Hitler's biggest allies in World War II were Ford, General Motors & - a special report by Clive Matthew-Wilson
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Cars & Nazis article
Hitler’s biggest allies in World War II were Ford, General Motors &
a special report by Clive Matthew-Wilson
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedI
N 1937, William E. Dodd, U.S. a tiny bunch of nutters raving on Mu-
Ambassador to Germany, sent an nich street corners, Ford is believed to
urgent warning to the American have provided considerable amounts of
government: finance to the fledgling party, enabling
the Nazis to gain their stronghold on
“A clique of U.S. industrialists is Germany. It is notable that even after
hell-bent to bring a fascist state to sup- the horrors of the Nazi era were exposed
plant our democratic government and is
“A clique of U.S. following World War II, Ford never
working closely with the fascist regimes industrialists denied financing Hitler.
in Germany and Italy. ”1 is hell-bent
By the mid-1930s General Motors
Ford, General Motors and Standard to bring a was totally committed to large-scale
Oil weren’t just the world’s leading auto- fascist state to war production in Germany, produc-
motive suppliers, they were among the ing trucks, tanks & armoured cars. Its
largest and wealthiest corporations on
supplant our German subsidiary Adam-Opel manu-
the planet. Greedy, ruthless and drunk democratic factured a host of effective military
with Nazi ideology, they decided to help government equipment for the German military
end democracy, first in Europe, then in throughout the war. And, while the
America. and is working American Air Force used conventional
closely with the piston engines, the German Air Force
While their own country was at war was close to getting the world’s first
with Germany, Ford, General Motors
fascist regimes jet fighters, thanks almost entirely to
and Standard Oil kept or expanded in Germany General Motors. 3
their ties with the Nazis. Thus, when and Italy. ”
the Allied troops successfully invaded The earth is flat
France near the end of World War II, How did this happen in America, a
they discovered that they had something William E. country which prides itself on being a
in common with their German enemies: freedom-loving democracy? Well, the
Ford and General Motors vehicles run-
Dodd, obvious answer is money, but money
ning on gasoline provided by Standard U.S. alone does not explain what happened.
Oil. 2 Ambassador For that you have to look back in
American history.
Ford, GM and Standard Oil weren’t to Germany,
the only ones, of course. All in all, 1937 At the time when Standard Oil was
around 200 prominent US corporations giving corporations a bad name back in
helped the Nazis before and during the late nineteenth century, the average
World War II, but you don’t have to American lived in a small town domi-
dig very deep to see that the automotive nated by puritanical values. He or she
industry was the axle around which the might not travel further than a few kilo-
wheel of American fascism turned. The metres from his or her home in an entire
Third Reich would have had financiers lifetime. Few voting Americans knew
without the help of America, but it was anything at all about other countries,
Ford, General Motors, Standard Oil, and tourists were rare. The Victorian
Davis Oil & a few other key corpora- era was still in full swing. White people
tions which made the German military controlled China and much of the rest
conquest both economically and techni- of the planet; India & many African
cally possible. countries were British colonies. Non-
white people were widely considered
Adolf Hitler kept a photo of Henry to be savages. Women were expected to
Ford on his desk; Henry Ford built Hit- politely obey their husbands and could
ler’s trucks and pushed Nazi propaganda not vote. Hollywood, California was
through his car dealerships. At a time famous only for its fruit orchards.
when the German Nazi party was still
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedAmerica was united in name only. genes were the reason for their wealth
In the days before the Model T, America & power, then it stood to reason that
had mostly dirt roads and consisted inferior genes must be the cause of
of thousands of small towns, which poverty. Because the rich were rich as
operated more or less autonomously. a result of superior genes, then it was
There were no radios or movie theatres. foolish to try and help the poor, because
Newspapers tended to cover an area of a the poor obviously arose from inferior
few square miles. The average American genetic stock, otherwise they wouldn’t
be poor. And, of course, the rich and
today knows far more about the moon when the powerful, being from superior genetic
than the average American then knew
about Africa or China. At the turn of Allied troops stock, had not only a right but an ob-
the twentieth century it took a year for successfully ligation to rule over the poor and keep
the American army base in Alaska to the rabble from disrupting the natural
ask its Washington office a question: six
invaded order of things.
months for a ship to sail from Alaska, France near
In his 1911 textbook, Principles of
and six months to sail back with the the end of Economics, Harvard Professor Frank W.
reply. Alaska was not reachable by road
until World War II. World War Taussig noted:
II, they “More and more thought has been
In an atmosphere like this, the pre- given of late years to the strange contrast
vailing mindset for both rich and poor
discovered between our care in breeding animals
was almost medieval in its simplicity: that they had and our carelessness in breeding men. . .
. Certain types of criminals and paupers
The world outside had no real shape or something in breed only their kind, and society has a
form and was often intensely threaten-
ing because it was unknown. The Victo- common with right and a duty to protect its members
rians worshipped control, and American their German from the repeated burden of maintain-
Victorians had no control of the world ing and guarding such parasites.”
outside their town. Other races might as
enemies:
well have come from a different planet. Ford and When you strip away the scientific
presentation, you get back to the basic
The mental world of the Victorians was General bigotry behind all ethnic cleansing:
flat, and anyone who strayed too close
to the edge was presumed to simply fall Motors the tribal leader believes that only he
off into darkness. vehicles and his genetic group are holy, noble
and righteous, and that therefore the
Keeping things all white ‘lesser’ races are a threat and must be
As American industry grew mas- exterminated. This bigotry is all the
sively during the early twentieth cen- more shameful when it is presented as
tury, its leaders, almost all of them white science. In this case, the science was
Protestants, developed a simple, almost called Eugenics.
childlike philosophy: “We are white,
hard-working, virtuous, Christian men The term Eugenics was first coined
and we have grown rich and powerful. in 1883 by Charles Darwin’s cousin,
Therefore, if you are not rich and pow- English mathematician Sir Francis
erful, it is because you are not white, Galton and literally means ‘good breed-
hard-working, virtuous & Christian.” ing’ or ‘well-born’. Eugenics was well
received by the wealthy in England, but
These businessmen were enthusias- it made its biggest impact in America in
tic followers of the quaint nineteenth the early twentieth century.
century theories of social & economic
Darwinism – the belief that the rich America’s rapid economic growth
and powerful were genetically superior had attracted hoards of non-white peo-
to the common man. It was a very ple from around the globe, eager to take
convenient doctrine to hold; if superior part in the American Dream. While the
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedAmerican Dream was open to all com- criminals, those afflicted with inherit-
ers, the American Reality was firmly in able diseases, and others found bio-
the hands of a small group of rich white logically unfit should be sterilised or in
businessmen who viewed their success cases of doubt be isolated as to prevent
as proof that rich white people were the perpetuation of their afflictions by
genetically superior. Thus, the cream breeding.”
of the American business community
– including du Pont, Rockefeller, Hen- “We do not want word to get out
ry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, that we want to exterminate the Negro
Andrew Mellon, Averell Harriman & population.”
Prescott Bush (president George Bush’s
grandfather) – all viewed the presence With corporate America picking up
of Chinese, Jews, Italians, American “That’s where the tab, over half the American States
Indians and Negroes as an alarming the Bush family passed eugenics laws, which allowed for
dilution of the white gene pool. the forced sterilisation of the mentally
fortune came ill and incapable. In practice this usu-
The rich white businessmen weren’t from: It came ally meant poor whites, latinos, blacks
about to take this ‘invasion’ lying down; from the Third & native Americans, all of whom were
they financed two groups that were sterilised in the name of racial purity,
to have a profound influence in both Reich” and often on the flimsiest of grounds.
America and Germany: the Population
Association of America, and the Pioneer Pioneer Fund’s first president, Harry
Fund, founded in 1937 by General W. Laughlin, “wanted the lowest 10 percent
Draper. Draper himself drew upon the of Americans sterilized to ‘eradicate in-
work and words of the founder of the ferior people’”. Over 75,000 Americans
planned parenthood movement, Mar- were sterilized against their will between
garet Sanger, who believed that through 1924 and 1972. The legality of the com-
birth control she could “create a race of pulsory sterilisations was upheld by the
thoroughbreds”. US Supreme Court in 1927. The 1927
decision has never been overturned, and
Does that sound familiar? Here are is still a part of US law.
a few choice quotes:4
Most of the ‘inferior’ people steri-
“The marriage bed is the most deni- lised in America in the name of racial
grating influence of social order” purity were in fact simply the unedu-
cated poor. A tv crew that went back
“Free maternity care to the poor decades later and interviewed the off-
will encourage the healthier and more spring of couples where sterilisations
normal sections of the world to shoulder were unsuccessful showed that the
the burden of unthink- offspring appeared to have as
ing and indiscriminate good or better intelligence as
fecundity of others...a dead anyone else.
weight of human waste”
The Population Associa-
“...maternity facilities tion of America and the Pio-
for slum mothers are in- neer Fund had a much larger
jurious to the community part to play in world history,
and the race. Charity will however: Hitler proudly and
only prolong the misery of publicly based his own racial
the unfit”. laws on the U.S. model. After
meeting with Hitler, Lothrop
“Feeble-minded per- Stoddard, a board member of
sons, habitual congenital
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedMargaret Sanger’s Population Associa- towards them. After all, General Motors
tion of America, wrote a book called and Chrysler also wanted to take over
The Rising Tide of Colour Against White Ford’s huge industrial empire, yet he
World Supremacy. It was well reviewed never spent his life raving about them.
in the Association’s magazine Birth
Control Review. You only hate in other people what
you see in yourself. The bottom line
Jews, blacks and communists is that Ford was a psychotic, and like
For the rich & white, the struggle most psychotics he couldn’t see that the
for racial purity was inextricably tied up while real demons were inside his own mind.
with the struggle for free enterprise. As Hitler’s In his madness, however, Ford was
far as they were concerned, communists, not alone. As well as their prejudices
Jews and non-white races all sprang
thugs were against non-white races, the members
from the same inferior source. smashing of Henry Ford’s all-white corporate club
Jewish were especially paranoid about trade
When we talk today of the United unionists. Henry Ford saw trade union
Nations or racial equality, we may have windows in organisation as just another example of
our grumbles, but most people accept Germany, Jewish conspiracy;
at least the basic notion. Many modern
American corporations have some kind
Henry “Unions are organised by Jewish
of profit-sharing arrangement with their Ford was financiers, not labour. A union is a neat
staff. Even the most rabid conservative requiring his thing for a Jew to have on hand when
accepts the need for laws governing the he comes around to get his clutches on
use of resources and basic human rights. car dealers industry.”5
However, if you had proposed those to stock
concepts at the beginning of the twen- As far as Ford was concerned: “The
tieth century you would have probably
anti-Jewish, Jews are the conscious enemies of all
been labelled a radical socialist, and later pro-Nazi that the Anglo Saxons mean by civi-
on, a communist. To the conservatives propaganda lisation”. Ford’s biography: The Fords:
who grew up in nineteenth century an American Epic describes how Ford
America, socialism and communism protected his plant from the taint of
were not so much rival political and ‘Jewish conspiracy’:
economic systems as some kind of
deadly plague that could probably be “Henry’s reaction to the labour
caught off toilet seats. movement was to make [the factory
complex] into an industrial concen-
If we take Henry Ford as the typical tration camp overseen by [an] army
self-made tycoon of the early twentieth of Service Department men. They
century, the question remains: why was followed workers into washrooms to
he so obsessed with Jews and commu- make sure they didn’t talk about union
nism? Henry Ford never had any trouble matters; they demanded that someone
getting finance for his ventures, and his walking from one place to another tell
backers were primarily white Anglo- them where he was going and why.
Saxon Protestants; he was never turned While workers were at their benches
down for a loan by a Jewish banker, he their lunch pails and overcoats were
was never outwitted by some clever Jew- ransacked for union literature... There
ish businessmen. The same applies to was no sitting, squatting, singing, talk-
communists; even during the worst of ing or whistling on the job. Smiling was
the Great Depression, communism was frowned upon... Anyone even suspected
never a serious threat in America. Nor of being a [union] sympathiser was not
does the obvious fact that communists only summarily fired but usually beaten
wanted to take over Ford’s huge indus- up as well.”
trial empire explain his utter paranoia
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedDuring the 1930s, while Hitler’s plying poison gases to the Auschwitz
thugs were smashing Jewish windows death camp. Through I.G. Farben and
in Germany, Henry Ford’s car dealers General Motors’ German subsidiary
were forced to distribute anti-Jewish,
pro-Nazi propaganda. Ford and his Adam-Opel, the du Ponts developed a
colleagues were admired by the Nazis close, incestuous relationship with the
because they ruled their industrial em- German Nazi party. Naturally, General
pires with an iron hand. The admiration
was mutual.
Rockefeller’s Motors was given the contracts to build
much of the Nazi war equipment.7
basic technique
Snake-oil science was to move While Adam-Opel was actively sup-
Irénée du Pont was a prominent
into a new area porting the rise of fascism in Germany,
member of the extraordinarily wealthy
du Pont family, which owned General
and flood the General Motors was actively supporting
Motors. Like Henry Ford, Irénée had a local market the rise of fascism in America. From the
childlike enthusiasm for snake-oil social with cheap early 1930s, the du Ponts and General
Motors bosses heavily financed several
science and a complete lack of contact oil until his
pro-big business, anti-Jewish groups.
with planet Earth. Despite being partly competitors Among them was The Black Legion,
Jewish himself, he quickly picked up on
went broke, a semi-secret group which was named
Nazi theory and became and enthusias-
tic supporter of Hitler.
then he would after the black hoods worn by its mem-
quickly raise bers. Described in an FBI report as “a
In 1926, Irénée gave a speech to the the price to the secret organisation national in scope
and military in nature”, the Legion’s
American Chemical Society in which highest that the
oath of allegiance proclaimed: “We
he proposed that a race of supermen be market would regard as enemies to ourselves and
created by picking prime youths during
stand our country all aliens, Negroes, Jews
childhood and giving them enhanced
characters by injecting them with spe- and cults and creeds believing in racial
cial drugs. These Aryan youths would equality or owing allegiance to any
then grow to rule a brave new world, foreign potentates. These we will fight
free from the taint of black skin and without fear or favour as long as one foe
Jewish blood.6 of American liberty is left alive.”8
Henry Ford & Irénée du Pont were Orginally founded in the 1920s as
both nutters, but they were also indus- the Black Guards, the organisation be-
trial leaders in a culture which gave gan as the paramilitary wing of the Ohio
industrial leaders an almost god-like Ku Klux Klan. Run like an army, the
status. Like Henry Ford, Irénée used his Legion conducted a secret war of terror
car company as a vehicle for the New against enemies of the Klan. However,
World Order. with the backing of the du Ponts, the
organisation grew to become a pri-
Thus, General Motors became a vate army for General Motors. Many
substantial investor in the world’s larg- Michigan Black Legionnaires were also
est chemical corporation I.G. Farben, members of the shadowy ‘Dawn Patrol’,
which later became famous for sup- a private security force that guarded
John D. Rockefeller Detroit auto plants. 9
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedIn 1890 the Sherman Antitrust Act
General Motors’ foremen were was passed to end anti-competitive mo-
encouraged to join the Black Legion, nopolies such as Standard Oil. However,
Rockefeller was a slippery customer and
and as a result any attempt at union
it was not until 1911 that the US Su-
organisation within General Motors’ preme Court ordered the Standard Oil
plants was often met with extreme vio- Many of the Company (New Jersey) to dismantle 33
lence. In all, over 50 deaths were linked of its most important affiliates, giving
‘inferior’ people the stocks to its own shareholders and
to the Legion. 10
sterilised in not to a new trust. Thus, Exxon, Mobil,
Chevron, American & Esso became
The Legion was seriously weakened America in the separate corporations. However, by this
after the 1936 killing of union organiser name of racial time, Rockefeller was one of the rich-
Charles Poole. Poole’s murder received purity were in est men in the world, and his dynasty
continues to this day.
nationwide publicity and the subse- fact simply the
quent investigation saw eleven Legion-
uneducated Standard Oil’s chairman Walter C.
naires sentenced to life imprisonment Teagle was great friends with Hermann
for murder and another 37 imprisoned
poor. A tv crew Schmitz of I.G. Farben. Both were also
for other offences. Significantly, the that went back close friends with Sir Henri Deterding
Legion’s financial backers were never decades later of Royal Dutch-Shell. All were active
supporters of the German Nazis. Teagle
revealed. and interviewed was also a director of the American wing
the offspring of of the giant German chemical firm I.G.
An oily customer Farben, a position he shared with Henry
Like Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller couples where Ford’s son Edsel Ford. Both Standard
was a small town, small-minded puri- sterilisations Oil and I.G. Farben heaviliy invested
tan. After starting his working life as an
accountant, he discovered he had a flair
were unsuccessful in each other.11
for oil exploration and refining. By a showed that Standard Oil’s role in fuelling the
mixture of luck and good management the offspring Nazi War machine was considerable.
he soon gained a healthy share of the Standard Oil in New Jersey owned a
local market. appeared to have healthy 94% of Standard Oil’s German
as good or better subsidiary, Deutsche-Amerikanische Pe-
However, Rockefeller wanted noth-
ing less than complete control of Amer-
intelligence as troleum A.G. Its board of directors read
like a who’s who of the Third Reich.
ica’s oil industry. His basic technique anyone else.
was to move into a new area and flood However, Germany, with its heavy
the local market with cheap oil until reliance on imported fossil fuels, was
his competitors went broke, then he extremely vulnerable in the event of
would quickly raise the price to the war, because it would be relatively easy
highest that the market would stand. for enemies to disrupt the flow of
In this manner his company, Standard oil from other countries. The Ger-
Oil, moved across America until he man solution was to manufacture
controlled 90% of its oil production. synthetic gasoline from Germany’s
When Rockefeller encountered an vast coal resources. This proved
opponent with the resources to fight technically difficult, until Standard
a prolonged price war he simply Oil came to the rescue.
switched tactics and was known to
resort to sabotage of his competitors’ The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was
pipelines or equipment. He also also under no illusions as to what
bribed both judges and politicians. the fuel would be used for. In 1933
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedthe commercial attaché informed his 3) Big business does not need govern-
government that: “In two years Ger- ment regulation. Indeed, any form of
many will be manufacturing oil and government regulation is unnatural and
gas enough out of soft coal for a long will inevitably lead to inefficiency; specifi-
war. The Standard Oil of New York is cally, regulation of big business is a form
furnishing millions of dollars to help.” of communism which must be fought at
all costs.
As Germany’s war preparations be-
American G.M. 4) Business is above politics – regard-
gan, I.G. Farben, a company with exten- vice-president less of the party currently in power, busi-
sive cross-investments in both Standard Graeme K. ness must continue as usual.
Oil and General Motors, acquired the
crucial synthetic fuel technology which Howard (later This last principle was quickly
made the early German invasions of colonel Graeme abandoned if the government of the day
Europe possible. Nazi armaments chief sought to regulate business activities,
Albert Speer was quoted in 1977 as
K. Howard) was in which case the corporations would
saying that without this synthetic fuel a committed heavily support whichever political
technology, Hitler “would never have Nazi whose book movement had the loudest free enter-
considered invading Poland”. 12 prise policy; by curious coincidence this
America and the was usually the local fascists.
In 1941, with the world at war, New World Order
American Undersecretary of State The end of the illusion
Summer Welles presented a detailed
read like a P.R. Despite the increasing difficul-
report revealing that Standard Oil of handout for the ties for the common man, the overall
New Jersey and California were the Third Reich. growth of the American economy in
chief suppliers of fuel to Nazi vessels in the early twentieth century was taken
South & Central America.13 At the time as living proof of the superiority of the
Nelson Rockefeller (John D. Rockefel- unregulated free enterprise system.
ler’s grandson and former officer of
the Venezuelan subsidiary of Standard Herbert Hoover, the Republican
Oil) was the head of the Office of the Presidential nominee in 1928, said: “We
Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, in America today are nearer to the final
an agency charged with halting the Nazi triumph over poverty than ever before
influence in South America.14 in the history of any land.”
This treason by Standard Oil was Reality has an annoying habit of
also repeated in many other countries testing economic theory. Six months lat-
throughout the war. Standard Oil er, the stock market suddenly crashed,
subsidiaries around the world were also plunging America into the Great
distributing Nazi propaganda. 15 Depression. With his good Protestant
sense of the value of hard work and in-
The Golden Rules dividual enterprise, Hoover (who took
In the early twentieth century, much of the blame for the policies of his
American corporations had four unwrit- advisors) announced that while people
ten rules which overrode all others: must not suffer from hunger and cold,
caring for them must be primarily a
1) Businesses exist to make money, local and voluntary responsibility. The
not friends. government would not prop up ailing
2) Globalization is a desirable and in- banks and the unemployed should look
evitable expansion of commerce. Ties with to their friends, family and local com-
existing businesses in foreign countries are munities for help.
a simple and effective means to achieving
this globalization. Writing in retrospect, Hoover spoke
bitterly of: “The ‘leave-it-alone liqui-
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reserveddationists’ headed by Secretary of the communism, they said. Blacks, Jews,
Treasury Mellon [who was at that point trade unionists & the illiterate poor
one of the wealthiest men in America all needed rigid state controls, but the
and who] felt that government must
Ford & his car virtuous, hard-working, Christian men
keep its hands off and let the slump liq- industry friends like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefel-
uidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one saw their role as ler were so clearly superior to the com-
formula: ‘Liquidate labour, liquidate mon man that it would be unthinkable
stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate making money, for elected governments to regulate their
real estate’. [Mellon ] held that even not taking sides. activities.
panic was not altogether a bad thing.
He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness
If the Germans There was also a strong element of
out of the system. High costs of living wanted Ford self-interest. The previous government
and high living will come down. People trucks and SKF had slashed income tax in an effort to
will work harder, live a more moral life. boost the economy. The opponents of
Values will be adjusted, and enterprising ball bearings, the New Deal didn’t want to pay extra
people will pick up the wrecks from less then why should taxes to provide relief for a bunch of lazy
competent people’”.16 Jews, niggers & sharecroppers.
they lose the sale?
Banks went bust, and with each One side was What do you do when you’re rich,
bankrupt bank, panicking depositors going to win, and white, full of a self-righteous sense of
rushed to withdraw their deposits from your own importance and angry at the
the remaining banks, which meant if they helped both president? Why, you overthrow the
that the other banks had no more sides, then they government, of course. In 1934, the
money to pay out, and so went broke, Morgan Bank assembled an incestuous
so depositors rushed to withdraw their
really couldn’t cabal of industrial giants who also just
deposits from the remaining banks, lose. It wasn’t happened to be among the nation’s
and so on. The reason this lunacy was very patriotic, but largest automotive suppliers – General
allowed to continue was because big Motors, Bethlehem Steel, Goodyear
business feared government regulation it made a lot of Tyre Co, backed by Du Pont & others
more than it feared recession. By 1933, money – to arrange a coup d’etat. The coup
11,000 of the United States’ 25,000 would end democratic rule and replace
banks had failed. it with a business-friendly fascist gov-
ernment. $3 million – a large fortune
To quote from J. Bradford DeLong: in those days – was raised and organisers
“At its nadir, the Depression was collec- despatched across the nation.17
tive insanity. Workers were idle because
firms would not hire them to work their The plot failed mainly because
machines; firms would not hire work- the conspirators were appallingly bad
ers to work machines because they saw judges of character. They chose as their
no market for goods; and there was no prospective coup leader war veteran Sm-
market for goods because workers had edley Darlington Butler. The plotters
no incomes to spend.” knew that Butler, who had faced gunfire
120 times, was the undisputed hero of
Election day came and the Ameri- everyone in the armed forces and could
can people threw Hoover out on his rally the gullible, the unemployed and
ear. President Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ the paranoid into a cohesive fighting
gave some relief to the unemployed and force. Butler had other credentials,
very slowly kick-started the American too. His role in the U.S. Marines led
economy. You’d think that the corpo- him to be a de facto trouble-shooter
rates would have been grateful, but for U.S. economic interests overseas.
they were outraged. State-funded work He gained two Congressional medals
schemes were little short of outright for his bravery.
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedThe trouble was, Butler had a con- MacGuire, Butler would become the
science. On August 21, 1931, Butler American equivalent of Hitler. Millions
stunned the audience at an American
Along with of dollars were offered, with more in
Legion convention with a speech that friends of the the pipeline. That goddamned commie
few papers dared report even in part: Morgan Bank and Roosevelt would be deposed and an
all-white corporate team, under Butler,
“War is a racket. Our stake General Motors, would rule America. Arms and muni-
in that racket has never been greater certain Du Pont tions would be supplied by Remington,
in all our peacetime history. It may a du Pont subsidiary.
seem odd for me, a military man, to
backers financed
adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness a coup d’etat that Butler pretended interest, but he
compels me to. I spent 33 years and 4 would overthrow was quietly horrified. He was, after all,
months in active service as a member a loyal and patriotic American. He rang
of our country’s most agile military the President the White House and blew the whistle
force – the Marine Corps.... I spent 33 with the aid of to Roosevelt.
years...being a high-class muscle man
for Big Business, for Wall Street and
a $3 million- Secret executive hearings of the U.S.
the bankers. funded army government Commitee for Un-Ameri-
I helped purify Nicaragua for of terrorists, can Activites opened on November
the international banking house of 20th, 1934.18 Sworn testimony revealed
Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped modelled on the incestuous cabal behind the plot.
make Mexico and especially Tampico the fascist Some people named as plotters laughed,
safe for American oil interests in 1916. all denied everything, but the plot fiz-
I brought light to the Dominican Re-
movement in zled in the light of public scrutiny.
public for American sugar interests in Paris. Roosevelt
1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba would be deposed It’s worth noting that if the plotters
a decent place for the National City had been communists, seeking to over-
[Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I and an all-white throw the US government by force, they
helped in the rape of half a dozen Cen- corporate team, might deservedly have been hanged.
tral American republics for the benefit What happened to the plotters? Basical-
of Wall Street....
under Butler, ly, nothing. The hearings were regarded
In China in 1927 I helped see would rule as something of a joke by the news
to it that Standard Oil went its way America media, who were more than willing to
unmolested....I had...a swell racket. I believe MacGuire when he said that the
was rewarded with honours, medals, aging Butler had “misunderstood” his
promotions....I might have given [no- intentions. However, when the House
torious Chicago mobster] Al Capone a committee finally published its report,
few hints. The best he could do was to the document concluded that: “with
operate a racket in three cities. The Ma- the exception of the direct statement
rines operated on three continents...” suggesting creation of the organization”,
it “was able to verify all the pertinent
Apparently unaware, or uncaring statements by General Butler.”
of Butler’s current attack of conscience,
the plotters asked him to organise an The showdown approaches
army of 500,000 soldiers to be called As the world moved towards in-
the American Liberty League, modelled evitable war, many Americans wanted
after the French veterans’ group, the to stay out of the impending conflict.
Croix de Feu. There were three main reasons for this:
one was that America tended towards
The plotters employed lawyer an isolationist foreign policy. In other
Gerald MacGuire to put the proposal words, what happened overseas was
to Butler. Under the deal offered by of no concern to America unless it
Smedley Darlington Butler
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedthreatened American interests. Two fact controlled from Nazi Germany
was the fresh memory of the masses of throughout the war, and returned most
young American troops needlessly killed of its profits to the Third Reich. 20
in World War I. The third was that
Standard Oil, General Motors, Ford & It is difficult to believe that the
friends spent a great deal of public rela- activities of Ford and General Motors’
tions money keeping America ‘neutral’, German factories were unknown and
meaning that Nazi Germany should be Henry Ford unregulated by their American owners,
left to take over Europe without Ameri- although both companies have since
can intervention. appointed a claimed their innocence.
number of key
Standard Oil’s top spin doctor, Hard evidence shows that the Ger-
Ivy Lee, was given the task of selling
Nazis to run Ford man and American industrial combines
fascism to the American masses. One in Germany, and were joined by a vast web of investment,
half of his job was to feed the German was given special ideology and international trading
Nazis with top level information about networks. However, whereas Ford and
American reaction to such things as the treatment by the General Motors’ American workers
German armament programme. The Germans earned cash each week, many German
other was to feed anti-Jewish, pro-Nazi workers were rewarded each week with
propaganda to the American public.19 the gift of life. They were slaves, shipped
After the Japs bombed Pearl Harbour, in at gunpoint from the neighbouring
however, American sentiment swung countries and forced to work under
overwhelmingly against both Japan and threat of death. 21
her German ally.
Was American Ford innocent? The
Business as usual evidence suggests exactly the opposite:
Politics aside, Ford & friends saw Henry Ford appointed a number of key
their wartime role as making money, Nazis to run Ford in Germany, and was
not taking sides. If the Germans wanted given special treatment by the Germans.
Ford trucks and SKF ball bearings, then Ford Germany director Carl Krauch
why should they lose the sale? One side testified in 1946 that:
was going to win, and if they helped “I myself knew Henry Ford and
both sides, then they really couldn’t admired him. I went to see [Hitler’s
lose. It wasn’t very patriotic, but it made right hand man Hermann] Göring per-
a lot of dough. Plus it was a splendid sonally about that...and I told Göring
opportunity to help the expansion that if we took the Ford independence
of Germany and thus create a single, away from them in Germany, it would
business-friendly government that aggrieve friendly relations with Ameri-
would control most of the world and can industry in the future...Thus we
which would doubtless welcome them succeeded in keeping the Ford works
with open arms. working and operating independently
of our government’s seizure.”
One bank greased the wheels of
international commerce: The Bank for After meeting with top Nazi official
International Settlements. Founded in Gerhardt Westrick in 1940, Henry
1930 as an international clearing house Ford refused to build Rolls-Royce
for the world’s great banks, the organisa- aircraft engines for England. However,
tion was conceived by Hjalmar Horace he had no problems supplying similar
Greeley Schacht, the Nazi Minister of products to the Germans. In 1940 the
Economics and president of the Ger- giant French Ford factory began mak-
man Reichsbank. Despite the bank’s ing aircraft engines which were used to
public position of neutrality, it was in bomb England, together with trucks for
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedthe German army. The plant was run American G.M. vice-president
by Carl Krauch and Hermann Schmitz Graeme K. Howard (later colonel
in conjunction with Henry’s son Edsel Graeme K. Howard) was a committed
Ford in the U.S.22 Nazi whose book America and the New
World Order read like a P.R. handout
After the bombing of the American for the Third Reich. Hitler awarded
bases at Pearl Harbour, the arrangement G.M. boss James D. Mooney with the
became a little trickier, so with the ap- Order of Merit of the Golden Eagle for
proval of both the U.S. State Depart- his services to Nazi Germany.
ment and the Nazis, a courier travelled it was Ford,
back and forth from the French plant General Motors’ internal docu-
with communications to & from the
General ments show a clear strategy to profit
Ford head office in Dearborn Michi- Motors, from their German military contracts
gan. Standard Oil, even after the outbreak of war between
America and Germany. Defending the
When the RAF reduced the French Davis Oil, German investment strategy as “highly
factory to rubble, Ford Motor Co was ITT & SKF profitable”, G.M.’s Alfred P. Sloan
paid compensation by a grateful Ger- told shareholders in 1939 that G.M.’s
man government. Ford simply took
and others continued industrial production for
the machinery out of the bombed which made the Nazi government was merely sound
factory and continued production in the German business practice.
a number of secret locations around
France. Meanwhile Ford had set up conquest In a letter to a concerned share-
a German-financed plant in French- technically holder, Sloan said that the manner in
controlled Algiers making trucks and which the Nazi government ran Ger-
armoured cars for Rommel’s African
possible many “should not be considered the
invasion force. business of the management of General
Motors...We must conduct ourselves as
Ford and his agents around Europe a German organization. . . We have no
also provided an excellent level of right to shut down the plant.” 25
customer service to the Nazis, servic-
ing and repairing tens of thousands of After 20 years of researching Gen-
trucks for the German army, with the eral Motors, Bradford Snell stated
full knowledge and authorisation of the that: “General Motors was far more
American head office.23 important to the Nazi war machine
than Switzerland ... Switzerland was
What’s good for General Motors just a repository of looted funds. GM
is good for America was an integral part of the German war
Like the Ford Motor Co, General effort. The Nazis could have invaded
Motors has since claimed that its Ger- Poland and Russia without Switzerland.
man operations were outside its control They could not have done so without
during World War II. About the kind- GM.”26
est thing that can be said about G.M.’s
claim is that it appears to be flatly So how were these corporations
contradicted by almost all available able to get away with it? The bottom
evidence. General Motors was not just line is: the government was scared of
a car company that happened to have big business, and the American news
factories in Germany; G.M manage- media was largely incapable of seeing
ment from the top down had extensive threats to the American way of life un-
Nazi connections, both on a business less they originated from communists
and personal level.24 or trade unions.
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedWhere the news media actually did fact was that the majority of ordinary
its job, the government was sometimes people in America and the rest of the
forced to take action. For example, world hated the Nazis and everything
in July of 1942 the New York Herald they stood for. Millions of troops from
Tribune ran a headline reading: “Hitler’s America, England, Australia, New Zea-
Angel Has 3 Million in US Bank,” The land, Canada and other nations across
story told how Hitler’s financier had the globe made enormous sacrifices to
stashed money away for safekeeping in defeat the Third Reich.
America. The US Government seized
the assets of the bank after the story The bottom line But even as the businesses in the
was run. Third Reich were crumbling, new op-
is this: World portunities for international commerce
Prescott Bush, president George W. War II could were opening up. In 1944, while the
Bush’s grandfather, was one of seven have occurred war was still raging, the Bank for In-
directors of that bank. Prescott Bush ternational Settlements assembled in
suddenly developed a born-again zeal without Hitler, Basle, Switzerland for an annual meet-
for very public anti-Nazi activities, but it couldn’t ing. Representatives from America,
and travelled America raising money Japan, Germany, Italy and Great Britain
to boost the morale of troops. Thus he
have occurred met in friendship to discuss the distri-
emerged from World War II with his without Ford, bution of the spoils of war.
reputation largely intact.27 General Motors
The meeting was chaired by an
However, according to John Lof- and Standard American, Thomas Harrington McKit-
tus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Oil trick, and high on the agenda was $378
Department’s Nazi War Crimes Unit, million in gold held by the bank on
leading Nazi industrialists secretly behalf of the German Nazi government,
owned the bank at that time, and were much of it looted from Germany’s na-
moving money into it through a second tional bank, the Reichsbank, or from
bank in Holland even after the United the teeth, spectacle frames and jewellery
States declared war on Germany. U.S. of the millions of Jews who died in the
Government investigators concluded Nazi concentration camps. The $378
that: “huge sections of Prescott Bush’s million ended up in the Swiss National
empire had been operated on behalf of Bank, with the paperwork stating that
Nazi Germany and had greatly assisted it was payments to the American Red
the German war effort.” Cross and the German legations in
Switzerland.
The bank was liquidated in 1951,
Loftus said, and Bush’s grandfather and After heavy pressure from the U.S.
great-grandfather received $1.5 million Treasury, the Bank of International
from the bank as part of that dissolu- Settlements handed over $4 million, a
tion. $1.5 million was a lot of money shortfall of $374 million. For his ster-
in an age when a brand new Plymouth ling efforts in protecting international
V8 business coupé cost around $1500. banking from the meddling hand of
“That’s where the Bush family fortune government, McKittrick was appointed
came from”, Loftus said, “it came from vice-president of the Rockefeller-
the Third Reich.”28* controlled Chase National Bank in
New York. 29
One door shuts, another opens
So how come Germany lost the In from the cold
war? The bottom line is, however In 1946, George F. Kennan, who
much support Ford, du Pont and their was attached to the American Embassy
comrades gave Germany, the simple in Moscow, sent a paranoid telegram
All content
*Lest we be accused © The bias,
of anti-Republican Dogwe&should
Lemon Guide
point out 2010. Kennedy’s
that president All rights reserved
father – a Democrat – also sympathised
with the Nazis and had investments in Nazi Germany. However, both Prescott Bush’s son George and Kennedy’s son John servedto the U.S. State Department warning and directly contributing to the deaths
of Soviet plans to dominate the world. of around 55 million people, General
World War III was an imminent pos- Motors was given a further $33 million
sibility, he claimed.30 As Kennan him- in tax exemptions to make up for the
self later admitted, his statement was after growing damage that its German factories suf-
complete garbage, but it kick-started rich from fered during World War II.
the Cold War.31
knowingly The Cold War deepened into the
Aside from a few brave efforts to aiding the ultra-paranoid McCarthy era, where a
expose corporate America’s treason, in- enemies of the lifetime career in any industry could be
terest in the men who backed the Nazis wrecked overnight by even the sugges-
died with the onset of the Cold War. United States tion that a person might be a commu-
and directly nist or communist sympathiser.
As veteran Nazi-hunter Simon Wi-
esenthal put it in 1984: “Nazi criminals
contributing Many of the people who had the
were the principal beneficiaries of the to the deaths dirt on the American corporates’ role
Cold War.” American priorities sud- of around 55 in World War II were disgraced, impris-
denly switched from ending fascism to oned or even robbed of their citizenship,
defending the free world against god- million people, usually without a proper hearing and
less communism. In addition to many General Motors often on the flimsiest of evidence.
former high-ranking Nazis being imme-
diately restored to power in Germany,
was given a Instead of the truth, America’s chil-
many thousands of former Nazis were further $33 dren grew up believing that the brave
also smuggled into America, ostensibly million in tax American motor industry helped defeat
to help fight the Russians. the Nazis by building planes and trucks
exemptions to for the Allied soldiers, thus making the
The trials at Nuremberg of a few make up for the world safe for democracy.
high profile war criminals provided a
brief focus on the horrors of Hitler’s
damage that The bottom line is this: World War
Germany, but the American backers of its German II could have occurred without Hitler,
the Nazis went largely unnoticed and factories but it couldn’t have occurred without
unpunished. Ford, General Motors and Standard
suffered during Oil.
For example, when U.S. Justice De- World War II
partment lawyer James Stewart Martin As they said in the 1950s: ‘What’s
arrived in Europe to investigate the good for General Motors is good for
hiding of Nazi assets, he discovered that America’. Yeah, right •
his superior at U.S. Military Command
in London was a leading American
Nazi, colonel Graeme K. Howard, vice-
president of General Motors. Martin
protested in vain about the General
Motors-Nazi connection. However, he
did discover a copy of Howard’s book
America and the New World Order. Fear-
ful of bad publicity so soon after the
war, the U.S. sent Howard home, but
no other action was taken.32
Actually, some action was taken:
after growing rich from knowingly
aiding the enemies of the United States
Hitler’s novel solution to Germany’s lack of living space
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedReferences
Archer, Hawthorn Books: New York
Margaret Sanger’s harshest critics are
1
Trading with the Enemy, Charles fundamentalist Christians who are not so 18
Investigation of Nazi Propaganda
Higham much opposed to eugenics as Sanger’s Activities and Investigation of Certain
advocacy of birth control. Thus Sanger’s Other Propaganda Activities: Public
2
Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged critics tend to use her link to the eugen- Hearings Before the Special Committee
Nazi Collaboration, Washington Post, ics movement to smear birth control on Un-American Activities, House of
Monday, November 30, 1998; Page A0 generally, which brings into question their Representatives, Seventy-third Con-
objectivity on both Sanger and eugenics, gress, Second Session, at Washington,
the entire article can be viewed at not to mention birth control. DC, December 29, 1934. Hearings No.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ 73-D.C.-6, Part 1.
national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm 5
The International Jew: The World’s
Foremost Problem. A collection of articles 19
Trading with the Enemy, Charles
3
Trading with the Enemy, Charles originally published in The Dearborn Inde- Higham
Higham pendent on behalf of the Ford Motor Co
20
ibid.
4
There is some controversy as to the 6
Trading with the Enemy, Charles
actual sources of some quotations attrib- Higham 21
Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged
uted to Sanger. The Planned Parenthood Nazi Collaboration, Washington Post,
Federation of America has claimed that 7
ibid. Monday, November 30, 1998; Page A0
some quotations were in fact misquotes
and/or were written by other people, and 8
Trading with the Enemy, Charles 22
Trading with the Enemy, Charles
that Sanger was in fact a jolly fine person Higham. The quotes in the lower part Higham
and pioneering feminist. This view does of the paragraph are from documents
not stand much scrutiny. Regardless of released by the American FBI under the 23
ibid.
the validity of individual quotations, there Official Information Act.
is no doubt that the general tone of the 24
ibid.
quotations attributed to Sanger accurately 9
American Swastika, Charles
reflect her views at the time. For example, Higham, 1985 25
Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged
here’s a direct quote from her own 1922 Nazi Collaboration, Washington Post,
book: The Pivot of Civilisation: 10
Trading with the Enemy, Charles Monday, November 30, 1998; Page A0
“This degeneration has already begun. Higham.
Eugenists demonstrate that two-thirds of 26
ibid.
our manhood of military age are physically 11
ibid.
too unfit to shoulder a rifle; that the feeble- 27
Trading with the Enemy, Charles
minded, the syphilitic, the irresponsible Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged
12 Higham
and the defective breed unhindered; that Nazi Collaboration, Washington Post,
women are driven into factories and shops Monday, November 30, 1998; Page A0 28
http://www.john-loftus.com/Thyssen.
on day-shift and night-shift; that children, asp
frail carriers of the torch of life, are put to 13
Treason’s Peace, Howard Ambuster
work at an early age; that society at large Beechhurst Press, 1947, p386 Trading with the Enemy, Charles
29
is breeding an ever-increasing army of Higham
under-sized, stunted and dehumanized 14
http://www.rockefeller.edu/archive.ctr/
slaves; that the vicious circle of mental narbiog.html 30
the entire telegram can be viewed at
and physical defect, delinquency and http://www.learner.org/channel/work-
beggary is encouraged, by the unseeing see also shops/primarysources/coldwar/docs/
and unthinking sentimentality of our age, http://www2.worldbook.com/features/ tele.html
to populate asylum, hospital and prison... features.asp?feature=presidents&page=
All these things the Eugenists sees and html/rockefeller.htm&direct=yes 31
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/
points out with a courage entirely admi- peopleevents/pandeAMEX57.html
rable.” 15
Trading with the Enemy, Charles
Higham. Trading with the Enemy, Charles
32
see also Higham
The Repackaging of Margaret Sanger 16
Memoirs, H. Hoover, 1952, vol.3,
Steven W. Mosher p.30
Wall Street Journal — May 5, 1997
17
The Plot to Seize the White House Jules
It’s worth noting, however, that many of
All content © The Dog & Lemon Guide 2010. All rights reservedYou can also read
