Prequel

Prequel Plot Summary

Introduction

In the summer of 1933, while Hitler was consolidating power in Germany, a different kind of battle was beginning on American soil. As Nazi flags unfurled across the Atlantic, small groups of Americans began organizing under similar banners in cities from New York to Los Angeles. They wore uniforms, conducted military drills, and openly advocated for a fascist revolution in the United States. What's most shocking is not that these groups existed, but how close they came to influencing American policy and potentially altering the course of history. This historical narrative reveals the largely forgotten story of how fascism nearly took root in America. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, readers will discover how Nazi Germany actively funded and directed operations on American soil, how prominent business leaders and politicians supported fascist causes, and how a small group of dedicated Americans fought back against this existential threat to democracy. The story serves as a powerful reminder that democracy's survival is never guaranteed but must be actively defended by vigilant citizens willing to stand against extremism, even when doing so comes at great personal cost.

Chapter 1: The Gathering Storm: Fascist Networks Take Root (1933-1936)

The early 1930s marked a pivotal moment in American history as fascist ideologies began taking root across the nation. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, with millions of Americans desperate and disillusioned, extremist movements found fertile ground. This period saw the emergence of organizations like William Dudley Pelley's Silver Shirts, which by 1934 had recruited over 15,000 members across the country. These American fascists openly admired Hitler's Germany and sought to replicate its authoritarian model in the United States. Philip Johnson, who would later become one of America's most celebrated architects, was among those seduced by fascism's appeal. After witnessing a Nazi rally in Potsdam in 1932, Johnson returned to America determined to bring Hitler-style fascism to his homeland. He and his associate Alan Blackburn formed the Gray Shirts, hoping to create an American equivalent to Hitler's Brownshirts. Though their organization never gained significant traction, it represented the growing fascination with authoritarian solutions among certain segments of American society. Lawrence Dennis, often called "the intellectual godfather of American fascism," provided theoretical justification for these movements through his writings, including his 1936 book "The Coming American Fascism." Dennis maintained close relationships with Nazi officials and traveled to Germany for the 1936 Nuremberg Rally, where he was granted a private meeting with Hitler himself. Upon returning to America, Dennis continued promoting fascist ideals, arguing that democracy was inherently flawed and that only a strong, centralized government led by elites could solve America's problems. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Senator Huey Long was demonstrating how authoritarian governance might function in America. Though not explicitly fascist, Long's methods - surrounding himself with armed bodyguards, controlling all aspects of state government, and crushing opposition - provided a troubling template. Lawrence Dennis viewed Long as the perfect vehicle for bringing fascism to America, noting that "it takes a man like Long to lead the masses." When Long was assassinated in September 1935, it removed a potential American strongman from the political landscape. The Nazi government in Germany actively cultivated these American fascist movements. Heinrich Krieger, a German lawyer sent to study American racial laws at the University of Arkansas, produced research that would later inform Nazi racial policies. The Nazis found America's Jim Crow laws and immigration restrictions particularly instructive, with one German legal scholar noting that American race law demonstrated how to circumvent constitutional guarantees of equality through judicial "secret passageways" of reasoning. By 1936, a network of American fascist organizations had formed, many receiving guidance and sometimes funding from Nazi Germany. These groups were preparing for what they called "Der Tag" (The Day) - when they would seize power in America. The groundwork was being laid for a confrontation that would test the resilience of American democracy in the years to come.

Chapter 2: Hidden Influence: Nazi Propaganda and Congressional Complicity (1936-1939)

Between 1936 and 1939, Nazi propaganda efforts in America intensified dramatically, with George Sylvester Viereck emerging as a central figure in this operation. Viereck, a German-born American citizen and former poet, had long been an advocate for Germany in the United States. By the late 1930s, he was coordinating a massive propaganda campaign funded by the German government, distributing millions of pieces of literature across America to promote isolationism and antisemitism. What made this propaganda effort particularly dangerous was its infiltration of the United States Congress. Viereck cultivated relationships with several members of Congress, including Senators Ernest Lundeen, Burton K. Wheeler, and Robert Rice Reynolds, who used their congressional franking privileges to distribute Nazi-authored materials to their constituents. These materials, often written by Viereck himself or by officials in Berlin, were published under the congressmen's names, giving Nazi propaganda the appearance of American political discourse. The scale of this operation was staggering. Through these congressional allies, Viereck managed to distribute more than three million pieces of pro-German mailings throughout America. According to records discovered after the war, the German Foreign Office spent lavishly on these efforts, raining down on Americans more than 1 million leaflets and postcards, about 2.5 million pamphlets and magazines, and 135,000 books in a single summer of 1941. Nazi Germany's propaganda strategy was carefully calculated. As Joseph Goebbels explained at the 1936 Nazi Party congress: "Propaganda helped us to power. Propaganda kept us in power. Propaganda will help us conquer the world." Hitler himself outlined the approach: "Our strategy is to destroy the enemy from within, to conquer him through himself." The propaganda aimed to divide Americans, promote isolationism, and spread antisemitism, thereby keeping the United States out of the European conflict. This effort found receptive audiences among Americans already predisposed to antisemitism and isolationism. Father Charles Coughlin, the popular "Radio Priest" with an audience of tens of millions, regularly broadcast antisemitic content and opposed American intervention against Nazi Germany. Organizations like the German American Bund held massive rallies, including one at Madison Square Garden in 1939 that attracted 20,000 attendees. The infiltration extended beyond propaganda. Nazi agents were establishing networks for potential espionage and sabotage. As one undercover investigator testified before Congress, the German American Bund was creating "a vast spy network; a powerful sabotage machine; and a German minority with the present group as a nucleus ready to encompass as many German-Americans as possible." By 1939, these networks had become so concerning that Warner Bros. produced "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," the first major Hollywood film to directly confront the Nazi threat within America.

Chapter 3: From Words to Weapons: Militant Groups and Violent Plots (1939-1941)

By 1939, as war erupted in Europe with Germany's invasion of Poland, American fascist groups began transitioning from rhetoric to action. The Christian Front, inspired by Father Charles Coughlin's increasingly violent radio broadcasts, emerged as one of the most dangerous militant organizations. In New York, a faction called the "Country Gentlemen" or "Sports Club" began stockpiling weapons and explosives stolen from National Guard armories, while conducting military-style training for its members. FBI informant Denis Healy infiltrated this group and discovered their plans were far from theoretical. They had acquired thousands of rounds of ammunition, rifles, and bomb-making materials. Their leader, John F. Cassidy, spoke openly about assassinating Jewish members of Congress, bombing Jewish neighborhoods, and creating chaos that would allow them to "step in and take over the government." As one member boasted, "It took only twenty-three men to overthrow Russia," suggesting their small numbers were no impediment to revolution. Similar plots were developing across the country. George Deatherage's American Nationalist Confederation had designed a detailed blueprint for overthrowing the U.S. government, dividing the country into cells of thirteen members each. After the 1940 election, these cells would launch coordinated attacks across the country, creating chaos that would allow them to seize power. They envisioned retired Major General George Van Horn Moseley as the potential leader of a new fascist American government. Moseley himself had expressed admiration for Hitler's policies and advocated for sterilizing Jewish immigrants. The FBI finally took decisive action in January 1940, arresting seventeen members of the Christian Front in New York. The evidence was substantial: fifteen partially completed bombs, military-grade rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and detailed plans for attacks. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover warned that while the group might seem small, "it took only twenty-three men to overthrow Russia." However, the prosecution failed spectacularly. After a ten-week trial, all defendants were acquitted, with one supporter later claiming that "at least ten members of our jury were friends of ours." What made these armed groups particularly dangerous was their connections to legitimate institutions. Captain John T. Prout Jr. of the New York National Guard had provided the Christian Front with ammunition and explosives. According to a post-trial questionnaire, over four hundred New York City police officers admitted membership in the Christian Front. These infiltrations of law enforcement and military organizations gave fascist groups access to weapons, training, and potential protection from prosecution. As America edged closer to war, these militant fascist groups represented a potential fifth column that could sabotage defense preparations and exploit any national crisis. Their existence demonstrated that fascism wasn't just an external threat - it had taken root in American soil and was prepared to use violence to achieve its aims. The attack on Pearl Harbor would soon transform the landscape, turning what had been a shadow war into an open confrontation between American democracy and its internal fascist enemies.

Chapter 4: Legal Battlegrounds: The Justice Department Responds (1941-1944)

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, fundamentally transformed America's relationship with its domestic fascists. Overnight, the abstract threat of Nazi sympathizers became a concrete national security concern as the United States entered World War II. With American soldiers fighting and dying overseas against the Axis powers, tolerance for pro-Nazi activities at home evaporated, and the Justice Department finally mounted a comprehensive response to the fascist threat. Attorney General Francis Biddle authorized a series of bold actions against Nazi agents and their American collaborators. In the summer of 1942, the Justice Department arrested eight Nazi saboteurs who had landed on American shores via submarine, trying them in a military tribunal and executing six of them. This swift action signaled a new seriousness in confronting the Nazi threat on American soil. The department's most ambitious effort was the Great Sedition Trial of 1944, which targeted 28 defendants accused of conspiracy to undermine the morale of the U.S. armed forces. Among those indicted were many figures who had been promoting fascism for years: George Sylvester Viereck, Lawrence Dennis, William Dudley Pelley, George Deatherage, and Elizabeth Dilling. The prosecution, led by O. John Rogge, sought to prove that these individuals had been part of a Nazi-directed conspiracy to weaken America from within. The trial itself proved challenging. The defendants disrupted proceedings with outbursts and delays, while their attorneys filed endless motions. After eight months of testimony, the presiding judge died, resulting in a mistrial. Though the Justice Department considered retrying the case, the war's end in 1945 reduced the perceived urgency, and the charges were eventually dropped. Nevertheless, the trial succeeded in exposing the extent of Nazi influence operations in America and effectively neutralized many of the most dangerous fascist agitators. Other prosecutions proved more successful. William Dudley Pelley was convicted of sedition in a separate trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison. George Sylvester Viereck was convicted of failing to register as a foreign agent and served five years. Laura Ingalls, the famous aviator who had dropped isolationist leaflets over Washington, was revealed to be a paid Nazi agent and sentenced to prison. Fritz Kuhn, leader of the German American Bund, was convicted of embezzlement and later deported. The Justice Department's wartime investigations uncovered the full extent of Nazi operations in America. Records seized from German diplomatic offices revealed millions of dollars spent on propaganda and influence operations. Prosecutor O. John Rogge traveled to Germany after the war and interviewed captured Nazi officials, who confirmed direct connections between the German government and American fascist groups. Perhaps most importantly, the Justice Department's actions helped preserve American democracy during one of its most vulnerable periods. By identifying and neutralizing those who sought to undermine the country from within, prosecutors ensured that America could focus its full strength on defeating fascism abroad. As Rogge later wrote, "The Nazi regime in Germany may have been destroyed, but the ideological germs which it released were not destroyed with it."

Chapter 5: Unsung Heroes: Private Citizens Against Fascism

While government agencies often hesitated to confront the fascist threat, ordinary Americans stepped forward to defend democracy through extraordinary acts of courage and determination. Perhaps none was more remarkable than Leon Lewis, a Jewish attorney and World War I veteran who created a private intelligence network to infiltrate Nazi groups in Los Angeles beginning in 1933. Lewis recruited non-Jewish veterans to pose as Nazi sympathizers and join fascist organizations, gathering detailed information about their activities, connections, and plans for violence. Lewis's network uncovered numerous plots, including a plan to seize military installations in California and a scheme to kidnap and lynch prominent Hollywood figures. His agents documented meetings between Nazi officials and American fascists, tracked the flow of German propaganda, and identified military personnel involved in extremist groups. For nearly a decade, Lewis meticulously compiled evidence and submitted reports to local police, the FBI, military intelligence, and congressional committees—often to be ignored or dismissed as alarmist. Henry Hoke, a direct mail advertising executive, launched his own investigation after his college-aged son received Nazi propaganda under his dormitory door. Using his professional expertise, Hoke analyzed the sophisticated German propaganda operation targeting American citizens and traced its connections to Congress. Despite threats and intimidation, he published his findings in his trade magazine and testified before congressional committees. His persistent work helped expose the congressional franking scheme that distributed Nazi propaganda throughout the United States. Journalists played a crucial role in alerting the public to the fascist threat. John C. Metcalfe infiltrated the German American Bund for the Chicago Daily Times, documenting their military training camps and connections to Germany. Dillard Stokes of The Washington Post tracked the movement of franked mail from congressional offices to Nazi propagandists. Arthur Derounian (writing as John Roy Carlson) spent four years undercover in fascist organizations, publishing his findings in the 1943 bestseller Under Cover, which sold nearly a million copies and opened many Americans' eyes to the extent of fascist activities in their country. These private citizens often faced significant personal risk. Leon Lewis received death threats and was targeted for assassination by the very groups he was investigating. Henry Hoke was sent threatening letters at his home. Journalists who exposed fascist activities were harassed and sometimes physically attacked. Yet they persisted, creating an informal network of resistance that complemented and sometimes surpassed official efforts to combat fascism. The impact of these unsung heroes extended beyond their immediate investigations. By documenting fascist activities and making their findings public, they helped shape American public opinion at a crucial moment in history. Their work provided essential evidence for government investigations and prosecutions, even when officials were reluctant to act. Most importantly, they demonstrated that defending democracy is not solely the responsibility of government institutions but requires the vigilance and courage of ordinary citizens willing to stand against extremism.

Chapter 6: Democracy's Reckoning: Lessons from America's Fascist Moment

As World War II drew to a close in 1945, the full horror of Nazi atrocities became apparent to the world. The liberation of concentration camps revealed the genocidal reality of Hitler's regime, transforming how Americans viewed both European fascism and its American sympathizers. Organizations that had openly embraced Nazi ideology before the war now scrambled to distance themselves from their past. The America First Committee, which had opposed U.S. entry into the war, disbanded immediately after Pearl Harbor, urging its members to "give their full support to the war effort." Yet America's internal reckoning with fascism remained incomplete. O. John Rogge's post-war investigation in Germany uncovered extensive evidence of Nazi operations in the United States and American collaboration with Hitler's regime. However, when Rogge attempted to make this information public in October 1946, he was summarily fired by Attorney General Tom Clark. His 396-page report was suppressed by the Truman administration, apparently to avoid embarrassing powerful Americans who had been involved with Nazi propaganda efforts. The Cold War quickly shifted American attention from the fascist threat to the communist one. Many of the same congressional committees that had investigated Nazi activities now turned their focus exclusively to alleged communist infiltration. The House Un-American Activities Committee, which had documented fascist operations in 1938, became infamous for its anticommunist investigations in the 1950s. This pivot allowed some former fascist sympathizers to reinvent themselves as anticommunist patriots, their previous allegiances conveniently forgotten in the new political climate. The incomplete nature of America's reckoning with its fascist movement has left lasting gaps in our historical understanding. Only in recent decades, as government records have been declassified and new scholarship has emerged, has the full extent of Nazi operations in America and the courageous resistance against them come into clearer focus. This belated recognition reminds us that historical truth often emerges slowly and incompletely, shaped by political considerations and the willingness of societies to confront uncomfortable aspects of their past. America's battle against fascism offers crucial lessons for contemporary challenges to democracy. First, extremist movements thrive on mainstream legitimacy; when respected figures in politics, religion, or culture normalize radical ideas, those ideas gain dangerous traction. Second, defending democracy requires both institutional responses and citizen action; when government institutions falter or hesitate, ordinary citizens must step forward to fill the gap. Third, confronting extremism demands moral clarity and historical honesty; societies that avoid reckoning with their darkest chapters remain vulnerable to repeating them. Perhaps most importantly, this history reminds us that democracy's greatest threats often come not from external enemies but from within. The fascist movement in America presented itself as patriotic, draping itself in American flags while seeking to undermine democratic institutions. It exploited legitimate concerns about economic hardship and national security to advance an authoritarian agenda. Recognizing these patterns requires constant vigilance and a commitment to democratic principles that transcends partisan politics.

Summary

Throughout the tumultuous period from 1933 to 1945, America faced an internal struggle that mirrored the global battle against fascism. The core tension that emerges from this history is not simply between democracy and fascism as abstract systems, but between competing visions of American identity itself. Fascist organizations and their supporters presented themselves as the true patriots, defending "real America" against foreign influences, while wrapping their extremism in American flags and Christian imagery. Their opponents recognized that the true threat to American democracy came not from outside forces but from the willingness of some Americans to abandon democratic principles in pursuit of authoritarian solutions to social and economic problems. This history offers crucial lessons for contemporary challenges to democracy. First, extremist movements thrive on mainstream legitimacy; when respected figures in politics, religion, or culture normalize radical ideas, those ideas gain dangerous traction. Second, defending democracy requires both institutional responses and citizen action; when government institutions falter or hesitate, ordinary citizens must step forward to fill the gap. Finally, confronting extremism demands moral clarity and historical honesty; societies that avoid reckoning with their darkest chapters remain vulnerable to repeating them. As new authoritarian movements emerge globally and domestically, this forgotten chapter of American history reminds us that democracy's survival depends not on assuming its permanence but on actively defending its principles in each generation.

About Author

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Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power; Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth; and Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.

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