The Jewish Threat: Anti-semitic Politics of the U.S. Army Book

The "Jewish Threat" makes the dramatic allegation that, throughout most of the last century, rampant racism in the highest ranks of the United States Army helped to shape important American public policies. Historian Joseph W. Bendersky bases most of his arguments on documents from Military Intelligence Division (MID) files that "identified a myriad of [Jewish] institutions and individuals that could be drawn upon and formed into various malleable combinations when necessary." The MID, says Bendersky, used these files to build conspiracy theories positing Jewish plans for world domination. Between 1918 and 1941, hundreds of officers contributed thousands of entries to the MID subject files indexed under the heading "Jews: Race." Bendersky's readings of these documents allege that the Army's campaign against Jewish immigration to the United States in the 1920s was motivated by racism, and that racism in the Army's highest ranks helps to explain America's slowness in responding to the Holocaust. Vigorously argued and rigorously researched, The "Jewish Threat" will fascinate students of World War II and of American race relations. --Michael Joseph Gross