Charles Lindbergh and USA and peace movement

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/lindbergh/

Lindbergh became active in the isolationist movement, urging England and the United States to observe complete neutrality should war break out. He lobbied the British people to appease Hitler, helping to pave the way for the Munich Pact. These efforts were greatly appreciated by the Germans. Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary:


Lindbergh has written a really spirited letter to Roosevelt. He is the president's toughest opponent. He asked us not to give him too much prominence, since this could harm him. We have proceeded accordingly.

During his third visit to Nazi Germany, in October 1938, Lindbergh received the Service Cross of the German Eagle (Verdienstkreuz der Deutscher Adler), the second-highest honor the Reich could bestow on noncitizens. It was presented to him by Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering. Lindbergh described the scene in his journal:


Marshal Goering, of coarse, was the last to arrive (at the dinner). I was standing in the back of the room. He shook hands with everyone. I noticed he had a red box and some papers. When he came to me he shook hands, handed me the box and papers and spoke a few sentences in German. I found he had presented me with the German Eagle, one of the highest German decorations, "by order of Der Fuhrer."

In April 1939, he made a nationwide radio broadcast urging white Americans to support strict neutrality in the coming war. "These wars in Europe are not wars in which our civilization is defending itself against some Asiatic intruder. This is not a question of banding together to defend the white race against foreign invasion."

That same year, Lindbergh wrote an article for Readers' Digest magazine, entitled "Aviation, Geography and Race." He reiterated the necessity of maintaining strict neutrality regarding Germany's struggle against Europe's nonwhite populations:


Aviation is a tool especially shaped for Western hands, a scientific art which others only copy in a mediocre fashion; another barrier between the teeming millions of Asia and the Grecian inheritance of Europe -- one of the priceless possessions which permit the White race to live at all in a sea of Yellow, Black and Brown...
We can have peace and security only as long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood, only so long as we guard ourselves against attack by foreign armies and dilution by foreign races.

With encouragement from friends like Ford, Lindbergh continued lobbying for American isolationism. On September 11, 1941 Lindbergh finally made one speech too many. Before a large crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, he declared:


"The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt Administration."
There were boos and catcalls, but Lindbergh persisted. He had more to say about those warmongering Jews:


"Instead of agitating for war, Jews in this country should be opposing it in every way, for they will be the first to feel its consequences. Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government."
That was finally it. The public could stand it no longer.

After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt refused to reinstate Lindbergh's commission in the Air Force Reserves. And none of the airplane manufacturers was willing to give him a job, except for his old friend Henry Ford. Lindbergh helped streamline the world's largest assembly line for building bombers, Ford's B-24 factory in Michigan.

Immediately after Germany's defeat, Lindbergh went to see the aftermath for himself. He toured the Belsen concentration camp in June 1945 and witnessed ditches full of cremated ashes. His takeaway from the experience?


What the German has done to the Jew in Europe, we are doing to the Jap in the Pacific.
Evidently Lindbergh believed that even if the Germans were up to no good, we Americans certainly had no right to judge them.

---------


http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/index.asp

Drawing on his experiences and observations during four or five years abroad (1935-1939) in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Charles Lindbergh provided Americans with a portrait of the European war that differed substantially from the one conceived by the Roosevelt administration and by so-called interventionists in the United States. He did not see the conflict as basically a war for democracy or morality. He was skeptical of the ideology and moral righteousness of the British and French. He conceived of morality in international affairs as relative to time, place, circumstances, and power. His approach was, in effect, more understanding of the Germans (without approving of what they did) and more skeptical of the Allies than the conventional view in the United States. Lindbergh saw a divided responsibility for the origins of the European war, rather than an assignment of the total blame to Hitler, Nazi Germany, and the Axis states. He did not view Germany, Britian, and France as implacable foes with irreconcilable differences that could be resolved only by war; he saw them all as parts of Western civilization. And he conceived of the European war as a fratricdal struggle (like the wars between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece) that could destroy Western civilization. Conceptions of race were conspicuous in his analyses, as were his concerns about the challenge of Asiatic hordes to the survival of Western civilization. Like later American "realists," Colonel Lindbergh attached great weight to the role of power in international relations and in prevailing definitions of morality.

* Source: Wayne S. Cole's, Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention in World War II

-----------

America First Committee Overview

America First Committee, founded in September 1940, was the most powerful isolationist group in America before the United States entered World War II. It had over 800,000 members, who wanted to keep America neutral. It tried to influence public opinion through publications and speeches. America First disagreed with another powerful group, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. Click to enlarge
American First Committee Poster
Both groups wanted to build American defenses and keep America out of the war. But the Committee to Defend America argued that the best way to remain neutral was to aid Britain. America First thought it more important to stay out of the war than to assure a British victory. America First was dissolved four days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

America First Committee Original Four Principles:



1.The United States must build an impregnable defense for America
2.No foreign power, nor group of powers, can successfully attack a prepared America
3.American democracy can be preserved only by keeping out of the European war.
4."Aid short of war" weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad.


Proposed Activities- September 5, 1940:


1.To bring together all Americans, regardless of possible differences on other matters, who see eye-to-eye on these principles. (This does not include Nazists [sic], Fascists, Communists, or members of other groups that place the interest of any other nation above those of our own country.)
2.To urge Americans to keep their heads amid rising hysteria of times of crisis.
3.To provide sane national leadership for the majority of the American people who want to keep out of the European war.
4.To register this opinion with the President and with Congress.

----------

"If any one of these groups--the British, the Jewish, or the administration--stops agitating for war, I believe there will be little danger of our involvement."
Charles Lindbergh- September 11, 1941


----

http://www.barnesreview.org/Jan__Feb_/Charles_A__Lindbergh/charles_a__lindbergh.html

Survival of the West

Sometimes I feel like saying: “Well, let’s get into the war if you are so anxious to. Then the responsibility will be yours.” In comparison to the work I am now doing, the fighting would be fun. But my mind tells me that we better face our problems and let Europe face hers without getting messed up in this war. I have an interest in Western civilization, and I have an interest in my race, or culture, or whatever you want to call it, and I have an interest in the type of world my children are going to live in. That is why I will probably stay on the stump with the pacifists and why I will resign my commission if necessary and never regret my action in doing so. This war is a mistake; we will only bring disaster if we enter it; we will do no good either to Europe or ourselves, and therefore I am going to put everything I have behind staying out.

No one, not even Germany, was more responsible for the conditions which caused this war than England and France. They declared the war without consulting us. If it were possible to help them win, the result would probably be Versailles all over again. Europe must straighten out her own family affairs. Our interference would simply cause another postponement, as the last war did. Europe faces adjustments that must be made, and only she can work out what they are going to be. (Friday, April 25, 1941)

Three Groups Promoting War

When I mentioned [in a speech in Des Moines] the three major groups agitating for war—the British, the Jewish and the Roose velt administration—the entire audience seemed to stand and cheer. At that moment whatever opposition existed was complete ly drowned out by our support. (Thursday, September 11, 1941)



Truth Not Important to Press

The opposition paper here [Ft. Wayne, Indiana] is carrying a large advertisement in which statements are attributed to me which I never made. As far as the “war party” is concerned, what I actually say seems to be of little importance. They quote me as saying what they wish or think that I said. They do not bother to refer to my addresses, which are all available; at best, they refer to some garbled newspaper account. The result is that I am often quoted as saying things which I not only never said, but which I never believed. (Friday, October 3, 1941)



Catholic Leaders Oppose the War

We returned to the hotel after the meeting. People kept coming up to the room until 12:30. Father [John] O’Brien [of Notre Dame Univer sity] showed me a telegram he had just received, to the effect that a poll of the Catholic hierarchy showed that ninety percent were opposed to entering the war. (Friday, October 3, 1941)

On Speaking the Truth

[Former President Herbert] Hoover told me he felt my Des Moines address was a mistake (the mention of the Jews in connection with the war-agitating groups). I told him I felt my statements had been both moderate and true. He replied that when you had been in politics long enough you learned not to say things just because they are true. (But, after all, I am not a politician—and that is one of the reasons why I don’t wish to be one. I would rather say what I believe when I want to say it than to measure every statement I make by its probable popularity.) (Monday, October 6, 1941)

The Back Door to War

Phoned Gen. [Robert] Wood in Boston. His first words were, “Well, he [President Roosevelt] got us in through the back door.” . . . The president spoke at 12:00. Asked for a declaration of war. Senate passed a declaration of war unanimously. Only “no” in the House. What else was there to do? We have been asking for war for months. If the president had asked for a declaration of war before, I think Congress would have turned him down with a big majority. But now we have been attacked, and attacked in home waters. We have brought it on our own shoulders; but I can see nothing to do under these circumstances except to fight. If I had been in Congress, I certainly would have voted for a declaration of war. (Monday, December 8, 1941) v

[ 11. June 2003, 06:30 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Well, a site that gives some thinking again...

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/lindbergh3.html

Lindbergh's 1937 trip to Germany was perhaps his most controversial. It was in 1937 that Hugh R. Wilson, who was more willing to deal with the Nazi's replaced Ambassador Dodd, who was decidedly anti-Nazi in all matters. Influenced by Smith and Lindbergh's evaluation of Goering as a man who might be dealt with, Wilson set up a small stag dinner at the American Embassy in which he invited Goering and several key Nazi's. The purpose of the dinner was to persuade Goering to allow Jews, who were forced to leave Germany, to take some of their assets with them. The dinner was held on October 18, 1938 and would ultimately lead to Lindbergh's demise as an American hero. At the dinner Goering greeted his host and then shook hands with Lindbergh. He then began to make a speech in German that Lindbergh could not understand. Realizing this, Smith and Wilson translated for him. He was told that Goering was about to decorate him with the Verdienstkreuz der Deutscher Adler (Service Cross of the German Eagle), a high civilian medal. It was presented to him for his services in aviation and especially the 1927 trans-Atlantic flight. Given the circumstances, Lindbergh could not refuse the medal; it would be an affront to not only Goering, but also Ambassador Wilson. When Smith and Lindbergh took the medal home that night, both their wives instantly and almost instinctively reacted against it. When Anne opened the box to see the medal, she looked away and said without emotion, "The Albatross." Lindbergh never wore the medal but sent it to the Lindbergh collection of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis.

At first, there was not much criticism of Lindbergh for accepting the medal. A few weeks later however, the German government organized anti-Semitic riots and many United States newspapers made strong attacks on Lindbergh for accepting and for retaining the medal. It also made Lindbergh a Nazi sympathizer in the eyes of many Americans. The medal was a most redolent albatross as Anne had predicted. It proved to cast doubt on his motives, his honesty, his integrity, and even his loyalty to his country. The damage that the medal did to Lindbergh's reputation was incalculable.

Lindbergh didn't want to return to Germany after the 1938 riots. He also knew that he admired most of Germany's aviators, scientists, and industrialists whom he had met.

His views on Goering however, were mixed. He believed that a war in Europe would be a catastrophe for Western Civilization, and thought that such a war would result either in a German victory or that Russia would become the dominant power in Europe. He hoped that if Hitler did launch a war it would be against the Soviet Union. He felt that the United States, France and Great Britain should remain neutral and build up their strength so that they could dictate the terms of peace to an exhausted Germany and Russia.

Roosevelt told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., "I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi."

To Roosevelt's and the FBI's dismay they were never able to prove anything about Lindbergh and they concluded that he was not involved in "subversive activities".

------------

http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch22.htm

Jews and Immigration

A few days after the elections came Kristallnacht in Germany. Roosevelt spoke out publicly, expressing his dismay and horror. He sent a protest to Germany and brought his ambassador to Germany home for consultations. The American Legion endorsed Roosevelt's statement, as did the CIO labor organization. Prominent movie stars -- Fred Astaire, Claudette Colbert and Bette Davis -- spoke out against the brutalities, Bette Davis suggesting that the U.S. sever all economic ties with Hitler's Germany. Support among U.S. citizens for the appeasement policy of Britain's prime minister, Chamberlain, diminished. In a Gallup poll that month, 94 percent expressed disapproval of "Nazi treatment of Jews." In that same poll, 97 percent disapproved of "Nazi treatment of Catholics." Also, Charles Lindbergh, who admired much that was German, was perplexed by Germany's treatment of the Jews as expressed during Kristallnacht. He could not, he said, understand why the Germans were handling their "Jewish problem" unreasonably.

Although the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens were opposed to attacks on Jews such as occurred on Kristallnacht, in a Roper poll in the United States, only thirty-nine percent of the respondents agreed that Jews should be treated like everyone else. Fifty-three percent believed that "Jews are different and should be restricted." And ten percent believed that Jews should be deported.

Kristallnacht inspired many Jews to emigrate from Germany, and in the United States the issue of immigration had risen. In the winter of 1938-39 many people denounced helping what they called "refu-jews." Seventy-one to eighty-five percent of those American polled opposed increasing national immigration quotas. Sixty-seven percent of those polled opposed admitting any refugees to the United States, and sixty-seven opposed a one-time admission of ten thousand refugee children.

Roosevelt acquiesced to public opinion and did nothing to help change immigration quotas. A bill to admit 20,000 refugee children won no backing from Roosevelt and died in Congress. In private, however, Roosevelt was concerned about Jewish refugees and angered by Great Britain's appeasing Arab opposition to increased immigration to Palestine.

Former president Herbert Hoover had become the Republican Party's chief spokesman in foreign affairs, and when Germany seized Moravia and Bohemia, Hoover declared that no clear and present danger existed and that Britain, France, and others in Europe would be able to defend themselves should there be war. Hoover spoke of Roosevelt's "dangerous adventures" and argued that Roosevelt was trying to divert people's attention from his failure to end the depression. Sounding like a progressive dissenter and an echo of Norman Thomas, Hoover declared that involvement in a major war would cause the United States to become "mobilized into practically a fascist government." This, he suggested, would help Roosevelt in his "ambitions to become a kind of dictator." Hoover however, was accurate on one account: he predicted that another major war would bring Communist expansion.

In June came the well-publicized issue of the German ship, the S.S. St. Louis, and its nearly 900 Jewish refugees. The refugees had paid for their passage and expected to stay in Cuba while they waited for their names to rise to the top of a long list of people waiting to be included among the 26,000 people the United States allowed to migrate from Germany each year. The Cuban president, Frederic Bru dithered, forced the St. Louis to return to sea, and tried to bargain cash payment in return for allowing the refugees temporary stay in Cuba. The President of the Dominican Republic did the same. No help came from the U.S. State Department. Germany's Propaganda Minister, Dr. Goebbels, announced to the world that the plight of the refugees on the S.S. St. Louis was an example of the world not wanting Jews. The S.S. St. Louis was ordered to return to Germany. The German captain of the S.S. St. Louis was sympathetic towards his Jewish passengers and outraged. He was able to put some refugees off in Britain. And some refugees went to France. And some eventually would go to the death camps.



In August 1939, Europe appeared to be on the brink of war, and the number of people favoring shipping arms to Britain and France increased only slightly -- to 39 percent of those questioned. And only one in six of those polled believed that events would warrant the United States joining the war in Europe without the U.S. having been directly attacked first.

Those still against sending arms to Europe became more strident. Senator Wheeler was aghast. He cried that sending aid to the Allies would lead to the plowing under of "every fourth American boy." He asked whether the last war, World War I, had proved worthwhile. Why, he asked, should we pay for war materials for Great Britain when they still owed us money from the previous war. He complained that Congress had given power to the president to send all of the nation's "fighting aircraft and warships" to Britain. He complained of "warmongers and interventions" controlling money in the U.S. and of their controlling most of the avenues of propaganda, including the motion picture industry.

Joining those opposed to the amendment of the Neutrality Act was the U.S. Communist Party. Before the Hitler-Stalin pact in August, they had favored changing the Neutrality Act. Now they joined the pacifists and others railing against U.S. involvement in Europe's war -- while many were leaving the Party, unable to stomach the sudden switch in attitude toward fascism. The Party sponsored newspaper, the Daily Worker, editorialized that the people of the world wanted peace, and the Daily Worker was suggesting that atrocities by Germany's National Socialists were no worse than British atrocities in India.

Worried about steps toward war, isolationists had formed what was called the America First Committee. Members argued in favor of fortress America -- that intervening abroad would weaken the nation's ability to defend itself at home. Democracy at home, it claimed, could only be preserved by keeping out of Europe's war. In it were senators Nye and Wheeler, Henry Ford, Chester Bowles, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Eddie Rickenbaker the World War I flying ace, Kathleen Norris, Lillian Gish, the historian Charles Beard and Father Coughlin. General Rover E. Wood, chairman of the board of Sears & Roebuck, served as the committee's national chairman. The America First Committee began organizing petitions, lobbying and letter writing to Congress. And the Committee dismissed Henry Ford from its membership in order to reduce charges against it of anti-Semitism.

-----------


Quite interesting points and one can see that leaving bits and pieces can make the story very different...

 

The Lindbergh´s medal from Göring:



BTW,

Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle on his 75th birthday, 30 July 1938.

General Olof Thörnell, commander-in-chief of the Swedish armed forces, was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle 7 Oct 1940.

Charles Lindbergh was awarded the Order of the German Eagle with Star 19 Oct 1938.

James Mooney, General Motor's chief executive for overseas operations, was awarded Order of the German Eagle 1st Class (JDM, as a member of the armed forces reserves was required to submit any medals he received from foreign governments to the U.S. Government).

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-medals/nazi.htm

[ 11. June 2003, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

May 1944
Standing in front of his F4U.

Charles Lindbergh, on Emirau Island, during Pacific Tour, World War II.
Lindbergh landed on the Seabee built Air Field at Emirau, during his tour,
promoting the war effort.

 

Recently there has been a bit of controversey caused by a few "wierdo's" who seem to be hell-bent for destroying yet another American Icon. Luckily the bastiches did not succeed.

This small group of people is really trying to play it up and make unsubstantiated claime that Lindbergh was really a Nazi spy in ww2.

 

Interesting information, Kai. A nice medal indeed. Just the other day I was watching a documentary in which there was a Charles Lindbergh's speech. There he stated that Great Britain wanted the USA in the world for the selfish porpouse of preventing its empire to fall. Of course! Wars are selfish! And of course Great Britain needed the USA in the war to prevent the end of Great Britain!

 

Blimey mate....I just aint got the time...Stop it...I ve got to get off this computer not read more....Good work.