As Army Pvt. Pete Seeger eagerly waited for a chance to fight for his country during World War II, military investigators quietly built a case that the young folk singer was “potentially subversive.
“In a security investigation triggered by a wartime letter he wrote denouncing a proposal to deport all Japanese-Americans, the Army intercepted Seeger’s mail to his fiancee, scoured his school records, talked to his father, interviewed an ex-landlord and questioned his pal Woody Guthrie, according to FBI files obtained by The Associated Press.
Investigators concluded that Seeger’s association with known communists and his Japanese-American fiancee pointed to a risk of divided loyalty.
Seeger’s “Communistic sympathies, his unsatisfactory relations with landlords and his numerous Communist and otherwise undesirable friends, make him unfit for a position of trust or responsibility,” according to a military intelligence report.
The investigation, forwarded to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, is detailed in more than 1,700 pages from Seeger’s FBI file, released by the…
Source: FBI files: Military questioned Pete Seeger’s wartime loyalty
Hoover’s FBI has a lot to answer for, and many more secrets locked away, I’m sure.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Without doubt.
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1700 pages! Such a waste of time and resources. Unsurprisinhpgly, I prefer the immortal jukebox take on Pete http://wp.me/p4pE0N-6m
Thanks for so many fascinating posts. Looking forward to regular visits next year. Regards Thom.
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Such a pleasure to me that you enjoy your visits, Thom. I’m going straight away to your take on Pete S.
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