perspectives.ushmm.org Nazi Germany’s rapid invasion of northern and western Europe in the spring of 1940 deeply shocked Americans. Many blamed the rapid fall of France not on military factors, but on the weakness and panic created by a suspected Nazi “Fifth Column” that undermined French resistance.1 The swift German victory increased fears of subversion and foreign propaganda at home in the United States. It was widely believed that a Nazi “Fifth Column” served as the advance force of the German military, paving the way for the invasion through propaganda and sabotage.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt took to the airwaves on May 26, 1940âbefore the French army had even surrenderedâto criticize those who closed their eyes to what was happening in Europe. He also warned of a potential threat to American security: “the Trojan Horse. The Fifth Column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery.”2
According to Rooseveltâs address, a portion of which is featured here, the methods of these “spies and saboteurs” was “to create confusion of counsel, public indecision, political paralysis and, eventually, a state of panic…. The unity of the State can be sapped so that its strength is destroyed.”
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