Fifth column
Imagine a hidden enemy, lurking within your own borders, ready to strike when an external foe attacks. This chilling concept is captured by the term "fifth column," a phrase that emerged from the crucible of war and quickly became a potent symbol of internal betrayal. It speaks to the deep-seated fear of treachery from within, a fear that has shaped military strategy and public perception for nearly a century. The term "fifth column" originated during the Spanish Civil War, describing an internal group ready to aid an external attack. Despite its widespread use, the exact statement or person who coined the term remains historically unverified. The concept gained massive popular traction during World War II, fueling widespread paranoia and influencing policy across nations.
AI Summary
Imagine a hidden enemy, lurking within your own borders, ready to strike when an external foe attacks. This chilling concept is captured by the term "fifth column," a phrase that emerged from the crucible of war and quickly became a potent symbol of internal betrayal. It speaks to the deep-seated fear of treachery from within, a fear that has shaped military strategy and public perception for nearly a century.
- The term "fifth column" originated during the Spanish Civil War, describing an internal group ready to aid an external attack.
- Despite its widespread use, the exact statement or person who coined the term remains historically unverified.
- The concept gained massive popular traction during World War II, fueling widespread paranoia and influencing policy across nations.
What is a Fifth Column?
At its core, a fifth column refers to a group of people who secretly undermine a larger group or nation from within. Their loyalty lies with an enemy power or another nation, and their actions are designed to weaken their own society in favor of that external force.
Activities Description Sabotage Destruction of infrastructure or resources Disinformation Spreading false or misleading information Espionage Gathering and sharing intelligence Terrorism Acts of violence to instill fear
These activities can be either overt or clandestine. While some operations might involve forces gathered in secret mobilizing openly to assist an external attack, many are hidden. Think of secret sympathizers working deep within defense lines, carrying out sabotage, spreading false rumors, or spying for the enemy.
The Spanish Crucible: Where the Term Began
The term "fifth column" — or "quinta columna" in its original Spanish — emerged during the brutal early phase of the Spanish Civil War. It quickly gained traction in Republican media in October 1936, and from there, its chilling message began to spread across the globe.
The most popular story attributes the phrase to Nationalist General Emilio Mola. As his forces advanced on Madrid, he allegedly declared that while four columns were approaching the city from the outside, a 'fifth column' was already inside, waiting to attack from within.
Interestingly, the very first known recorded mention appears in a secret telegram sent to Berlin on September 30, 1936, by a German diplomat. In it, he refers to a "supposed statement" by Franco—or another Nationalist general—claiming a fifth column was active within the Republican-held territory.
The first identified public use came just days later, on October 3, 1936, in the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero. Party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri, known as 'La Pasionaria,' referenced a similar statement, but attributed it to General Mola rather than Franco.
Over the next few days, various Republican newspapers repeated the story, sometimes attributing the phrase to other Nationalist generals like Queipo de Llano. The precise origin became muddled, but the powerful image of an enemy within had already taken hold in the public imagination.
Despite its widespread use and famous association with Mola, historians have never found a definitive original statement. Transcripts of radio addresses by Franco, Queipo de Llano, and Mola don't contain the term, and no other contemporary record of such a public declaration has ever surfaced.
This historical ambiguity has led to various theories. Many scholars still credit Mola with coining it, even if the exact quote remains elusive. Others suggest it might have been a product of Communist propaganda, perhaps initially a whispered rumor that was later amplified to boost morale or justify repression.
A Global Fear: World War II
The notion of a fifth column truly exploded into the popular consciousness at the start of World War II. The swift, devastating occupations of nations like Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and France by Nazi forces seemed to validate the terrifying idea of an unseen enemy sabotaging from within.
The rapid fall of France in 1940 particularly fueled this paranoia. Many blamed internal weaknesses or pro-German sympathizers. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously reassured Parliament that they had the powers to suppress "Fifth Column activities with a strong hand," reflecting the pervasive anxiety.
In Norway, the head of the Norwegian fascist party, Vidkun Quisling, famously proclaimed a new government on the very first day of the German invasion. His actions were so egregious that his surname, "Quisling," became synonymous with "traitor"—a powerful testament to the impact of perceived internal betrayal.
Across the Atlantic, fear of a fifth column gripped the United States, especially after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox stated that Hawaii had seen "the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war," second only to Norway.
This fear had tragic consequences. Influential columnists like Walter Lippmann wrote of imminent danger from Japanese Americans. Such widespread suspicion ultimately contributed to the controversial internment of Japanese Americans, a dark chapter driven by the spectre of the internal enemy.
In the Philippines, amidst the Japanese invasion, reports circulated of Japanese immigrants acting as fifth columnists. Postwar analysis, however, found no evidence in either Japanese or American military records to support these claims, highlighting how easily wartime hysteria could foster baseless accusations.
Echoes in Popular Culture
The dramatic imagery of the fifth column quickly permeated popular culture, becoming a compelling narrative device in books, films, and even cartoons. Its power lay in tapping into a universal fear: betrayal from those you thought were on your side.
Ernest Hemingway, who reported from Madrid during the Spanish Civil War, titled his only play "The Fifth Column" (1938). Written in a besieged Madrid hotel, it vividly captures the tensions and paranoia of the war and the struggle against unseen enemies.
During World War II, the term became a staple in spy thrillers and propaganda. Agatha Christie's 1941 novel, N or M?, featured British turncoats working for Germany. Frank Capra's 1941 film Meet John Doe warned against businessmen with anti-democratic interests as a "fifth-column stuff."
Hollywood embraced the theme, producing films like All Through the Night (1942), where Humphrey Bogart thwarts a Nazi fifth column, and Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942), where Robert Cummings battles internal conspirators. The phrase even became an alternative title for Saboteur in some European markets.
Even animated shorts used the term, urging any "fifth columnists" in the audience to leave the theater, or depicting a wolf in sheep's clothing as a "fifth columnist." These lighthearted references underscore just how deeply the concept had penetrated everyday language and media.
Decades later, the concept continues to resonate. From Graham Greene's The Quiet American (1955) to the V science fiction franchise about aliens aiding a human resistance, the idea of an internal group subverting a larger one remains a powerful storytelling trope. Even modern podcasts and video games, like Fallout: London, reference the "5th Column," proving its enduring legacy in our collective imagination.
Article
Fifth column
1941 World War II poster from the United States denouncing fifth columnists
A fifth column (or internal enemy) is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. The term is also applied to organized actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, espionage or terrorism executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.
History
Origin
The term "fifth column" originated in Spain (originally quinta columna) during the early phase of the Spanish Civil War. It gained popularity in the Republican media in early October 1936 and immediately started to spread abroad.
The exact origins of the term are not clear. Its first known appearance is in a secret telegram dated 30 September 1936, that was sent to Berlin by the German chargé d'affaires in Alicante, Hans Hermann Völckers. In the telegram, he referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco" that "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone). This "supposed statement" held that Franco had claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid, and a fifth column waiting to attack from the inside. The telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and was discovered long after the civil war.
The first identified public use of the term is in the 3 October 1936 issue of the Madrid Communist daily Mundo Obrero. In a front-page article, the party propagandist Dolores Ibárruri referred to a statement very similar (or identical) to the one that Völckers had referred to in his telegram, but attributed it to General Emilio Mola rather than to Franco. On the same day, the PCE activist Domingo Girón made a similar claim during a public rally. During the next few days, various Republican papers repeated the story, but with differing detail; some attributed the phrase to General Queipo de Llano, while later some Soviet propagandists would claim it was coined by José Enrique Varela. By mid-October, the media was already warning of the "famous fifth column".
Historians have never identified the original statement referred to by Völckers, Ibárruri, Girón, de Jong, and others. 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. Australian journalist Noel Monks, who took part in Mola's press conference on 28 October 1936, claimed that Mola referred to quinta columna on that day, but by that time the term had already been in use in the Republican press for more than three weeks.
Historiographic works offer differing perspectives on authorship of the term. Many scholars have no doubt about Mola's role and refer to "fifth column" as "a term coined in 1936 by General Emilio Mola", though they acknowledge that his exact statement cannot be verified. In some sources, Mola is named as a person who had used the term during an impromptu press interview, and different—though detailed—versions of the exchange are offered. Probably the most popular version describes the theory of Mola's authorship with a grade of doubt, either noting that it is presumed but has never been proven, or that the phrase "is attributed" to Mola, who "apparently claimed" so, or else noting that "la famosa quinta columna a la que parece que se había referido el general Mola" (the famous fifth column that General Mola seems to have referred to). 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. There are also other theories afloat.
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.
Second World War
The notion of a fifth column caught the popular imagination of the public across Europe at the start of the Second World War, especially when people were faced with the rapid occupation of Norway and Denmark by the Nazis, and then the collapse of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The fear of betrayal was heightened by the rapid fall of France in 1940, which some blamed on internal weakness and a pro-German fifth column. Reports of treachery were common, and when the French premier Paul Reynaud announced that "the bridges over the Meuse had been betrayed", a BBC employee wrote, "I have no doubt that German thoroughness has succeeded in planting a fifth column at vulnerable points." On 23 May 1940, the month after Germany invaded France, the British government under newly appointed prime minister Winston Churchill banned the British Union of Fascists under the Treachery Act 1940. A series of photos run in the June 1940 issue of Life magazine warned of "signs of Nazi Fifth Column Everywhere". In a speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, Churchill reassured MPs that "Parliament has given us the powers to put down Fifth Column activities with a strong hand." In July 1940, Time magazine referred to talk of a fifth column as a "national phenomenon".
In August 1940, The New York Times mentioned "the first spasm of fear engendered by the success of fifth columns in less fortunate countries". One report identified participants in Nazi "fifth columns" as "partisans of authoritarian government everywhere", citing Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, and the Netherlands. During the Nazi invasion of Norway, the head of the Norwegian fascist party, Vidkun Quisling, proclaimed the formation of a new fascist government in control of Norway, with himself as Prime Minister, by the end of the first day of fighting. The word "quisling" soon became a byword for "collaborator" or "traitor".
The New York Times on 11 August 1940, featured three editorial cartoons using the term. John Langdon-Davies, a British journalist who covered the Spanish Civil War, wrote an account called The Fifth Column which was published the same year. In November 1940, Ralph Thomson, reviewing Harold Lavine's Fifth Column in America, a study of Communist and fascist groups in the US, in The New York Times, questioned his choice of that title: "the phrase has been worked so hard that it no longer means much of anything".
In Brazil, the term "Fifth Column" was used to accuse descendants of Germans of being supporters of the Nazi government. This was within a context of repression, in which speaking German was prohibited and its speakers were identified as "fifth columnists".
Dr. Seuss cartoon in PM dated 13 February 1942, with the caption "Waiting for the Signal from Home", depicting Japanese Americans in a racist way. Suspicion towards Japanese Americans as fifth column led to the general internment of Japanese Americans.
Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, US Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox issued a statement that "the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the exception of Norway". In a column published in The Washington Post, dated 12 February 1942, the columnist Walter Lippmann wrote of imminent danger from actions that might be taken by Japanese Americans. Titled "The Fifth Column on the Coast", he wrote of possible attacks that could be made along the West Coast of the United States that would amplify damage inflicted by a potential attack by Japanese naval and air forces. Suspicion about an active fifth column on the coast led eventually to the internment of Japanese Americans.
During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in December 1941 said the indigenous Moro Muslims were "capable of dealing with Japanese fifth columnists and invaders alike". Another in the Vancouver Sun the following month alleged that the large population of Japanese immigrants in Davao in the Philippines welcomed the invasion: "the first assault on Davao was aided by numbers of Fifth Columnists–residents of the town". However, postwar analysis of both Japanese and American military records, including the interrogation of surviving Japanese officers, fail to support the claims of a Japanese fifth column existing in the Philippines prior to the outbreak of hostilities.
Later usage
Australian Prime Minister Menzies proposed a federal referendum on 22 September 1951 asking voters to give the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws regarding communists and communism.
• German minority organizations in Czechoslovakia formed the Sudeten German Free Corps, which aided Nazi Germany. Some claimed they were "self-defense formations" created in the aftermath of World War I and unrelated to the German invasion two decades later. More often their origins were discounted and they were defined by the role they played in 1938–39: "The same pattern was repeated in Czechoslovakia. Henlein's Free Corps played in that country the part of fifth column". • The United Front Work Department has been used by the Chinese government to influence elite individuals and organizations especially among Taiwanese and overseas Chinese communities around the world. UFWD has been accused of promoting pro-unification sentiment in Taiwan as well as election interference in some countries. In September 2024, Linda Sun, a staffer for New York governor Kathy Hochul was arrested for accusation of being a foreign agent due to her affiliation with UFWD affiliated organization that is Henan Association of Eastern America. • In 1945, a document produced by the US Department of State compared the earlier efforts of Nazi Germany to mobilize the support of sympathizers in foreign nations to the superior efforts of the international communist movement at the end of World War II: "a communist party was in fact a fifth column as much as any [German] Bund group, except that the latter were crude and ineffective in comparison with the Communists". Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wrote in 1949: "the special Soviet advantage—the warhead—lies in the fifth column; and the fifth column is based on the local Communist parties". • In 1979, Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq, orchestrated a purge of political dissidents within the Ba'ath Party. Hussein claimed that he had uncovered a fifth column within the organization and ordered Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi to confess his alleged involvement and that of 68 other politicians, who were promptly arrested. Twenty-two of the arrested, including Mashhadi, were executed. • Zainichi Koreans living in Japan, particularly those affiliated with the organization Chongryun (which is itself affiliated with the government of North Korea) are sometimes seen as a "fifth column" by some Japanese, and have been the victims of verbal and physical attacks. These have occurred more frequently since the government of Kim Jong Il acknowledged it had abducted Japanese citizens from Japan and tested ballistic missiles near the waters of and over mainland Japan. • A significant number of Israeli Arabs, who compose approximately 20% of Israel's population, identify more with the Palestinian cause than with the State of Israel or Zionism. As a result, many Israeli Jews, including politicians, rabbis, journalists, and historians, view them (and/or the main Israeli Arab political group, the Joint List) as a fifth column. • Counter-jihad literature has sometimes portrayed Western Muslims as a "fifth column", collectively seeking to destabilize Western nations' identity and values for the benefit of an international Islamic movement intent on the establishment of a caliphate in Western countries. Following the 2015 attack by French-born Muslims on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage said that Europe had "a fifth column living within our own countries". In 2001, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn talked about Muslim immigrants being a "fifth column", on the night he was dismissed as leader of Liveable Netherlands. • In 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin called Russian citizens who are against the Russian invasion of Ukraine as fifth columnists and "national traitors". • Members of the American and European far-right have been widely described as fifth columnists in light of Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election and presidency of Donald Trump leading up to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, in particular, has faced allegations of fifth columnist behavior, especially after he decided to visit Russia and interview Vladimir Putin. • In 2024, following claims that taxpayer funds were improperly given to the UNRWA due to family interests in Gaza during the Gaza war, Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland, revealed that he had been subjected to "smears" throughout his political life including allegations he was a "fifth columnist" because of his faith and race. • On August 25, 2025, the official Arabic-language account for the State of Israel on X, formerly known as Twitter, cited the growing number of mosques in Europe as evidence of colonization, calling for Europe to "wake up and remove this fifth column," and tagging a large anti-Muslim account. • Donald Trump has made repeated references to perceived internal enemies, using the phrases "the enemy from within" and "the enemy within" to refer to "the crazy lunatics that we have — the fascists, the Marxists, the communists, the people that we have that are actually running the country" in general and political opponents such as Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff specifically. On 30 September 2025, Trump spoke before an assembly of U.S. generals, calling for the use of the military against "the enemy within."
In popular culture
Fifth column
The title of Ernest Hemingway's only play The Fifth Column (1938) is a translation of Emilio Mola's phrase la quinta columna. In early 1937, Hemingway had been in Madrid, reporting the war from the loyalist side, and helping make the film The Spanish Earth. He returned to the US to publicize the film and wrote the play, in the Hotel Florida in Madrid, on his next visit to Spain later that year.
In the US, an Australian radio play, The Enemy Within, proved to be very popular, though this popularity was due to the belief that the stories of fifth column activities were based on real events. In December 1940, the Australian censors had the series banned.
British reviewers of Agatha Christie's 1941 novel N or M? used the term to describe the plot's depiction of two British turncoats working on behalf the German government in Britain during World War II.
In Frank Capra's film Meet John Doe (1941), newspaper editor Henry Connell warns the politically naïve protagonist, John Doe, about a businessman's plans to promote his own political ambitions using the apolitical John Doe Clubs. Connell says to John: "Listen, pal, this fifth-column stuff is pretty rotten, isn't it?", identifying the businessman with anti-democratic interests in the United States. When Doe agrees, he adds: "And you'd feel like an awful sucker if you found yourself marching right in the middle of it, wouldn't you?"
In the film All Through the Night (1942), "Gloves" Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) tries to stop a secret Nazi fifth column trying to sink a battleship in New York.
Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) features Robert Cummings asking for help against "fifth columnists" conspiring to sabotage the American war effort. The film was also released under the name Fifth Column in Dutch (Die van de 5de kolom), Finnish (Viidennen kolonnan mies) and French (Cinquième colonne). Soon the term was being used in popular entertainment.
Several World War II–era animated shorts include the term. Cartoons of Porky Pig asked any "fifth columnists" in the audience to leave the theater immediately. In Looney Tunes' Foney Fables, the narrator of a comic fairy tale described a wolf in sheep's clothing as a "fifth columnist". There was a Merrie Melodies cartoon released in 1943 titled The Fifth-Column Mouse. Comic books also contained references to the fifth column.
Graham Greene, in The Quiet American (1955), uses the phrase "Fifth Column, Third Force, Seventh Day" in the second chapter.
In the 1959 British action film Operation Amsterdam, the term "fifth columnists" is used repeatedly to refer to Nazi-sympathizing members of the Dutch Army.
The V franchise is a set of TV shows, novels and comics about an alien invasion of Earth. A group of aliens opposed to the invasion and assist the human Resistance Movement is called The Fifth Column.
In the episode "Flight Into the Future" from the 1960s TV show Lost In Space, Dr. Smith is referred to as the fifth columnist of the Jupiter 2 expedition. In the first episode, he was a secret agent sent to sabotage the mission who got caught on board at lift-off.
There is an American weekly news podcast called The Fifth Column, hosted by Kmele Foster, Matt Welch, Michael C. Moynihan, and Anthony Fisher.
Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 story "The Day After Tomorrow", originally titled "Sixth Column", refers to a fictional fifth column that
destroyed the European democracies from within in the tragic days that led up to the final blackout of European civilization. But this would not be a fifth column of traitors, but a sixth column of patriots whose privilege it would be to destroy the morale of invaders, make them afraid, unsure of themselves.
In Foyle's War, series 2 episode 3, "War Games", one line reads: "It's the Second salvage collection I've missed, they've got me down as a fifth columnist."
In Fallout: London, a total conversion mod for the 2015 Bethesda Softworks action role-playing game Fallout 4, there is a populist faction known as the "5th Column" whose declared aim is to tear down the existing government and rebuild it. Their propaganda style and black uniforms are a likely reference to the British Union of Fascists, which was founded in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley and banned by the British government in 1940 after the start of World War II amid suspicion that its supporters might form a pro-Nazi "fifth column".