The fifth column

Isn’t the terminology of fifth column just as easy as saying collaboration? Was it just a propaganda technique? The fear of the fifth column wasn’t realized to the extent that it was so heavily implied that it was active to my recollection, just that collaborators did, after being conquered, were propelled from insignificant political parties to being the active collaborationist government puppets to implement policies of the conqueror, as if all the other citizens of the country wouldn’t recognize it because it had a local face, or worse like the government set up by the Soviet s in Finland? Quislings are everywhere in every country just never able to act because they’re a fringe minority with no chance to actually be brought to power if their country wasn’t overrun by an enemy. Thanks