THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1897-1960
1936-1940
1936
- Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's active intervention in support of Spanish dictator
Rise of European fascism
Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War causes a permanent break in relations between Mussolini's Italy and the Western European nations led by Britain and France. On October 25, Mussolini signs a treaty with Adolf Hitler that he later terms a "Pact of Steel." Mussolini coins the term "Axis Powers" in November, in reference to the Rome-Berlin axis. The alliance later expands to include Japan, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. (Wikipedia) - Over the veto of President Roosevelt,
US veterans
the Veterans' Bonus Bill becomes law, ending 17 years of agitation by World War I veterans who were promised bonuses for their service by the US government as early as 1924. By this time the money for the bonuses has long been spent, but Roosevelt enrolls 25,000 veterans in the Civilian Conservation Corps. (Bonus Marchers, World War I.com) - March:
Rise of Nazi Germany
Against the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland. Seeing no response from Britain or France, Hitler will become bolder in his military advances. (Wikipedia)
Spanish Civil War
- July: Right-wing nationalists led by General Francisco Franco lead a rebellion against the center-leftist government of Spain.
Spanish Civil War
After almost three years of bitter fighting known to history as the Spanish Civil War, Franco will successfully overthrow the Republican government, and establishes a dictatorship. Franco will receive the support of Germany and Italy. The rebellion is sparked by a complex political and cultural divide in Spain; Franco's supporters are largely rural, conservative, and religious, while the government's defenders include socialists, Communists, urban dwellers, Catholics, and Basques. Around a million people die in the war, mostly in mass executions and murders perpetuated by both sides during the conflict. Many idealistic leftists view fighting against the rebellion as a cause celebre, while Franco's supporters portray their movement as resisting Communism and saving Christianity. Hitler sends German troops to fight alongside Franco; the rebellion proves a critical training ground for the German military. (Hitler's Luftwaffe will obliterate the undefended city of Guernica in 1937, prompting the famous painting by Pablo Picasso.) The Spanish economy will take decades to recover. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia) - August:
Rise of Nazi Germany
Germany hosts the Summer Olympics in Berlin; the games are choreographed to showcase the "superiority" of the German athlete, the "Aryan race," and Germany in general. Record-breaking performances by black American Jesse Owens seriously hinder Germany's propaganda objectives. (Wikipedia)
1937
- Britain, with a large military force already in place, imposes martial law in Palestine
Oppression of Jews and Arabs
in response to a revolt by Palestinian Arabs against British and Jewish control of the region. In June, the Peel Commission declares that the conflict between Palestine's Arabs and Jews is insoluble, and proposes that the country be partitioned. The Commission recommends that the Jewish residents occupy a coastal strip of land between Jaffa and the Syrian border, and grants the remainder of Palestine to its Arab residents. Palestinian Arabs and other Arab countries strongly oppose the proposal, which essentially creates a Jewish state. This proposal, along with other factors, precipitates a full-scale Arab revolt in Palestine which is harshly repressed by British troops. The Jewish defense force, the Haganah, and a newly-formed secret organization of guerrilla fighters, the Irgun, launches reprisals against Arabs; Irgun fighters often attack British targets as well as Arab. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok) - Prescott
US corporate ties to European fascists
Bush Sr., father of George Herbert Walker Bush and grandfather of George Walker Bush Jr, sets up a deal for his firm to supply Nazi Germany's Lutfwaffe with critical tetraethyl lead. Prescott Bush will go on to make a fortune off of Auschwitz slave labor, and through the Union Banking Corporation, will, along with his father-in law George Herbert Walker and German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, finance Hitler before and during World War II. (Bushwatch, Clamor Magazine) - For some reason, the State Department's entire Division of Eastern European Affairs is abolished and its library dismantled,
US foreign policy
most likely under pressure from the White House. Many in the government believe that the move was prompted by false information from Soviet moles in the highest echelons of the US government. "Here, if ever," says the State Department's George Kennan, "was a point at which there was indeed the smell of Soviet influence, or strongly pro-Soviet influence, somewhere in the higher reaches of the government." It is later documented that Soviet spies have far less difficulty reaching out to American conservative isolationists than they do their Nazi allies. (Derek Leebaert) - A small company named Brown & Root (which will later become a division of Halliburton)
Halliburton
calls upon freshman Democratic congressman Lyndon Johnson to procure $10 million in federal funding for the Mansfield Dam project. Johnson eventually delivers the necessary authorization and funding for the project, which becomes the cornerstone of Brown and Root's financial empire. In turn, Herman Brown finances Johnson's political rise. "It was a totally corrupt relationship and it benefited both of them enormously. Brown & Root got rich, and Johnson got power and riches," LBJ biographer Ronnie Dugger later notes, adding that Johnson "wouldn't have been in the running without Brown & Root's money and airplanes." In 2000, the Bush/Cheney campaign will use Halliburton's planes during the Florida recount, triggering a federal investigation. "The Bush administration literally flew into power on Enron's and Halliburton's private jets," a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee will charge. (Maureen Farrell)
1938
- March 12:
Rise of Nazi Germany
Hitler forces Austria to unify with Germany in a move known as the Anschluss. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler) - September: Britain, France, Italy, and Germany sign the Munich Agreements,
Rise of Nazi Germany
which allow Germany to occupy the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia instead of Britain and France opposing Hitler's Germany while it is still relatively weak (Hitler successfully pretends that his military is far stronger than it actually is; in fact, Hitler wants a war with his Western enemies, but his ally Mussolini of Italy is not ready for such a military undertaking, and urges Hitler to negotiate instead). Czechoslovakia is not consulted. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain announces that the agreement will bring about "peace in our time," a prediction which history will prove sadly misguided. The immediate reaction is interesting: Chamberlain is hailed as a hero of diplomacy by the British citizenry, the French are satisfied, and much of Germany's military leadership is relieved that they will have more time to build up their war machine. Hitler is furious at being made to look like a bourgeois diplomat. The USSR's Stalin is angered, mostly because he was not invited to the proceedings (Britain and France made hay of threatening Hitler with the Russian army); the agreement will lead Stalin to sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of non-intervention in 1939. The Czechs, of course, are appalled, especially since Hitler will waste little time in annexing much of the country and militarily dominating the rest. Chamberlain views Hitler's subsequent annexation of Czechoslovakia as betrayal of their pact, and places Britain on a war footing, to little avail for his own political future. He will go down in history as "the great appeaser," though he was not the only one proposing appeasement of Hitler, and will lose the leadership of Great Britain to the more aggressive Winston Churchill shortly thereafter. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Peter Singer)
Kristallnacht
- November 9: Kristallnacht: known to English-speaking historians as "The Night of Broken Glass,"
Rise of Nazi Germany
it is a massive pogrom of Jews in Germany and Austria planned by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders, and carried out by Nazi police, hired thugs, and civilian sympathizers. After a Jewish German dissident assassinates a German diplomat in Paris, Nazi officials use the assassination as an excuse to launch a "spontaneous" assault against Jews in Germany and Austria; the assault is actually coordinated by Nazi officials. Almost every Jewish synagogue in Germany is destroyed, and Jewish cemeteries, shops, and homes across the two countries are ravaged. Anywhere from 91 to 200 Jews are killed, and 7,000 Jews are herded into concentration camps -- one of the first incidents comprising the Jewish Holocaust. The persecution of German and Austrian Jews will continue, but the pogrom sparks outrage around the world, with pro-Nazi organizations being discredited in Europe and North America, and many countries severing diplomatic ties with Germany. (Wikipedia)
1938 - 1940
- 1938 - 1940: The on-again, off-again flirtation of the American intelligentsia with the romance of idealistic Communism flares up,
Attack on civil liberties
marked by the 1939 publication of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and 1940's publication of Hemingway's For Whom the Bells Toll. Many of the young, current crop of revolutionaries professing their admiration for Lenin and Trotsky will later become apologists for Reaganist neoconservatism, including Irving Kristol and James Burnham. In 1938 the House of Representatives sets up its Un-American Activities Committee, mandated to investigate any American who utters impure words or commits questionable deeds. The 1940 Alien Registration Act requires all foreign residents over the age of 14 to file a summation of their personal and occupational status with the government as well as full disclosure of their political beliefs; within four months, the government has a list of over 5 million names. During World War II, the government's hunt for supposed Reds takes a backseat to the war effort primarily due to the uneasy alliance with Stalin's Soviet Union, but by 1947, President Truman will oversee the blueprint of the military and industrial architecture of the Cold War. (Lewis Lapham)
1939
- March 10:
Rise of Nazi Germany
German military forces enter Prague, occupying Czechoslovakia under what Hitler terms the aegis of the Treaty of Versailles. (Wikipedia) - April: Mussolini's Italy annexes Albania after a brief struggle.
Rise of Euroopean fascism
Mussolini dreams of creating a "New Roman Empire" stretching through east Africa and into Palestine, but the Albanian struggle proves Italy's armed forces to be weak and unprepared. As a result, Mussolini decides Italy will be a "non-belligerent" in the fomenting European war until he is sure which side to join. (Wikipedia) - May: Britain issues a White Paper ruling out the partition of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish state;
Creation of Jewish nation
the paper decrees the establishment of a Palestinian state within ten years, and the eventual restriction of Jews immigrating to Palestine without the approval of Palestine's Arab majority. Zionists across the world oppose the proposal, and feel that Britain has tacitly abandoned the mandates of the Balfour Declaration. The proposal precipitates a Jewish revolt against British rule in Palestine. David Ben-Gurion declares that Jews should work towards creating their own homeland, and supports the Allies against the Axis. Over 10,000 Jews fight with British forces against the Nazis, and the Jewish Irgun suspends all terrorist attacks against British targets for the duration of the war. An Irgun splinter group known as the Stern Gang offers to aid Hitler in the conquest of Palestine in return for the transfer of European Jews to Palestine; the offer alarms Britain, and within a year the group's leader, Avraham Stern, is shot to death by British police with the assistance of the Haganah and Irgun. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok) - August 23:
Rise of Nazi Germany
Germany and the USSR sign a non-aggression pact. (Wikipedia)
Germany invades Poland; beginning of World War II
- September 1: Nazi Germany invades and subjugates Poland.
World War II
The Nazi army is largely outfitted and equipped with weapons and materials supplied by Brown Brothers Harriman. Two days later, France and England, honoring their treaty to defend Poland, declare war on Germany, and World War II begins. (George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Michael Cooper)
1940
- Iraqi
World War II
leaders opposed to Britain side with the Axis in World War II. (FactMonster, MidEast Web)
Batista takes control of Cuba
- Fulgencio
US actions in Latin America
Batista becomes the ruler of Cuba's pro-US, pro-business despotism. Batista, already a friend of US mobster Meyer Lansky, becomes intimately connected with American mob figures, and turns Cuba into a haven for Mafia officials and activities. (History of Cuba) - Japanese
World War II
occupy Indochina, but allow the French to continue their colonial adminstration of the area under puppet ruler Bao Dai, in a parallel to Vichy France under the Germans. Japan's move into the southern part of Vietnam in July 1941 sparks an oil boycott by the US and Great Britain. The resulting oil shortage strengthens Japan's desire to risk war against the US and Britain. (Chronology of US-Vietnam Relations, Wikipedia) - March:
World War II
German forces invade Denmark and Norway, and occupy Finland. (Wikipedia) - May: German forces conquer Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands,
World War II
and attack France. Although France's government will surrender in June, French resistance forces, some led by General Charles de Gaulle, continue to fight throughout the war, and win a reputation as tough, savvy, and ruthless fighters. British forces are forced to abandon the French coastal city of Dunkirk, leading to the famous evacuation of over 300,000 troops. (Wikipedia) - Summer:
World War II
Roosevelt asks Jewish leader Ezer Weizmann to travel to American to stimulate Jewish opinion against Hitler; though Weizmann is largely unable to mobilize American Jewish opinion against the Nazis, American Jews largely support the US and Britain against the Nazis after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Anti-Semitism was perceived as the bailiwick of the enemies of the US. (Dan Cohn-Sherbok) - June 10: After seeing Germany's quick victory over France,
World War II
Benito Mussolini declares Italy is at war with Britain and France, officially joining Germany. A year later he will declare war on the Soviet Union, and shortly thereafter, with the United States. Italy's first move is to attack Greece, but his weak military fares badly there until German forces bail him out. Although ideologically Mussolini is very close to Germany's Hitler, as a military ally, Italy proves less than helpful in Germany's attempt to conquer all of Europe. (Wikipedia) - July 10: The German air force,
World War II
the Luftwaffe, begins a heavy assault on Great Britain. The outmanned Royal Air Force successfully defends the home isles in a monthlong battle known as the Battle of Britain. The defeat of the Luftwaffe prevents a German invasion of Britain, but the Luftwaffe mounts a blistering air assault on British cities, known as the "Blitz," that lasts until May 1941 (though strikes will continue throughout the war). (Wikipedia) - November: Franklin Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term as president.
Roosevelt administration
Roosevelt's glittering economic record wins him re-election against Republican Wendell Wilkie, but another factor is the electorate's belief in Roosevelt's determination to assist Britain in opposing the Nazi takeover of Europe (as opposed to the isolationism and Nazi appeasement represented by Wilkie's Republicans). (Wikipedia) - Late 1940: FDR plans to implement the "Lend-Lease" program, supplies to a beleagured Great Britain.
World War II
He is in part impelled by pressure from copper millionaire Lewis Douglas, who wrote, "Our endeavor and England's endeavor should be aimed at the resuscitation of a world order in which...the United States must become the dominant power." As America's involvement increased, Douglas's brother-in-law John McCloy becomes assistant secretary of war. McCloy, called by Harper's magazine "the most influential private citizen in America," said boldly of his intentions, "I would take a chance on this country using its strength tyrannously" to establish a so-called "Pax Americana." He said with no apparent sense of irony, as the United States extended its dominium over the globe "the world will become more receptive to the Bill of Rights." Douglas, McCloy, Harvard president James Coant, publisher Henry Luce, and their influential friends feel that the US's destiny was to replace the British Empire as the world's foremost economic and military force. "since Britain did not remotely have such a role even as the start of World War II, this shows how far behind the times eminent men can be. Such databases set the tone for a half a century." Months before the US entered the war, Luce, the "unrivaled media titan of his day," dedicated that this was to be the "American century." Whatever else can be said about those imperialists, their ideas of what the future would bring would be wrong. "For the next decades, the best-informed people would be eating their words about whatever political conjunction or technological achievement they had previously deemed unthinkable." (Derek Leebaert)
