December 31, 1940: The Nazi Plot to Hijack the Election

William Rhodes Davis

December 31, 1940: A Nazi plot to hijack the recent Presidential election is revealed. It had failed, of course.

As the calendar year began, it was believed by most people that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would respect the 2-term limit on the Presidency -- which, until the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, in 1951, was unofficial. The Nazis concluded that if Roosevelt could be replaced by someone not willing to intervene in the Nazis' takeover of Europe, the prospects of U.S. involvement in the European phase of World War II would be greatly reduced, and possibly eliminated.

So they found a sympathetic, well-connected American. William Rhodes Davis was an oilman with a sketchy business past who, in the late 1930s, made a fortune by selling cut-rate Mexican oil to the Germany government. Davis had cultivated connections inside the Democratic Party, making a big donation to its 1936 election efforts.

But when The War began, the British imposed a blockade on German ports, interfering with Davis' ability to make money from dealing with Germany. He believed that the only way to save his business was by personally making peace in Europe, by negotiating a deal between the warring parties himself. Davis approached the White House with his plan for peace. FDR turned him down.

Davis then traveled to Germany, met with leaders of the Third Reich, including Hermann Göring, and returned with the vague outlines of a deal that would have given Germany territorial gains in exchange for Roosevelt mediating a peace treaty. Roosevelt refused to even meet with Davis upon his return, worried that he might be compromised and acting as a Nazi agent.

As it turned out, FDR was absolutely right. Davis had talked to Göring about the possibility of a non-interventionist winning the 1940 election. He even had, he thought, the perfect candidate in mind: John L. Lewis, the head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the President of the United Mine Workers. Widely popular among America's working people, he was nonetheless opposed to many of FDR's New Deal reforms, and was a non-interventionist.

Göring gathered $5 million -- about $104 million in 2022 money, which would have bought quite a bit of newspaper and magazine advertising space, and radio airtime -- to support the plan, and had it stashed at the German embassy in Washington D.C. for Davis' use.

But both major parties put a stop to the plan. FDR ran for a 3rd term anyway, and was easily renominated. And the Republicans nominated an interventionist, Wendell Willkie. The Nazi money did Lewis no good: He paid for a national radio address by Lewis, denouncing Roosevelt. The President was re-elected on November 5, 1940, anyway, with an electoral landslide, although the popular vote was the closest of what turned out to be his 4 runs.

In December 1940, Verne Marshall, head of the No Foreign War Committee, claimed that Davis, upon returning from a trip to Germany in 1939, presented the State Department with a peace plan representing Göring's views and called for President Roosevelt to serve as mediator between the warring nations. Marshall criticized FDR for failing to take advantage of the opportunity, but most viewed the plan as an attempt to impose a "German peace." The German government, of course, denied any knowledge of such a plan.

On December 31, 1940, in reaction to Davis's role in forming and financing the No Foreign Wars Committee, U.S. Senator Josh Lee, Democrat of Oklahoma, said, "The record of this man Davis shows conclusively the great financial stake he has in a complete Nazi victory in the European war. Much of the gasoline sending showers of fiery death into the defenseless heart of London was sold to the German government by this man Davis."

On January 7, 1941, Davis was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., investigating campaign expenditures for violations of the Hatch Act and the Corrupt Practices Act during the 1940 presidential campaign. The same day, Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Democrat of Montana, a non-interventionist, scheduled Davis to testify before the Senate Interstate Commerce Subcommittee about the "peace place" described by Marshall.

Davis died of a heart attack in Houston on August 1, 1941. The traitor was 52 years old. In 1946, O. John Rogge, an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, issued a report on Davis' activities, proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. uncovers a plot by agents of Nazi Germany to influence the recent Presidential election. The report ends up being buried until 1961.

Davis' grandson, Joseph Graham Davis Jr., a.k.a. Gray Davis, served as Governor of California from 1999 to 2003 -- as a Democrat. His loyalty to America has never been seriously questioned.

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December 31, 1940 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a 2-2 tie at the Boston Garden. And the New York Americans beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.

The next day, New Year's Day 1941, Stanford beat Nebraska in the Rose Bowl, Boston College beat Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl, Texas A&M beat Fordham in the Cotton Bowl, Mississippi State beat Georgetown in the Orange Bowl, and Western Reserve beat Arizona State in the Sun Bowl.