Favorable or Unfavorable #291: Hamilton Fish III

[vcczar]

Rep. Hamilton Fish III of NY is the grandson of the more famous Sec of State. This Fish is strange. He started out as a Progressive, pro-Jewish Republican. Sometime in the 1920s he became anti-Communist and then just went insane, arguably becoming a crypto-Nazi and exhibiting a bunch of retaliatory and impulsive behavior as you can see below. Not captured below is that he gave a speech on a stage decorated in swastikas, even though he never formally supported Hitler. The closest he got was to wanting to improve relations with them and understanding why they wanted to invade Poland. 

I can understand being anti-Communist. Although I think quality social welfare is a necessity in the 21st century, I don't like Communism because I think people should be allowed to own their own things, and I don't like authoritarian government or authoritarian leaders (or leaders that want to be). That said, there is some sort of strange hypnotic hysteria that infested the most vocal anti-Communists from 1930s-1950s. I think the death of McCarthy sort of killed off this hysteria movement. Fish III might be the beginning of it. Their hatred of Communism made them ignore Nazism, which to them sort of just got in the way of their focus. For Fish III, he even got campaign contributions from Germans (although not from the government). 

The reaction to Communism in the US was completely outsized to the actual reality of Communism in the US. There was 0.000000001% chance of the US becoming Communist. Progressive legislation--and especially the New Deal--helped alleviate any support for Communism. La Follette, TR, and FDR all opposed Communism and they saw their progressive policies as antidotes to stave it off. They could resolve the on-going issues without resorting to a change to the Constitutional order. I don't think US anti-Communism had any positive effect domestically. Had the Red Scares and McCarthyism not happened, the Communistic influence would have been about the same. I think US anti-Communist measures were more effective internationally, although even then I think we went a bit overboard, especially in Vietnam and in covert OPs. Communism would have died out because it has little attraction.

His actions:

Fish III, Hamilton	1922	Introduces Lodge-Fish Resolution, supporting British Mandate for Palestine to create a Jewish state
Fish III, Hamilton	1930	Fish Committee to investigate Soviet/Communist influence in US
Fish III, Hamilton	1932	GOPer who supports FDR over Hoover
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Becomes a lead GOP critic of the New Deal, despite voting for FDR and having formerly been a progressive
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Opposes FDR's establishing relations with the USSR
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Helps publish translated anti-Communist material written by Nazis that blame Jewish people for Communism
Fish III, Hamilton	1937	says impeach FDR after quarantine speech
Fish III, Hamilton	1938	says retaliate against Mexico by taking territory
Fish III, Hamilton	1939	Advocates better relations w/ Nazi Germany
Fish III, Hamilton	1941	Delivers the 1st speech calling for US to declare war on Japan after Pearl Harbor
Fish III, Hamilton	1942	Now regretting his call for war against Japan, mentions as #1 US isolationist during his reelection campaign
Fish III, Hamilton	1944	Defeated for reelection, like many isolationists; blames "Communistic and Red forces" in NYC for his defeat
Fish III, Hamilton	1970	Supports Buckley's US Sen runs as Conservative Party of NY nominee

[OrangeP47]

V, you should look up Georgism/geoism.  It's like specifically tailored public ownership of just the things that are the public good as opposed to things that are common sense private property.

[Pringles]

8 minutes ago, vcczar said:

Rep. Hamilton Fish III of NY is the grandson of the more famous Sec of State. This Fish is strange. He started out as a Progressive, pro-Jewish Republican. Sometime in the 1920s he became anti-Communist and then just went insane, arguably becoming a crypto-Nazi and exhibiting a bunch of retaliatory and impulsive behavior as you can see below. Not captured below is that he gave a speech on a stage decorated in swastikas, even though he never formally supported Hitler. The closest he got was to wanting to improve relations with them and understanding why they wanted to invade Poland. 

I can understand being anti-Communist. Although I think quality social welfare is a necessity in the 21st century, I don't like Communism because I think people should be allowed to own their own things, and I don't like authoritarian government or authoritarian leaders (or leaders that want to be). That said, there is some sort of strange hypnotic hysteria that infested the most vocal anti-Communists from 1930s-1950s. I think the death of McCarthy sort of killed off this hysteria movement. Fish III might be the beginning of it. Their hatred of Communism made them ignore Nazism, which to them sort of just got in the way of their focus. For Fish III, he even got campaign contributions from Germans (although not from the government). 

The reaction to Communism in the US was completely outsized to the actual reality of Communism in the US. There was 0.000000001% chance of the US becoming Communist. Progressive legislation--and especially the New Deal--helped alleviate any support for Communism. La Follette, TR, and FDR all opposed Communism and they saw their progressive policies as antidotes to stave it off. They could resolve the on-going issues without resorting to a change to the Constitutional order. I don't think US anti-Communism had any positive effect domestically. Had the Red Scares and McCarthyism not happened, the Communistic influence would have been about the same. I think US anti-Communist measures were more effective internationally, although even then I think we went a bit overboard, especially in Vietnam and in covert OPs. Communism would have died out because it has little attraction.

His actions:

 

Fish III, Hamilton	1922	Introduces Lodge-Fish Resolution, supporting British Mandate for Palestine to create a Jewish state
Fish III, Hamilton	1930	Fish Committee to investigate Soviet/Communist influence in US
Fish III, Hamilton	1932	GOPer who supports FDR over Hoover
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Becomes a lead GOP critic of the New Deal, despite voting for FDR and having formerly been a progressive
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Opposes FDR's establishing relations with the USSR
Fish III, Hamilton	1933	Helps publish translated anti-Communist material written by Nazis that blame Jewish people for Communism
Fish III, Hamilton	1937	says impeach FDR after quarantine speech
Fish III, Hamilton	1938	says retaliate against Mexico by taking territory
Fish III, Hamilton	1939	Advocates better relations w/ Nazi Germany
Fish III, Hamilton	1941	Delivers the 1st speech calling for US to declare war on Japan after Pearl Harbor
Fish III, Hamilton	1942	Now regretting his call for war against Japan, mentions as #1 US isolationist during his reelection campaign
Fish III, Hamilton	1944	Defeated for reelection, like many isolationists; blames "Communistic and Red forces" in NYC for his defeat
Fish III, Hamilton	1970	Supports Buckley's US Sen runs as Conservative Party of NY nominee

The irony of Hamilton Fish III is how rabidly he was about being anti-communist, yet he supported almost none of the wars or efforts throughout the Cold War that combatted Soviet influence. 

[vcczar]

18 minutes ago, Pringles said:

The irony of Hamilton Fish III is how rabidly he was about being anti-communist, yet he supported almost none of the wars or efforts throughout the Cold War that combatted Soviet influence. 

Yeah, he didn't make a lot of sense.