JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
John Roy Carlson (the pseudonym of Arthur Derounien, 1909-1991) was an investigative journalist and during WWII he went undercover and infiltrated many of the right wing/fascist/"patriot" groups operating in the U.S. The result of that work as a well-received book called Undercover, My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld of America1, which was published by Dutton in 1943 and which went through seven printings in its first two months of publication. It wasn't yellow journalism, either--it was an expose of Nazi and fascist sympathizers, who--even after Pearl Harbor--supported the ideas of fascism.
Derounien was a busy man, joining and infiltrating such groups as:
- National Socialist White People's Party (formed by George Lincoln Rockwell in a shabby store front on Wilson Blvd in Arlington,Virginia, and renamed the American Nazi Party in 1960);
- Christian Mobilizers (allied with the Bund, this was a militant arm of the Christian Front which had a more-militant spin-off in the American Unity Party);
- America First Committee (a mixture of patriotic, isolationist far right-wing and Nazi sympathizers, infamously spearheaded by Lindbergh, the group disappeared on 7 December 1941;
- German American Bund, (a loud German-patriotic pro-Nazi group which filled Madison Square Garden in 1939 with 20,000 members, sweatily drenched in Hitler rhetoric, an enormous portrait of G. Washington, Brownshirts, and swastikas: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/542499/marshall-curry-nazi-rally-madison-square-garden-1939/);
plus the Gray Shirts (not to be confused with local boy Pelley's Silver Shirts, abandoned after his jail sentence for sedition and replaced in the 1950's with his new religion of UFOs and religious-something called "Soulcraft"), American Nationalist Party, American Women Against Communism, The American Defense Society, Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, National Workers League, Yankee Freemen, Flanders Hall, American Patriots, and others2--it was a very impressive undertaking.
[German American Bund at Madison Square Garden, 20 February 1939. Source: https://youtu.be/WpaYQqzFouw]
His book had a very wide impact, contributing to some degree in bringing together thirty leaders of such groups to trials for sedition during wartime. Carlson had in the intervening year or so, 1943/4, been subject to many accusations and charges of being an enemy alien himself, or Communist, or something--accusations initiated by many of the groups that he exposed. So it seems that in preparing himself for the trials to come that in anticipation of more libels to come Carlson published this short broadsheet call Under Cover News, which appeared five days before D-Day, June 1, 1944. In it he asked himself questions that he thought his detractors might ask, and answered them.
Note:
1. Full text is available here: http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/sites/dlib.nyu.edu.undercover/files/under_cover-%20john%20roy%20carlson-1b.pdf
2. A fuller list of the organizations:
American National-Socialist Party, German-American Bund, Christian Front, The Ultra-American, Nationalist Party,
American Nationalist Party, American Women Against Communism, The Gray Shirts , America First Committee,
No Foreign War Committee, Christian Mobitizers, American Destiny Party, American Brotherhood of Christians
Congress, The Ethiopian Pacific Movement, Citizens Protective League, Social Justice Distributors Club,
The American Defense Society, Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, Paul Revere Sentinels, Ra-Con Klub,
Crusaders for Americanism, Inc.
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