American Peace Mobilization
Encyclopedia
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Tom C. Clark
Tom C. Clark
Thomas Campbell Clark was United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States .- Early life and career :...
on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations
Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations
The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the United States Attorney General. The list was intended to be a compilation of organizations seen as "subversive" by the United States government...
for 1948, as directed by President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
’s Executive Order 9835
Executive Order 9835
President Harry S. Truman signed United States Executive Order 9835, sometimes known as the "Loyalty Order", on March 21, 1947. The order established the first general loyalty program in the United States, designed to root out communist influence in the U.S. federal government...
.
APM was created in 1940 from the remains of the American League for Peace and Democracy (previously known as the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
affiliate American League Against War and Fascism
American League Against War and Fascism
The American League Against War and Fascism was an organization formed in 1933 by the Communist Party USA and pacifists united by their concern as Nazism and Fascism rose in Europe...
), which had dissolved following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
in 1939.
Now on stable terms with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
’s focus turned from overt anti-Fascist militancy to “peace.” In the midst of the London Blitz and the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, APM agitated for a cut-off of “warmonger” President Franklin Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
program, and any other U.S. aid to the U.K.
The APM, however, abruptly ended its 1,029-hour non-stop peace demonstration in front of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
on June 21, 1941 — one day before the Nazis invaded
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
the Soviet Union (Moscow time is 9-12 hours ahead, so the fact they stopped on the 21-June in the US was June 22, 1944 when the Nazis turned on the Soviets). Reversing its position, APM now demanded immediate U.S. entry into the war. APM changed its name yet again, to the American Peoples Mobilization.
The executive director of APM at the time of this flip-flop was Frederick Vanderbilt Field
Frederick Vanderbilt Field
Frederick Vanderbilt Field was an American leftist political activist and a great-great-grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, disinherited by his wealthy relatives for his radical political views. Field became a specialist on Asia and was a prime staff member and supporter...
; Congressman Vito Marcantonio
Vito Marcantonio
Vito Anthony Marcantonio was an American lawyer and democratic socialist politician. Originally a member of the Republican Party and a supporter of Fiorello LaGuardia, he switched to the American Labor Party.-Early life:...
was one of its vice chairs.
While the Communist Party and its various ersatz "peace" front organizations completely reversed their position on the war the moment the pact was violated, the non-interventionists of America First
America First
America First may refer to:*America First Committee, a group that opposed entry of the United States into World War II*America First Credit Union, a credit union in Utah*America First Party , an isolationist political party...
continued their opposition until the U.S. was attacked
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
on December 7, when even the pro-Nazi German American Bund endorsed war on the Axis.
During the Cold War, the group re-discovered pacifism as the National Committee to Win the Peace in demanding nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
, and U.S. and British withdrawal from Palestine, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and Greece
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
.
Goals
The program of the organization was defined in its "5 Planks to Defend America" as:- Get out and stay out of the European War.
- Defeat MilitarismMilitarismMilitarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
and Regimentation. Repeal ConscriptionConscriptionConscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
. No M Day for the American people. - Restore the Bill of Rights. Restore free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought. Take special privilege away from the top and give it back to the whole American people.
- Stop War ProfiteeringWar profiteeringA war profiteer is any person or organization that profits from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term has strong negative connotations. General profiteering may also occur in peace time.-International arms dealers:...
. Put lives ahead of profits. Put profits last on democracy's list. What helps democracy helps you. - Guarantee a decent standard of living for all. Work for more social and labor legislation. End discrimination.
Subversive Activities Control Board
The Subversive Activities Control BoardSubversive Activities Control Board
The Subversive Activities Control Board was a United States government committee to investigate Communist infiltration of American society during the 1950s Red Scare....
concluded that
the Party functionary serving as executive secretary of the American Council, stated that the American Peace Mobilization and the American Council would be mere hollow shells without the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
and that the Party 'had to use these means to weld the people into a fighting unit so that they could wrest the power from the dying ruling class.'