Heinlein wasn't concealing anything. That book was written in the 1950's along with a number of other books that were referred to by RAH and his editors/publishers as "Boy Scout Books". The target audience was adolescent boys. Both immediate Pre and Post WWII US was a society with openly fascist elements. The youth culture of the 50's, 60's, and 70's changed the tone considerably and some of Heinlein's work (Stranger in a Strange land) became a part of the hippie lexicon to a degree. At the same time in 1964 Heinlein actually worked hard on the Goldwater campaign with his wife Virginia. Goldwater famously lost a lot of political points by openly advocating for the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Politically it was a step too far but consider the fact that the US had taken all the steps to the line that Goldwater stepped over. It was and still is difficult to point that kind of thing out however because the US beat the Fascist bad guys in WWII

Now along comes Paul Verhoeven who, like Heinlein, served in the Navy, but was also younger, Dutch and had a completely different POV on all of this stuff.