The Desert Fox, Memory Diplomacy, and the German Question in Early Cold War America*

Abstract

In late 1950, Hollywood screenwriter and producer Nunnally Johnson met with Henry Kellermann of the U.S. State Department to discuss Johnson's new project, The Desert Fox, a film based on British Brigadier Desmond Young's admiring biography of Nazi General Erwin Rommel. Concerned about potential political fallout, Kellermann sought to dissuade Johnson from pursuing the project any further and crafted his objections to appeal to Johnson's moral and patriotic sensibilities. Arguing that Rommel was a Nazi unworthy of rehabilitation, Kellermann pointed out that Rommel turned against Hitler only after defeat was inevitable. What was more, Kellermann stressed that such a film would be seized by the Soviet Union as pro-German propaganda, and would cast further doubts in skeptical American circles about American resolve to prevent the rise of German militarism. On both counts the screenwriter strongly disagreed, contending that his intent was “to demonstrate that there were good as well as bad Germans, an objective which he felt was in accord with State Department policy.” Promising that the script would not “glorify Rommel but treat him objectively,” Johnson ignored Kellermann's advice and proceeded with the production of the film.1