fifth column

A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.

Origin

The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War. As his army approached Madrid, a message was broadcast that the four columns of his forces outside the city would be supported by a "fifth column" of his supporters inside the city, intent on undermining the Republican government from within (see Siege of Madrid).^[1] The term was used as the title of Ernest Hemingway's only play, which he wrote while the city was being bombarded; the play was published in 1938 in his book The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories.^[2]

During the opening stages of the war, the Republican government purged the police, the military and notable middle class civilians in Madrid of conservatives that might align with Nationalist forces.^{[citation needed]} Thus, this supposed "fifth column" did not prove very effective,^{[citation needed]} and Madrid held out until 1939 despite very heavy fighting. Nevertheless, the term caught on.

Usage

With the grain requisition crises, famines, troubled economic conditions, and international destabilization in the 1930s, the leaders of the Soviet Union became increasingly worried about the possible disloyalty of diaspora ethnic groups with cross-border ties (especially Finns, Germans and Poles), residing along its western borders; this eventually led to the start of Stalin's repressive policies towards them, most notably to the national operations of the NKVD and forced population transfer.^[3]

In Europe, German minority organisations in Poland and Czechoslovakia formed the Selbstschutz and the Sudeten German Free Corps respectively which actively helped the Third Reich in conquering those nations. After 1945, this was cited as justification for the wholesale expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Soviet Union, as well as return to these countries of territories which had been annexed by Germany.

Modern usage

• North Koreans living in Japan, particularly those affiliated with the organization Chongryun (which is itself affiliated with the government of North Korea) are sometimes seen as a "fifth column" by some Japanese, and have been the victims of verbal and physical attacks. These have occurred more frequently since the government of Kim Jong Il acknowledged it had abducted Japanese nationals and tested ballistic missiles.^[4]

• Some Israeli Jews, including politicians, rabbis, journalists and historians, have referred to the Arab citizens of Israel (who comprise 20% of Israel's population) as a potential fifth column on the ostensible grounds that Arab-Israelis frequently identify more with the Palestinian cause than with the State of Israel or Zionism.^[5][6]

• Robert A. Heinlein's 1949 science-fiction novel "Sixth Column" referenced the concept of a fifth column, but was centered on a titular "sixth column," a hidden resistance movement fighting an oppressive occuppying force of Asians on American soil, as distinguished from a "fifth column" of traitors. The novel did include many references to the historic Madrid event, so as to contrast the Falangist term with Heinlein's.

See also

• Drug cartels
• Gangs
• Eurabia
• Quisling
• Resistance movement
• Demographic threat
• Treason
• Subversion
• Sedition

References

Notes

• "The Saturnalia" ǢBKLYN ŁCA ŶBEIJING: 5th Column Ministry of Info, 1900
• "The German Fifth Column in Poland" London: Polish Ministry of Info, 1941
• "Fifth Column at Work" by Bohumil Bilek, description of German minority in Czechoslovakia, London, Trinity, 1945.
• "The German Fifth Column in the Second World War" Jong, Louis de New York Fertig, 1973
• "The Fifth Column, and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War" New York Scribner, 1969
• Dr. Seuss Goes to War: World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a selection with commentary by Richard Minnear (New Press, 2001; ISBN 1-56584-704-0).
• "Sixth Column" by Robert A. Heinlein (Street & Smith Publications Inc, 1949; ISBN 978-0671653743).