The Case of William Dudley Pelley

William Pelley

William Dudley Pelley was a fascinating figure in American history. After learning of the horrible crimes of the Russian Civil War Pelley started to blame Communists and Jews for much of the problems in the world. He thought there were Communist and Jewish conspiracies to control America.

Pelley with his Silver Legion

With the rise of Hitler Pelley began to make even more fascist statements and even wrote on his support of Hitler and the Empire of Japan. Pelley formed a fascist organization called the Silver Legion with the goal of starting a Nazi like movement. Although he eventually disbanded the organization at the start of World War II, Pelley maintained his virulent criticisms of the American government and Franklin Roosevelt. Pelley claimed that Roosevelt and the American government were lying about the extent of the damage caused by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which turned out to be true. Roosevelt wanting to put an end to the dangerous criticisms of Pelley enlisted the help of his Attorney General, Francis Biddle. The American government tried Pelley in court under the Espionage Act of 1917. Pelley eventually went to prison in 1942 and was only pardoned in 1952.

Francis Biddle

The case of Pelley is indeed a strange one. Pelley was vile man who held reprehensible views, but I do not believe he should have gone to prison. The statements that Pelley made were mostly opinion, so as such could not be interpreted as “true” or “false.” In fact some of the criticisms, such as his writings on Pearl Harbor, actually turned out to be true. It is my belief that since Pelley was not encouraging violence against the United States and was merely criticizing the country for it’s entry into WWII, that he should not have been convicted. The prosecution of Pelley was a serious lapse in judgment on the part of FDR, though it would be far from his worst civil liberty violation during World War II.