The Pledge of Allegiance was the origin of the fascist gesture used under the Third Reich. The pledge caused nazi behavior in the USA too. Francis Bellamy was the author of the pledge and the origin of the Hitler salute that was used in the early pledge's ritualized daily mechanical indoctrination. The early pledge began with a military salute that was then extended outward to point at the flag. In practice the second gesture was performed palm-down. It was not an ancient Roman salute (a debunked myth). Francis and his cousin (Edward Bellamy) were both national socialists in the USA and influenced the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and the National Socialist German Workers Party, its dogma, rituals and symbols (including the use of the swastika as crossed "S" letters for "socialism"). Although swastikas are ancient symbols that pre-date German National Socialism (Nazism) by centuries, the Nazis did not call their symbol a "swastika" and they did not call themselves "Nazis" (nor "fascists"). They called themselves National Socialists and they called their symbol a Hakenkreuz (hooked cross, a type of cross) and they altered their symbol by turning it 45 degrees from the horizontal and pointing it in the S-direction to symbolize S-letters for their "socialism." They had similar stylized alphabetical symbolism for the "SS" division, the "SA," the "NSV," and even VW (the letters V and W combined for "volkswagen"). (See the discoveries of the historian Dr. Rex Curry). http://rexcurry.net The symbol had previously been used on the money of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and by the Theosophical Society and by the American national socialist Edward Bellamy, cousin of Francis Bellamy (author of the anti libertarian pledge, the origin of the so-called "German greeting" and robotic chanting). In that sense, many people defame the ancient "swastika" by using that wrong term for the German symbol (which was actually called the "Hakenkreuz") and by failing to distinguish it by its alteration, its orientation and its alphabetical symbolism for S-letters. The widespread misunderstanding causes a lot of unnecessary controversies and provokes people to demand laws to ban the swastika symbol. The above are discoveries in the work of Dr. Curry and many other people failed to make these discoveries including: Martin Winkler, N.S. Gill, Irene Hahn, Marc Leepson, Michael Medved, Richard Ellis, Todd Gitlin, James Lileks, Tilman Allert and Steven Heller.