( February 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)īy the late 1930s, as American involvement in the war in Europe became more likely, the term "fifth column" was commonly used to warn of potential sedition and disloyalty within the borders of the United States. You may improve this section, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new section, as appropriate.
The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Some writers, mindful of the origin of the phrase, use it only in reference to military operations rather than the broader and less well defined range of activities that sympathizers might engage in to support an anticipated attack.
Probably the most popular version refers the theory of Mola's authorship with a grade of doubt, either noting that it is presumed but never proven or that the phrase "is attributed" to Mola, who "apparently claimed" so, or they note "la famosa quinta columna a la que parece que se había referido el general Mola." Some authors consider it possible if not likely that the term has been invented by the Communist propaganda with the purpose of either raising morale or providing justification for terror and repression initially it might have been part of the whispering campaign, but was later openly floated by Communist propagandists. In some sources Mola is noted as a person who used the term during an impromptu press interview, and different though detailed versions of the exchange are offered. Many scholars have no doubt about Mola's role and refer to "fifth column" as to "a term coined in 1936 by General Emilio Mola", though they admit that the exact statement cannot be identified. Historiographic works offer differing perspectives on authorship of the term. A British journalist who took part in Mola's press conference on October 28, 1936, claimed that Mola referred to quinta columna on this very day, but at that time the term had already been used in the Republican press for more than three weeks. The transcripts of Francisco Franco's, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano's, and Emilio Mola's radio addresses have been published, but they do not contain the term, and no other original statement containing this phrase has ever surfaced. Historians have never identified the original statement referred to by Völckers, Ibárruri, de Jong, and others. In mid-October, the media already warned of the "famous fifth column". During the following days, Republican papers repeated the story but with differing detail some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano. On the same day, the PCE activist Domingo Girón made a similar claim during a public rally. In a front-page article, the party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri referred to a very similar or the same statement as the one reported by Völckers but attributed it to General Emilio Mola. The first identified public use of the term is in the October 3, 1936, issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero. However, the telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and was discovered long after the civil war. In the statement, Franco allegedly claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside. He referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco" which "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone). Its first identified appearance was in a secret telegram sent to Berlin by the German chargé d'affaires in Alicante, Hans Hermann Völckers, dated September 30, 1936. The exact origins of the term are not clear. It gained extreme popularity in the Loyalist faction media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad.
The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally quinta columna) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War.
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