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Fifth column

A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state."[1] The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, espionage, and/or terrorism executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.

World War II poster from the United States denouncing fifth columnists

Origin

The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally quinta columna) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War. It gained popularity in the Loyalist faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad.[2]

The exact origins of the term are not clear. Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated September 30, 1936, that was sent to Berlin by the German chargé d'affaires in Alicante, Hans Hermann Völckers. In the telegram, he referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco" that "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone), and he suggests that in that statement Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid, and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside.[3] The telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and was discovered long after the civil war.

The first identified public use of the term is in the October 3, 1936, issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero. In a front-page article, the party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri referred to a statement very similar (or identical) to the one that Völckers had referred to in his telegram, but attributed it to General Emilio Mola rather than to Franco.[4] On the same day, the PCE activist Domingo Girón made a similar claim during a public rally.[5] During the next few days, various Republican papers repeated the story, but with differing detail; some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano.[6] By mid-October, the media was already warning of the "famous fifth column".[7]

Historians have never identified the original statement referred to by Völckers, Ibárruri, Girón, de Jong, and others.[8] The transcripts of Francisco Franco's, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano's, and Emilio Mola's radio addresses have been published, but they do not contain the term,[9] and no other original statement containing this phrase has ever surfaced. A British journalist who took part in Mola's press conference on October 28, 1936, claimed that Mola referred to quinta columna on that day,[10] but by that time the term had already been being used in the Republican press for more than three weeks.[11]

Historiographic works offer differing perspectives on authorship of the term. Many scholars have no doubt about Mola's role and refer to "fifth column" as "a term coined in 1936 by General Emilio Mola",[12] though they acknowledge that his exact statement cannot be verified.[13] In some sources, Mola is named as a person who had used the term during an impromptu press interview, and different - though detailed - versions of the exchange are offered.[14] Probably the most popular version describes the theory of Mola's authorship with a grade of doubt, either noting that it is presumed but has never been proven,[15] or that the phrase "is attributed" to Mola,[16] who "apparently claimed" so,[17] or else noting that "la famosa quinta columna a la que parece que se había referido el general Mola" (the famous fifth column that General Mola seems to have referred to)[18] Some authors consider it possible if not likely that the term has been invented by the Communist propaganda with the purpose of either raising morale or providing justification for terror and repression; initially it might have been part of the whispering campaign, but was later openly floated by Communist propagandists.[19] There are also other theories afloat.[20]

Some writers, mindful of the origin of the phrase, use it only in reference to military operations rather than the broader and less well-defined range of activities that sympathizers might engage in to support an anticipated attack.[a]

Second World War

By the late 1930s, as American involvement in the war in Europe became more likely, the term "fifth column" was commonly used to warn of potential sedition and disloyalty within the borders of the United States. The fear of betrayal was heightened by the rapid fall of France in 1940, which some blamed on internal weakness and a pro-German "fifth column". A series of photos run in the June 1940 issue of Life magazine warned of "signs of Nazi Fifth Column Everywhere". In a speech to the House of Commons that same month, Winston Churchill reassured MPs that "Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand."[22] In July 1940, Time magazine referred to talk of a fifth column as a "national phenomenon".[23]

In August 1940, The New York Times mentioned "the first spasm of fear engendered by the success of fifth columns in less fortunate countries".[24] One report identified participants in Nazi "fifth columns" as "partisans of authoritarian government everywhere", citing Poland,[25] Czechoslovakia, Norway, and the Netherlands. During the Nazi invasion of Norway, the head of the Norwegian fascist party, Vidkun Quisling, proclaimed the formation of a new fascist government in control of Norway, with himself as Prime Minister, by the end of the first day of fighting. The word "quisling" soon became a byword for "collaborator" or "traitor".[26]

The New York Times on August 11, 1940, featured three editorial cartoons using the term.[27] John Langdon-Davies, a British journalist who covered the Spanish Civil War, wrote an account called The Fifth Column which was published the same year. In November 1940, Ralph Thomson, reviewing Harold Lavine's Fifth Column in America, a study of Communist and fascist groups in the U.S., in The New York Times, questioned his choice of that title: "the phrase has been worked so hard that it no longer means much of anything."[28]

 
Dr. Seuss cartoon in PM dated February 13, 1942, with the caption 'Waiting for the Signal from Home'

Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox issued a statement that "the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the exception of Norway."[29] In a column published in The Washington Post, dated 12 February 1942, the columnist Walter Lippmann wrote of imminent danger from actions that might be taken by Japanese Americans. Titled "The Fifth Column on the Coast", he wrote of possible attacks that could be made along the West Coast of the United States that would amplify damage inflicted by a potential attack by Japanese naval and air forces.[30] Suspicion about an active fifth column on the coast led eventually to the internment of Japanese Americans.

During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in December 1941 said the indigenous Moro Muslims were "capable of dealing with Japanese fifth columnists and invaders alike".[31] Another in the Vancouver Sun the following month described how the large population of Japanese immigrants in Davao in the Philippines welcomed the invasion: "the first assault on Davao was aided by numbers of Fifth Columnists–residents of the town".[32]

Later usage

 
Australian Prime Minister Menzies proposed a federal referendum on 22 September 1951 asking voters to give the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws regarding communists and communism.
  • German minority organizations in Czechoslovakia formed the Sudeten German Free Corps, which aided Nazi Germany. Some claimed they were "self-defense formations" created in the aftermath of World War I and unrelated to the German invasion two decades later.[33] More often their origins were discounted and they were defined by the role they played in 1938–39: "The same pattern was repeated in Czechoslovakia. Henlein's Free Corps played in that country the part of fifth column".[34]
  • In 1945, a document produced by the U.S. Department of State compared the earlier efforts of Nazi Germany to mobilize the support of sympathizers in foreign nations to the superior efforts of the international communist movement at the end of World War II: "a communist party was in fact a fifth column as much as any [German] Bund group, except that the latter were crude and ineffective in comparison with the Communists".[35] Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wrote in 1949: "the special Soviet advantage—the warhead—lies in the fifth column; and the fifth column is based on the local Communist parties".[36]
  • Zainichi Koreans living in Japan, particularly those affiliated with the organization Chongryun (which is itself affiliated with the government of North Korea) are sometimes seen as a "fifth column" by some Japanese, and have been the victims of verbal and physical attacks. These have occurred more frequently since the government of Kim Jong Il acknowledged it had abducted Japanese citizens from Japan and tested ballistic missiles near the waters of and over mainland Japan.[37]
  • A significant number of Israeli Arabs, who compose approximately 20% of Israel's population, identify more with the Palestinian cause than with the State of Israel or Zionism. As a result, many Israeli Jews, including politicians, rabbis, journalists, and historians, view them (and/or the main Israeli Arab political group, the Joint List) as a fifth column.[38][39][40][41]
  • Counter-jihad literature has sometimes portrayed Western Muslims as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries.[42] Following the 2015 attack by French-born Muslims on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage said that Europe had "a fifth column living within our own countries".[43] In 2001 Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn talked about Muslim immigrants being a "fifth column" the night he was dismissed as leader of Liveable Netherlands.[44]
Putin says (on 18'23"): "Yes, of course, they will back the so-called fifth column, national traitors – those who make money here in our country but live over there, and “live” not in the geographical sense of the word but in their minds, in their servile mentality", and mentions the fifth column two more times, on 19'57" and 20'33"
(Closed captions available)

In popular culture

The title of Ernest Hemingway's only play "The Fifth Column" (1938) is a translation of General Mola's phrase, la quinta columna. In early 1937 Hemingway had been in Madrid, reporting the war from the loyalist side, and helping make the film The Spanish Earth. He returned to the US to publicise the film and wrote the play, in the Hotel Florida in Madrid, on his next visit to Spain later that year.[46]

In the US an Australian radio play, The Enemy Within, proved to be very popular, though this popularity was due to the belief that the stories of fifth column activities were based on real events. In December 1940 the Australian censors had the series banned.[47]

British reviewers of Agatha Christie's novel N or M? in 1941 used the term to describe the struggle of two British partisans of the Nazi regime working on its behalf in Britain during World War II.[48]

In Frank Capra's film Meet John Doe (1941), newspaper editor Henry Connell warns the politically-naïve protagonist, John Doe, about a businessman's plans to promote his own political ambitions using the apolitical John Doe Clubs. Connell says to John: "Listen, pal, this fifth-column stuff is pretty rotten, isn't it?", identifying the businessman with anti-democratic interests in the United States. When Doe agrees, he adds: "And you'd feel like an awful sucker if you found yourself marching right in the middle of it, wouldn't you?"[49]

Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) features Robert Cummings asking for help against "fifth columnists" conspiring to sabotage the American war effort.[citation needed] Soon the term was being used in popular entertainment.

Several World War II era animated shorts include the term. Cartoons of Porky Pig asked any "fifth columnists" in the audience to leave the theater immediately.[50] In Looney Tunes' Foney Fables, the narrator of a comic fairy tale described a wolf in sheep's clothing as a "fifth columnist". There was a Merrie Melodies cartoon released in 1943 titled The Fifth-Column Mouse.[non-primary source needed] Comic books also contained references to the fifth column.[51]

Graham Greene, in The Quiet American (1955) uses the phrase "Fifth Column, Third Force, Seventh Day" in the second chapter.[non-primary source needed]

In the 1959 British action film Operation Amsterdam, the term "fifth columnists" is used repeatedly to refer to Nazi sympathizing members of the Dutch Army.

The V franchise is a set of TV shows, novels and comics about an alien invasion of Earth. A group of aliens opposed to the invasion and assist the human Resistance Movement is called The Fifth Column.[non-primary source needed]

In the episode "Flight Into the Future" from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space, Dr. Smith was referred to as the fifth columnist of the Jupiter 2 expedition. In the first episode, he was a secret agent sent to sabotage the mission who got caught on board at liftoff.[non-primary source needed]

There is an American weekly news podcast called "The Fifth Column",[52] hosted by Kmele Foster, Matt Welch, Michael C. Moynihan, and Anthony Fisher.[non-primary source needed]

Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 story "The Day After Tomorrow", originally titled "Sixth Column", refers to a fictional fifth column that

destroyed the European democracies from within in the tragic days that led up to the final blackout of European civilization. But this would not be a fifth column of traitors, but a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it would be to destroy the morale of invaders, make them afraid, unsure of themselves.

— Robert A. Heinlein, "The Day after Tomorrow (original title: Sixth Column)", Signet Paperback #T4227, Chapter 3, page 37

In Foyle's War, Series 2 Episode 3, "War Games", one line reads, "It's the Second salvage collection I've missed, they've got me down as a fifth columnist."[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Madeleine Albright, for example, in a lengthy account of German sympathizers in Czechoslovakia in the first years of World War II, does not use the phrase to describe their actions until she considers their possible response to a German invasion: "Many, perhaps most, of the Sudetens would have provided the enemy with a fifth column".[21]

References

  1. ^ Mylonas, Harris; Radnitz, Scott, eds. (2022). Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1107661998.
  2. ^ in French newspapers the term first appeared on October 4, 1936, one day after its first usage in the Madrid press, La Passionaria preche la terreur, [in:] Le Journal 04.10.1936. In more distant countries like Poland the term started to appear since mid-October, see e.g. Oviedo ostatecznie uwolnione, [in:] Dziennik Wileński 18.10.1936
  3. ^ Ruiz, Julius (2014), The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War, Cambridge, ISBN 9781107054547, p. 187
  4. ^ This edition of Mundo Obrero is not available for consultation online. Many authors claim that in the article Ibarruri referred to an unidentified radio broadcast of Mola, see e.g. Preston Paul (2011), La Guerra Civil Española: reacción, revolución y venganza, Madrid, ISBN 9788499891507. However, other scholars quoting Ibarruri do not refer to the broadcast detail, see e.g. Ruiz 2014, pp. 185-186
  5. ^ Domingo Girón was a Madrid mid-level Communist activist. In his speech he referred to "cierta declaración hecha por el general Mola a un periodista extranjero", Un gran mitin del Socorro Rojo internacional, [in:] Hoja Oficial del lunes 04.10.1936. In March 1939, he was detained by the Casadistas and handed over to the Francoists later on. He was tried, sentenced to death, and executed on July 3, 1941.
  6. ^ Ruiz 2014, pp. 186-187
  7. ^ Informacion radiotelegrafica, [in:] El bien publico 13.10.1936
  8. ^ de Jong, Louis (1956). The German Fifth Column in the Second World War. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9781787203242. OCLC 2023177. Retrieved October 3, 2021. translated from the Dutch by C.M. Geyl
  9. ^ Preston Paul (2012), The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, London, ISBN 9780393239669
  10. ^ Preston Paul (2011), La Guerra Civil Española: reacción, revolución y venganza, Madrid, ISBN 9788499891507
  11. ^ Prensa Historica service, Hemeroteca Digital service
  12. ^ Kennedy, David M. (ed.) (2007), The Library of Congress World War II Companion, New York, ISBN 9781416553069, p. 79, also Lejeune Anthony (ed.) (2018), Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations, London, ISBN 9781135974893, , also Romero Salvadó, Francisco J., (2013), Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, London, ISBN 9780810880092, p. 199,
  13. ^ Preston Paul (2011), El holocausto español: Odio y exterminio en la Guerra Civil y después, 2011, ISBN 9788499920498,
  14. ^ One version is "¿Cómo es, general Mola, que piensa usted tomar Madrid con cuatro columnas?; no, no tengo cuatro; son cinco las columnas que tengo, porque en Madrid hay una quinta columna.", 'How is it, General Mola, that you intend to take Madrid with four columns?; No, I do no have four; it is five the number of columns I have, because there is a fifth column in Madrid.', Carrillo Alejandro (1943), Defensa de la revolución en el Parlamento, s.n. 1943,. Other version is "No tiene usted sino cuatro columnas, general; Tengo la "Quinta Columna" en Madrid", 'You do not have but four columns, General; I have the "fifth column" in Madrid.', Pérez de Oliva, Fernán (1991), Historia de la invención de las Indias, Madrid 1991, ISBN 9789682317699, p. 22
  15. ^ Barros Andrew, Thomas Martin (2018), The Civilianization of War: The Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014, Cambridge, ISBN 9781108429658, p. 49
  16. ^ Loeffel Robert (2015), The Fifth Column in World War II: Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia, London, ISBN 9781137506672
  17. ^ Beevor, Antony (2006), The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, London, ISBN 9781101201206
  18. ^ Cierva, Ricardo de la (1996), Historia esencial de la Guerra Civil Española: todos los problemas resueltos, sesenta años después, Madrid, ISBN 9788488787125
  19. ^ Ruiz Julius (2014), The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War, Cambridge, ISBN 9781107054547, p. 185. The opposing view is that the Republican repression was inadvertently triggered by Mola, who did not realize what effect his alleged statement would have, Laguna Reyes Albert, Vargas Márquez Antonio (2019), La Quinta Columna: La guerra clandestina tras las líneas republicanas 1936-1939, Madrid, ISBN 9788491645894
  20. ^ a British correspondent in the Republican zone claimed after the Civil War that "many weeks" before October 1936 he had used the term in The Daily Telegraph when discusing the Nationalist advance towards Madrid. Allegedly the term was picked up by Republican journalists and in turn somehow filtered out to the Nationalist zone; Mola liked it and started to use it. The alleged Daily Telegraph reference has never been identified. Thomas, Hugh (2018), La guerra civil española, Madrid, ISBN 9788466344821
  21. ^ Albright, Madeleine (2012). Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948. NY: HarperCollins. pp. 102. ISBN 9780062128423.
  22. ^ Churchill, Winston (June 4, 1940). "We Shall Fight on the Beaches". winstonchurchill.org. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  23. ^ Richard W. Steele, Free Speech in the Good War (St. Martin's Press, 1999, 75-6)
  24. ^ The New York Times: Delbert Clark, "Aliens to Begin Registering Tuesday," August 25, 1940. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  25. ^ Polish Ministry of Information (2014). The German Fifth Column in Poland. Washington, D.C.: Dale Street Books. pp. 3–6. ISBN 9781941656099.
  26. ^ Tolischus, Otto D. (June 16, 1940). "How Hitler Made Ready: I - The Fifth Column" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  27. ^ Barkley, Frederick R. (August 11, 1940). "Nation Shapes Defense against Foes at Home" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
  28. ^ Thomson, Ralph (November 27, 1940). "Books of the Times" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  29. ^ Niiya, Brian. "Frank Knox". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  30. ^ Niiya, Brian. "The Fifth Column on the Coast". Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  31. ^ "80 Japanese Troop Ships Are Sighted Off Luzon (Continued From Page1)". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 22, 1941. p. 7. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  32. ^ Curtis, Herbert (January 13, 1942). "Japanese Infiltration Into Mindanao". Vancouver Sun. p. 4. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  33. ^ Robert G.L. Waite, Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Post-War Germany, 1918-1923 (1952), 88
  34. ^ Yale Law School: Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 4, 215, December 20, 1945. Retrieved July 19, 2012
  35. ^ Thomas G. Paterson, Meeting the Communist Threat: Truman to Reagan (Oxford University Press, 1988), 10
  36. ^ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Freedom (Heinemann, 1950), 92-3
  37. ^ "North Koreans in Japan have long been vilified as a communist fifth column" (Hans Greimel, "Test sparks N. Korea Backlash in Japan", Associated Press dispatch, October 24, 2006 (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 5, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link))
  38. ^ "... they hurl accusations against us, like that we are a 'fifth column'." (Roee Nahmias, "Arab MK: Israel committing 'genocide' of Shiites", Ynetnews August 2, 2006)
  39. ^ "... a fifth column, a league of traitors" (Evelyn Gordon, "No longer the political fringe[permanent dead link]", Jerusalem Post September 14, 2006)
  40. ^ "Lieberman goes after Arab Joint List: They are a fifth column". Haaretz.com. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  41. ^ Krauss, Joseph (September 18, 2019). "Israel's Arabs poised to gain new voice after tight election". AP NEWS. Retrieved November 1, 2020. Arab citizens have close family, cultural and historical ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and largely identify with the Palestinian cause. That has led many Israelis to view them as a fifth column and a security threat.
  42. ^ Akbarzadeh, Shahram; Roose, Joshua M. (September 2011). "Muslims, Multiculturalism and the Question of the Silent Majority". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 31 (3): 309–325. doi:10.1080/13602004.2011.599540. S2CID 145595802.
  43. ^ Bordelon, Brendan (January 7, 2015). "UKIP's Farage: Multiculturalism Creating 'Fifth Column' in West". National Review. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  44. ^ "Fortuyn: ramp voor politiek en vaderland" (in Dutch). November 18, 2013.
  45. ^ Radnitz, Scott; Mylonas, Harris. "Putin's warning about Russian 'fifth columns' has a long, sordid lineage". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  46. ^ Meyers, Jeffrey (1987). Hemingway. London: Paladin. Grafton Books. pp. 316–7. ISBN 0-586-08631-5.
  47. ^ Loeffel, Robert (2015). The Fifth Column in World War II: Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia. Palgrave. p. 85.
  48. ^ The Times Literary Supplement, November 29, 1941 (p. 589); The Observer, December 7, 1941 (p. 3)
  49. ^ Riskin, Robert (1997). McGilligan, Patrick (ed.). Six Screenplays. University of California Press. pp. 664, 696.
  50. ^ Meet John Doughboy at IMDb
  51. ^ Goodnow, Trischa (January 20, 2017). The 10 Cent War: Comic Books, Propaganda, and World War II. ISBN 9781496810311.
  52. ^ "The Fifth Column / Podcast". The Fifth Column / Podcast. Retrieved June 27, 2019.

Further reading

  • Mylonas, Harris; Radnitz, Scott (2022). Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-762794-5.
  • The German Fifth Column in Poland. London: Polish Ministry of Info. 1941.
  • Bilek, Bohumil (1945). Fifth Column at Work. London: Trinity.
  • Loeffel, Robert (2015). The Fifth Column in World War II: Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia. Palgrave.
  • Britt G. The Fifth column is Here / George Britt. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc.,1940 125 p.
  • Lavine H. Fifth column in America / Harold Lavine (1915-). New York: Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated, 1940 240 pp.

fifth, column, other, uses, fifth, column, disambiguation, fifth, column, group, people, undermine, larger, group, nation, from, within, usually, favor, enemy, group, another, nation, according, harris, mylonas, scott, radnitz, fifth, columns, domestic, actors. For other uses see Fifth Column disambiguation A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz fifth columns are domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest in cooperation with external rivals of the state 1 The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage disinformation espionage and or terrorism executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force World War II poster from the United States denouncing fifth columnists Contents 1 Origin 2 Second World War 3 Later usage 4 In popular culture 5 See also 6 Notes 6 1 References 7 Further readingOrigin EditThe term fifth column originated in Spain originally quinta columna during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War It gained popularity in the Loyalist faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad 2 The exact origins of the term are not clear Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated September 30 1936 that was sent to Berlin by the German charge d affaires in Alicante Hans Hermann Volckers In the telegram he referred to an unidentified supposed statement by Franco that is being circulated apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican held Levantine zone and he suggests that in that statement Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside 3 The telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and was discovered long after the civil war The first identified public use of the term is in the October 3 1936 issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero In a front page article the party propagandist Dolores Ibarruri referred to a statement very similar or identical to the one that Volckers had referred to in his telegram but attributed it to General Emilio Mola rather than to Franco 4 On the same day the PCE activist Domingo Giron made a similar claim during a public rally 5 During the next few days various Republican papers repeated the story but with differing detail some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano 6 By mid October the media was already warning of the famous fifth column 7 Historians have never identified the original statement referred to by Volckers Ibarruri Giron de Jong and others 8 The transcripts of Francisco Franco s Gonzalo Queipo de Llano s and Emilio Mola s radio addresses have been published but they do not contain the term 9 and no other original statement containing this phrase has ever surfaced A British journalist who took part in Mola s press conference on October 28 1936 claimed that Mola referred to quinta columna on that day 10 but by that time the term had already been being used in the Republican press for more than three weeks 11 Historiographic works offer differing perspectives on authorship of the term Many scholars have no doubt about Mola s role and refer to fifth column as a term coined in 1936 by General Emilio Mola 12 though they acknowledge that his exact statement cannot be verified 13 In some sources Mola is named as a person who had used the term during an impromptu press interview and different though detailed versions of the exchange are offered 14 Probably the most popular version describes the theory of Mola s authorship with a grade of doubt either noting that it is presumed but has never been proven 15 or that the phrase is attributed to Mola 16 who apparently claimed so 17 or else noting that la famosa quinta columna a la que parece que se habia referido el general Mola the famous fifth column that General Mola seems to have referred to 18 Some authors consider it possible if not likely that the term has been invented by the Communist propaganda with the purpose of either raising morale or providing justification for terror and repression initially it might have been part of the whispering campaign but was later openly floated by Communist propagandists 19 There are also other theories afloat 20 Some writers mindful of the origin of the phrase use it only in reference to military operations rather than the broader and less well defined range of activities that sympathizers might engage in to support an anticipated attack a Second World War EditThe examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject You may improve this section discuss the issue on the talk page or create a new section as appropriate February 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message By the late 1930s as American involvement in the war in Europe became more likely the term fifth column was commonly used to warn of potential sedition and disloyalty within the borders of the United States The fear of betrayal was heightened by the rapid fall of France in 1940 which some blamed on internal weakness and a pro German fifth column A series of photos run in the June 1940 issue of Life magazine warned of signs of Nazi Fifth Column Everywhere In a speech to the House of Commons that same month Winston Churchill reassured MPs that Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand 22 In July 1940 Time magazine referred to talk of a fifth column as a national phenomenon 23 In August 1940 The New York Times mentioned the first spasm of fear engendered by the success of fifth columns in less fortunate countries 24 One report identified participants in Nazi fifth columns as partisans of authoritarian government everywhere citing Poland 25 Czechoslovakia Norway and the Netherlands During the Nazi invasion of Norway the head of the Norwegian fascist party Vidkun Quisling proclaimed the formation of a new fascist government in control of Norway with himself as Prime Minister by the end of the first day of fighting The word quisling soon became a byword for collaborator or traitor 26 The New York Times on August 11 1940 featured three editorial cartoons using the term 27 John Langdon Davies a British journalist who covered the Spanish Civil War wrote an account called The Fifth Column which was published the same year In November 1940 Ralph Thomson reviewing Harold Lavine s Fifth Column in America a study of Communist and fascist groups in the U S in The New York Times questioned his choice of that title the phrase has been worked so hard that it no longer means much of anything 28 Dr Seuss cartoon in PM dated February 13 1942 with the caption Waiting for the Signal from Home Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor U S Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox issued a statement that the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the exception of Norway 29 In a column published in The Washington Post dated 12 February 1942 the columnist Walter Lippmann wrote of imminent danger from actions that might be taken by Japanese Americans Titled The Fifth Column on the Coast he wrote of possible attacks that could be made along the West Coast of the United States that would amplify damage inflicted by a potential attack by Japanese naval and air forces 30 Suspicion about an active fifth column on the coast led eventually to the internment of Japanese Americans During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in December 1941 said the indigenous Moro Muslims were capable of dealing with Japanese fifth columnists and invaders alike 31 Another in the Vancouver Sun the following month described how the large population of Japanese immigrants in Davao in the Philippines welcomed the invasion the first assault on Davao was aided by numbers of Fifth Columnists residents of the town 32 Later usage Edit Australian Prime Minister Menzies proposed a federal referendum on 22 September 1951 asking voters to give the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws regarding communists and communism German minority organizations in Czechoslovakia formed the Sudeten German Free Corps which aided Nazi Germany Some claimed they were self defense formations created in the aftermath of World War I and unrelated to the German invasion two decades later 33 More often their origins were discounted and they were defined by the role they played in 1938 39 The same pattern was repeated in Czechoslovakia Henlein s Free Corps played in that country the part of fifth column 34 In 1945 a document produced by the U S Department of State compared the earlier efforts of Nazi Germany to mobilize the support of sympathizers in foreign nations to the superior efforts of the international communist movement at the end of World War II a communist party was in fact a fifth column as much as any German Bund group except that the latter were crude and ineffective in comparison with the Communists 35 Arthur M Schlesinger Jr wrote in 1949 the special Soviet advantage the warhead lies in the fifth column and the fifth column is based on the local Communist parties 36 Zainichi Koreans living in Japan particularly those affiliated with the organization Chongryun which is itself affiliated with the government of North Korea are sometimes seen as a fifth column by some Japanese and have been the victims of verbal and physical attacks These have occurred more frequently since the government of Kim Jong Il acknowledged it had abducted Japanese citizens from Japan and tested ballistic missiles near the waters of and over mainland Japan 37 A significant number of Israeli Arabs who compose approximately 20 of Israel s population identify more with the Palestinian cause than with the State of Israel or Zionism As a result many Israeli Jews including politicians rabbis journalists and historians view them and or the main Israeli Arab political group the Joint List as a fifth column 38 39 40 41 Counter jihad literature has sometimes portrayed Western Muslims as a fifth column collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries 42 Following the 2015 attack by French born Muslims on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris the leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage said that Europe had a fifth column living within our own countries 43 In 2001 Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn talked about Muslim immigrants being a fifth column the night he was dismissed as leader of Liveable Netherlands 44 source source source source source source source source track track Putin says on 18 23 Yes of course they will back the so called fifth column national traitors those who make money here in our country but live over there and live not in the geographical sense of the word but in their minds in their servile mentality and mentions the fifth column two more times on 19 57 and 20 33 Closed captions available In 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin called Russian citizens who are against the invasion of Ukraine as fifth columnists and national traitors 45 In popular culture EditThe title of Ernest Hemingway s only play The Fifth Column 1938 is a translation of General Mola s phrase la quinta columna In early 1937 Hemingway had been in Madrid reporting the war from the loyalist side and helping make the film The Spanish Earth He returned to the US to publicise the film and wrote the play in the Hotel Florida in Madrid on his next visit to Spain later that year 46 In the US an Australian radio play The Enemy Within proved to be very popular though this popularity was due to the belief that the stories of fifth column activities were based on real events In December 1940 the Australian censors had the series banned 47 British reviewers of Agatha Christie s novel N or M in 1941 used the term to describe the struggle of two British partisans of the Nazi regime working on its behalf in Britain during World War II 48 In Frank Capra s film Meet John Doe 1941 newspaper editor Henry Connell warns the politically naive protagonist John Doe about a businessman s plans to promote his own political ambitions using the apolitical John Doe Clubs Connell says to John Listen pal this fifth column stuff is pretty rotten isn t it identifying the businessman with anti democratic interests in the United States When Doe agrees he adds And you d feel like an awful sucker if you found yourself marching right in the middle of it wouldn t you 49 Alfred Hitchcock s Saboteur 1942 features Robert Cummings asking for help against fifth columnists conspiring to sabotage the American war effort citation needed Soon the term was being used in popular entertainment Several World War II era animated shorts include the term Cartoons of Porky Pig asked any fifth columnists in the audience to leave the theater immediately 50 In Looney Tunes Foney Fables the narrator of a comic fairy tale described a wolf in sheep s clothing as a fifth columnist There was a Merrie Melodies cartoon released in 1943 titled The Fifth Column Mouse non primary source needed Comic books also contained references to the fifth column 51 Graham Greene in The Quiet American 1955 uses the phrase Fifth Column Third Force Seventh Day in the second chapter non primary source needed In the 1959 British action film Operation Amsterdam the term fifth columnists is used repeatedly to refer to Nazi sympathizing members of the Dutch Army The V franchise is a set of TV shows novels and comics about an alien invasion of Earth A group of aliens opposed to the invasion and assist the human Resistance Movement is called The Fifth Column non primary source needed In the episode Flight Into the Future from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space Dr Smith was referred to as the fifth columnist of the Jupiter 2 expedition In the first episode he was a secret agent sent to sabotage the mission who got caught on board at liftoff non primary source needed There is an American weekly news podcast called The Fifth Column 52 hosted by Kmele Foster Matt Welch Michael C Moynihan and Anthony Fisher non primary source needed Robert A Heinlein s 1941 story The Day After Tomorrow originally titled Sixth Column refers to a fictional fifth column that destroyed the European democracies from within in the tragic days that led up to the final blackout of European civilization But this would not be a fifth column of traitors but a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it would be to destroy the morale of invaders make them afraid unsure of themselves Robert A Heinlein The Day after Tomorrow original title Sixth Column Signet Paperback T4227 Chapter 3 page 37 In Foyle s War Series 2 Episode 3 War Games one line reads It s the Second salvage collection I ve missed they ve got me down as a fifth columnist citation needed See also EditAlien infiltration Black propaganda Copperhead politics Demographic threat Entryism False flag Front organization Internal enemy Jash term Quisling Sleeper cell Stay behindNotes Edit Madeleine Albright for example in a lengthy account of German sympathizers in Czechoslovakia in the first years of World War II does not use the phrase to describe their actions until she considers their possible response to a German invasion Many perhaps most of the Sudetens would have provided the enemy with a fifth column 21 References Edit Mylonas Harris Radnitz Scott eds 2022 Enemies Within The Global Politics of Fifth Columns New York Oxford University Press p 17 ISBN 978 1107661998 in French newspapers the term first appeared on October 4 1936 one day after its first usage in the Madrid press La Passionaria preche la terreur in Le Journal 04 10 1936 In more distant countries like Poland the term started to appear since mid October see e g Oviedo ostatecznie uwolnione in Dziennik Wilenski 18 10 1936 Ruiz Julius 2014 The Red Terror and the Spanish Civil War Cambridge ISBN 9781107054547 p 187 This edition of Mundo Obrero is not available for consultation online Many authors claim that in the article Ibarruri referred to an unidentified radio broadcast of Mola see e g Preston Paul 2011 La Guerra Civil Espanola reaccion revolucion y venganza Madrid ISBN 9788499891507 However other scholars quoting Ibarruri do not refer to the broadcast detail see e g Ruiz 2014 pp 185 186 Domingo Giron was a Madrid mid level Communist activist In his speech he referred to cierta declaracion hecha por el general Mola a un periodista extranjero Un gran mitin del Socorro Rojo internacional in Hoja Oficial del lunes 04 10 1936 In March 1939 he was detained by the Casadistas and handed over to the Francoists later on He was tried sentenced to death and executed on July 3 1941 Ruiz 2014 pp 186 187 Informacion radiotelegrafica in El bien publico 13 10 1936 de Jong Louis 1956 The German Fifth Column in the Second World War University of Chicago Press ISBN 9781787203242 OCLC 2023177 Retrieved October 3 2021 translated from the Dutch by C M Geyl Preston Paul 2012 The Spanish Holocaust Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain London ISBN 9780393239669 Preston Paul 2011 La Guerra Civil Espanola reaccion revolucion y venganza Madrid ISBN 9788499891507 Prensa Historica service Hemeroteca Digital service Kennedy David M ed 2007 The Library of Congress World War II Companion New York ISBN 9781416553069 p 79 also Lejeune Anthony ed 2018 Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations London ISBN 9781135974893 also Romero Salvado Francisco J 2013 Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War London ISBN 9780810880092 p 199 Preston Paul 2011 El holocausto espanol Odio y exterminio en la Guerra Civil y despues 2011 ISBN 9788499920498 One version is Como es general Mola que piensa usted tomar Madrid con cuatro columnas no no tengo cuatro son cinco las columnas que tengo porque en Madrid hay una quinta columna How is it General Mola that you intend to take Madrid with four columns No I do no have four it is five the number of columns I have because there is a fifth column in Madrid Carrillo Alejandro 1943 Defensa de la revolucion en el Parlamento s n 1943 Other version is No tiene usted sino cuatro columnas general Tengo la Quinta Columna en Madrid You do not have but four columns General I have the fifth column in Madrid Perez de Oliva Fernan 1991 Historia de la invencion de las Indias Madrid 1991 ISBN 9789682317699 p 22 Barros Andrew Thomas Martin 2018 The Civilianization of War The Changing Civil Military Divide 1914 2014 Cambridge ISBN 9781108429658 p 49 Loeffel Robert 2015 The Fifth Column in World War II Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia London ISBN 9781137506672 Beevor Antony 2006 The Battle for Spain The Spanish Civil War 1936 1939 London ISBN 9781101201206 Cierva Ricardo de la 1996 Historia esencial de la Guerra Civil Espanola todos los problemas resueltos sesenta anos despues Madrid ISBN 9788488787125 Ruiz Julius 2014 The Red Terror and the Spanish Civil War Cambridge ISBN 9781107054547 p 185 The opposing view is that the Republican repression was inadvertently triggered by Mola who did not realize what effect his alleged statement would have Laguna Reyes Albert Vargas Marquez Antonio 2019 La Quinta Columna La guerra clandestina tras las lineas republicanas 1936 1939 Madrid ISBN 9788491645894 a British correspondent in the Republican zone claimed after the Civil War that many weeks before October 1936 he had used the term in The Daily Telegraph when discusing the Nationalist advance towards Madrid Allegedly the term was picked up by Republican journalists and in turn somehow filtered out to the Nationalist zone Mola liked it and started to use it The alleged Daily Telegraph reference has never been identified Thomas Hugh 2018 La guerra civil espanola Madrid ISBN 9788466344821 Albright Madeleine 2012 Prague Winter A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937 1948 NY HarperCollins pp 102 ISBN 9780062128423 Churchill Winston June 4 1940 We Shall Fight on the Beaches winstonchurchill org Retrieved July 25 2017 Richard W Steele Free Speech in the Good War St Martin s Press 1999 75 6 The New York Times Delbert Clark Aliens to Begin Registering Tuesday August 25 1940 Retrieved June 27 2012 Polish Ministry of Information 2014 The German Fifth Column in Poland Washington D C Dale Street Books pp 3 6 ISBN 9781941656099 Tolischus Otto D June 16 1940 How Hitler Made Ready I The Fifth Column PDF The New York Times Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Retrieved July 7 2012 Barkley Frederick R August 11 1940 Nation Shapes Defense against Foes at Home PDF The New York Times Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Retrieved July 7 2012 Thomson Ralph November 27 1940 Books of the Times PDF The New York Times Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Retrieved April 25 2015 Niiya Brian Frank Knox Densho Encyclopedia Retrieved August 27 2014 Niiya Brian The Fifth Column on the Coast Densho Encyclopedia Retrieved August 27 2014 80 Japanese Troop Ships Are Sighted Off Luzon Continued From Page1 Pittsburgh Post Gazette December 22 1941 p 7 Retrieved October 30 2014 Curtis Herbert January 13 1942 Japanese Infiltration Into Mindanao Vancouver Sun p 4 Retrieved October 30 2014 Robert G L Waite Vanguard of Nazism The Free Corps Movement in Post War Germany 1918 1923 1952 88 Yale Law School Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 4 215 December 20 1945 Retrieved July 19 2012 Thomas G Paterson Meeting the Communist Threat Truman to Reagan Oxford University Press 1988 10 Arthur M Schlesinger Jr The Politics of Freedom Heinemann 1950 92 3 North Koreans in Japan have long been vilified as a communist fifth column Hans Greimel Test sparks N Korea Backlash in Japan Associated Press dispatch October 24 2006 Archived copy PDF Archived from the original PDF on February 5 2007 Retrieved January 9 2007 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link they hurl accusations against us like that we are a fifth column Roee Nahmias Arab MK Israel committing genocide of Shiites Ynetnews August 2 2006 a fifth column a league of traitors Evelyn Gordon No longer the political fringe permanent dead link Jerusalem Post September 14 2006 Lieberman goes after Arab Joint List They are a fifth column Haaretz com Retrieved November 1 2020 Krauss Joseph September 18 2019 Israel s Arabs poised to gain new voice after tight election AP NEWS Retrieved November 1 2020 Arab citizens have close family cultural and historical ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and largely identify with the Palestinian cause That has led many Israelis to view them as a fifth column and a security threat Akbarzadeh Shahram Roose Joshua M September 2011 Muslims Multiculturalism and the Question of the Silent Majority Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 31 3 309 325 doi 10 1080 13602004 2011 599540 S2CID 145595802 Bordelon Brendan January 7 2015 UKIP s Farage Multiculturalism Creating Fifth Column in West National Review Retrieved January 8 2015 Fortuyn ramp voor politiek en vaderland in Dutch November 18 2013 Radnitz Scott Mylonas Harris Putin s warning about Russian fifth columns has a long sordid lineage washingtonpost com Retrieved April 7 2022 Meyers Jeffrey 1987 Hemingway London Paladin Grafton Books pp 316 7 ISBN 0 586 08631 5 Loeffel Robert 2015 The Fifth Column in World War II Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia Palgrave p 85 The Times Literary Supplement November 29 1941 p 589 The Observer December 7 1941 p 3 Riskin Robert 1997 McGilligan Patrick ed Six Screenplays University of California Press pp 664 696 Meet John Doughboy at IMDb Goodnow Trischa January 20 2017 The 10 Cent War Comic Books Propaganda and World War II ISBN 9781496810311 The Fifth Column Podcast The Fifth Column Podcast Retrieved June 27 2019 Further reading Edit Look up fifth column in Wiktionary the free dictionary Mylonas Harris Radnitz Scott 2022 Enemies Within The Global Politics of Fifth Columns Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 762794 5 The German Fifth Column in Poland London Polish Ministry of Info 1941 Bilek Bohumil 1945 Fifth Column at Work London Trinity Loeffel Robert 2015 The Fifth Column in World War II Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia Palgrave Britt G The Fifth column is Here George Britt New York Wilfred Funk Inc 1940 125 p Lavine H Fifth column in America Harold Lavine 1915 New York Doubleday Doran Incorporated 1940 240 pp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fifth column amp oldid 1128332164, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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