The swastika was used by the military and by socialists in the USA and in the USSR, before it was used by the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). The swastika, although an ancient symbol, was also used to represent "S" letters joined for "socialism" under the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis), similar to the alphabetical symbolism for the SS Division, the SA, the NSV, and the VW logo (the letters "V" and "W" joined for "Volkswagen"National Socialism and the police state in the USA decades before their dogma was exported to Germany. They influenced the NSDAP, its dogma, symbols and rituals.It is a myth that the straight-arm salute is an old Roman salute adopted by Mussolini.  According to Dr. Martin Winkler in "The Roman Salute on Film" of the American Philological Association, the salute is not in any Roman art or text.  The salute occurs in these films: the American "Ben-Hur" (1907), the Italian "Nerone" (1908), "Spartaco" (1914), and "Cabiria" (1914). Francis Bellamy in 1892 and expresses ideas in the socialist utopian novels of Francis' cousin Edward Bellamy.  Francis wrote the pledge to promote the Bellamys' idea of socialism in the most socialistic institution -government schools.   The Bellamy cousins were totalitarian socialists, and the ideas that inspired them and the pledge helped to inspire mass atrocities worldwide.