U.S. Pilot Defects – 1944

For years a devotee of the ultra-conservative radio ministry of Father Charles Edward Coughlin, a 23 year-old USAAF P-38 pilot named Martin James Monti defected to the Axis powers in October 1944.

Why a young American might actually defect to the Axis is hard to fathom. But it looks like the fiery Father Coughlin influenced his beliefs – particularly regarding ant-semitism and anti-communism.

With millions of listeners throughout the USA and Canada, Father Coughlin was a hostile critic of FDRs liberal social programs. In the late 1930s he became vociferously anti-communist and anti-semitic to the point that he openly supported the Fascist regimes of Germany and Italy. When the war broke out, Father Coughlin’s radio broadcast was finally taken off the air.

Here is a short example of Father Coughlin’s malignant rhetoric. If you close your eyes, or even leave them open and note his gestures, his style of speaking (and the crowd response) is unmistakably similar to Adolf Hitler.

 

 

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