historical footnote

The film - which revolved around an anti-Nazi sabotage plot - was based on the book by Michael M. Mooney who first articulated that theory.

Michael Mooney was the son of James M. Mooney, a General Motors executive who was sent to Germany to direct GM's subsidiary Opel during the Nazi buildup of the 1930s. He did his job so well he received a medal personally awarded by Adolf Hitler. When war broke out the German government took over the plants and used them to build tanks and other military equipment. The U.S. bombed some of the plants so after the war GM sued the U.S. Government for damage to its property -- and won tens of millions of dollars in settlement. James Mooney resumed his position at GM in the U.S. and came within a few days of being appointed Secretary of the Navy by Lyndon Johnson. (Apparently LBJ learned of Mooney's collaboration and canceled the appointment before it became public.)


I don't know whether Michael was a postwar Nazi sympathizer (he was 15 when the war ended) but it seems likely that his now-discredited conspiracy theory was influenced by his sympathies for his parent.