Politics & Power Quote by Henry A. Wallace

A vice president accusing “most American fascists” of cheerleading a war they privately mean to cash in on is not subtle politics; it’s a moral indictment dressed as intelligence. Wallace’s line works because it flips the expected wartime script. Support for the “war effort” is supposed to be a litmus test of loyalty. He treats it instead as cover: a patriotic costume that lets would-be authoritarians blend in while keeping one eye on the balance sheet.

The specific target is domestic reactionaries who, in Wallace’s view, don’t actually care whether democracy wins so long as power and profit survive the turbulence. By naming “profitable connections with German chemical firms,” he pinpoints a very American species of cynicism: the ability to condemn an enemy in public while planning postwar business with its industrial engine. “Chemical firms” isn’t random, either. It evokes the era’s fear of cartelized industry, war profiteering, and the unsettling reality that corporate networks can outlast alliances, ideologies, even atrocities.

Context matters. Wallace, the New Deal’s most populist high official, was warning that fascism wasn’t just a foreign uniform; it was a domestic temptation backed by money, respectability, and anti-union politics. The subtext is a blunt warning to liberals and moderates: don’t confuse loud patriotism with democratic commitment. The people most eager to wave the flag may be the ones most willing to sell its meaning the moment peace opens a new market.