In 1937 , during the Spanish Civil War , Dos Passos returned to Spain with writer Ernest Hemingway , whom he had met in Paris in the 1920s . His views on the Communist movement had already begun to change . Dos Passos broke with Hemingway and Herbert Matthews over what he considered their cavalier attitude towards the war , and their willingness to lend their names to deceptive Stalinist propaganda efforts , including the cover-up of the Soviet responsibility in the murder of José Robles , Dos Passos ' friend and translator of his works into Spanish . ( In later years , Hemingway would give Dos Passos the derogatory moniker of " the pilot fish " in his memoir of 1920s Paris , '' A Moveable Feast '' . ) Of Communism , Dos Passos later wrote : " I have come to think , especially since my trip to Spain , that civil liberties must be protected at every stage . In Spain , I am sure that the introduction of GPU methods by the Communists did as much harm as their tank men , pilots , and experienced military men did good . The trouble with an all-powerful secret police in the hands of fanatics , or of anybody , is that once it gets started , there 's no stopping it until it has corrupted the whole body politic . I am afraid that 's what 's happening in Russia . " Dos Passos had attended the 1932 Democratic National Convention and subsequently wrote an article for '' The New Republic '' in which he harshly criticized the selection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the party 's nominee . In the mid-1930s , he wrote a series of scathing articles about Communist political theory . In his novel '' The Big Money '' , he features a character who is an idealist Communist gradually worn down and destroyed by groupthink in the party . As a result of socialism gaining popularity in Europe in response to the rise of Fascism , a sharp decline in international sales of his books occurred
1932 Democratic National Convention
1932 Democratic National Convention
John Dos Passos