James Martin was sent with the first occupation forces into Germany by Eisenhower to investigate the business aspects of fascism.In this book I have tried to tell the story of an important problem and some of the things that happened when we tried to deal with it.Though many of the events occurred in Germany, before and during the military occupation, they seemed in an increasing degree to be echoes of something more fundamental that was happening back in the United States. For whatever reason, the larger pattern is a repetition of what followed after World War I; but the pace has been quicker, as though greater powers were moving more rapidly toward a more catastrophic resultSome people assume that everything is somehow connected with the cold war, and that any other course than the one we are pursuing has been rendered impossible by disagreements with Russia.This is surely an oversimplification. Disagreements with Russia have been a major issue for only twenty or thirty years, whereas the pattern I have traced in this book has been unfolding for a much longer period.
