King, the isolationists didn't join a political party that was controlled by a foreign power, the goal of which was to overthrow the Western democracies and put the entire world under their totalitarian system. That is, other than those that joined the Bund--and I'm certainly not apologizing for them like you are for the Commies. You don't dissent by allowing yourself to be used as the tool of a foreign power that's plotting to destroy democracy.
As for prewar intelligence in the United States, I highly recommend to you a book called "Roosevelt's Secret War", by Joseph Persico. Unlike Great Britain, the United States had no national intelligence organization prior to the creation of the Office of Strategic Services, which did not come into being until after WWII. Much of FDR's foreign intelligence gathering consisted of his sending private citizens--like Donovan (who eventually headed OSS) and Lindbergh--on "unofficial" missions abroad. He even had his friend Vincent Astor, who headed an unofficial intelligence-gathering network called "the Room", go snooping around in the Pacific on his yacht to gather intelligence on the Japanese. Such was the sad state of American intelligence prior to WWII.
But we certainly haven't silenced dissent nor stifled discourse here. Seven pages worth of relatively reasoned exchanges between posters. I've seen much more heated debates on the merits, or lack thereof, of this or that double.
Last edited by L. Brown; 11/22/07 09:13 AM.
