Talk:Burton K. Wheeler

NPOV

Jacrosse, can you see that your formulation is NPOV on several grounds?

" This was perhaps the most controversial and illogical aspect of the widely criticized work, which portrays Wheeler as imposing martial law in Lindbergh's absence, whereas the real Wheeler had been a leading opponent of the martial law imposed in Montana during World War I."

Saying that something is "controversial" and "illogical" is your point of view. Your statement that the book is "widely criticized" is not backed up with any proof. As for your statement about Wheeler opposing martial law during WWI, the article points out a number of ways in which Wheeler's views and actions in the 1940s contradicted his views and actions in the 19teens and 20s so this is not a strong argument. Homey 02:17, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

The article points out nothing of the kind, and the sentence merely echoes criticisms acknowledged in the article on The Plot Against America.--Jacrosse 19:34, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Jacrosse, your edits are POV. The article can't state someting is "controversial" or "illogical" - that is an opinion and if you are going to say something has been "widely criticized" you have to back it up. If you can quote a published source which says that then you can cite it but otherwise it's POV and a violation of NPOV policy. Homey 20:24, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Leif Erickson

I de-linked "Leif Erickson" as the person it linked to was the actor who starred in The High Chapparal, not Wheeler's 1946 primary opponent. For the link to be restored, we need at least a stub bio of Leif Erickson the Montana politician, and a disambiguation page, which would probably mention the similarly-named Norse explorer, spelled slightly differently. Rlquall 20:20, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

"In Popular Culture" section

I know that it would seem that the anti-Wheeler Communist tract could arguable be the source of the title of the Roth novel, but otherwise this should be integrated better, as appearance in a Commmunist pamphlet alone is hardly part of the "popular culture". 166.152.219.11 (talk) 03:48, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

Connections to George Sylvester Viereck

Shouldn't it be mentioned in this article that Wheeler facilitated the efforts of the U.S.-based Nazi propagandist George Sylvester Viereck to disseminate Nazi propaganda in the U.S. during World War II? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 03:47, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

Yes, Rachel Maddow’s investigation of Wheeler’s nazi ties clearly show his connection to Viereck. Podcast Ultra, 2022. 2600:6C67:8C00:3186:FDBC:E787:431:1C3 (talk) 02:38, 30 December 2022 (UTC)

Yes, along with his successful efforts to crush the Justice Department criminal investigation and trial, and firing of the prosecutor. Who wants to write it? Jeff in CA (talk) 01:36, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Maddow states (p 308) "Rogge was careful not to accuse Burton K. Wheeler of outright and intended collaboration with the Nazis in Germany, of being a witting mouthpiece for Hitler." And Maddow herself does not make that claim about Wheeler. Maddow does say that it was proper to fire Rogge --that he misused his government job for political reasons. Maddow says that President Truman made the decision to fire Rogge and that Truman strongly supported Wheeler. Rjensen (talk) 09:28, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

I was not referring to Rogge, but rather to William Maloney, the first prosecutor, fired by AG Francis Biddle. Wheeler was certainly connected to Viereck. Jeff in CA (talk) 18:28, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Maloney was not "fired" he was promoted to head of the criminal division in the Justice department. As for Viereck, he was convicted by Maloney of being a German agent. But then he appealed and won--the US Supreme Court reversed Viereck's conviction and said Maloney at trial ruined his case: "5. The defendant's right to a fair trial in this case was prejudiced by the conduct of the prosecutor, who, in his closing remarks to the jury, indulged in an appeal wholly irrelevant to any facts or issues in the case, and the only purpose and effect of which could have been to arouse passion and prejudice. Such remarks should have been stopped by the trial judge sua sponte....6. It is as much the duty of the prosecutor to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one. P. 318 U. S. 248. 130 F.2d 945 is reversed." source: Supreme Court decision: "Viereck v. United States, 318 U.S. 236 (1943)" online Rjensen (talk) 03:09, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Here is what Rachel Maddow herself had to say abouth Burton Wheeler on her show on May 20, 2024:

“Meet this guy [photos of George Viereck], the most highly paid Nazi agent in the United States in the lead up to World War II. His job here was to spread propaganda for the Nazis in the United States. This guy was charged and convicted of being a Nazi agent in the U.S., and he was a relatively well-known figure, so it was relatively big news when he was charged and convicted and made the front page of the ‘’New York Times’’, for example.

“But the bigger scandal about him was that he got a whole bunch of members of Congress to participate in this propaganda thing that Hitler was paying him to do. Members of Congress were involved with it, lots of them. And then he was indicted a second time, the same guy. And the first time it was for being a Nazi agent; the second time it was not just for him personally being a Nazi agent – it was a much bigger indictment for him being part of a large seditious conspiracy against the United States. And that is when members of Congress who had been working with him realized that what they had done with him – working with a convicted Nazi agent – they realized what they had done with him was probably going to come out at that trial, and that would be a bad look.

“And so, they decided to take action. One particularly powerful senator [video of Burton Wheeler] who was implicated in this thing went to the Attorney General and basically threatened the Attorney General that he would tie the DOJ up in knots. He would go after the Attorney General himself unless the Attorney General fired the prosecutor who was leading this case. And the senator had kind of a hook for doing this. The prosecutor he wanted fired had just been criticized by the court because, when he was prosecuting that Nazi agent, the court said he spoke with basically too much passion, with too much emotion, about that defendant in front of the jury. So, the prosecutor had been criticized in court. That was the hook they used for going after him, and, you know, that’s not exactly like a capital offense as a prosecutor. Nobody believed that was the real reason this senator wanted the prosecutor fired, but, you know, it was something, and it made for a good pretext.

“And sure enough, that corrupt pressure from the senator, who himself was implicated in this criminal investigation, it turned out to be enough. It worked. That prosecutor actually was turfed out, taken off the case, and by doing that, by taking that prosecutor off that case, the case against the Nazi agent and all the accused seditionists, it was really screwed up. It was delayed and delayed and delayed. It was years. They had to bring in a new prosecutor. He had to restart the whole investigation, rebuild the whole thing from the ground up, start the whole thing over. It took forever. Finally, the new prosecutor brought the case to trial, and – surprise! – it happened again. Why wouldn’t it?

“The senators and members of Congress, who were implicated in this plot, this scheme of literally working with a Nazi agent, those members of Congress made a big show out of coming to the courtroom to show their support for the defendants, inveighing on the floor of the House and the Senate against the prosecution. They supplied lawyers and legal advice to the defendants. They threatened to investigate the prosecutors for bringing the case. They brought all the political pressure they could to bear against that prosecution, tried to, as much as they can, turn it into a circus, tried to delegitimize the whole proceedings. They had the right-wing press denounce that prosecution, denounce the prosecutors themselves.

“But the evidence in the case was strong. The prosecutor in the case ultimately was able to go through the German government’s own files about the Nazi secret operations in America, and, sure enough, those files showed evidence that two dozen members of Congress and senators had taken part in this scheme, in this lavishly funded Nazi propaganda scheme in the United States. That’s bad news, right?

“One of those senators whose name turned up in those files decided, wow, this can’t stand. This has to be done away with, and so he applied political pressure. He went to the president. He went to the Justice Department and demanded again that the prosecutor be fired, that the second prosecutor be fired, and he was! He was fired as well. The senator demanded that this evidence about which members of Congress had done this, had worked with the Nazis, he demanded that evidence should be shelved and kept secret by the Justice department, and it was. The prosecutor was fired. The Justice Department just folded. They just killed the whole thing off because of political pressure from powerful people who were implicated in that very serious criminal case. …

“The great sedition trial in the 1940s was about Americans who were working with the Nazis. And the way it all resolved in the end is that right-wing members of Congress, who themselves were implicated in the plot, they put so much pressure to bear on that prosecution that they slowed it down. They turned it into the object of a weird conservative pressure campaign. They smeared the prosecutors, they got them removed from the case, they got them fired. They ultimately dismantled that whole effort to prosecute that as a crime, to expose it, and to get accountability. They blew it up. And the defendants who were allegedly involved in that terrible scheme, they all walked, they all got away. …

“I mean, in the 1940s it was a scandal that Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana was involved in a gross Nazi agent’s propaganda plot in the United States Senate – and he was. But if you are asking me, it is a bigger scandal that Senator Burton Wheeler got the prosecutors fired, who were looking into it – got them fired and professionally destroyed. It’s a bigger scandal for him, and, frankly, it’s a bigger scandal for our justice system. It’s a bigger scandal for the U.S. Justice Department, which gave into his pressure.”

Jeff in CA (talk) 23:20, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Why 'progressive'?

Anyone who supported Johnson–Reed Act couldn't possibly be described as such... and he might have been a running mate in the party, but as an individual Burton did not seem to be progressive at all... 92.18.125.136 (talk) 23:32, 11 June 2023 (UTC)