America First Committee
The America First Committee ( AFC ) was the largest isolationist organization in the United States . It turned against US involvement in World War II . The committee disbanded itself a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941; In 1980 it was revived.
Members and supporters
The AFC was founded on September 4, 1940 by R. Douglas Stuart Jr. ( Yale University ) and other students such as future President Gerald Ford , Sargent Shriver and future Supreme Court judge Potter Stewart . Other members and supporters included Senators Burton K. Wheeler , Robert Rice Reynolds and Gerald Nye , MPs Clare Hoffman and Hamilton Fish III , Henry Ford ( Ford Motor Company ), Norman Thomas , the presidential candidate and leader of the US Socialist Party, and you famous spokesman, the aviator Charles Lindbergh . Public figures such as writers Sinclair Lewis , EE Cummings , Gore Vidal , the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt , Alice Roosevelt Longworth , film producer Walt Disney and actress Lillian Gish supported the committee.
At its peak, the organization had 800,000 members, with Illinois being the most heavily represented at 135,000. The national headquarters was in Chicago , its first president Robert E. Wood ( Sears ). Of the $ 370,000 raised, half were from millionaires including William H. Regnery and H. Smith Richardson ( Vick Chemical Company ), RE Wood, Joseph M. Patterson ( New York Daily News ), and his cousin Robert R. McCormick ( Chicago Tribune ).
activities
The AFC launched a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act and remind Franklin D. Roosevelt of his promise to keep America out of the war. It distrusted Roosevelt, whom it accused of lying to the American people. One day after the latter had presented the Lending and Lease Act to Congress on February 18, 1941 , which, despite neutrality, provided the Allies and the Soviet Union (11.3 billion) with war material worth 50 billion dollars, the AFC promised To oppose "all available force" against it. It did the same with regard to the Atlantic Charter of August 14, 1941, the armed escort of ships and the increase in economic pressure on Japan. In order to prevent the lending and leasing law and to strengthen neutrality, the AFC formulated four basic principles:
- The US must build an insurmountable defense
- No foreign power or group can successfully attack prepared America
- American democracy can only be preserved if the country stays out of the European war
- "Support to Shorten the War" weakens national defense and accelerates America's involvement in foreign wars
Despite the start of the war in Europe, an overwhelming majority of American citizens wanted to stay out of the war if possible. The AFC has been an expression of these widespread anti-war sentiments in the 15 months of its existence.
The " Scribner's Commentator " and "Herald" were the main publications of the America First Committee.
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh made a name for himself for his pioneering Atlantic crossing by air in 1927. For personal reasons he moved to Europe in the 1930s and mainly toured France and Germany. In both countries he visited centers of the aviation and industry, also as a reporter for the American military attaché in Berlin. While traveling through Germany, he noticed a high level of activity in the aviation industry. In 1936 he and his wife were invited by Hermann Göring to the Olympic Games in Berlin. On October 19, 1938, Göring, the head of the newly established German Air Force, awarded Lindbergh the German Eagle Order , a Hitler foundation to honor foreign nationals, on behalf of Hitler for his services to aviation and his services to the German Reich .
When he returned to the United States in 1939, Lindbergh opposed participation in a possible European war. Even before the founding of the AFC, he questioned the motives of the Roosevelt administration; He took his anti-war position even before the Battle of Britain and the Lending and Lease Act .
Lindbergh's first radio speech, before AFC was founded, was broadcast on September 15, 1939 by all three major radio networks in the USA ( MBS , NBC , CBS ). He urged his listeners to look behind the speeches and propaganda they are being fed. You should look at the speech and report writers and the newspaper owners as well as those who influenced the speakers.
In his first speeches for America First, he was mainly a defense of the American hemisphere. He was convinced that potential attackers would remain limited to the coasts due to the island's location and that the air and coastal defense should therefore be strengthened. A strong defense is enough to keep the peace. Again and again he pointed out that it was not possible for the Americans to vote on these issues and that they were instead involved in issues that were not theirs but Europe's business.
In 1940/41, Lindbergh was the most widely noticed spokesman for the AFC. His personal fame strengthened the movement's potential, but shadows of his past and other issues marginalized its message. Regardless of the mounting controversy surrounding the AFC's goals, most Americans shared the isolationist thesis and respected Lindbergh. In 1941 public opinion slowly began to turn against him. “ Each side fought for the soul of the nation, ” wrote Pulitzer Prize winner and Lindbergh biographer A. Scott Berg , “ the verbal argument between Roosevelt and Lindbergh lasted eleven months. Berg writes that members of the Roosevelt administration viewed Lindbergh as one of their toughest rivals. More arose the Committee about the Council for Democracy by Charles Douglas Jackson .
Speech in Los Angeles
On June 2, 1940, Lindbergh spoke at a "Peace and Preparedness Mass Meeting" in Los Angeles . He criticized the movements which he perceived were leading America to war. He stated that the US was in a position that made it nearly invulnerable and that when interventionists spoke of "defending England" they were really referring to "Germany's defeat". His appearance at the Hollywood Bowl was overshadowed by the presence of some aggressive participants.
Speech in Iowa
His speech in Des Moines ( Iowa ) on 11 September 1941 escalated tensions. He named the British, the Roosevelt government, and the Jews as forces that led America to war . While expressing sympathy for the situation of Jews in Germany, he stated that America's entry into the war would not help them:
“It's not difficult to understand why Jewish people demand the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The treatment they endure in Germany would be enough to turn any race into bitter enemies. No person with dignity can tacitly accept the treatment that the Jewish race endures in Germany. But also no person with honor and vision can look at their pro-war policy without realizing the danger that such a policy poses, for them and for us.
Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should oppose it in every possible way because they will be the first to feel the consequences. Tolerance is a value that depends on peace and strength. History shows that she cannot survive in war and devastation. A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this and oppose the intervention. But the majority don't. The greatest danger to this country lies in their possession and influence on the film industry, our press, our radio and our government. "
Lindbergh was then referred to by various media and politicians as an anti-Semite, whereupon he replied that he had been misunderstood and was not an anti-Semite.
Results
A fundamental problem with the AFC was that its message did not get beyond the radio. There were only a few local groups that attempted grassroots movements to influence public opinion in their immediate vicinity. Aside from its obvious inefficiency, the America First Committee had enough potential to hold the lending law up for a while and to oppose the Roosevelt administration for two years.
With the formal declaration of war on Japan that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor , the committee decided on December 11, 1941 to disband itself. The statement said:
“Our principles were right. Had they been followed a war could have been averted. No good goal can be proposed today, considering what could have been had our goals been achieved ... "
aftermath
Allegedly Laura Ingalls , who was imprisoned for four months in 1943 for representing foreign interests in front of the US public (violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938), was one of the propagandists of the AFC. The same applies to the author and Nazi propagandist George Sylvester Viereck , who was imprisoned from 1942 to 1947.
In his inaugural speech on the occasion of his inauguration on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump spoke of the fact that from now on a new vision would rule the USA, it would only be called " America First ".
literature
- Wayne S. Cole: Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. San Diego. 1974
- America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41 . Madison, University of Wisconsin Press. 1953
- Justus D. Doenecke: The Battle Against Intervention, 1939-1941 . Warrior Publishing Company. Melbourne, Florida. 1996
- Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Lanham, Maryland. 2000
- "American Isolationism, 1939-1941" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer / Fall 1982, 6 (3), pp. 201-216. Mises Institute. Auburn, Alabama. online version (PDF; 860 kB)
- "Explaining the Antiwar Movement, 1939-1941: The Next Assignment" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Winter 1986, 8 (1), pp. 139-162. Mises Institute. Auburn, Alabama. online version (PDF; 1.3 MB)
- "Literature of Isolationism, 1972-1983: A Bibliographic Guide" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Spring 1983, 7 (1), pp. 157-184. Mises Institute. Auburn, Alabama. online version (PDF; 1.5 MB)
- "Anti-Interventionism of Herbert Hoover" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer 1987, 8 (2), pp. 311-340. Mises Institute. Auburn, Alabama. online version (PDF; 1.7 MB)
- Manfred Jonas: Isolationism in America, 1935-1941 . Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press. 1966
- S. Everett Gleason, William L. Langer: The Undeclared War, 1940-1941. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1953 (per Roosevelt)
- Bill Kauffman: America First! Its History, Culture, and Politics . Prometheus Books. NY. 1995. ISBN 0-87975-956-9
- Herbert S. Parmet, Marie B. Hecht: Never Again: A President Runs for a Third Term . Macmillan. NY. 1968.
- James C. Schneider: Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939-1941 . University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill and London. 1989
Web links
swell
- ↑ americafirstcommittee.org ( Memento of February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/fallen.html
- ↑ charleslindbergh.com
- ^ Wayne S. Cole, 1953: America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de , Hubert Wetzel: America's benefits over everything
- ↑ spiegel.de , January 20, 2017, Veit Medick , Marc Pitzke, Gordon Repinski, Holger Stark: The Declaration of Indecency (January 21, 2017)