The Koch family is America’s most powerful and most influential. The dynasty’s founder, Fred C. Koch, was also a founding member of the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative and anticommunist advocacy group associated with far right politics. Decades after his demise, it was discovered that Fred had once worked for communist dictator Joseph Stalin, and helped him modernize the Soviet Union’s oil industry. A few years later, he did the same for Hitler.
An Exceptionally Powerful Dynasty
The Kochs are modern America’s most powerful dynasty. Politically active for decades, they have generously supported conservative and libertarian causes and figures. More recently, brothers Charles and David Koch have overseen a network of hundreds of libertarian and conservative think tanks, policy groups, and candidates. Among other things, the Kochs have been key financial supporters of climate change skeptics. The rise of the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement owed much to Koch generosity. Their power was so great that in 2011, House Speaker John Boehner turned to David Koch when he needed votes to prevent a government shutdown.
Their staunch libertarianism and conservatism has not prevented the Kochs from partnering with progressives when opportune. They worked with the American Civil Liberties Union on criminal justice reform in 2015, specifically on the issue of asset forfeiture. Given their assets – Koch Inc., America’s second biggest privately owned company, makes around $125 billion in annual revenues – it makes sense. It goes without saying that the Kochs have stridently opposed communism and all that has a whiff of socialism. However, that did not stop the dynasty’s founder from working for Stalin. As seen below, Fred C. Koch helped the communist leader modernize the USSR’s oil industry.
The Koch Who Helped Both Stalin and Hitler
Fred C. Koch (1900 – 1967) founded the Winkler-Koch Engineering Company in 1925 with an MIT classmate, and went into the oil business. They lost a series of patent infringement lawsuits to bigger oil companies, so they decided to seek their fortunes overseas. The duo headed to the Soviet Union, where they helped Stalin modernize the country’s oil industry. They trained Soviet engineers, and built fifteen thermal cracking units to turn crude oil into gasoline. Fred’s radical anticommunism began when Stalin purged his Soviet trainees, tore up his agreement with Koch, and deprived him of promised revenue.
In addition to Stalin, Fred C. Koch also helped the era’s other major totalitarian dictator. He worked with American Nazi William Rhodes Davis, who had personal ties with Adolf Hitler. When the communist leader stiffed him, Fred turned to the Nazi one. He went to Germany, where he built the Hamburg Oil Refinery, the Third Reich’s third biggest refinery. He expressed his admiration for the Nazis in a 1938 letter: “Although nobody agrees with me, I am of the opinion that the only sound countries in the world are Germany, Italy, and Japan, simply because they are all working and working hard”. The Hamburg refinery was a big help to the Nazis as they swept through Europe, until it was finally destroyed by American bombers in 1944.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Stalin’s Favorite Scientist, and His Quack Pseudoscience That Cost Millions of Lives
