Deguello Report
| Author | Unknown (possibly Robert DePugh) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | American far-right movement |
| Publisher | Distributed anonymously |
Publication date | July 1976 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Report |
| Pages | 54 |
| OCLC | 857796652 |
The Deguello Report on the American Right Wing (sometimes called just Deguello, the Deguello Communication, or the Deguello Report) is an anonymously written, 54-page report that purports to document the supposed infiltration of the far-right movement in the United States by Jews, socialists, and homosexuals. The report itself claims to be written by intelligence agents sympathetic to the movement. It was not formally published, but began to circulate among members of the far-right in 1976. It was published in 2000 in the Encyclopedia of White Power, which collected primary sources relevant to the far-right, listing the report as one of two "movement reports".
The report is conspiratorial and has been noted as an example of the paranoid ideology of the American far-right in the 1970s. Academic Jeffrey Kaplan summarized the report as accusing high profile figures in the movement of "being secret communists taking part in a communist conspiracy, of being secret Jews involved in a Jewish conspiracy, secret homosexuals involved in a homosexual conspiracy, or in most cases a combination of the three". Its distribution was highly controversial within the far-right, resulting in controversy and speculation; the identity of the author of the report has never been proven. Several commentators identify its author as Minutemen founder Robert DePugh, though he denied this.
Contents
[edit]The report begins by addressing the recipient: "You have been identified as a person whose integrity is highly regarded among patriotic Nationalists of the United States."[1] It purports to be written by several intelligence agents from across the world who were sympathetic to the far-right cause, who identify themself as "Deguello" and say their purpose is to inform on the nature of the conspiracy afflicting the nationalist movement. It initially begins by recounting a conspiratorial telling of history and communist plots, defining successively the histories of the "Anti-Nationalist Conspiracy", the "Socialist Conspiracy", the "Jewish Conspiracy", and the "Homosexual Conspiracy".
It then discusses their supposed infiltration into the far-right; the author attempts to discredit rival members, "virtually every notable", according to author Phillip Finch, of the white supremacist movement by accusing them of being communists, Jews, or gay.[2][3] One high-ranking member of the far-right is accused of being all three, an "intellectual Jewish socialist homosexual".[3] Academic Jeffrey Kaplan described it as "includ[ing] by name most of the leading figures and groups of every facet of the far right wing of the day, accusing each of being secret communists taking part in a communist conspiracy, of being secret Jews involved in a Jewish conspiracy, secret homosexuals involved in a homosexual conspiracy, or in most cases a combination of the three".[2] It accuses over thirty important figures of the movement in this manner.[4] The section devoted to homosexual figures in the movement makes up 18 pages.[4]
The report concludes by summarizing its alleged findings, claiming there were unnamed groups that had not been infiltrated and that there were still "many good Nationalist Organizations within the United States and numerous smaller organizations that show promise. Only time will tell which, if any of then [sic], can survive the struggle and ultimately provide the leadership which will be so badly needed in the years ahead."[5]
Distribution and authorship
[edit]
The Deguello Report was written anonymously as a statement from a member of the American white supremacist movement[2][6][7] but was never officially published.[8][9] It began to privately circulate among white nationalist and right-wing activists,[2][8][6] starting in July 1976, when several typewritten copies of the report were mimeographed and mailed to a selected group making up several leaders and members of the far-right, who then spread it.[3][9] Its original distribution was 54 pages long.[3][10][11]
The report sparked controversy within the far-right, particularly among those who knew the people accused in it; it demoralized many members of the movement. Author Phillip Finch described the document's arrival as "a nightmare in a manila envelope", playing on the fear within the movement.[3][4] This led to widespread speculation about who the author could be.[4][9] They were, from what is discussed in the document, clearly an insider, and the document had some elements of truth, e.g. several members of the far-right were actually gay, and some saw it as credible, though almost no one believed its claimed origin in intelligence agents. However the document makes as many false as correct identifications; in Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe, authors John George and Laird Wilcox said that it was at times "so far off base that it’s obvious the report was really nothing more than name calling at its worst".[4][12] Kaplan said that it was "impossible to know how many people actually saw the "Deguello Report," and of those, how many found credible the charges contained in the document."[9] A year after the publication of the document, bulletins from the also anonymous "American Defense Group" accused the U.S. Labor Party of authoring Deguello; this has also never been proven, and some even accused whoever was behind the American Defense Group of being the author of Deguello.[13] The report was largely forgotten several years later in the face of more pressing problems for the far-right.[4]
Its authorship is widely contested,[9][13] but it is often attributed to Robert DePugh, the founder of the far-right Minutemen revival organization.[4][8] DePugh, suspected by other members of the far-right, denied that he was the author.[4] Kaplan deemed it to have "possibly" been written by DePugh,[8] while George and Wilcox argued that despite his denial, it was almost certainly written by DePugh. They cited his past rhetoric, noting it as having his "psychological fingerprints", and called it "a virtual transcript" of his past conversations, saying the report was him getting back at his enemies, which had become at that point the entire far-right.[4] If it was written by DePugh, it was the first major instance of antisemitic ideology in his political ideology, whereas previously he had been mostly focused on communists.[14] Some time after the Deguello Report's publication, DePugh was arrested and received a federal prison sentence for possession of child pornography.[8] Peter Adams said it may have instead been written by a member of the neo-Nazi National States' Rights Party.[15]
The Deguello Report was included in its entirety in Jeffrey Kaplan's Encyclopedia of White Power, published by AltaMira Press in 2000. The only changes were the omission of the home addresses of those profiled, as they were outdated, and minor formatting changes; typos were left as they were.[16] It is included as part of the book's array of primary source resources relevant to the neo-Nazi movement. It, with neo-Nazi Rick Cooper's "A Brief History of White Nationalism", is one of the book's two included internal "movement reports", which both attempt to trace the history of the neo-Nazi movement.[17][6][7] Kaplan said of its inclusion that it was to "provide the reader with the rather jaundiced view the American radical right have of themselves".[17]
Analysis
[edit]The report has been noted for its conspiracy theories and paranoid ideation.[4][8][18] Academic Jeffrey Kaplan called it an "incredible document" and noted it as an example of the "level of viciousness and paranoia infecting the White Supremacist constellation" in the 1970s.[8] Phillip Finch also viewed it as demonstrating the paranoia spread throughout some aspects of the far-right, though he believed the idea of paranoia as an element of right wing thought was generally overstated by the media. He called its authorship inconsequential in comparison to the reaction to the document, "the indication it gave that the Radical Right is pricklishly sensitive to the possibility that it has been subverted", which "nobody had ever said it so flatly before".[19]
Kaplan noted that what made the document important was not "the stereotypical charges of socialism, Judaism, and/or homosexuality that are leveled against the movement figures of the day" (which, he argued, were both impossible to prove and unlikely). He argued instead it was a valuable historical source due to its "conspiratorial view of history", rhetoric, and "all too typically fratricidal nature".[9] A writer for PitchWeekly said the rhetorical style seen in the Degelluo Report was a "standard technique on the fringe right".[2] As both it and Rick Cooper's "A Brief History of White Nationalism" were included in the Kaplan encyclopedia as the two movement reports, they were sometimes compared.[6][7] Sociologist Kathleen M. Blee noted both it and Cooper's work as "fascinating" and "full of gossip on racist leaders and vitriolic assessments of rival groups".[6] Sociologist Thomas Robbins called it "wilder" in comparison to Cooper's.[7] Cooper's account was noted as considerably more researched than the Deguello Report.[2][6][7]
References
[edit]- ^ Finch 1983, p. 165.
- ^ a b c d e f Scherstuhl, Alan (September 3, 2009). "The Ron Man". PitchWeekly. Kansas City. Retrieved May 2, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Finch 1983, p. 155.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j George & Wilcox 1992, p. 293.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 416.
- ^ a b c d e f Blee 2002, p. 308.
- ^ a b c d e Robbins 2003, p. 113.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kaplan 1993, p. 80.
- ^ a b c d e f Kaplan 2000, p. 375.
- ^ "Deguello". WorldCat. Retrieved May 2, 2025.
- ^ "[Deguello report]". WorldCat. Retrieved May 2, 2025.
- ^ Finch 1983, pp. 155–156.
- ^ a b Finch 1983, p. 156.
- ^ George & Wilcox 1992, p. 294.
- ^ Adams 2023, p. 193.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 375–376.
- ^ a b Kaplan 2000, p. XXV.
- ^ Finch 1983, pp. 155, 231.
- ^ Finch 1983, pp. 155–156, 231.
Works cited
[edit]- Adams, Peter (2023). The Insurrectionist: Major General Edwin A. Walker and the Birth of the Deep State Conspiracy. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-8049-5.
- Blee, Kathleen M. (June 2002). "Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right (Book)". Rural Sociology. 67 (2): 306–308. ISSN 0036-0112.
- Finch, Phillip (1983). God, Guts, and Guns: A Close Look at the Radical Right. New York: Seaview/Putnam. ISBN 978-0-399-31012-6.
- George, John; Wilcox, Laird (1992). "Robert Bolivar DePugh and the Minuteman". Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. pp. 274–298. ISBN 978-0-87975-680-2.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey (February 1993). "The context of American millenarian revolutionary theology: The case of the 'identity Christian' church of Israel". Terrorism and Political Violence. 5 (1): 30–82. doi:10.1080/09546559308427196. ISSN 0954-6553.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7425-0340-3.
- Robbins, Thomas (2003). "Book Reviews". Nova Religio. 7 (1): 98–132. doi:10.1525/nr.2003.7.1.98. ISSN 1092-6690. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2003.7.1.98.