Existing comment:
Fear of Spies
"Federal Bureau of Investigation . . . director, J. Edgar Hoover, revealed complaints and tips on acts against the national defense have reached the astounding maximum of nearly 3,000 a day."
-- Washington Post, June 12, 1940
After the war in Europe began, warnings about spies, sometimes referred to as a "fifth column," dominated American culture. Fears worsened in the spring of 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded and quickly defeated France, leading Americans to worry that enemy agents had brought the country down from within.
In a June 1940 poll, 72 percent of Americans believed Germany had already placed spies in the United States, and 22 percent weren't sure.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover published cautionary articles in popular magazines about spies and saboteurs in the United States. In a May 1940 radio broadcast to the American public -- one of his many "fireside chats" -- President Roosevelt called spies a significant threat to national security.
The State Department put additional security measures in place to screen potential immigrants, making an already difficult process even harder. |