Government in the USA popularized the straight-arm salute for three decades
before Nazis began doing the same thing. The salute developed in the USA
from 1892 in the Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag) in government schools.
From there its use expanded to parades, with spectators saluting passing
flags, military officials, other government officials, and politicians. There
were uses outside of parades in gestures to and from politicians, legislators,
government officials, and military officials. http://rexcurry.net/book11pledge-ch2a1a.html
The salute was used during the National Anthem and was used at sporting
events. It was used by the USA's athletes at Olympic Games. http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter1a1c1.html
The National Socialist German Workers' Party began in 1920, and the USA
continued to expand its use of the salute. Congress did not attempt to inject
itself into the mess until it adopted the Flag Code on June 22, 1942. That
is after the USA entered WWII.
What is commonly called the "German Greeting" was, in a sense, the "American
Greeting" first.
Presidents had precedents in performing the stiff-armed salute to the
flag. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt robotically chanted the Pledge
of Allegiance with the Nazi salute and he was sometimes saluted in that
way by civilians. see the photograph at http://rexcurry.net/bookpic-nazi-salute-fdr.JPG
Photographic examples exist of the Nazi salute used outside of the Pledge
of Allegiance by FDR's underling, General Hugh Johnson, head of the National
Recovery Administration. Hugh Samuel Johnson (1882-1942), an army officer
and politician, often gave the salute. In one photograph (Granger Collection,
N.Y.), Johnson presents President Roosevelt to a group of industrial
leaders in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 1934 and Johnson uses the straight-arm
salute (FDR is holding the arm of Secret Service aid Gus Generick). see
the photograph at http://rexcurry.net/nazi-salute-hugh-johnson-fdr.JPG
A common myth on the web is that "Roosevelt instituted the hand over
the heart gesture." A web search for the quoted phrase suggests that
the lie originated from evil wikipedia writers who post lies. Wikipedia
is an anonymous bulletin board that is misrepresented as an encylopedia.
It is misrepresented so effectively that other sites identified as reference
sites will blindly repeat lies that are posted on Wikipedia. That repetition
of lies is shown by the Roosevelt quote above. A web search for the quote
produced the following inaccuracy: "Because of the similarity between the
Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted
the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians
during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States,
instead of the Bellamy salute. This was done when Congress officially adopted
the Flag Code on June 22, 1942." The most accurate part is the last
sentence, which reveals that the salute changed after the U.S. had entered
WWII. Roosevelt did not institute the hand-over-the-heart gesture (Congress
attempted to start the switch), nor did Roosevelt do so because of the similarity
between the "Bellamy salute" and the "Nazi salute." As is often the case,
no source is cited in Wikipedia, because there is none to cite. The Nazi
salute had been used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party for
approximately two decades before 1942, and the U.S. developed and used the
salute from 1892. Wikipedia's anonymous bulletin board changes by the nanosecond,
and at the time of the above comment, the entire article was a study in deliberate
and artful deception. http://rexcurry.net/wikipedia-lies.html
Dr. Rex Curry (author of Pledge of Allegiance Secrets) showed that the
early Pledge to the USA's flag used a straight-arm salute and it was the
origin of the salute to the swastika flag under the monstrous National
Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis). Frightening photographs are at
http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html
The Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched out toward
the flag. Due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially,
the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended
military salute. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html
The person who created the pledge to the USA's flag was a self-proclaimed
socialist in the nationalism movement in the USA and he called his dogma
"military socialism" and it influenced socialists in Germany, and his pledge
was the origin of their salute to the swastika flag. "Nazi" means "National
Socialist German Workers' Party." Although the swastika was an ancient
symbol, it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent
"S" letters for their "socialism," as shown by Professor Curry (author of
"Swastika Secrets"). Hitler altered his own signature to use the same stylized
"S" letter for "socialist" and similar alphabetic symbolism still shows
on Volkswagens. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html
National Socialism conjures up visions of neo-classical buildings, big
government economic programs, state funded art, labor camps, concentration
camps, leaders in open cars wearing capes, militant rallies, and segregation
imposed by law in government schools (socialist schools) where racism is
taught as public policy. All of those and more existed under FDR and
before him in the USA. http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter5a1.html
Written in 1892, the pledge's robotic chanting and stiff-arm salute spread
with help from patriotic groups in the 1920s, prominent among them the Ku
Klux Klan.
John Benton Bellamy (son of Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance)
was graduated from Harvard with the class of 1904 and President Franklin
D. Roosevelt was a classmate. (Berkeley Daily Gazette - Jun 14, 1944).
National socialism was specifically promoted in the USA in 1888 by Edward
Bellamy, author of the book "Looking Backward." Roosevelt was so impressed
by Bellamy's book that Roosevelt wrote "Looking Forward" to impose Bellamy's
national socialism in America.
Bellamy's book was an international bestseller and was tranlsated into
every major language including German, Russian and Chinese. Clubs sprang
up in the USA and worldwide for touting the book's ideas. The Bellamy dogma
influenced socialists worldwide, including the countries of the socialist
Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): ~60 million dead under
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ~50 million under the Peoples'
Republic of China; ~20 million under the National Socialist German Workers'
Party (NSGWP).
Roosevelt's book was not an international bestseller. Roosevelt's policies
were imposed by law on Americans, nevertheless.
Roosevelt also ended up on the side of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics and the Peoples' Republic of China in World War II. At the end
of WWII, Roosevelt helped to hand over half of Europe to the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. After WWII, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
and the Peoples' Republic of China went on to kill even more millions of
people than had been killed by the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
