Presidential Agent Quotes

“Suddenly the events of the time took shape in his imagination as a duel of wills between these two: one the champion of democracy, of government by popular consent, of the rights of the individual to think his own thoughts, to speak his own mind, to live his own life so long as he did not interfere with the equal rights of his fellows; the other the champion of those ancient dark forces of tyranny and oppression which had ruled the world before the concept of freedom had been born.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“As part of the appeasement policy there must be a settlement with the Duce—all according to that world conqueror’s wishes. They would recognize his title to Abyssinia and his right to intervene in the Spanish war. The Loyalists there were still holding out, in spite of Franco’s frequent announcements that they were beaten. Now the British would recognize Franco’s belligerency, and would force the French to do the same.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“In short, the British government were committed to the policy of satisfying the Führer, and must continue in that course,”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“The government were going to do everything possible to avoid offending a touchy Reichskanzler, even to the extent of censoring British opinion on the subject of “Munich.” American newsreels which ventured criticism were barred, and a strict rule against censure of Chamberlain was being enforced by the British radio.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Tell him anything that I have said to you. That is the advantage of my position; I tell them the whole truth, and it is as if I had said nothing, for they do not believe me.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“President Beneš resigned, since it was obvious that he could no longer do his country any good, and what was left of the carcass became a dependency of the Nazis. Pilsen was taken over in the very first days, and the great Skoda plant started making war materials for Hitler’s next campaign.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“So there it was; peace in Europe had been saved. The three visiting delegations went home in rain, and when the British arrived there was a rainbow in the sky over Buckingham Palace, and crowds singing and shouting a tumultuous welcome. They told Chamberlain that he was a jolly good fellow, which must certainly have surprised his friends. In return he told the crowd that it was “peace with honor” and “peace in our time.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“A tragic time indeed for clearsighted men and lovers of justice; the greedy ones were rubbing their hands and the butchers were sharpening their knives all over the world. Every gain that had been made in the World War had been thrown away, and every principle for which Woodrow Wilson had fought had been mocked.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“It was an ultimatum which had been presented in Prague. With hypocrisy not often matched even in the diplomatic world, the two great governments informed a small and helpless government that it was to be torn into fragments in the cause of “the maintenance of peace and the safety of Czechoslovakia’s vital interests.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“As a matter of fact there wasn’t much to choose between Nazi and British radios in this crisis, so far as moral character was concerned; it was all “propaganda,” serving the purposes of governments which didn’t want their publics to realize what they were up to.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Chamberlain went on to record: “In courteous but perfectly definite terms, Herr Hitler made it plain that he had made up his mind the Sudeten Germans must have the right of self-determination and of returning, if they wished, to the Reich.” In these last words the Prime Minister was repeating one of Herr Hitler’s favorite lies, and it was hard to believe that he was doing it naïvely; for certainly Gerald or Ceddy or some other of his permanent Foreign Office men must have informed him that the Sudeten Germans had never belonged to the Reich, not since they had left Germany nine hundred years previously. And as for “self-determination,” those Germans had never been consulted; the Nazi agents and agitators had done the “determining,” and among their determinations was that a fair plebiscite should never be held in that region.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Blut und Boden—blood and soil—was the slogan. The ancient German warrier who died in battle was carried off to Valhalla, and that was a glorious death, whereas to die in bed was ignoble and disgraceful. The Führer was reviving all these ancient barbaric emotions, and his marching legions chanted incessantly about blood and iron and war. “Rise up in arms to battle, for to battle we are born!”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“This “private person” with all the prestige of his powerful government behind him was engaged in extracting from Prague a series of concessions which would mean for all practical purposes the end of the republic and its democratic institutions. For one thing, they were to abolish free speech in the country—since it displeased Nazis to have Communists and Socialists and Jews telling the truth about what Nazis were doing. Also, the alliances with Russia and France were to be ended, and there were to be commercial treaties with Germany which would force Prague into economic dependence upon Berlin. These were the things the Nazis were determined upon having, and the noble English gentleman had given up his yachting at Cowes to come and make plain to a long-time ally of Britain that it had to surrender and become a slave of Germany.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“with all the prestige of his powerful government behind him was engaged in extracting from Prague a series of concessions which would mean for all practical purposes the end of the republic and its democratic institutions.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“The British always took with them, wherever they went, a saving minority of dissidents, whereas the modern dictators shot theirs, or shut them up in concentration camps and suppressed their ideas.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Every time I go to Germany, and see the preparations the Nazis are making, I grow more doubtful. I don’t think you have ever been in such danger as you are today—certainly not since the time of the Spanish Armada.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“the leftwing press had a pretty clear outline of the Nazi-Tory plot to give Hitler what he wanted, in the hope of steering him toward the east. But the leftists couldn’t prove it; what they published was shamelessly denied, and the “appeasers” went right ahead with their plotting.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“he had noted a great many native groups springing up, having the Nazi program, but not acknowledging it as Nazi, and in many cases not even knowing it. They called themselves “Christian” or “Protestant,” “Yankee Freemen” or “American Patriots”—it didn’t really make any difference, so long as they saw the Red peril and the Jew menace, and fought the New Deal. The Kapitän agreed, and Quadratt put in: “Citizens’ Protective Associations and National Workers’ Leagues”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“He has made the German economy into a war economy, and now he’ll be doing the same for the Austrian economy. It’s nonsense to say that he will stop when he has got the border territories where the Germans live; for what is he going to do with them? He can’t feed the people on machine-gun cartridges and airplane bombs—not even I. G. Farben is equal to that miracle of Ersatz. Even if Hitler should die tonight, Göring or Hess would be driven by the force he has created; they have to go after the potato fields of Poland and the wheat fields of the Ukraine, the minerals of the Balkans, and the oil of the Caucasus.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“You understand how it is worked—they send their bullies into the country to provoke disturbances, and when the police put them down, that’s an atrocity.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“National Socialism versus true Socialism, racism versus humanity—that was the struggle between Satan and God in the modern world.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“That is what art is, a process of creation, which makes itself a part of life, and builds new life in its own image, immortal and eternally operating within the soul of man. One accent of the Holy Ghost the heedless world hath never lost!”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“All German science, all German discipline, all German wealth, were being directed to this end, so that when Der Tag came along, the German army should have an air cover to protect it, first to drive its enemy out of the skies and then to crush his defenses and enable the Wehrmacht to march where it would.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Standard Oil of New Jersey and its arrangements with Germany concerning patents on the making of artificial rubber; about the du Ponts and their sale to Germany of the discoveries of their vast research laboratories”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Birth control advocates are shut up in concentration camps and abortionists are executed without ceremony, for the Führer must have soldiers for his future task of ruling the world.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Privately owned, of course, with no nonsense about nationalization—for has not the Führer said that Bolshevism is the Public Enemy Number One? Isn’t it fear of Bolshevism that is enabling Germany to undermine and destroy the governments of every country in Europe?”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“His discourse embraced the complete Nazi program for the undermining of the French republic: warm protestations of friendship; unlimited promises of peace; the sowing of distrust of all politicians and of the entire democratic procedure; and, above all else, fear of the Red specter.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“The Germans have a poem to the effect that when you hear singing you may lie down in peace, for evil men have no songs. The Nazis were using this as one more camouflage, but for Lanny tonight it held good.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“The outside world called this the “Spanish civil war,” but no worker in Spain ever thought of it as anything but an invasion by foreign Fascists who were pledged to put down and enslave the workers of all Europe and keep them as slaves for the rest of time. Spanish landlords and great capitalists and high prelates of a degenerate Church had hired this crime and paid for it by pledging the national wealth of Spain, the iron ore and copper and all the products of the soil. Foreign troops were doing the fighting, and the weapons were without exception of foreign manufacture”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent

“Having bought so many politicians in his day, the Baron could hardly be blamed for taking a cynical attitude to the breed; now, since they were refusing to stay bought, he could hardly be blamed if he had decided to get rid of them.”
― Upton Sinclair, Presidential Agent