I've been doing a lot of research about current neo-nazi groups and their history in Western Europe and the United States, and I haven't been able to fully grasp how the ideas of Naziism survived post WWII and took root in western civilization. I know there were always Nazi sympathizers in both regions, but it seems like there has to be more to the story than that?
So the survival of any ideology is tricky to follow, when it is thought about so concretely. I feel a bit too much credit has been given to Operation Paper Clip, the US operation that brought Nazi scientists to the US. The need for actual Nazis to create neonazism is a bit ridiculous considering the race based politics of pre-existing American groups and American Eugenics programs, as well as the relative availability of information on Nazism in libraries and later on the Internet. An important fact to remember is that the US did not fight the war to end Nazism, they did it to respond to Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt was pushing for war before this, but the government as a whole was far more isolationist to be bothered by that. Then senator and future president Harry Truman stated before the war in 1941
If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia; and if that Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and in that way let them kill as many as possible. . . .
The only real crack down on Nazism in the United States was during the War itself and even then only effected those directly supporting the Third Reich, stopped by trading with the enemy acts, or working against or speaking against the US, under espionage and Sedition acts like the Smith Act. These acts affected mostly communists and anarchists and the like as most fascist, anti-Semitic Americans were in favour of a Fascist United States, and not another country, so this 'Patriotism' of sorts saved them from major scrutiny. Major companies and bussiness men in America had fascist sympathies and even supplied or gifted Hitler and the Nazis with capital and goods, and recieved relatively little punishment for it. Henry Ford being the best example, but Prescott Bush(father of HW and grandfather of George HW and Jeb Bush) and Fred Koch of Koch Industries also being major contributers to the Third Reich, whose sons and grandsons went on to be major American figures. As I briefly mentioned before fascist leaning Americans already existed well before Hitler's rise to power, his calls for the racial superiority of whites and creating a strong homogeneous national culture resonated nicely with their own ideas. As well as fell upon the ears of Germans living in the US at this time, I feel like Operation paperclip this is a bit of a cop out as well in explaining American Nazism, because as a post from a few days ago went over some German Americans did have sympathy for Nazism and some even went to fight for the Third Reich before America entered the war, but this is a minute minority.
And then after the war, the West was not concerned with Nazis, except in the Germany's and newly created Israel. The new concern was the Soviets, and all those acts that technically applied to fascists were used almost exclusively used against Communists. The Smith Act for example brought some anti-semite fascists to trial, but they were never convicted unlike the many Reds blacklisted and imprisoned during the high points of McCarthyism. The anti Nazi propaganda was then immediately supplanted by anti soviet propaganda and continued for decades after.
As years went on, individuals of fascist leanings gravitated back to Hitler and Nazi ideology and symbolism, it was not prohibited and they for the most part had a great sense of pride and loyalty in their idea of the United States or whatever their respective country and thus never were properly reigned in like communist groups.Though "denazification" took place in Germany and Austria, there never was a constructed effort to limit Nazism in other western countries.
Why individuals of the "West" would become Nazis is an interesting thing to answer, and not really in the scope of historians per se but I did find this great articleon the Southern Poverty Law Centre's website and hope it is helpful.
If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer I am writing this very late at night for some reason so I might not have been my most clear.
Follow-up question: How much are the rise of the extreme right-wing political parties related to the revision/bending of the recent history that followed in the 50s and 60s especially when it comes to both the Cold War and the Korean/Vietnamese Conflicts during the same time? I assume at least a small portion of the United States population at the time felt that their political beliefs more closely aligned with the opposing sides of such conflicts. Are the remnants of these groups who felt (if not openly expressed) loyalty to the Third Reich immediately after the wars end what led to such a rise in extreme right political thought?
Apologies if this should be put in a separate question altogether. But if these topics are indeed related I could at least learn indirectly about my question through the answers to the main.
Edit-wording