FTR#320—Interview with Kevin Coogan—(One 30-minute segment) (Sources are noted in parentheses

FTR#320—Interview with Kevin Coogan—(One 30-minute segment) (Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on 8/12/2001.)

Note: FTR#’s 260-315, 317, FTR#325 and succeeding programs are streaming on Real Audio at www.wfmu.org/daveemory. FTR#’s 01-270, 316-324 are available for download only, also on Real Audio, at http://archive.wfmu.org:5555/archive/DX/.)

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Highlighting aspects of continuity between fascism past and present, this broadcast reviews the career of the pivotally important (but little-known) Francis Parker Yockey. To do so, we visit with Kevin Coogan, author of the seminal Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. (Copyright 1999 [SC]; Autonomedia; ISBN 1-57027-039-2; visit the Autonomedia web site at www.autonomedia.org .) (For more about Kevin’s work, see, among other programs, FTR #’s 185, 188, 211, 213, 221, 231, 233, 237, 260, 270, 312, 371, 383. Note, also, that Kevin’s work is featured prominently in the FTR series about the 9/11 attacks, particularly FTR#’s 333, 354, 371, 377, 378, 381. For coverage of other aspects of Coogan’s work, see also: RFA #’s 14, 21, Miscellaneous Archive Shows M-6, M-19, M-21.)

1. The program begins with a summary by Mr. Coogan of Yockey’s life and work. A Nazi operative before, during and after the Second World War, Yockey drew on a number of philosophical inspirations, particularly Oswald Spengler and his book The Decline of the West. Seeing the disintegration of the West in the First World War, the rise of Bolshevism and the Great Depression, Yockey eventually became enamored of the fascist philosophy. Differing from Hitler’s Nordic racial philosophy, Yockey came to see a pan-European fascism as a prescription for human political ills. His philosophy was summed up in the volume Imperium, ultimately published and publicized by Willis Carto and his Liberty Lobby organization. Highlights of this part of the discussion include: Yockey’s birth in Chicago; his participation in the German American Bund; his work as a Third Reich agent; his efforts in postwar Germany on behalf of Nazi war criminals on trial.

2. Further developing principal elements of the political philosophy of “Yockeyism,” the program underscores a number of key differences between Yockey’s ideas and the tenets of “classical” fascism and Nazism. Yockey saw potential alliances between the fascist international and the former Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Castro’s Cuba and the Third World as essential to what he saw as an absolute necessity—the destruction of the United States as a prerequisite to the establishment of the “Imperium.” Yockey hated the U.S. and felt that the aforementioned countries and entities (ranged as enemies of fascism in traditional fascist ideology as well as “Cold War” philosophy) were important to its eventual annihilation. (It is Mr. Emory’s considered opinion that much of the so-called progressive sector is, in effect, Yockeyite in its manifestations and pronunciations--particularly in the aftermath of 9/11.) Highlights of this part of the discussion include: Yockey’s formation of the neo-fascist European Liberation Front; his arrest and subsequent suicide in 1960; his association with Liberty Lobby kingpin Willis Carto; his authorship of World in Flames.

3. A major point of discussion concerns the mysterious “Alexander Scharff,” with whom Yockey was staying at the time of his arrest and suicide. Scharff initially claimed to be a Holocaust survivor who had assumed multiple identities after the war. It appears that Scharff—who subsequently claimed the name of “Junger”—was (like Yockey) and underground, postwar fascist operative. Scharff eventually fled to Cuba (one of the places that Yockey may have visited.)

4. Concluding the broadcast, the discussion focuses on the history and evolution of Italian fascism. In particular, the program highlights the forces that have coalesced under the administration of Silvio Berlusconi. (For more about Berlusconi, see FTR#’s 94, 95, 113, 196, 217, 229, 252, 262, 267, 307, 321, 342, 356, 357, 359, 377, 378.) A principal focal point is Giuseppe “Pino” Rauti, a veteran Italian fascist. (Pino Rauti, the MSI, Prince Borghese and the evolution of Italian fascism are discussed from text [and at greater length] in FTR#321.) Highlights of this portion of the broadcast include: a brief history of the Salo Republic—the rump Italian fascist government during the closing phase of World War II; the evolution of the Mussolini forces into the postwar MSI—the Italian Social Movement; the factionalization of the MSI; Rauti’s split from the MSI; the career of Prince Borghese; the influence of veterans of OVRA (Mussolini’s intelligence service) on the development of the SID and SIFAR (postwar Italian intelligence agencies); Rauti’s formation of the “Ordine Nuovo” (“New Order” in English); the profound influence of Julius Evola on the thinking of Borghese and Rauti. (For more about Evola, see FTR#’s 211, 221, 222, 233, 321.)