My Webster New World Dictionary (1957) says in part: a system of government characterized by rigid, one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of the opposition (unions, other, especially leftist , parties, minority groups, etc)....
So, I ventured to seek out reference books I keep here at home to see what was printed 'back in the day'.
Fascinating to discover that the term "fascism" isn't considered a legal term which would be found in my copy of the Fifth edition of Black's Law Dictionary published in 1979.
However, my copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary published the following in 1966:
This looks like there should be a good market for the older,copyrighted dictionaries if you can’t trust the new ones. What else have they changed in the new dictionaries?