George Van Horn Moseley
Encyclopedia
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
general. Following his retirement in 1938, he became controversial for his anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic views.
Biography
Moseley was born in Evanston, IllinoisEvanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, on September 28, 1874. He graduated from the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
in 1899 and was commissioned second lieutenant in the cavalry. He served in the Philippines twice, from 1900 to 1903 and 1906 to 1907, where his assignments included commanding a troop of the 1st Cavalry and serving as Aide-de-Camp to Generals J. M. Bell and J. M. Lee. In 1901 Moseley, accompanied by only one other officer, without escort and under conditions of great danger, penetrated a major insurgent stronghold and was primarily responsible for the surrender of General Arejola and his command. He was the honor graduate of the Army School of the Line in 1908 and graduated from the Army Staff College in 1909 and the Army War College in 1911.
He rose to the rank of major in 1916. In 1917 in France he was promoted to colonel in the National Army with command of the 5th Field Artillery. He was transferred to General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces in France and as Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of the 4th Section (renamed G-4), soon promoted brigadier general, National Army. He had general charge of preparations for the strategic supply, transportation, construction and evacuation of the U.S. Army in France and his control of all American regulating stations at the front gave him day-to-day control over supply and transportation.
Moseley married Mrs. Florence DuBois in July 1930.
He held camp and Washington assignments from 1920-1929. He was the executive for the Assistant Secretary of War, 1929–30, Deputy Chief of Staff of Army, 1930–33. He served as General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
's Deputy Chief of Staff during the 1932 Bonus March on Washington, D.C., in the course of which he recorded his fears of Communist conspiracy against the United States and his identification of Jews with radicals and undesirables. He wrote in a private letter:
In 1934, he asked MacArthur to consider the immigration issue in terms of military manpower, contrasting a group of "southern lads" of "good Anglo-Saxon stock" with their counterparts from the North with names "difficult to pronounce" that "indicated foreign blood". Moseley linked the latter to labor problems and "so much trouble in our schools and colleges." MacArthur expressed skepticism in response to Moseley's argument that "It is a question of whether or not the old blood that built this fine nation...is to continue to administer that nation, or whether that old stock is going to be destroyed or bred out by a lot of foreign blood which the melting pot has not touched."
He was Commanding General of the 5th Corps Area, 1933–34, 4th Corps Area, 1934–38, and the Third United States Army, 1936-38. He was a member of several important commissions, including the Harbord Commission
Harbord Commission
The Harbord Commission was a U.S. political commission tasked with studying the relationship between the United States and Armenia following World War I....
to investigate Armenian issues. After commanding the Second Field Artillery Brigade, in 1921 he was detailed as assistant to General Dawes in organizing the newly-created Bureau of the Budget. In 1921 he was promoted brigadier general, Regular Army. Commanding the 1st Cavalry Division (1927–1929), he successfully interceded, under fire, with principals in a 1929 Mexican insurrection. His actions stopped stray gunfire from Juarez, Mexico, from endangering life and property in adjacent El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, and precluded further incidents. In 1931 he was promoted major general, Regular Army.
Moseley's awards included the Distinguished Service Medal
Distinguished Service Medal (Army)
The Distinguished Service Medal is a military award of the United States Army that is presented to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the United States military, has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great...
(one oak leaf cluster
Oak leaf cluster
An oak leaf cluster is a common device which is placed on U.S. Army and Air Force awards and decorations to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a particular decoration. The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the number of subsequent awards of the decoration...
); Commander, Order of the Crown (Belgian)
Order of the Crown (Belgium)
The Order of the Crown is an Order of Belgium which was created on 15 October 1897 by King Leopold II in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State. The order was first intended to recognize heroic deeds and distinguished service achieved from service in the Congo Free State - many of which acts...
; Companion, Order of the Bath
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(British); Commander, Legion of Honor, and Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with Palm (French); Commander, Order of the Crown of Italy
Order of the Crown of Italy
The Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861...
.
While still on active service, Moseley expressed controversial opinions in public. In 1936, he proposed that the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
be expanded "to take in every 18-year-old youth in the country for a six-month course in work, education and military training." In the late 1930s, when admitting refugees from Nazi persecution was a matter of national controversy, Moseley supported admitting refugees but added the proviso that "that they all be sterilized before being permitted to embark. Only that way can we properly protect our future."
Moseley retired in October 1938 with a statement that described the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
as a growing dictatorship: "We do not have to vote for a dictatorship to have one in America....We have merely to vote increased government responsibility for our individual lives, increased government authority over our daily habits, and the resultant Federal paternalism will inevitably become dictatorship." Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
Harry Woodring
Harry Hines Woodring
Harry Hines Woodring was a U.S. political figure. He was born in 1890 in Elk City, Kansas. He was educated in city and county schools and at sixteen began work as a janitor in the First National Bank of Neodesha, Kansas...
called his statement "flagrantly disployal." In April 1939 he attacked Jews and said that he foresaw a war fought for their benefit. He attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
for appointing Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...
to the U.S. Supreme Court. He predicted that the U.S. army would not follow the orders of FDR's leftist Administration if they "violate all American tradition." He described fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
as good "antitoxins" for the United States, adding that "the finest type of Americanism can breed under their protection as they neutralize the efforts of the Communists."
Time reported his view that "more money should be spent on syphilis prevention and less on national defense" Two months after leaving the military, he questioned the President's proposed increases in military spending: "Much of our present weakness is in the fear and hysteria being engendered among the American people for...political purpose.... A nation so scared and so burdened financially is not in a condition to lick anybody. And then, who in hell are we afraid of? With Japan absorbed...with the balance of power so nearly equal in Europe, where is there an ounce of naval or military strength free to threaten us?" He became increasingly more outspoken and instead of the language of Social Darwinism expressed anti-Semitic and conspiratorial views overtly. In Philadelphia, he told the National Defense Meeting that Jewish bankers had financed the Russian Revolution and that "The war now proposed is for the purposes of establishing Jewish hegemony throughout the world." He said that Jews controlled the media and might soon control the federal government.
In June 1939, Moseley testified for five hours before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
. He said that a Jewish Communist conspiracy was about to seize control of the U.S. government. He believed the President had the authority to counteract the planned coup and could do so "in five minutes" by issuing an order "to discharge every Communist in the government and everyone giving aid and comfort to the Communists." He said the President could use the army against "the enemy within our gates" but did not seem willing to do so. He said he held no anti_Semitic views and that "the Jew is an internationalist first...and a patriot second." He praised the "impressively patriotic" German-American Bund
German-American Bund
The German American Bund or German American Federation was an American Nazi organization established in the 1930s...
and said its purpose was to "see that Communists don't take over the country." Among Moseley's supporters who attended the hearing were Donald Shea, head of the American Gentile League and James True of America First Inc. The Committee found a prepared statement he read into the record so objectionable it was deleted from the public record. A few days later, Thomas E. Stone, head of the Council of United States Veterans, charged Moseley with treason and wrote that his praise of the Bund "abets a foreign government in the preparation of disruption against the eventuality of possible future hostilities, and that this he is acting in treason to our national safety."
Moseley held anti-immigrant views throughout his life. In his unpublished autobiography, he quoted approvingly from Madison Grant
Madison Grant
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, historian and physical anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist...
's The Passing of the Great Race]]. He used the language of Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
to describe the problem the United States faced:
He described the Jew as a permanent "human outcast." They were "crude and unclean, animal-like things...something loathsome, such as syphilis." Following the Nazi invasion of France he wrote that in order to match the Nazi treat, the U.S. needed to launch a program of "selective breeding, sterilization, the elimination of the unfit, and the elimination of those types which are inimical to the general welfare of the nation." In December 1941, Moseley wrote that Europe's Jews were "receiving their just punishment for the crucifixion of Christ...whom they are still crucifying at every turn of the road." He proposed a "worldwide policy which will result in breeding all Jewish blood out of the human race."
In 1947, he said of his years as a West Point cadet, "there was one Jew in my class, a very undesirable creature, who was soon eliminated."
In 1951, the president of Piedmont College
Piedmont College
Piedmont College is a private liberal arts institution founded in 1897 to serve residents of the Appalachian area of northeast Georgia, USA. When the college was first founded, it was established as the J.S. Green Collegiate Institute named after a local banker. In 1899, the name was shortened to...
in Georgia invited Moseley to speak. Students and faculty protested because of his racist views. TIME called him a "trumpeter for Aryan supremacy." One faculty member was fired for speaking in opposition to the speaking engagement. Calls for the president's resignation followed. Almost the entire faculty and 9 trustees resigned in the next two years and enrollment fell by two thirds.
In the 1959, Moseley was one of the founders of Americans for Constitutional Action, an anti-Semitic successor to America First
America First Committee
The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 members, it was likely the largest anti-war organization in American history. Started in 1940, it became defunct after the attack on Pearl Harbor in...
.
In retirement he lived at the Atlanta Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. He died on November 7, 1960.
Family
Moseley had three sons. Colonel George Van Horn Moseley, Jr.George Van Horn Moseley, Jr.
George Van Horn Moseley, Jr. was born in Fort Sam Houston, Texas on January 4, 1905, the son of George Van Horn Moseley and Alice Dodds Moseley. His father, then an officer in the 1st Cavalry Division, later rose to become a Major General and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army during the Hoover...
led the 502d Parachute Infantry Regiment into Normandy in 1944. Francis L. Moseley was an inventor and Vice President at the Hewlett-Packard Company. James W. Moseley
James W. Moseley
James W. Moseley is an American ufologist.He has exposed UFO hoaxers and perpetrated fraud in his career and, according to Jerome Clark, has "entertained just about every view it is possible to hold about UFOs, without ever managing to say anything especially interesting or memorable about any of...
is a longstanding figure in the UFO enthusiast community.
Sources
- Bendersky, Joseph W., The Jewish Threat (Basic Books, 2002)
- James, D. Clayton, The Years of MacArthur, vol. 1: 1880-1941 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970)
- Smith, Richard Norton, An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1981)
- Weintraub, Stanley, 15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall, Three Generals Who Saved the American Century (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007)