A story by Eric Lichtblau in The New York Times of October 26, 2014 (“In Cold War, U.S. spy agencies used 1,000 Nazis”) raises the question of how moderate the United States’ “moderate” allies–including the so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels–really are.Unlike the report in The NY Times, Gowans looks at the implications of these recently declassified documents to the current scene in Syria and the Empire's use of "moderate" terrorists. As far as the ties of our earlier ruling class with German Nazis, this is nothing new to informed activists. However, such ties have been carefully hidden from the view of ordinary Americans for many years in such classified reports for obvious reasons.
Lichtbau’s story concerns newly declassified documents showing that the CIA and FBI employed at least a thousand, and likely more, Nazis and Nazi-collaborators as spies and informants during the Cold War.
WWII had a lot to do with the threat that Germany and it allies posed for the British Empire for world dominance. Many British, French, and American capitalists were at least initially avid supporters of German fascists because they were the most concerned about communist and other left parties that threatened capitalist interests. Thus, with funding from these multinational sources, German fascists decided to use the ultra-right wing Nazi faction as a weapon to destroy the developing consciousness among workers of radical ideas that inspired the Soviet revolution in Russia. The working class cadre of Nazi brown shirts (SA) were immediately replaced by the black shirts of the SS who came more from the ranks of capitalists.
The only problem was that German Nazi capitalists began to be a threat to capitalists aligned with the British Empire and ultimately to most US capitalists who had close ties to the British. After the latter defeated the Axis Powers, the Anglo-American Empire once again reigned supreme in the world. There was obviously no room in the 20th century for a capitalist multi-polar world that is now favored in the 21st century by many critics.
Immediately following this victory, the dominant capitalist US-led Empire never lost sight of their real enemy, the Soviet Union and its associated countries like North Korea and China. Hence the long Cold War which included many local hot wars by proxy. And now we are witnessing another emerging multi-polar world in which capitalist Russia and capitalist China are seen as a threat by capitalist elites in the Empire. Such competition for dominance is very much like inter-gang violence one sees in large urban areas.
Regarding the history of US capitalists in support of Nazis, Prescott Bush comes immediately to mind. But there were many others. If you need to be informed on this subject, I advise you to read some of the following books that you probably won't find in your local libraries: American Swastika by Higham, Trading with the Enemy also by Higham, Facts and Fascism by G. Seldes, The American Axis by Wallace, and The Old Boys by B. Hersh. All of these can be purchased (used) rather cheaply and conveniently from independent bookstores via Abebooks.
