Conclusion
The
few agents and propagandists described
in the foregoing chapters do not, as I said in the preface, even
scratch the surface of what seem to be widespread efforts to
activities of the
interfere in the internal affairs of the
American people and
their
Government; but a few basic conclusions can reasonably be
drawn from what little is known of the Fifth Column s
operations.
Berlin-directed agents in foreign countries sometimes combine
propaganda and espionage, frequently using the propaganda
organizations as the bases for espionage. In the United States,
so far as I have been able to ascertain, agents of the RomeBerlin-Tokyo axis are just beginning to cooperate. In the Cen
tral
and South American
countries,
however,
the
axis
has
apparently agreed to a division of labor, each of the fascist
powers assuming a
specific field of activity.
Germany, Italy and Japan have already shown the extent to
which they will go in their drive for raw materials vital to their
industries and war machines. In Spain, the German and Italian
Fifth Column organized and fomented a bloody civil war in
order to establish a wide fascist area to the south of France,
for Germany and Italy, of course, consider France a potential
enemy in the next war. In France itself, German and Italian
agents, aided by their Governments, built an amazing network
of steel
and concrete
fortifications
155
manned by
at least
100,000