The Jewish Threat: Anti-semitic Politics Of The U.s. Army by Joseph W. Bendersky

Author:Joseph W. Bendersky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-05-28T08:37:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

War College, War Clouds,

1933-1941

1URE BUNK," PROFESSOR HENRY FAIRCHILD told the War College class of 1937. That's what he thought of the very idea of America as "a haven for the downtrodden" or the notion that U.S. immigration laws should be affected by "philanthropy."

Since every class for two decades had heard something similar from this prominent racist intellectual, Fairchild's reputation had preceded him. His audience had already read his more extensive papers on the worldwide Malthusian struggle for food and space on an overpopulated globe. Fairchild then related these to contemporary questions of German, Italian, and Japanese expansion. Although America had prudently closed its gates against the "enormous horde of foreigners" before it was too late, these nations, in their "search for survival and existence," had no alternative but to pursue aggressive expansionism. Since that demographic fact superseded any "ethical or moral proposition," a "turbulent explosion" was "inevitable."

Among the student officers listening to Fairchild that day were Frank McSherry and Mark Clark. As generals after World War II, both men would be charged with coping with the tremendous problems of refugees and displaced persons in Europe. And McSherry kept his copy of Fairchild's lecture on population.'

Lectures of this kind revealed much more than merely the continuation of racial education at the War College through the 1930s. They interconnected several elements of the officer corps' worldview and established their paramount relevance for contemporary America. Within such lec tures, as well as the reports of various officers at the War College, racial thinking and geopolitics were clearly linked to immigration and the possibility of war between Germany and the United States. Many officers expressed a surprising degree of understanding about a resurgent Germany and a strong conviction that a war with that country was not in America's national interest. The general sentiment within the officer corps was noninterventionist, with some officers becoming actively involved with the isolationist America First movement.

One cannot fully comprehend the views of such American officers without taking into account the Jewish question, which was interwoven throughout so many of these issues. Concerns over immigration, communism, and anything enhancing the likelihood of hostilities with Nazi Germany made many officers wary of American involvement with the plight of German Jews. Some officers were also suspicious of what they believed was a strong Jewish political influence that might lead America down the path to war. Two decades of institutionalized anti-Semitism played at least a partial role in establishing and reinforcing such ideas.

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