Since its establishment in Russia in 1917, communism, with its ability to set legions of workers against their employers and government, was the bete noir of the whole world. While some countries, most prominently the U.S., had a genuine fear of communists, others only trotted it out as needed for national and international purposes. Several years before they would begin WW II, the newly-rearmed Germany, took the latter approach in a clever ploy to balance out an alliance with two mutual enemies.

On this day, November 25, in 1936, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, assuring mutual response in case of an armed attack by Russia. Germany was previously allied to China, who at the time of the alliance was battling for its life against Japan.

The purpose of the pact was not so much mutual defense against Russia as to provide Germany the shield needed to complete its rearming. Mussolini’s Italy, ever eager to attach themselves to the biggest power in Europe also joined the pact the following year, but Hitler essentially abrogated its terms in 1939 with the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that assured non-aggression with the Soviet Union.