 In a letter dated January 1, 1939, Steinbeck wrote, The fascist crowd will try to give it a communist angle. However, the battle hymn is American and intensely so. Nonetheless, in 1943, the FBI launched a full investigation of the author to determine his suitability to hold a commission in the U.S. Army, a commission denied because of suspected communist sympathies. To find out more facts about fiction, visit KUAR.org.