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Why was Ezra Pound arrested by U.S. forces in 1945?
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Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound, photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn, c. 1913.
Ezra Pound was arrested by U.S. forces in 1945 due to his pro-Fascist activities during World War II.1
Between 1941 and 1943, while the United States and Italy were at war, Pound made several hundred broadcasts over Rome Radio. In these broadcasts, he openly condemned the American war effort and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories regarding the control of the U.S. government and money by Jewish bankers. Following his arrest, he was held in a U.S. military prison camp near Pisa before being returned to the United States to face charges of treason.2