Editing America First Committee (section)

==Background and origins==
[[File:Berkeley, California. University of California Student Peace Strike - NARA - 532103 (cropped).tif|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Students at the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]] (Berkeley) participate in a one-day peace strike opposing U.S. entrance into World War II, April 19, 1940]]

[[United States non-interventionism#Non-interventionism before entering World War II|American isolationism of the late 1930s]] had many adherents, and as historian Susan Dunn has written, "isolationists and anti-interventionists came in all stripes and colors—ideological, economic, ethnic, geographical. Making up this eclectic coalition were farmers, union leaders, wealthy industrialists, college students, newspaper publishers, wealthy patricians, and newly arrived immigrants. There were a potpourri of affiliations and beliefs: [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], [[National Progressives of America|Progressives]], [[Liberalism in the United States|liberals]], [[Conservativism in the United States|conservatives]], [[Socialism|socialists]], [[Communism|communists]], [[Anti-communism|anti-communists]], [[Radical politics|radicals]], [[Pacifism|pacifists]], and simple [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|F.D.R.-haters]]."<ref name="dunn-57" /> One of the most famous incidents occurred in February [[1939]] with a [[German American Bund]] organization's [[1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden|Nazi-sympathizing rally]], held at the famous sports arena [[Madison Square Garden]] in [[New York City]], which attracted thousands.

Much of the impetus for this isolationism came from college students, with [[Yale University]] being a particularly strong outpost of such sentiments.<ref name="dunn-65">Dunn p 65</ref> The America First Committee was established on September 4, 1940, by [[Yale Law School]] student [[R. Douglas Stuart, Jr.]] (son of [[R. Douglas Stuart]], co-founder of [[Quaker Oats Company|Quaker Oats]]).<ref name="cole-1974-115">Cole 1974, p 115</ref> Stuart had been part of an earlier anti-interventionist student organization at Yale Law School,<ref name="cole-1974-115"/> one that began in Spring 1940 and included future president [[Gerald Ford]], future U.S. Supreme Court justice [[Potter Stewart]], and future diplomat [[Eugene Locke]] as signatories to an initial organizing letter.<ref>Schneider, p 113</ref> Other Yale students who became involved were future [[Peace Corps]] director during the [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|Kennedy presidential administration]] (and brother-in-law) [[Sargent Shriver]],<ref name="KauffmanSarles2003">{{cite book|editor-last1=Kauffman|editor-first1=Bill|last11=Sarles|first11=Ruth|author-link2=Ruth Sarles|title=A story of America First: the men and women who opposed U. S. intervention in World War II|year=2003|publisher=Praeger|location=New York|isbn=0-275-97512-6|page=xvii}}</ref> and [[Kingman Brewster Jr.]], who would later become [[List of presidents of Yale University|president]] of [[Yale University]].<ref>Cole 1974, pp 76, 108, 118</ref> Stuart dropped out of Yale to focus on the anti-intervention cause, and during Summer 1940, he and Brewster found support for the cause among politicians in Washington and party conventions, and among corporate figures in Stuart's home area of [[Chicago]].<ref name="dunn-65"/>

On September 5, the committee was publicly launched in a national radio broadcast by retired General [[Hugh S. Johnson]], who had headed the [[National Recovery Administration]] (N.R.A.) during the early [[Great Depression]] as part of the [[New Deal]] programs combating the bad economic conditions for a while before President Roosevelt discharged him in 1934.<ref name="dunn-66">Dunn p 66</ref>