50% of NAZI oil was supplied from US

In article ,
Peter Kemp peter_n_kempathotmaildotcom@ wrote:

On or about Sun, 19 Oct 2003 23:49:28 -0700, Steve Hix
allegedly uttered:

In article ,
kirill wrote:

JÜrg Bihlmayr wrote:

Michael Petukhov schrieb:

http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_art...=16866&lang=ru

(in russian)

The article discuss the oil balance of NAZI Germany in 37 - june 44.
The funny side is that some 50% of oil and petrolium products
were supplied by US based companies (the standard oil of New Jersey,
the standard oil of California and the Davis oil company) mainly via
Spain. This includes 100% of oil supply for NAZI subs operating in
Atlantic. All these operations were authorised by US government.

Care to mention, who the other big supplier of oil to Germany until 1941
was?

Pathetic attempt at diversion from a lamer. The USSR was a big supplier
of grain to Germany before 1941. It simply does not compare in the sort
of industrial and oil assistance offered the Nazis by eager western
companies (mainly American ones such as Ford and GM).

Yeah, you guys (Soviets) were just the main supplier of oil to Germany
from the time the U.S. entered the war until Barbarossa.

Err, wasn't Barbarossa (June 22 1941) *before* the entry of the US
(December 7 1941)?

Dang...of course you're right.

....from the beginning of the war in late '39 until Barbarossa. U.S. had
quit most fuel exports to Germany when the war began in Europe.

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 23:49:28 -0700, Steve Hix
wrote:

Yeah, you guys (Soviets) were just the main supplier of oil to Germany
from the time the U.S. entered the war until Barbarossa.

What kind of time warp was this?

Operation Barbarossa kicked off on 22 June 1941.

The USA entered the war against Germany on 11 December 1941 (when
Germany declared war on the USA).

In article Q0Wkb.29034$N94.9011@lakeread02,
Peter H. Granzeau wrote:

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 23:49:28 -0700, Steve Hix
wrote:

Yeah, you guys (Soviets) were just the main supplier of oil to Germany
from the time the U.S. entered the war until Barbarossa.

What kind of time warp was this?

Operation Barbarossa kicked off on 22 June 1941.

The USA entered the war against Germany on 11 December 1941 (when
Germany declared war on the USA).

Yeah, I know. (It was late, and I was still dehydrated from a day out
in the sun...which we're still getting here, if not the 90+ temps the
midwest seems to be getting.)

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 14:43:18 -0400, Peter H. Granzeau
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 23:49:28 -0700, Steve Hix
wrote:

Yeah, you guys (Soviets) were just the main supplier of oil to Germany
from the time the U.S. entered the war until Barbarossa.

What kind of time warp was this?

Operation Barbarossa kicked off on 22 June 1941.

The USA entered the war against Germany on 11 December 1941 (when
Germany declared war on the USA).


His dates were wrong, but the facts are correct. The USSR was the
single largest supplier of oil to Nazi Germany up until the day the
Germans invaded the Soviet Union. Trains were still rolling into
Germany from the USSR loaded with oil and other strategic materials as
the Germans crossed into Soviet Territory. As a matter of interest, I
believe Sweden was the next largest supplier. Sweden bought oil from
foreign sources and resold it to the Germans.

This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.

Michael Petukhov wrote in message ...
http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_art...=16866&lang=ru

(in russian)

The article discuss the oil balance of NAZI Germany in 37 - june 44.
The funny side is that some 50% of oil and petrolium products
were supplied by US based companies (the standard oil of New Jersey,
the standard oil of California and the Davis oil company) mainly via
Spain. This includes 100% of oil supply for NAZI subs operating in
Atlantic. All these operations were authorised by US government.

I see someone is writing bad fiction and others are trying
to believe it.

The allied air offensive against Germany's oil supplies
means the German oil situation has been well documented.

Germany's oil imports, crude oil, fuels and lubricants, 1933
2,703,000, 1934 3,158,000, 1935 3,792,000, 1936
4,216,000, 1937 4,307,000, 1938 4,967,000 metric tons.
The increase is due to the economic recovery and stockpiling.

Germany had 2,134,000 metric tons of oil stocks on 1 August
1939, excluding the west fortification zone. Oil production in
greater Germany 1940 to 1944 was 29,482,000 metric tons,
this includes things like liquid gases.

If you just want to go on the avgas, motor vehicle fuel and diesel
oil then stocks as of September 1939 were 1,241,000 tons,
production and imports 1940 to 1944 were 23,975,000 metric
tons of which 7,492,000 metric tons were imports. Note imports
include over 1,000,000 tons of captured fuel and fuel sent directly
from Romania to the German army in the East.

Rather hard for the US to supply half of Germany's oil needs
unless there were large multi million ton imports in the 1937
to 1939 period, which clearly did not happen as the import
figures and 1939 fuel reserves figures show. Diesel production
1940 to 1944 amounted to 5,427,000 tons, imports another
2,327,000 tons, stocks as of September 1939 298,000 tons.
The U-boats were the big users of diesel, again rather hard
for the US to supply 100% of the U-boat fuel.

It would be good to know which country's ships were being
used to transport the oil, the allies were always short of
tankers until very late in the war. Spain in 1939 had some
16 tankers, or 86,000 Gross registered tons (ships of
1,600 GRT or larger).

In the time period 1 September 1939 to 22 June 1941 the
USSR supplied over 1,000,000 tons of petroleum products
to Germany out of over 3,500,000 tons of supplies. Then
add another 380,000 tons from Japan and 80,000 tons
from Afghanistan and Iran the USSR allowed to be
shipped through the USSR. See the Economic Blockade
by W N Medlicott, which goes into great detail about
Germany's imports from neutral countries, it includes
detailed tables from Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal,
French North Africa and the USSR. It goes into the
negotiations the allies undertook with the neutrals to
minimise their trade with Germany and ensure they were
not used for blockade breaking.

Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.

"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message ...
This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.

Michael Petukhov wrote in message ...
http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_art...=16866&lang=ru

(in russian)

The article discuss the oil balance of NAZI Germany in 37 - june 44.
The funny side is that some 50% of oil and petrolium products
were supplied by US based companies (the standard oil of New Jersey,
the standard oil of California and the Davis oil company) mainly via
Spain. This includes 100% of oil supply for NAZI subs operating in
Atlantic. All these operations were authorised by US government.

I see someone is writing bad fiction and others are trying
to believe it.

The allied air offensive against Germany's oil supplies
means the German oil situation has been well documented.

Germany's oil imports, crude oil, fuels and lubricants, 1933
2,703,000, 1934 3,158,000, 1935 3,792,000, 1936
4,216,000, 1937 4,307,000, 1938 4,967,000 metric tons.
The increase is due to the economic recovery and stockpiling.

Germany had 2,134,000 metric tons of oil stocks on 1 August
1939, excluding the west fortification zone. Oil production in
greater Germany 1940 to 1944 was 29,482,000 metric tons,
this includes things like liquid gases.

In 30 mil tons/5= 6 mil tons/year in agreement with data present
in the article.


If you just want to go on the avgas, motor vehicle fuel and diesel
oil then stocks as of September 1939 were 1,241,000 tons,
production and imports 1940 to 1944 were 23,975,000 metric
tons of which 7,492,000 metric tons were imports.

So 24 or 7.5 mil tons?

Note imports
include over 1,000,000 tons of captured fuel and fuel sent directly
from Romania to the German army in the East.

Romania was German ally till 44. why to capture?


Rather hard for the US to supply half of Germany's oil needs
unless there were large multi million ton imports in the 1937
to 1939 period, which clearly did not happen as the import
figures and 1939 fuel reserves figures show.

Which import? US one? Maybe. How about Mexican, Venezuelian,
S. African export under Standard oil control?

Diesel production
1940 to 1944 amounted to 5,427,000 tons, imports another
2,327,000 tons, stocks as of September 1939 298,000 tons.
The U-boats were the big users of diesel, again rather hard
for the US to supply 100% of the U-boat fuel.

The article says that above mentioned oil was mainly supplied to
Canaries where it was partly refined partly reloaded to Spanish
tankers to be delivered in Mediterian ports under germany control.


It would be good to know which country's ships were being
used to transport the oil, the allies were always short of
tankers until very late in the war. Spain in 1939 had some
16 tankers, or 86,000 Gross registered tons (ships of
1,600 GRT or larger).

Well the artcile says that on the route from Americas to Canaries
the Standard's tankers fleet under Panama flags were used. after
that on the way from canaries to mediterian ports spanish tankers
were used. The numbers fits. one week round trip 86000 tons*52=
4.5 mil tons/year plus german sub fleet refuelling in canaries
until 44 at least 1 mil tons /year plus unknown amount of
refulling of german subs in bases of S. America organized by
Davis oil company.

All around import from US companies 6 mil tons/year.


In the time period 1 September 1939 to 22 June 1941 the
USSR supplied over 1,000,000 tons of petroleum products
to Germany out of over 3,500,000 tons of supplies. Then
add another 380,000 tons from Japan and 80,000 tons
from Afghanistan and Iran the USSR allowed to be
shipped through the USSR. See the Economic Blockade
by W N Medlicott, which goes into great detail about
Germany's imports from neutral countries, it includes
detailed tables from Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal,
French North Africa and the USSR. It goes into the
negotiations the allies undertook with the neutrals to
minimise their trade with Germany and ensure they were
not used for blockade breaking.

Indeed. However none after june 22, 1941 form USSR
while Spanish oil was in fact 100% US one.

Michael

Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.

"Michael Petukhov" wrote in message
om...
"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message
...
This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.


If you just want to go on the avgas, motor vehicle fuel and diesel
oil then stocks as of September 1939 were 1,241,000 tons,
production and imports 1940 to 1944 were 23,975,000 metric
tons of which 7,492,000 metric tons were imports.

So 24 or 7.5 mil tons?


24 million tons was the total production of which
7.5 million were imports

Note imports
include over 1,000,000 tons of captured fuel and fuel sent directly
from Romania to the German army in the East.

Romania was German ally till 44. why to capture?


He said Romanian production AND captured fuel


Rather hard for the US to supply half of Germany's oil needs
unless there were large multi million ton imports in the 1937
to 1939 period, which clearly did not happen as the import
figures and 1939 fuel reserves figures show.

Which import? US one? Maybe. How about Mexican, Venezuelian,
S. African export under Standard oil control?


Coulddnt get there, the RN were rather efficient at blockading Germany

Diesel production
1940 to 1944 amounted to 5,427,000 tons, imports another
2,327,000 tons, stocks as of September 1939 298,000 tons.
The U-boats were the big users of diesel, again rather hard
for the US to supply 100% of the U-boat fuel.

The article says that above mentioned oil was mainly supplied to
Canaries where it was partly refined partly reloaded to Spanish
tankers to be delivered in Mediterian ports under germany control.


Spain had barely suffucient tankers for its own needs and
tankers heading for axis ports tended to be sunk on sight.


It would be good to know which country's ships were being
used to transport the oil, the allies were always short of
tankers until very late in the war. Spain in 1939 had some
16 tankers, or 86,000 Gross registered tons (ships of
1,600 GRT or larger).

Well the artcile says that on the route from Americas to Canaries
the Standard's tankers fleet under Panama flags were used. after
that on the way from canaries to mediterian ports spanish tankers
were used. The numbers fits. one week round trip 86000 tons*52=
4.5 mil tons/year plus german sub fleet refuelling in canaries
until 44 at least 1 mil tons /year plus unknown amount of
refulling of german subs in bases of S. America organized by
Davis oil company.


Dont be silly.

1) A tanker cant make a delivery every week from the
USA to the Canary Islands. Its 3-4 weeks each way
including time for loading

2) That tanker fleet was all Spain had to meet its own
oil needs

3) The Canaries didnt have the facilities to handle such traffic

4) There are no German or Spanish records to indicate
any such dealings

All around import from US companies 6 mil tons/year.


In the time period 1 September 1939 to 22 June 1941 the
USSR supplied over 1,000,000 tons of petroleum products
to Germany out of over 3,500,000 tons of supplies. Then
add another 380,000 tons from Japan and 80,000 tons
from Afghanistan and Iran the USSR allowed to be
shipped through the USSR. See the Economic Blockade
by W N Medlicott, which goes into great detail about
Germany's imports from neutral countries, it includes
detailed tables from Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal,
French North Africa and the USSR. It goes into the
negotiations the allies undertook with the neutrals to
minimise their trade with Germany and ensure they were
not used for blockade breaking.

Indeed. However none after june 22, 1941 form USSR
while Spanish oil was in fact 100% US one.


Spain was of course neutral and received barely sufficient oil
for its own use.

Keith

This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.

Michael Petukhov wrote in message ...
"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message ...

Michael Petukhov wrote in message ...
http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_art...=16866&lang=ru

(in russian)

The article discuss the oil balance of NAZI Germany in 37 - june 44.
The funny side is that some 50% of oil and petrolium products
were supplied by US based companies (the standard oil of New Jersey,
the standard oil of California and the Davis oil company) mainly via
Spain. This includes 100% of oil supply for NAZI subs operating in
Atlantic. All these operations were authorised by US government.

I see someone is writing bad fiction and others are trying
to believe it.

The allied air offensive against Germany's oil supplies
means the German oil situation has been well documented.

Germany's oil imports, crude oil, fuels and lubricants, 1933
2,703,000, 1934 3,158,000, 1935 3,792,000, 1936
4,216,000, 1937 4,307,000, 1938 4,967,000 metric tons.
The increase is due to the economic recovery and stockpiling.

Germany had 2,134,000 metric tons of oil stocks on 1 August
1939, excluding the west fortification zone. Oil production in
greater Germany 1940 to 1944 was 29,482,000 metric tons,
this includes things like liquid gases.

In 30 mil tons/5= 6 mil tons/year in agreement with data present
in the article.

This is all oil production and appears to be the only fact the
article has correct.

If you just want to go on the avgas, motor vehicle fuel and diesel
oil then stocks as of September 1939 were 1,241,000 tons,
production and imports 1940 to 1944 were 23,975,000 metric
tons of which 7,492,000 metric tons were imports.

So 24 or 7.5 mil tons?

Total production 16,483,000, imports 7,492,000.

Note imports
include over 1,000,000 tons of captured fuel and fuel sent directly
from Romania to the German army in the East.

Romania was German ally till 44. why to capture?

The majority of the captured fuel was French in 1940,
then the Italian stocks in 1943.

Rather hard for the US to supply half of Germany's oil needs
unless there were large multi million ton imports in the 1937
to 1939 period, which clearly did not happen as the import
figures and 1939 fuel reserves figures show.

Which import? US one? Maybe. How about Mexican, Venezuelian,
S. African export under Standard oil control?

How about looking and seeing it is the German import
figures that show imports were under 1/3 of production
during the war, and then note how low the stocks were in
September 1939. The German war machine burnt more
Soviet fuel than US. For the US to supply half the German
oil then the US has to be the major supplier pre war and
German stocks have to be on the order of 9 million tons
in 1939, all taken from US imports. Note in the 1933 to
1938 period Romania supplied around 13% of German
fuel imports, 3,012,000 tons, in 1939 the imports from
Romania were around 1,285,000 tons.

Diesel production
1940 to 1944 amounted to 5,427,000 tons, imports another
2,327,000 tons, stocks as of September 1939 298,000 tons.
The U-boats were the big users of diesel, again rather hard
for the US to supply 100% of the U-boat fuel.

The article says that above mentioned oil was mainly supplied to
Canaries where it was partly refined partly reloaded to Spanish
tankers to be delivered in Mediterian ports under germany control.

I see the claim is there was a large oil port in the canaries,
capable of handling millions of tons of fuel per year, plus
refinery capacity. What did this port do pre war and what
did it do post war?

Can you explain why the book Oil and War by Goralski
and Freeburg does not mention any Spanish refining
capacity, even when it mentions Norway's 1,200 barrels
per day capacity, about 0.01% of world capacity? The
book has many tables on world oil production and
refining capacities.

It would be good to know which country's ships were being
used to transport the oil, the allies were always short of
tankers until very late in the war. Spain in 1939 had some
16 tankers, or 86,000 Gross registered tons (ships of
1,600 GRT or larger).

Well the artcile says that on the route from Americas to Canaries
the Standard's tankers fleet under Panama flags were used. after
that on the way from canaries to mediterian ports spanish tankers
were used.

So with a world wide shortage of tankers, the British did
not notice all those US tankers sailing full to the Canaries
and then empty back to the US? Supplying Spain with
many times its pre war fuel consumption. Furthermore
the British let all those loaded tankers sail past Gibraltar
and onto the French Mediterranean ports all war, even
after the capture of French North Africa in late 1942?

The numbers fits. one week round trip 86000 tons*52=
4.5 mil tons/year plus german sub fleet refuelling in canaries
until 44 at least 1 mil tons /year plus unknown amount of
refulling of german subs in bases of S. America organized by
Davis oil company.

Can you please explain why U-boats would go to the North
Atlantic from France and Germany via the Canaries?

Can you please note people have examine the U-boat
war diaries and the claims the U-boats received large
scale help from neutrals is clearly wrong?

Can you show all the U-boat kills around the Canaries,
after all if they all went there then there must be plenty
sunk by allied ASW assets.

All around import from US companies 6 mil tons/year.

This is quite funny, the German records show imports for
the 5 years 1940 to 1944 to be 7 million tons, but we have
someone claiming imports were 6 million tons per year.
Also the pre war import figures were below 5 million tons
per year, with one possible exception, 1939.

In the time period 1 September 1939 to 22 June 1941 the
USSR supplied over 1,000,000 tons of petroleum products
to Germany out of over 3,500,000 tons of supplies. Then
add another 380,000 tons from Japan and 80,000 tons
from Afghanistan and Iran the USSR allowed to be
shipped through the USSR.

To clarify the imports from Japan etc were various supplies,
no oil.

See the Economic Blockade
by W N Medlicott, which goes into great detail about
Germany's imports from neutral countries, it includes
detailed tables from Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal,
French North Africa and the USSR. It goes into the
negotiations the allies undertook with the neutrals to
minimise their trade with Germany and ensure they were
not used for blockade breaking.

Indeed. However none after june 22, 1941 form USSR
while Spanish oil was in fact 100% US one.

I doubt this will really matter but the reference I gave gives
2 sets of figures for the named countries, the German
records of what they received and the relevant country's
records of what they exported. Things like 3 tons of
Mercury and Mercury alloys from Spain in 1939, 4 tons
of lead ore in 1943. Neither the German nor Spanish
records show oil products except olive oil.

Do you understand? Zero oil products. The article you so
want to believe in is fiction. The two main external sources
of German fuel 1939 to 1944 were the Romanians and
the USSR. Whoever supplied oil to the Germans pre
war contributed to the 1,241,000 fuel stockpile at the
start of the war and certainly some of that was western
oil but that stockpile was 1.2 million tons versus 24
million tons of production/imports 1940 to 1944, makes
it 5%. Sounds like at best the writer simply added a zero
to sell the story to those who would pay to hear what
they wanted to hear.

Romanian fuel exports (tons) to Germany and Czechoslovakia
1938 999,240, 1939 1,285,153, 1940 1,429,807, 1941
2,885,229, 1942 1,822,207, 1943 1,795,555. Directly to the
German army in the east 1941 34,351, 1942 369,452, 1943
715,749. So Romania contributed around 20% of German
oil imports in 1938, and even more in 1939.

One note, in 1940 the USSR imported around 1,000,000
barrels (NOT tons) of oil from the US, while selling oil to
the Germans.

Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.

"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message ...
This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.


Bad or not that bad. How about this?

Michael
---------------------------------

The A Word
By Mickey Z.

There's a petition making the rounds on the Internet that reads: "We
demand that the government of the United States cease and desist its
failed policy of appeasement concerning Saddam Hussein and with all
dispatch and all force necessary, rid us of the terrorist Saddam
Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction before he can use them in
his ongoing war against the United States."

The key word here is not "terrorist," it's "appeasement." Without it,
the petition would be impotent. Without it, there would be no
invocation of The Good War.

What we're taught about the years leading up to the Second World War
involves alleged appeasement of the Third Reich, i.e., if only the
Allies were stronger in their resolve, the Axis powers could have been
stopped.

Having made that mistake once, the mantra goes, we can't make it
again.

There are many issues swirling about the current situation in Iraq but
comparing Hussein to Hitler and invoking the A Word activates the
following historical façade: by whipping the original axis of evil in
a noble and popular war, the United States and its allies can now wave
the banner of humanitarianism and intervene with impunity across the
globe without their motivations being questioned … especially when
every enemy of the U.S. is likened to Hitler.

Perhaps the first step in challenging this so-called analysis would be
to demonstrate that it wasn't appeasement that took place prior to
WWII. It was, in the best cases, indifference; at worst it was
collaboration based on economic greed and more than a little shared
ideology.

The pursuit of profit long ago transcended national borders and
national loyalty. In the decades before WWII, doing business with
Hitler's Germany or Mussolini's Italy (or, as a proxy, Franco's Spain)
proved no more unsavory to the captains of industry than selling
military hardware to Indonesia does today. What's a little repression
when there's money to be made? In other words, when William E. Dodd,
U.S. ambassador to Germany during the 1930s, declared "a clique of
U.S. industrialists is working closely with the fascist regime[s] in
Germany and Italy," he wasn't kidding.

"Many leaders of Wall Street and of the U.S. foreign policy
establishment had maintained close ties with their German counterparts
since the 1920s, some having intermarried or shared investments," says
investigative reporter Christopher Simpson. "This went so far in the
1930s as the sale in New York of bonds whose proceeds helped finance
the Aryanization of companies and real estate looted from German Jews
… U.S. investment in Germany accelerated rapidly after Hitler came to
power." Such investment increased "by some 48.5 percent between 1929
and 1940, while declining sharply everywhere else in continental
Europe."

The Collaborators

Among the U.S. corporations that invested in Germany during the 1920s
were Ford, General Motors, General Electric, Standard Oil, Texaco,
International Harvester, ITT, and IBM — all of whom were more than
happy to see the German labor movement and working-class parties
smashed. For many of these companies, operations in Germany continued
during the war (even if it meant the use of concentration-camp slave
labor) with overt U.S. government support. "Pilots were given
instructions not to hit factories in Germany that were owned by U.S.
firms," writes Michael Parenti. "Thus Cologne was almost leveled by
Allied bombing but its Ford plant, providing military equipment for
the Nazi army, was untouched; indeed, German civilians began using the
plant as an air raid shelter."

International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) was founded by Sosthenes
Behn, an unabashed supporter of the Führer even as the Luftwaffe was
bombing civilians in London. ITT was responsible for creating the Nazi
communications system, along with supplying vital parts for German
bombs. According to journalist Jonathan Vankin, "Behn allowed his
company to cover for Nazi spies in South America, and one of ITT's
subsidiaries bought a hefty swath of stock in the airline company that
built Nazi bombers."

Behn himself met with Hitler in 1933 (the first American businessman
to do so) and became a double agent of sorts. While reporting on the
activities of German companies to the U.S. government, Behn was also
contributing money to Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS) and
recruiting Nazis onto ITT's board. In 1940, Behn entertained a close
friend and high-ranking Nazi, Gerhard Westrick, in the United States
to discuss a potential U.S.-German business alliance, precisely as
Hitler's blitzkrieg was overrunning most of Europe and Nazi atrocities
were becoming known worldwide.

In early 1946, having relied on the Dulles brothers to survive his
open flirtation with Nazi Germany, instead of facing prosecution for
treason, Behn ended up collecting $27 million from the U.S. government
for "war damages inflicted on its German plants by Allied bombing." He
was in the perfect position to lobby President Truman concerning the
newly formed Central Intelligence Group (CIG). Meeting with the chair
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William D. Leahy, in the White
House, Behn, as recorded in Leahy's diary, generously offered for
consideration "the possibility of utilizing the service of [ITT's]
personnel in American intelligence activities."

In December 1933, Standard Oil of New York invested $1 million in
Germany for the making of gasoline from soft coal. Undeterred by the
well-publicized events of the next decade, Standard Oil also honored
its chemical contracts with I.G. Farben — a German chemical cartel
that manufactured Zyklon-B, the poison gas used in the Nazi gas
chambers — right up until 1942. Other companies that traded with the
Reich and, in some cases, directly aided the war machine, before and
during this time, included Chase Manhattan Bank, Davis Oil, DuPont,
Bendix, Sperry Gyroscope, and the aforementioned General Motors. GM
top man William Knudsen called Nazi Germany "the miracle of the 20th
century."

On the governmental front, U.S. Secretary of State Breckinridge Long
curiously gave Ford Motor Company permission to manufacture Nazi tanks
while simultaneously restricting aid to German-Jewish refugees because
the Neutrality Act of 1935 barred trade with belligerent countries.
Miraculously, this embargo did not include petroleum products and
Mussolini's Italy tripled its gasoline and oil imports in order to
support its war effort while Texaco exploited this convenient loophole
to cozy up to Spain's resident fascist, Generalissimo Francisco
Franco.

The Dulles Brothers

And then there was Sullivan and Cromwell, the most powerful Wall
Street law firm of the 1930s. John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles —
the two brothers who guided the firm; the same two brothers who
boycotted their own sister's 1932 wedding because the groom was Jewish
— served as the contacts for the company responsible for the gas in
the Nazi gas chambers, I.G. Farben. During the pre-war period, the
elder John Foster led off cables to his German clients with the
salutation "Heil Hitler," and he blithely dismissed the Nazi threat in
1935 in a piece he wrote for the Atlantic Monthly. In 1939, he told
the Economic Club of New York, "We have to welcome and nurture the
desire of the New Germany to find for her energies a new outlet."

"Hitler's attacks on the Jews and his growing propensity for
territorial expansion seem to have left Dulles unmoved," writes
historian Robert Edward Herzstein. "Twice a year, [Dulles] visited the
Berlin office of the firm, located in the luxurious Esplanade Hotel."

Ultimately, it was little brother Allen who actually got to meet the
German dictator, and eventually smoothed over the blatant Nazi ties of
ITT's Sosthenes Behn. "(Allen) Dulles was an originator of the idea
that multinational corporations are instruments of U.S. foreign policy
and therefore exempt from domestic laws," Vankin writes. This idea
later took root in U.S.-dominated institutions and agreements like the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization.

Leonard Mosley, biographer of the Dulles brothers, defends Allen by
evoking the never-fail, all-purpose alibi of anticommunism. The
younger Dulles, Mosley claims, "made his loathing of the Nazis plain,
years before World War II … (it was) the Russians (who tried) to link
his name with bankers who financed Hitler." However, in 1946, both
brothers would play a major role in the founding of the United States'
intelligence community and the subsequent recruiting of Nazi war
criminals.

Henry Ford

One Third Reich supporter who never required a disclaimer was Henry
Ford, the autocratic magnate who despised unions, tyrannized workers,
and fired any employee caught driving a competitor's model. Ford, an
outspoken anti-Semite, believed that Jews corrupted gentiles with
"syphilis, Hollywood, gambling, and jazz." In 1918, he bought and ran
a newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, which became an anti-Jewish
forum.

"The New York Times reported in 1922 that there was a widespread rumor
circulating in Berlin claiming that Henry Ford was financing Adolf
Hitler's nationalist and anti-Semitic movement in Munich," write James
and Suzanne Pool in their book Who Financed Hitler. "Novelist Upton
Sinclair wrote in The Flivver King, a book about Ford, that the Nazis
got $40,000 from Ford to reprint anti-Jewish pamphlets in German
translations, and that an additional $300,000 was later sent to Hitler
through a grandson of the ex-Kaiser who acted as intermediary."

An appreciative Adolf Hitler kept a large picture of the automobile
pioneer besides his desk, explaining: "We look to Heinrich (sic) Ford
as the leader of the growing Fascist movement in America." Hitler
hoped to support such a movement by offering to "import some shock
troops to the U.S. to help [Ford] run for president."

In 1938, on Henry Ford's 75th birthday, he was awarded the Grand Cross
of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle from the Führer himself. He
was the first American (GM's James Mooney would be second) and only
the fourth person in the world to receive the highest decoration that
could be given to any non-German citizen. An earlier honoree was none
other than kindred spirit, Benito Mussolini.

Nazism's Working Class Support

U.S. support for Nazism transcended class. A February 20, 1939 rally
drew 22,000 avid followers, all marching and raising their arms in a
Nazi salute to their leader. The venue was Madison Square Garden where
frenzied members of the German-American Bund cheered Fritz Kuhn as he
stood before a 30-foot high portrait of George Washington flanked by
black swastikas, leading them in a chant of "Free Amerika!" (a
rallying cry which had just recently replaced "Sieg Heil!"), while
1,300 New York City policemen stood guard outside the building.

A U.S. citizen who served in the German Army during the First World
War, Kuhn stirred up his mostly German-American conscripts by
explaining that Lenin was a Jew, J. P. Morgan had Jewish blood, and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's real name was "Rosenfeld." Other anti-FDR
rumors spread by his adversaries were often aimed at the high-profile
First Lady, Eleanor, i.e., she had given the president gonorrhea
(which she had "contracted from a Negro") and she was known to visit
Moscow "to learn unspeakable sexual practices."

Kuhn's endless proselytizing did not go unnoticed by the Third Reich;
he attended the 1936 Olympics as an honored guest and met Adolf Hitler
by special invitation. "Fritz Kuhn awkwardly presented the Führer with
$3,000, a gift for a Nazi relief fund," writes Herzstein. "Hitler was
not particularly impressed with this rag-tag group, but this did not
bother Kuhn, if he realized at all. Eager to trade on his new
notoriety, Kuhn implied that he came home from Berlin bearing Hitler's
blessing."

Doing his part to prey on the fears of everyday Americans was Father
Charles Coughlin, a Canadian-born Catholic priest who rose to
prominence during the Depression as a radio commentator with upwards
of 15 million to 20 million listeners (with some estimates as high as
40 million) on 47 stations.

"No friend of the Jews, Coughlin believed that Professor Felix
Frankfurter and labor leader David Dubinsky exercised undue influence
on FDR," says Herzstein. "He called them communists." When Rev.
Coughlin was asked by a Boston Globe reporter to prove this
allegation, the priest belted the journalist in the face.

While his attacks on Jews did cost him some of his audience, Coughlin
remained undeterred in his rants against the "Christ-killers and
Christ-rejecters." He even went as far as reprinting the notorious
anti-Semitic tract "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in his newspaper,
Social Justice, in 1938. The demagogic clergyman perceived U.S. aid to
Britain as the first step in a plan to "substitute Karl Marx for
George Washington." For his efforts, the Nazi press labeled Coughlin
"America's most powerful radio commentator."

Il Duce

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime were not the only recipients of
American moral support; there was a particular blacksmith's son who
also merited the attention of U.S. businessmen and lawmakers alike.
Benito Mussolini, exploiting the fears of an anti-communist ruling
class in Italy, installed himself as head of the single-party fascist
state in 1925 after declaring three years earlier that, "either they
will give us the government or we shall take it by descending on
Rome." Virulently anticommunist, anti-Semitic, and anti-labor like
Hitler, Il Duce ("the leader") was prone to pronouncements like this:
"We stand for a new principle in the world. We stand for the sheer,
categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy.

Putting this doctrine into action, Il Duce took aim at Italy's
powerful unions. The solution was to smash unions, political
organizations, and civil liberties. This included the destruction of
labor halls, the shutting down of opposition newspapers, and unions
and strikes were outlawed in both Italy and Germany. Union property
and farm collectives were confiscated and handed over to rich private
owners. Even child labor was reintroduced in Mussolini's Italy.

Despite or perhaps because of the Blackshirts, the terror tactics, the
smashing of democratic institutions, and the blatant fascist
posturing, Mussolini received some rave reviews on both sides of the
Atlantic.

"It is easy to mistake, in times of political turmoil, the words of a
disciplinarian for those of a dictator. Mussolini is a severe
disciplinarian, but no dictator," wrote New York Times senior foreign
correspondent Walter Littlefield in 1922. Further serving the
corporate roots of the U.S. media, Littlefield went on to advise that
"if the Italian people are wise, they will accept the Fascismo, and by
accepting [they will] gain the power to regulate and control it." Six
days earlier, an unsigned Times editorial observed that "in Italy as
everywhere else, the great complaint against democracy is its
inefficiency ... Dr. Mussolini's experiment will perhaps tells us
something more about the possibilities of oligarchic administration."

In January 1927, Winston Churchill wrote to Il Duce, gushing "if I had
been an Italian, I am sure I would have been entirely with you from
the beginning to the end of your victorious struggle against the
bestial appetites and passions of Leninism." Even after the advent of
war, Churchill still found room in his heart for the Italian dictator,
explaining to Parliament in 1940: "I do not deny that he is a very
great man but he became a criminal when he attacked England."

Other unabashed apologists for Dr. Mussolini included:

Richard W. Child, former ambassador to Rome, who stated in 1938: "it
is absurd to say that Italy groans under discipline. Italy chortles
with it! It is victor! Time has shown that Mussolini is both wise and
humane."
The House of Morgan loaned $100 million to the Italian government in
the late 1920s, and then reinvested it in Italy upon its repayment.
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who, also in the late 1920s,
renegotiated the Italian debt to the U.S. on terms more favorable by
far than those obtained by Britain, France, or Belgium.
Governor Philip F. La Follette of Wisconsin (considered presidential
timber in the 1930s) kept an autographed photo of Il Duce on his wall.
A 1934 Cole Porter song originally contained the lyrics, "You're the
tops, you're Mussolini." It was eventually changed to "the Mona Lisa."
As late as 1940, 80 percent of the Italian-language dailies in the
U.S. were pro-Mussolini.
The ultraconservative Pope Pius XI who shared Mussolini's Bolshevik
paranoia provided support from a "higher source". In exchange for
Fascist recognition of the independence of Vatican City, the pope
bestowed his blessing upon Il Duce's invasion of Ethiopia and his
intervention in the Spanish Civil War. Even after Italy had aligned
itself with Nazi Germany, the papacy never broke with either Fascist
regime.

Finally, for support from the highest of all sources, there was FDR
himself who, well into the 1930s, was "deeply impressed" with Benito
Mussolini and referred to the Italian ruler as that "admirable Italian
gentleman."

A Fascist Coup in America?

Despite Roosevelt's positive assessment of the strongman of Italian
fascism, there is evidence that some home-grown fascists may have
cautiously explored the option of an American coup. In 1934, the
DuPonts and the Morgans tried to hire former Marine Gen. Smedley
Butler (Ret.) to stage a fascist overthrow of the supposedly liberal
Roosevelt administration. Later that year, Butler testified before a
congressional committee convened to investigate this possible
sedition.

After claiming that Wall Street brokers had offered him millions of
dollars to set up a fascist army of half a million, Butler explained
that Gerald MacGuire of Grayson Murphy and Company had told him that
FDR would remain as a figurehead president. Businessmen and generals
would run the country and everything would be legal. Before passing
judgment on the veracity of Butler's claims, consider how the general
himself summarized his career before a legionnaires convention in
1931:

"I spent 33 years ... being a high-class muscle man for Big Business,
for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for
capitalism ... I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking
house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and
especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I brought
light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.
I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City
[Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of a half a
dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street."

The alleged coup plan fizzled when Butler told FDR about it, thus
presenting the president with a new problem. Fearful of the financial
fallout of arresting anyone named Morgan or DuPont, FDR chose instead
to leak the news to the press. "Not for the first time or last time in
his career, [Roosevelt] was aware that there were powers greater than
he in the United States," says author Charles Higham.

Press reports led to the congressional investigation, which delved
into the role played in the proposed takeover by General Douglas
MacArthur. Thanks to the influence of big business, however, Congress
found the task of rooting out fascism among U.S. financiers and
corporate heads unnecessary.

"Butler begged the committee to summon the Du Ponts," says Higham,
"but the committee declined. Nor would it consent to call anyone from
the house of Morgan." Thus, while the supposed arsenal of democracy
was gearing up to do battle with totalitarianism, the very mechanism
of its popular support was under strenuous attack from the economic
elites in whose hands the power truly lies.

As a certain "admirable Italian gentleman" once declared, "Fascism is
corporatism."

This is where the most relevant similarities between Hussein and
Hitler exist. Despite committing atrocities, both murderers received
overt and covert support from the West in general and the United
States in particular ... all in the name of profit.

The United States, with its stockpile of lethal weapons and no
shortage of leaders dying to use them, has never been in the
appeasement business.

When President-Select Bush says, "You are either with us or against
us," he's merely selling old wine in a new bottle.

Mickey Z. is the author of Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of
"The Good War" (www.softskull.com) on which this article is based. He
can be reached at: .

"Michael Petukhov" wrote in message
om...
"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message
...
This will probably appear in the wrong place thanks to a bad
news server.



Among the U.S. corporations that invested in Germany during the 1920s
were Ford, General Motors, General Electric, Standard Oil, Texaco,
International Harvester, ITT, and IBM - all of whom were more than
happy to see the German labor movement and working-class parties
smashed. For many of these companies, operations in Germany continued
during the war (even if it meant the use of concentration-camp slave
labor) with overt U.S. government support. "Pilots were given
instructions not to hit factories in Germany that were owned by U.S.
firms," writes Michael Parenti. "Thus Cologne was almost leveled by
Allied bombing but its Ford plant, providing military equipment for
the Nazi army, was untouched; indeed, German civilians began using the
plant as an air raid shelter."


This is nonsense.

From the diary entry of Warren C Brown who was a crew member of
a the 'Honey Chile' of the 486th bomb group

"Saturday, Oct 14 **
Thus begins our big 3 day adventure. We got up at 3:30 am (after two hours
of sleep) to eat breakfast and be at briefing at 4:30 am. We were briefed
for the same target (Cologne) as yesterday. We are to bomb it at 27,000 ft,
and our visual target is the German Ford Motor Company plant in Cologne."

The simple fact is that Ford at Cologne WERE an aiming point and
while the Ford plant itself was still 80% intact its production was
halved by June 1944 and stopped by October as a result of the
failure of power and destruction of transport infrastructure caused
by the heavy bombing of city. The Allies realised by 1944 that
if you bombed the power plants and railways you could stop
production much more effectively than trying to bomb dispersed
factory complexes.

Keith