Chronology of 1988 Bush Campaign Controversy
Coalition of American Nationalities
Republican and Bush Campaign responses to charges
(with selected other responses)
by Chip Berlet
{Adapted from an article in the }
When the Bush campaign was revealed as having recruited an
ethnic support coalition which included racists, fascists,
anti-Semites, Nazi apologists and even aging Nazi collaborators,
it responded with a number of conflicting statements. At various
points during the controversy the Bush campaign announced:
*** It would investigate the charges.
*** It would not investigate the charges.
*** It was shocked by the charges.
*** It could not be held responsible for screening everyone.
*** It was unable to substantiate the charges.
*** The unsubstantiated charges were reckless political attacks.
*** No one would resign until the charges were substantiated.
*** The persons resigning admitted no wrongdoing.
*** The anti-Semites had resigned from the campaign.
*** The issue was closed.
Clearly there are some mutually exclusive positions in the
above list.
The charges primarily came from three sources: a report by
Detroit-based freelancer Russ Bellant (published by Political
Research Associates in Cambridge); a series of articles by
reporter Larry Cohler and Walter Ruby appearing in and articles by David Lee Preston in the
. Both press sources focused on the Bush
campaign’s recruitment of Eastern European nationalists who had
emigrated to the U.S. after World War II, having fled countries
such as Latvia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and the Croation section
of Yugoslavia. As the Bellant report revealed, these ethnic
activists had gravitated towards the Republican Party due to a
shared emphasis on rolling back communism and gaining
independence for the nations near the Baltic coast and the
Balkans which now are under Soviet domination.
Some of these ethnic emigres, who champion “liberation” for
these “Captive Nations,” had fled their homelands due to their
allegiance to Nazi Germany. Their continued support for fascism
and their anti-Semitic views were aspects of their political work
kept hidden while toiling on behalf of George Bush and the
Republican Party.
A chronological look at the controversy shows how artfully
the Bush campaign sidestepped the charges while simultaneously
placating its Jewish and emigre constituencies.
8/2/88–A Bush campaign news conference announces the
formation of Coalition of American Nationalities to coordinate
the campaign activities of various ethnic groups.
9/01/88–Political Research Associates (PRA) mails galley
copies of the report by Bellant to 20 reporters and news outlets.
Press embargo is listed as 9/9/88 in the A.M.
9/08/88–The story offically surfaces in the press when
charges several Bush ethnic advisory
committee members are well-known anti-Semites and pro- fascists,
including persons who opposed the Justice Department’s Office of
Special Investigation (OSI) and its probe into emigre Nazi
collaborators in the U.S. The article focuses on Bush ethnic
advisors Jerome Brentar and Ignatius Billinsky and includes
material on the Republican Heritage Groups Council, Florian
Galdau and Philip Guarino and Laszlo Pasztor from the Bellant
report. [Bellant also “faxed” supporting documentation on Galdau
to prior to publication of the article.
Bellant was not identified as the author of the PRA report until
the third article in the series.]
*** Brentar has suggested the OSI search for Nazi war
criminals is a communist plot, and worked with groups claiming
the Holocaust is a Jewish hoax.
*** Billinsky, a long-time critic of OSI, is president of
the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America which Bellant
desribes as “heavily influenced but not totally controlled by”
anti-Semites, collaborators with Hitler, and apologists for
Nazism.
*** Galdau is described by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal as
the leader of the Romanian pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic movement in
New York City.
*** Guarino is linked in published accounts to the fascist-
oriented P-2 masonic lodge in Italy, and has made racist
statements about non-white ethnic minorities.
Mark Goodin, spokesperson for Bush campaign, announces “The
Reagan-Bush Administration supports OSI and George Bush will
support OSI as president,” and pledges the campaign will look
into the allegations. “If there is anything to them, we’ll take
action,” said Goodin.
James Baker, Bush campaign chairman, adds, “There is no
place in this campaign for anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry or
people who espouse those views. Any individuals who espouse those
views will not be welcome in this campaign.”
Response in the Jewish community is quick. Henry Siegman,
executive director of the American Jewish Congress, says the
charges are a shocking revelation:
“It suggests a high degree of either insensitivity or
incompetence on the part of George Bush’s staff. I’m sure George
Bush is personally unaware of the sordid personal history of
these people. But now that he has been made aware of them we have
every right to expect him not only to remove these people but to
repudiate what they stand for.”
Albert Vorspan, senior vice president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations calls the composition of the
Coalition “outrageous and frightening. The inclusion of notorious
extremists in a committee with such close ties to the vice
president violates the principles that George Bush has publicly
espoused.”
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation
League, urges “an immediate investigation by the Bush campaign of
the backgrounds of members of the Bush campaign ethnic coalition
who are known anti-Semites and have been linked to Holocaust
revisionist and anti-OSI (Office of Special Investiations)
activities.” Foxman adds, “There is no place in any political
campaign for anti-Semites. The League urges that these persons be
summarily removed.”
9/9/88–Bush spokesperson Mark Goodin announces Jerome
Brentar has resigned, saying Brentar’s “association with
[convicted Nazi war criminal] John Demjanjuk put him at odds with
Vice President Bush.” No mention is made of the more substantial
charges regarding Brentar.
As for Galdau and Guarino, Goodin says, “We have absolutely
no substantiation at this point of any of these charges.”
Michael S. Miller, executive director of the Jewish
Community Relations Council, however, says his group has
information supporting the descriptions
of Jerome Brentar, Florian Galdau and Philip Guarino. “There’s
absolutely no doubt in my mind that these three individuals have
expressed sympathies with Nazism, with fascism,” Miller tells the
. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles is
also cited by the as having corroborating background material.
9/10/88–The runs an article by
David Lee Preston which corroborates much of the material in
. Preston cites the forthcoming Bellant report.
9/11/88 The first section of the Bellant report is
officially released to the press. The report describes how the
Republican Party has been recruiting ethnic facists, racists and
anti-Semites for over 20 years, through its Heritage Groups
Council.
9/11/88–The carries a story on Bush
advisor Fred Malek, who resigns from the Bush campaign almost
immediately.
*** Malek, according to the , while serving as an aide
to President Nixon, had compiled lists of employees with
“Jewish-sounding” names–names of persons Nixon suspected were
part of a “Jewish Cabal” at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
9/11/88–The carries a summary of the
charges made in the Bellant report concerning the Republican
Heritage Groups Council.
9/12/88–The Bush campaign announces five more resignations
in addition to Brentar, in a stated effort to prevent Bush from
being hurt by what are called “politically motivated attacks.”
The statement of resignation issued on behalf of the five
panel members says in part:
“We have been attacked unfairly by George Bush’s political
opponents. These…attacks are aimed at neutralizing the
support George Bush has and will continue to have in the ethnic
community. ”
In addition to Brentar, who previously had resigned, the
five new resignees include Galdau and Guarino as well as Ignatius
Billinsky, Laszlo Pasztor, and Bohdan Fedorak.
*** Pasztor, who recruited many of the ethnic leaders with
questionable backgrounds for the Republican Heritage Groups
Council, himself briefly served during World War II as an
official in a Nazi-collaborationist Hungarian government
controlled by an anti-Semitic organization, the Arrow Cross.
*** Fedorak, also a leading critic of OSI, hosted the July
1988 campaign appearance by George Bush co-sponsored by a
pro-Nazi group.
Mark Goodin, spokesperson for Bush, dismisses these charges
as “little more than politically-inspired garbage…the
campaign looked into the allegations against these individuals
and was unable to substantiate them.”
Bush responds to reporters questions by saying: “Nobody’s
giving in. These people left of their own volition. We’re not
accusing anybody of anything… .We’re getting into a very
peculiar deal where some people are accusing people…I don’t
like it a bit.”
A few days later, Radi Slavoff, national co-chairman of
Bulgarians for Bush, becomes the seventh ethnic panel member to resign.
*** Slavoff is charged with working in a national front
which was aligned with Nazis, and heading up the Heritage Groups
Council which has become a safe harbor for anti-Semites and
pro-Nazis emigres.
9/15/88–The entire Bellant report is officially released.
The report includes a photo of George Bush on the campaign trail
at a July 1988 event co-sponsored by a pro-Nazi group, the
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. Also reproduced is a 1984
Republican ethnic pride calendar which urges the celebration of
“Croation Independence Day.” The Croation state was run by a
Nazi-puppet government which oversaw the slaughter of over
500,000 Serbians and Jews.
The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)
Archive/File: people/b/bellant.russ bellant.a03
From oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet Mon Dec 14 13:13:43 PST 1992
Article: 8147 of alt.conspiracy
Path: oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet
From: [email protected] (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:28:00 GMT
References: <[email protected]>
Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway
Lines: 243
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1299600110:cdp:1299600136:000:10941
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet Dec 11 18:28:00 1992
/* Written 9:11 pm Dec 8, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
/* Written 8:30 pm Dec 6, 1992 by cberlet in igc:p.news */
/* Written 7:40 pm Mar 7, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Appendix 3
