Page 161 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

148 The American Diplomats

then led by Chancellor Brüning. Gordon was a well-educated career officer
6
with years of experience, and his word carried considerable weight in the
Foreign service and at the embassy. sackett, however, was his own man,
and when Gordon temporarily left town in december 1931, the ambassador
disregarded the injunction and decided to meet Hitler. Not much is known
about that meeting except that it reinforced the ambassador’s unflattering
view of Hitler as a “fanatical crusader.” sackett found Hitler’s personality
generally unappealing, and he became more convinced than ever that “he is
not the type from which statesmen evolve.” Hitler talked “vigorously,” but
“he never looked me in the eye.” sackett concluded that if Hitler came to
power, his government would surely fail. 7
even after the Nazis took over the government, american diplomats
continued to maintain their distance from Hitler and his coterie. they dis-
trusted and disliked him intensely. Gordon, who made no effort to keep
his feelings to himself, was soon declared persona non grata at the Foreign
Office, which limited his opportunities to obtain information on the pri-
vate views of his counterparts in the German government. during his four
and a half years in Berlin, ambassador dodd also avoided personal contact
with the Führer and met him privately only three times. None of these en-
counters was quite as revealing as those between Hitler and the British and
French diplomats.
For their reports, american diplomats in Berlin relied primarily on in-
formation in German newspapers, discussions with businessmen and a few
Weimar politicians, and extensive accounts of local developments written
by american consuls in different parts of the country. if the american as-
sessments of the political and social scene were intellectually less sparkling
than those of their British colleagues, they were nevertheless extremely
valuable because they often contained details not widely available at the
time, as well as insights into the workings of the Nazi regime. appalled by
the Nazis’ disregard for democratic principles and their frequent resort to
violence, the american diplomats did not hesitate to depict the new regime
in all its depravity.
Gordon set the tone for the political reporting at the american embassy.
He wrote a compelling analysis of National socialism as early as septem-
ber 15, 1930, immediately after the reichstag election in which the Nazis
emerged as a party to be reckoned with. to the surprise of many observers,
the Nazis won 6.4 million votes out of a total of 35 million, and 107 out of
575 seats in the legislature. this marked a stunning jump of 5.6 million votes