Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States

by Bradley W. Hart

The entire goal of Nazi propaganda was to encourage apathy and confusion by sowing discord, discrediting the British, and turning Americans against one another.

The entire German objective was to sow enough confusion and discord that the American people would grow weary and simply want to check out of the world events.

In 1910, the United States had more than 8.2 million residents who had either been born in Germany or had German-born parents. Many spoke German as their primary language. In a country of just 92 million people, this made the German-American bloc a major demographic force.

American businessman sitting in the Reichsbank that day was William Rhodes Davis, an Alabama-born oil speculator who had already made and lost several fortunes by the start of the Great Depression.