Winter Palace and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Hoover noted that while only a tiny minority of Americans were active Communists, this did not preclude their taking over the United States. Before 1917, the Bolsheviks had been a small minority of Russians, and yet this did not prevent them from seizing power over the whole country. Harry Dexter White, postulated Hoover, was at the front of a Communist vanguard who intended to convert the United States into a Communist country in the same manner as the Bolsheviks. Hoover declared that complacency was the enemy, and that the complacency of the Roosevelt administration towards the Soviet Union and the American Communist Party had allowed Harry Dexter White to take power. If Americans continued to be complacent, Hoover said to rapt audiences, they could wake up one morning and find themselves under the thrall of a Communist regime.
The detective additionally conducted numerous interviews with the press. He agreed to an interview with Walter Winchell, a prominent radio broadcaster and his personal friend. Winchell was a Jewish Democrat and a supporter of the New Deal. Hoover sought to persuade Winchell to publicly speak against the President, as his ethnicity and antifascist credentials made it harder for the White Administration to smear him as an antisemite or a conservative Republican motivated by partisan hatred. Winchell had no prior history of opposition to the President; thus Hoover believed that Winchell’s support would lend him some credibility. However, Winchell, as a columnist at the New York Daily Mirror, was on the payroll of William Randolph Hearst, and supporters of the President suggested that Winchell’s source of pay had affected his judgment in the matter.
Clyde Tolson reviewed and approved all the questions Winchell had for Hoover beforehand. The questions were largely friendly, but Tolson approved a few questions that appeared tough in order to preserve Winchell’s credibility as an interviewer, as well as to give Hoover a chance to respond to common criticisms that had been aired against him. Specifically, Winchell asked Hoover if the charges against President White were motivated by antisemitism, and whether the claim that President White was a spy was comparable to the Dreyfus Affair. Hoover firmly denied that was the case. He pointed out that Isaac Don Levine, a Jewish journalist, had been the confidante of Whittaker Chambers, and that Levine had played a crucial role in bringing the Berle-Chambers meeting to public attention. Hoover further stated that the atheistic nature of Communism meant that the Soviet Union was inherently hostile to Judaism and was thus anti-Semitic. Hoover stated that the vast majority of Jews were loyal Americans, and that he hoped that Jewish-Americans would support ousting the Communists from the government. Hoover acknowledged the existence of anti-Semitic critics of White, but maintained they were few in number and were not associated with the “evidence-based” opponents of the President.
Herbert Hoover, the only former president alive during the White administration, emerged as an unlikely defender of the beleaguered Harry Dexter White. Hoover had no fondness for White’s policies- Hoover had doubled down on conservatism after World War II, attacking the New Deal and advocating for a hawkish line towards the Soviet Union. Hoover did not hide his opposition to the President’s politics. But he did not take kindly towards attacks on the President’s character. Herbert Hoover remembered how he had been maligned and blamed for the Great Depression- unfairly, he felt. Hoover thus responded negatively to what he saw as hyperbolic criticisms of President White. He could emphasize more fully with Harry Dexter White than any other American alive- for he had been in the same position, receiving mountains of unfair, terrible vitriol. Hoover had criticized the White administration’s foreign policy as naïve and misguided, saying the President was strengthening the power of the Soviet Union. But Hoover did not accuse the President of possessing traitorous motives. He had advocated limited cooperation with the Soviet Union in the past- Hoover had organized famine relief in the Soviet Union during the 1920s, delivering food to millions of Russians. Hoover had further supported isolationism in the 1930s, and felt that they had been unfairly accused of Nazi sympathies. He was under the impression that President White had a genuine desire for peace and that he was not secretly trying to bring about communist world domination.
Before the publication of Red Spies in the White House, Harry Dexter White had met with Hoover on a few occasions. White sought general advice from Hoover on the pressures of the presidency. Like White, Hoover had no experience as an elected politician before he ascended to the Presidency- both men were technocrats. Thus Hoover emphasized with White’s complaints about the pressures of public office- he had similar complaints himself. Hoover thought of himself as an elder statesman, and not a committed partisan- he had worked across ideological lines before. He was happy to help the President if he could- he felt it was his patriotic duty. In the summer of 1946, President White had dispatched Hoover on a trip to Europe to investigate the post-war food shortage. Hoover visited several countries and wrote a report lining out a series of recommendations. Hoover wrote a scathing critique of the Morgenthau Plan, condemning the induced food shortages in Germany. White, however, accepted Hoover’s recommendations for famine relief for the allied countries in Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc. The interaction between Hoover and White during this period was cordial.
When President White was accused of being a Communist spy, Herbert Hoover broke with his fellow Republicans and eschewed partisan attacks against the President, instead taking a more balanced response. “It is indeed a serious thing that the President and the men in his administration are accused of doing. But in the United States, we operate by a principle of innocence until proven guilty. We should not rush towards an immediate judgment of the President. Republicans should not open this session of Congress by impeaching the President. They should investigate the evidence, but fairly and impartially. It is premature to assume White’s guilt- and much speculation I have heard is nonsensical,” Hoover declared to the New York Times.
Lauchlan Currie informed Harry Dexter White of Hoover’s quote and suggested that Hoover could be recruited as an ally, or at least a foil, against the attacks of congressional Republicans. Hoover met again with White in the Oval Office. In January 1947, at the start of the 80th Congress, President White announced that Herbert Hoover would chair a commission on famine relief in Europe, and that the purview of this commission would include famine relief in Germany. The President thus appeared to be scaling back the severity of the Morgenthau Plan. Much of the hunger and death in Germany had been caused indirectly by Allied policy- the seizure of industrial equipment and wealth had led to widespread unemployment and poverty among the Germans, who thus lacked the money to buy food. White had maintained, amidst intense criticism of the Morgenthau Plan, that there was no deliberate policy to starve the Germans. The famine in West Germany could be attributed to both administrative incompetence as well as hostile intent towards the Germans. White had previously blocked plans to provide famine relief in the occupied zones, insisting the Army was doing a sufficient job of distributing food. The appointment of Hoover was thus a concession to the critics of the Morgenthau Plan, an implicit admission that the President had gone too far. While allowing for the delivery of food, the President otherwise maintained the Morgenthau Plan’s severe limits on German economic activity. The President appeared to be moderating in an attempt to stave off impeachment. The President sought to raise the question: Would a Communist spy really appoint Herbert Hoover, of all people, to a high ranking government office? Hoover’s appointment thus served to confuse public opinion about the President, and stymie the momentum for impeachment which was building at the start of 1947.
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947
One of the first priorities for the 80th Congress was changing the Presidential Line of Succession. The issue of the presidential line of succession had attracted public scrutiny following the death of President Winant and the ascension of President White due to the absence of a Vice President. Since White had assumed the Presidency in the midst of war, few in Washington wished to immediately challenge White's legitimacy for fear of undermining the war effort. There was some speculation that since White had assumed office due to the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, and not the Constitution, that White would only qualify as the Acting President. White himself never used the title or alluded to the possibility he was only Acting President- his administration immediately began referring to him just as President. Even before the allegations of espionage against the President went public, many Republicans viewed White's legitimacy dubiously. White had only been confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury a few months before President Winant's death. Nobody in the Senate had expected that this confirmation vote would lead to White assuming the Presidency. Cabinet nominations were rarely rejected, and the confirmation of White as Secretary of the Treasury had not been subject to any particularly intense scrutiny. Arthur Vandenburg said that if they had been aware there was a possibility that White would become President, Senate Republicans would have actively fought White's confirmation. The allegations of espionage against the President had now forced the issue.
Republican congressional leaders were already considering impeachment of the President at the beginning of the congressional term. The issue with impeachment, however, was that if President White was removed from office, the Secretary of State, Laurence Duggan, was next in the line of succession- and Duggan had also been accused of being a Communist spy. Many other members of the cabinet had been accused of espionage. Anyone appointed to office by President White was suspect- the President had apparently filled the government with Communist agents. Even those who had not been specifically accused by Hoover were compromised, and the Senate would reject any nominee proposed by White to replace any members of his cabinet who resigned, died, or were impeached. Without amending the Presidential Line of Succession, Congress would not be able to start impeachment proceedings. They would have to impeach White's entire cabinet first, and then impeach White. But this would leave nobody left in the line of succession, meaning that not only would there be no cabinet, there would be no President at all. Such a situation could lead to the collapse of constitutional government completely, or leave the United States adrift until a new President was elected in 1949. Thus amending the Presidential Line of Succession was a prerequisite for impeachment.
Prior to 1886, the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House had been after the Vice President in the line of succession. The bill introduced at the start of Congress by Senator Kenneth Wherry would have reinstated their presence. The Speaker of the House would come first, and then the President Pro Tempore. If the act was implemented and President White was impeached, Speaker of the House Joseph Martin would assume the Presidency. The Secretary of State and the other cabinet members would remain in the line of succession after the President Pro Tempore. There was discussion of allowing the President to nominate a Vice President in the event of a vacancy, but the lawyers consulted advised this would require a constitutional amendment. In any case, the Senate would not confirm any Vice President nominated by President White, under the same principle that a suspected spy could not be trusted to select his successor. The issue would thus be moot for the remainder of President White's term, and the issue of replacing a Vice President was not included in Wherry's bill. Majority Leader Wallace White indicated he would move quickly to pass Wherry's bill through the Senate.
The main obstacle to passage of the bill was the man it was intended to replace- President White himself. White recognized the Wherry bill was intended to not just allow for his impeachment, but to retroactively render his ascension to the Presidency illegitimate. White publicly declared that the Wherry bill was a Republican coup d'etat- an attempt to overturn the results of the 1944 Presidential Election and prematurely end the Democratic Administration, prematurely installing a Republican President without an official vote from the American people. His own popularity being rather low, White positioned the Wherry bill as an attack on the legitimacy of the Democratic Party itself. He thus intended to make a partisan issue out of the line of succession and rally the Democrats against the Wherry bill. DNC Chair Hannegan declared that protecting the President should be the top priority of congressional Democrats. Sam Rayburn and Alben Barkley were thus enlisted by the President to vote against passage of the Wherry bill. Congressional Republicans quickly shepherded the Wherry bill through the House and Senate, sending it to the President's desk by February of 1947. The President, as expected, vetoed the bill which was intended to bring an end to his administration. While Barkley and Rayburn favored congressional investigation into communist infiltration of the government, they were repelled by the speed at which the Republicans had acted to remove the President. Barkley had suggested to Wallace White that in the event of a White impeachment that congressional Republicans and Democrats could agree on a prospective compromise candidate without any credible suggestion of disloyalty- preferably a Democrat- to replace White as President. Barkley would present this candidate to the President, and ask that he be appointed Secretary of State, thus preventing the collapse of the entire executive branch. Barkley further suggested that Congress could elect a Democrat to a congressional office, who could then replace White. Hardline Republicans in the House scoffed at this suggestion- the entire Democratic Party and New Deal coalition was compromised. They would not vote for Rayburn as Speaker, or for any Democrat. Joseph Martin was going to be President, whether or not the Democrats liked it. Articles of impeachment had already been filed and directed to the House Judiciary Committee. If the Wherry bill passed, Republicans would move immediately to impeach President White. Congressional Democrats were only willing to impeach White if a preponderance of evidence proved it- and at the start of 1947, the Democrats felt that such a preponderance did not exist. While a few southern Democrats voted with the Republicans to override White's veto of the Wherry bill, the majority of the Democrats voted against it, again. The House failed to override President White's veto, and the Wherry bill failed to become law. Speaker Martin promised that the House would take up the bill again if the impeachment of the President was imminent. The Republicans, however, had failed to bring a quick end to the White administration, and the impeachment process appeared likely to last for several months.
Richard Nixon speaks to the women of Los Angeles
Representative Richard Nixon had never been fully comfortable around women’s groups. Not that Richard Nixon was ever very comfortable in general- he was frequently neurotic and ill at ease. But Nixon in particular did not care for women’s political organizations- he found such affairs vapid and dull. Nixon had returned home from Washington D.C for the week to attend various constituent events. He had been invited to address the Los Angeles branch of the California Women’s Republican Club. While Nixon represented parts of Los Angeles County, strictly speaking downtown Los Angeles was not in his congressional district, and neither was the women’s luncheon he was attending. The congressman had been scheduled to give a speech to the luncheon, but at the moment there was no particular organization to the luncheon. Wasn’t he supposed to be giving a speech now? But there was nobody to introduce him, and the women at the event were engaged in idle chit-chat. Nixon found himself standing awkwardly around a table by himself, while plain middle-aged housewives hobnobbed with each other over appetizers. Do I really have to be here?, Nixon thought. It’s useful politically to go to this kind of crap. There was organizational overlap between the Republican groups of Los Angeles proper and the suburbs Nixon represented. Besides, it was necessary to build relations with groups outside his district in preparation for his eventual run for statewide office.
Nixon smiled at the women and said idle pleasantries but did not engage in any real conversation. Lacking any else to do, Nixon eavesdropped on the women surrounding him. Some of the women were saying nothing of any substance or interest. Nixon’s keen ears nevertheless overheard a few choice remarks he found intriguing. The women were not fond of the President, as was to be expected. But there was a certain ethnic group the women were not fond of- Nixon’s ears perked up as he heard one woman expound on a “Jewish Plot” to her group of friends. This woman seemed convinced that it was not an accident that the nation’s most prominent Jew had been accused of espionage- she seemed to think that the allegations against the President proved the whole lot was suspect. Nor did her friends say anything to disagree with her- they nodded and spoke words of affirmation.
This was not the first time Nixon had been exposed to this view on this particular subject. After the accusations against the President went public, he had heard passerby and acquaintances spout similar diatribes against American Jewry. Nixon’s public condemnations of communist infiltration of the Democratic Party and his placement on the prominent House Un-American Activities Committee had invited a wave of correspondence to his office. Nixon had not read all of these letters personally, but his secretary had summarized the most common themes of the letters. The correspondents included ruminations of Communist conspiracies in their letters, and the praise of Nixon for fighting the hidden Communist menace. Quite a few of the letters singled out the Jews in particular. When Nixon, stopping to chat with John Rankin in the halls of Congress about the House Un-American Activities Committee, casually mentioned this fact, Rankin giggled. “Someone’s going to split wide open the Jewish issue real soon, Dick.”
Nixon did not entirely disagree with Rankin. There was something very odd about the role of the Jews in the government. Roosevelt had been elected on a platform of fighting the Great Depression, and brought in a bunch of Jews into his administration without making that clear beforehand. These officials were not elected- the public, thought Nixon, wasn’t aware that in voting for Roosevelt they were giving power to the Morgenthaus and Frankfurters. They certainly had not expected that a vote for Roosevelt in 1944 was a vote for Harry Dexter White, and total capitulation to Communism.
Perhaps it was indeed time, as Congressman Rankin had suggested, for a politician to finally address the Jewish issue. Republican Party leadership had generally skated around the subject- not mentioning the President’s religion, or that of his advisors, denying allegations of bigotry or discrimination. Among the common, rank and file Republicans, however, a different attitude prevailed. Not all, or even a majority of Republicans, espoused anti-Semitism or were sympathetic to those with anti-Semitic views. But there were enough of them, and their number was surely growing. There was a vacuum to be filled, an opening for a leader to mobilize these sort of voters.
Nixon took a wad of notes out of his suit pocket. The notes contained a general outline for the speech Nixon had intended to give to the luncheon. Nixon read his notes, finding his speech wanting. The contents of the speech were anodyne and dull. Surely nobody would care for or remember it. Nixon ripped up the notes and shoved the scraps of paper back into his pocket. He would give a rather different speech today.
Nixon mulled around the crowd for a few more minutes before taking his seat at a luncheon table. The Republican women finished grabbing their plates and gradually all sat down, and the luncheon assumed a more formal air. Eventually, a Mrs. Hughes got up and gave a few introductory remarks as well as a few jokes Nixon supposed she had intended to be witty. Nixon politely laughed at Mrs. Hughes’ jokes with the rest of her audience. I should have brought along Patricia. Mrs. Hughes eventually announced it was Nixon’s time to speak, and Nixon walked over the podium, shaking hands with Mrs. Hughes.
Nixon thanked the audience and then got into the meat of his speech. “During my campaign against Jerry Voorhis, you may have heard me make mention of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Mr. Voorhis, as you may know, had some small association with those fellows- he was endorsed by the CIO PAC, a communist controlled group, no matter how much he denies it. The dangerous influence of the CIO- we need to discuss it in greater depth. One of the main lawyers for the CIO- Lee Pressman- he was one of the names on Mr. Hoover’s list of spies. A very suspicious character indeed. The whole outfit seems to be a Communist operation and the Secretary of Agriculture- Calvin Baldwin- worked there alongside Pressman. The Communist influence goes all the way to the top. One aspect of the CIO-PAC that I think has been overlooked was their role at the Democratic Convention in 1944. We know, of course, how ill-fated Roosevelt’s selection of a Vice President that year was. And who should play a key role in the selection of the Vice President, but Sidney Hillman, chair of the CIO-PAC. It was Hillman who greenlighted the selection of John Winant- remember that Roosevelt said he wanted to “clear it with Sidney”. Now the late Mr. Hillman was not born in this country- he was in fact born in Lithuania. And his approval of John Winant paved the way for our esteemed Commander-in-Chief- who happens to be another Lithuanian. And the President, he appoints another Lithuanian to be his Attorney General. Now why are there so many Lithuanians in our government? There are probably more Lithuanians in power here than in Lithuania. Lee Pressman, of course, is of a similar extraction.
This is not a coincidence. The CIO-PAC intervened with Roosevelt to secure appointments for their favored men- and these men are now running Washington. Through a series of backroom meetings, union bureaucrats, red lawyers, radical intellectuals and economists manipulated themselves into key positions from which they seized control of the government. And this secretive inner circle, which gave us the administration of Harry Dexter Red, predominantly consists of radical leftists of Jewish and Eastern European extraction.
No this is not a coincidence- it is a Jewish-Communist Plot that has taken control of the White House and dismantled our defenses against Communism. The rapid growth of communism across the globe is the result of a deliberate policy set by a secret Jewish interest within our government- not so secret anymore. We can not afford to ignore the Jewish element of the communist invasion of the United States any longer.
Of course these men are all Jewish. The Jews are natural born spies.* They are naturally rootless, without loyalty to the countries in which they left. The Jewish immigrants and their children in this country- far too many of them have rejected the faith of their ancestors and adopted godless communism as their new creed. They came to this country having accepted Communism as their God, with the deliberate aim of contaminating America with the false gospel of Marxism. These Communist rabble-rousers should never have been admitted to the United States. We would not be in such danger today if we had kept them out. The East Coast elites, the lily-livered Ivy-League set, embraced these Marxist Jews with open arms. They admitted them to their institutions- they gave old Harry a professorship at Harvard! Our leaders were not vigilant, and became susceptible to Communist manipulation, and now we are paying the price.
The Jewish issue is not contained to that of the President and his friends- the Jewish community in this country deliberately allowed a culture of radicalism and decadence to fester, of disloyalty and envy which bred men like the President. It is not just the President- there is a broader Jewish problem. It is a problem we can no longer ignore. All the politicians are cowed by fear they will be accused of being intolerant and discriminatory. But we must reject this attitude. This is a matter of national security that must be addressed quickly. Congress must enact legislation creating a public registry of all Jewish employees in the government. We have reached this point because we did not investigate the backgrounds of the men we put in positions of power. No more. The Jewish interest in the government must be laid open, for all to see. We must include in this registry all the Jewish professors at our universities and members of political and civic organizations. We can’t afford to let them hide any longer- we must expose them, and fast. Only then can we determine who is loyal to the United States, and who is loyal to the Soviet Union. This registry of Jews will allow us to investigate who is a Communist spy. It’s about time that the Jew in America realizes he’s an American first and a Jew second.*”
Nixon paused, and the Women’s Republican Club erupted into applause. Nixon glared at a reporter for the Los Angeles Times sitting at the luncheon. The reporter was furiously transcribing Nixon’s entire speech into his notebook. The reporter glanced up, and saw Nixon staring at him. The reporter had raised his eyebrows and his face was blank with shock.
Nixon smirked. This ought to make some waves.
* Real Quotes from Richard Nixon
A Few Days Later
Richard Nixon bristled as the telephone rang for the third time. “Get the damn phone, Patricia!”
“Dick, it’s Murray Chotiner!”
“Put him on, then!”
Patricia handed the phone to her husband. “Good evening, Murray.”
“Dick, what the hell was that speech at the Women’s Club? It’s in all the papers! Your rhetoric is really bad for the Jews, all the cranks are coming out of the woodwork! Gerald K. Smith- you know, an actual Nazi sympathizer, just called you a hero and said you’re his ally against the ‘Jewish Menace’. You’re disgraceful! I helped put you in office, and now you’re attacking my people? You’re a double-crosser!”
Gerald K. Smith- he has a lot of admirers in Los Angeles. Could be useful, if kept at arms’ length. “Murray, it is not fair to call me anti-Semitic. I was criticizing a particular subset of Jews who are sympathetic to Communism, and Jews who are not loyal to the United States- of whom the President is one- that can’t be denied. I called for Jews to be more loyal to the United States- how is it objectionable to call upon Americans to be loyal to their country?”
“Most Jews are loyal Americans, Dick. There are Christians in the government who Hoover says are spies for the Commies- and you didn’t call upon the Christians in the United States to reaffirm their loyalties to America. You impugned the loyalties of all Jewish-Americans, myself, included. You want the government to make a list of Jews? Doesn’t that remind you at all of a certain country?”
“Murray, I merely called for closer scrutiny of the background of men in important positions. I didn’t call for Jews to be barred from any particular profession, or to be barred from any organizations or schools. I did not call for Jews to be banned from certain social organizations- in fact I think they should be admitted to country clubs and the like. The universities- they have quotas you know, of Jews, but they do let them in. Now you may question the fairness of such policies- and you may be right- but there is no comparison to Nazi Germany, that is not accurate.” Nixon wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Honestly, that sounds like phooey. You’re engaging in cheap demagoguery, chasing the mood of the moment. But you made an amateur mistake, Dick. This will come to bite you in the ass. There are a lot of Jews in Los Angeles- and they won’t forget this disgraceful performance of yours. You’re a dreadful liar, and you just made a lot of enemies.”
“Now I have no antagonism for the Jewish community of Los Angeles. But if you’re suggesting you might rally the Jews of Los Angeles against me- then you should tread lightly, Murray. There aren’t enough Jews in the state to swing any elections. If you are trying to divide the electorate on religious lines- then know you will be outvoted. That’s the sort of thing, that brash ethnic chauvinism, which has attracted animosity towards the Jews in other countries. You want to try fundraising in Hollywood against me? I think you’ll find that people are sick of all the liberal claptrap coming out of Hollywood- you will win me more friends than enemies. Now- I will continue to serve my constituents of all religious denominations. But I’d feel woe for those who’d try to kick me around.”
“I took a chance on you, working for your campaign last year. You weren’t anyone in particular before I sent you to Washington. Maybe I shouldn’t have. You should have just stuck to attacking Communism- there was no reason to bring the Jews into this. I don’t think I’ll be able to work with you in the future, unfortunately. I hereby resign. Your speech- it was too much.”
“Your services to the Nixon campaign were appreciated. But I do not need you to win elections. I can do that on my own.” Nixon paused. “Goodbye, Murray.” Nixon hung up the phone.
Port of Corfu, Greece
The sun was setting as the cargo ship pulled into the harbor of Corfu. The ship flew a Panamanian flag. Nikolaus and his men watched the ship from the docks of Corfu. As the ship approached an empty pier, Nikolaus’ group collectively ran to the pier to greet it. The Captain, standing near the bow of the ship, waved at the crowd as the ship stopped beside the pier. The sailors aboard the Panamanian vessel moved a gangway onto the pier. The captain and a few sailors walked across the gangway to the pier. Nikolaus approached the Captain. “Are you a friend?” asked the Captain.
“I am a son of the bear who lives at the feet of Mount Olympus,” Nikolaus replied in proficient Albanian.
“Then you are the one for whom this cargo is intended. We are friends of your… political group.”
The “political group” to which the Captain referred was the Democratic Army of Greece, the armed wing of the Greek Communist Party. Of course, there was no need to speak this aloud. Nikolaus nodded. “I want to remove the cargo as quickly as we can. We don’t really have control over the port. The Customs Authority was devastated during the occupation and they are understaffed. We may or may not have friends in the Customs Authority. But still, if you stay here too long-” Nikolaus cut his finger across his throat. “Do you have the ship’s manifest? I’d like a full accounting of the ship’s cargo.”
“Perhaps it is best if you come aboard the ship,” replied the Captain. Nikolaus followed the Captain and his sailors across the gangway into the bridge of the ship. The Captain handed a sheet of papers to Nikolaus. “All of the cargo listed here is located below decks- we didn’t want to risk it being seen by passing ships. The manifest is written in Albanian, I’m not sure if that is convenient for your colleagues.”
“I can translate this paper into Greek if necessary. Hmmm.” Nikolaus examined the ship's manifest. “Yes, this equipment matches the items we requested. The Yugoslavs have of course been able to ship us rifles over the border, we have no shortage of those. But these goods will allow us to match the King’s forces in terms of sophisticated weaponry. Mortars which are light enough to carry in the mountains- perfect for guerilla warfare. Artillery shells, anti-aircraft guns- yes, we are at a disadvantage against the government air force, they'll make us less vulnerable. This machine gun- it is called an M2 Browning and you have over a hundred of them. Browning- is that not an American weapon? How did you get these?”
“You shouldn’t ask such sensitive questions,” the Captain replied. “You don’t need to know. If possible, we will deliver more of these shipments- it will help even the odds in your struggle.”
“We have allies with access to these American guns. Does that mean-” The Captain stared at Nikolaus, stone-faced. “Sorry! I won’t ask silly questions. I will just translate ‘Browning gun’ as ‘Hoxha gun.’ Nobody else needs to know.” So we have a friend who wants to paint Greece red!
Across the sea to the west hundreds of kilometers away, in a modest Italian hotel, the OSS man wondered if the shipment had gone without a hitch.
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The Sidney Hillman conspiracy theory is a rather obscure but real talking point from the 1944 Presidential Election claiming that Moscow influenced the 1944 DNC through Hillman and the CIO-Pac. Since Truman was more anti-Communist than Wallace the theory didn't make any sense and seems to have been abandoned by GOP partisans. These limericks, published by the Hearst press, give a good general flavor of the rhetoric used around that time, which would definitely be more prominent ITTL: https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5160/
The Los Angeles branch of the California Women's Republican Club was in fact known for harboring antisemites- my choice for Nixon's venue is not incidental.
The Los Angeles branch of the California Women's Republican Club was in fact known for harboring antisemites- my choice for Nixon's venue is not incidental.
This just became really horrifying. Great chapter, it captured nixon's essence perfectly.
Well that was certainly a disturbing chapter, looks like we are starting to see how America will veer into the ultra right wing in the future, by politicians exploiting the sectarian card for PR.
Now a communist Greece, that would be interesting situation both domestically and internationally as you have pretty much a red Balkan and a large chunk of the Mediterranean with their chunk of Libya and I imagine a rather despairing Turkey.
That being said I do wonder how the USSR's attempts at building a stable Balkan will go, there where plans for a Balkan Federation but hit the building block of Bulgaria, mainly for even if you don't count Macedonians as Bulgarians they still would outnumber the Serbs and Bulgaria for some reason Stalinism was extremely popular, was pretty much taken over the Stalinist communist party on their own and they wanted to join the USSR for political and economic reasons.
Tito in the OTL timeline refused fearing his power but well does not seem like much could stop the USSR here given it's extreme successes, dominant postion in the region and the rest of the world powers rather content with it the U turn away from standard line of Communism I don't think is possible.
Now a communist Greece, that would be interesting situation both domestically and internationally as you have pretty much a red Balkan and a large chunk of the Mediterranean with their chunk of Libya and I imagine a rather despairing Turkey.
That being said I do wonder how the USSR's attempts at building a stable Balkan will go, there where plans for a Balkan Federation but hit the building block of Bulgaria, mainly for even if you don't count Macedonians as Bulgarians they still would outnumber the Serbs and Bulgaria for some reason Stalinism was extremely popular, was pretty much taken over the Stalinist communist party on their own and they wanted to join the USSR for political and economic reasons.
Tito in the OTL timeline refused fearing his power but well does not seem like much could stop the USSR here given it's extreme successes, dominant postion in the region and the rest of the world powers rather content with it the U turn away from standard line of Communism I don't think is possible.
mortonofski
Donor
It's been horrifying to me since the flashforward was shown quite some time ago - dreading to learn how we get there, but a fascinating read.
So Nixon picks up on the anti-Semitic climate and jumps on the bandwagon assuming leadership? Curious and terrifying to watch. I hope he's not responsible for the nonsense Dahl has been spouting in previous trailers. Although at the moment it seems that he is paving the way for him to double down on that: with just one speech he is already garnering angry reactions within his own party.
If Italy goes red too, Capitalist Europe is screwed. The Mediterrean is going to be a Communist lake.
On the other hand, I wonder how much power Moscow will have on Greece and Jugoslavia. It has no troops in these countries, and their comunist movements are homegrown rather than being imposed by the Soviets.
I love how a lot of timelines try to humanise Nixon and/or present him as the lesser of two evils, but this one actually points out what a dipshit he was. Him embracing antisemitism just to gain more power fits his OTL behavior perfectly.
Well he did deliberately prolong the Vietnam war with half of the US casualties and the millions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
Soft power and I think some connections I guess, in the OTL the USSR for example despite it's crippling issues with food make sure to provide food relief to France in this period, weather it be cash, oil, military tech ect these countries would really like aid in rebuilding and maybe a couple of people in the parties are officially apart of the Moscow brand however the USSR does have the rep as the best communist party at the time.
That said I think that will be a very interesting challenge for this USSR going forward building relations in Europe, it can't force it's will on everything, if France stays socialist and friendly that means they need to be accept some disagreements, be able to address and deal disputes and provide the carrot and the stick. A challenge for Stalin's heirs.
So they need to plan on getting some hard power into Greece and Yugoslavia but also make sure they have incentives to do and be apart of the communist alliance.
I'm glad that this story has a very accurate portrayal of Richard Nixon, and by that I mean him being an opportunistic unscrupulous antisemite.
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Tito excluded the rest of the communist movement in Europe at the time were first URSS and much later their nation, the PCF basically helped the nazist till Barbarossa so i expect that they happyly do whatever Uncle Joe say them. You want real independence and constrast? You need something like Krushev secret talk and an Hungary 1956 equivalent, before that? PCI, PCF, PCUSA and all the others were basically subsidiary of the PCUS (Stalin worked hard for that)and even if there was some that were not so...attached to Moscow, they were hardly on the top and they can have some incident or problem with the law.
This is simply not true.
From Wikipedia:
"Simultaneously, however, many communists and PCF cells reorganized clandestinely and began organizing opposition to the Germans and Philippe Pétain's regime in Vichy. One of the major actions organized by the PCF against the occupation forces was a demonstration of thousands of students and workers, staged in Paris on 11 November 1940. In May 1941, the PCF helped to organize more than 100,000 miners in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments in a strike. On 26 April 1941, the PCF called for a National Front for the independence of France with the Gaullists.[13] The Vichy French police, and later the Germans, began to arrest and intern large number of communists."
While the PCF was initially divided on how to react to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, they did join the resistance almost immediately after the start of the German occupation.
Even Léon Blum (a dude that clearly didn't like Communism) praised the PCF during the Riom Trial, because its members didn't collaborate with the Nazis unlike Petain or Laval.
Tito was one of the main supporters of the Greek Communists in OTL. Likewise the relationship between the PCI and Tito was a bit more complex than "Stalin told us to hate you".
As I have already pointed out Togliatti was the key reason behind the bad relationship between the Italian Communists and Tito, and he was in a minority. Even before 1948, Togiatti was in favor of some reaprochement with Yugoslavia.
ITTL I can see them having a slightly better relationship if Tito and Stalin don't openly break up like OTL.
And how long did it last IRL? The moment Togliatti hit the bucket, the PCI broke off with Moscow (something that many members had already suggested in 1956).
Even the PCF (arguably the most pro-Moscow party in Europe) dropped the Stalinist line in 1958.
Again, the idea of Stalin being able to control all these Comunist Parties is impossible. Moscow has no troops in these territories, and can't invade them.
I think there are a couple of possibilities ITTL:
- If the US really goes "Hitler did nothing wrong", I can see Paris and the other Communist/Socialist nations in Europe collaborating with Moscow for lack of better options. However I immagine it will be a genuine alliance, similar to the OTL relationship between the Soviets and Vietnam or Cuba.
- ITTL Stalin has far less reasons to be paranoid like his OTL self during the same time period. I can see him following Molotov's suggestions and using a more diplomatic approach to deal with Tito and more indipendent Communist forces.
BTW I just realised Stalin could use Trieste to boost the PCI's popularity. If the city is under occupation like OTL, I can see Moscow persuading Tito to drop the claims against the city, while White returns it to the Italian government, presenting it as a gift from Moscow.
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I like the fact you omitted the part of the mass executions of French Communist during the German occupation. There is a reason why Blum, of all people, praised them in front of Vicky and Nazis authorities.
Again from Wikipedia:
"Conflicts erupted within the party, as many of its members opposed collaboration with the Germans while others toed the party line of neutrality as directed by Stalin in Moscow.[196][199] On Armistice Day, November 11, 1940, communists were among the university students demonstrating against German repression by marching along the Champs-Élysées.[200] It was only when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 that French communists actively began to organize a resistance effort.[201][202] They benefited from their experience in clandestine operations during the Spanish Civil War.[196]
On 21 August 1941, Colonel Pierre-Georges Fabien committed the first overt violent act of communist resistance by assassinating a German officer at the Barbès-Rochechouart station of the Paris Métro.[203] The attack, and others perpetrated in the following weeks, provoked fierce reprisals, culminating in the execution of 98 hostages after the Feldkommandant of Nantes was shot on 20 October.[81]"
Again accusing the PCF of collaborating with the Nazis is absolutely insane, especially because it was one of the most active resistance group.