Fifth column

Template:Short description Template:Other uses Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates

File:"Appreciate America Stop the Fifth Column" - NARA - 513873.jpg

1941 World War II poster from the United States denouncing fifth columnists

Template:War A fifth column is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. The term is also applied to organized actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, espionage or terrorism executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.

History

Internal Enemy in Antiquity

The distinction between internal and external enemies to a people or government was a topic of discussion in antiquity, mentioned most notably in Plato's Republic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Origin of Modern Term

The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally Template:Lang) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War. It gained popularity in the Republican faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad.<ref>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.</ref>

The exact origins of the term are not clear. Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated 30 September 1936, that was sent to Berlin by the German chargé d'affaires in Alicante, Template:Ill. 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). This "supposed statement" held that Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid, and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside.<ref>Ruiz, Julius (2014), The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War, Cambridge, Template:ISBN, p. 187.</ref> 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 3 October 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.<ref>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, Template:ISBN. However, other scholars quoting Ibarruri do not refer to the broadcast detail, see e.g. Ruiz 2014, pp. 185–186.</ref> On the same day, the PCE activist Domingo Girón made a similar claim during a public rally.<ref>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</ref> During the next few days, various Republican papers repeated the story, but with differing detail; some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano,<ref>Ruiz 2014, pp. 186–187</ref> while later some Soviet propagandists would claim it was coined by General Varela.<ref>Mijail Koltsov, Diario de la guerra de España, Barcelona 2009, ISBN 9788408088707, p. 208</ref> By mid-October, the media was already warning of the "famous fifth column".<ref>Informacion radiotelegrafica, [in:] El bien publico 13.10.1936.</ref>

Historians have never identified the original statement referred to by Völckers, Ibárruri, Girón, de Jong, and others.<ref name="LJ-G5C-WW2">Template:Cite book</ref> 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,<ref>Preston Paul (2012), The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain, London, Template:ISBN.</ref> and no other original statement containing this phrase has ever surfaced. Australian journalist Noel Monks, who took part in Mola's press conference on 28 October 1936, claimed that Mola referred to Template:Lang on that day,<ref>Preston Paul (2011), La Guerra Civil Española: reacción, revolución y venganza, Madrid, Template:ISBN.</ref> but by that time the term had already been in use in the Republican press for more than three weeks.<ref>Prensa Historica service, Hemeroteca Digital service.</ref>

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",<ref>Kennedy, David M. (ed.) (2007), The Library of Congress World War II Companion, New York, Template:ISBN, p. 79; also Lejeune Anthony (ed.) (2018), Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations, London, Template:ISBN; also Romero Salvadó, Francisco J., (2013), Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, London, Template:ISBN, p. 199.</ref> though they acknowledge that his exact statement cannot be verified.<ref>Preston Paul (2011), El holocausto español: Odio y exterminio en la Guerra Civil y después, 2011, Template:ISBN.</ref> 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.<ref>One version is Template:Langx, Carrillo Alejandro (1943), Defensa de la revolución en el Parlamento, s.n. 1943. Other version is Template:Langx, Pérez de Oliva, Fernán (1991), Historia de la invención de las Indias, Madrid 1991, Template:ISBN, p. 22.</ref> 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,<ref>Barros Andrew, Thomas Martin (2018), The Civilianization of War: The Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014, Cambridge, Template:ISBN, p. 49.</ref> or that the phrase "is attributed" to Mola,<ref>Loeffel Robert (2015), The Fifth Column in World War II: Suspected Subversives in the Pacific War and Australia, London, Template:ISBN.</ref> who "apparently claimed" so,<ref>Beevor, Antony (2006), The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, London, Template:ISBN.</ref> or else noting that Template:Lang (the famous fifth column that General Mola seems to have referred to).<ref>Cierva, Ricardo de la (1996), Historia esencial de la Guerra Civil Española: todos los problemas resueltos, sesenta años después, Madrid, Template:ISBN.</ref> 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.<ref>Ruiz Julius (2014), The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War, Cambridge, Template:ISBN, 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, Template:ISBN.</ref> There are also other theories afloat.<ref>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 discussing 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 reference in The Daily Telegraph has never been identified. Thomas, Hugh (2018), La guerra civil española, Madrid, Template:ISBN.</ref>

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.Template:Efn

Second World War

The notion of a fifth column caught the popular imagination of the public across Europe at the start of the Second World War, especially when people were faced with the rapid occupation of Norway and Denmark by the Nazis, and then the collapse of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. 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. Reports of treachery were common, and when the French premier Paul Reynaud announced that "the bridges over the Meuse had been betrayed", a BBC employee wrote, "I have no doubt that German thoroughness has succeeded in planting a fifth column at vulnerable points."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 23 May 1940, the month after Germany invaded France, the British government under newly appointed prime minister Winston Churchill banned the British Union of Fascists under the Treachery Act 1940.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 on 4 June, Churchill reassured MPs that "Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 1940, Time magazine referred to talk of a fifth column as a "national phenomenon".<ref>Richard W. Steele, Free Speech in the Good War (St. Martin's Press, 1999, 75–76).</ref>

In August 1940, The New York Times mentioned "the first spasm of fear engendered by the success of fifth columns in less fortunate countries".<ref>The New York Times: Delbert Clark, "Aliens to Begin Registering Tuesday," August 25, 1940. Retrieved June 27, 2012.</ref> One report identified participants in Nazi "fifth columns" as "partisans of authoritarian government everywhere", citing Poland,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The New York Times on 11 August 1940, featured three editorial cartoons using the term.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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 US, 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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

Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, US 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Another in the Vancouver Sun the following month alleged that 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, postwar analysis of both Japanese and American military records, including the interrogation of surviving Japanese officers, fail to support the claims of a Japanese fifth column existing in the Philippines prior to the outbreak of hostilities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Later usage

File:Smash Communism's Fifth Column.jpg

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.<ref>Robert G.L. Waite, Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Post-War Germany, 1918-1923 (1952), 88</ref> 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".<ref>Yale Law School: Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 4, 215, December 20, 1945. Retrieved July 19, 2012</ref>
The United Front Work Department has been used by the Chinese government to influence elite individuals and organizations especially among Taiwanese and overseas Chinese communities around the world.<ref>United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, '华侨、华人工作的基本任务 Template:Webarchive, March 23, 2009.</ref> UFWD has been accused of promoting pro-unification sentiment in Taiwan as well as election interference in some countries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On September 2024, Linda Sun, a staffer for New York governor Kathy Hochul was arrested for accusation of being a foreign agent due to her affiliation with UFWD affiliated organization that is Henan Association of Eastern America.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1945, a document produced by the US 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".<ref>Thomas G. Paterson, Meeting the Communist Threat: Truman to Reagan (Oxford University Press, 1988), 10</ref> 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".<ref>Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Freedom (Heinemann, 1950), 92-3</ref>
In 1979, Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq, orchestrated a purge of political dissidents within the Ba'ath Party. Hussein claimed that he had uncovered a fifth column within the organization and ordered Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi to confess his alleged involvement and that of 68 other politicians, who were promptly arrested.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Twenty-two of the arrested, including Mashhadi, were executed.<ref>Bay Fang. "When Saddam ruled the day." US News & World Report. 11 July 2004. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Edward Mortimer. "The Thief of Baghdad." New York Review of Books. 27 September 1990, citing Fuad Matar. Saddam Hussein: A Biography. Highlight. 1990. Template:Webarchive</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>"... 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)</ref><ref>"... a fifth column, a league of traitors" (Evelyn Gordon, "No longer the political fringe Template:Dead link", The Jerusalem Post September 14, 2006)</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2001, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn talked about Muslim immigrants being a "fifth column", on the night he was dismissed as leader of Liveable Netherlands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Совещание о мерах социально-экономической поддержки регионов.webm

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 Russian invasion of Ukraine as fifth columnists and "national traitors".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Members of the American and European far-right have been widely described as fifth columnists in light of Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election and presidency of Donald Trump and leading up to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, in particular, has faced allegations of fifth columnist behavior, especially after he decided to visit Russia and interview Vladimir Putin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2024, following claims that taxpayer funds were improperly given to the UNRWA due to family interests in Gaza during the Gaza war,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, revealed that he had been subjected to "smears" throughout his political life including allegations he was a "fifth columnist" because of his faith and race.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In popular culture

The title of Ernest Hemingway's only play "The Fifth Column" (1938) is a translation of General Mola's phrase Template:Lang. 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 publicize the film and wrote the play, in the Hotel Florida in Madrid, on his next visit to Spain later that year.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

British reviewers of Agatha Christie's 1941 novel N or M? used the term to describe the plot's depiction of two British turncoats working on behalf the German government in Britain during World War II.<ref>The Times Literary Supplement, November 29, 1941 (p. 589); The Observer, December 7, 1941 (p. 3)</ref>

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?"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the film All Through the Night (1942), "Gloves" Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) tries to stop a secret nazi fifth column trying to sink a battleship in New York.

Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) features Robert Cummings asking for help against "fifth columnists" conspiring to sabotage the American war effort.Template:Citation needed The film was also released under the name Fifth Column in Dutch (Template:Lang), Finnish (Template:Lang) and French (Template:Lang). 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.<ref>Template:IMDb title</ref> 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.Template:Primary source inline Comic books also contained references to the fifth column.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Graham Greene, in The Quiet American (1955), uses the phrase "Fifth Column, Third Force, Seventh Day" in the second chapter.Template:Primary source inline

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the episode "Flight Into the Future" from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space, Dr. Smith is 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.Template:Primary source inline

There is an American weekly news podcast called "The Fifth Column",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> hosted by Kmele Foster, Matt Welch, Michael C. Moynihan, and Anthony Fisher.Template:Primary source inline

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

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."Template:Citation needed

In Fallout: London, a total conversion mod for the 2015 Bethesda Softworks action role-playing game Fallout 4, there is a populist faction known as the "5th Column" whose declared aim is to tear down the existing government and rebuild it. Their propaganda style and black uniforms are a likely reference to the British Union of Fascists, which was founded in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley and banned by the British government in 1940 after the start of World War II amid suspicion that its supporters might form a pro-Nazi "fifth column".

An Infamous Minecraft griefing group active on the anarchy server 2b2t is known as The Fifth Column.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notes

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References

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