Editing America First Committee (section)

==Issues==
When the war began in [[Europe]] ([[Nazi Germany]]'s invasion of [[Poland]]) in September 1939, most Americans, including politicians, demanded neutrality regarding Europe.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leroy N. Rieselbach|title=The Roots of Isolationism: congressional voting and presidential leadership in foreign policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUR3AAAAMAAJ|year=1966|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill|page=13|isbn=9780672607707 }}</ref> Although most Americans supported strong measures against Japan, Europe was the focus of the America First Committee. The public mood was changing, however, especially after the [[fall of France]] in the spring of 1940.<ref>{{cite book|author1=James Gilbert Ryan|author2=Leonard C. Schlup|title=Historical Dictionary of the 1940s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-t3Hx4ASLKUC&pg=PA415|year=2006|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=415|isbn=9780765621078}}</ref> Still, while a majority of the public favored sending material assistance to Great Britain in its fight against Nazi Germany, a majority also wanted the United States to stay out of direct participation in the war.<ref name="deconde"/>

There were various uncoordinated isolationist groups active during 1939–40, but the public disclosure by President Roosevelt of the [[destroyers-for-bases deal]] led to the announcement the following day, September 4, 1940, of the America First Committee, which would become the strongest such group.<ref name="deconde">{{cite book | author-first=Alexander | author-last=DeConde | title=A History of American Foreign Policy | publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons | location=New York | edition=Second | year=1971 | pages=590–591, 593}}</ref>  In its announcement, the AFC advocated four basic principles:

* The United States must build an impregnable defense for America.
* No foreign power, nor group of powers, can successfully attack a ''prepared'' America.
* American democracy can be preserved only by keeping out of the European war.
* "Aid short of war" weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad.<ref name="cole-1974-117">Cole 1974, p 117</ref>

[[File:Dr Seuss and the wolf chewed up the children.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|A [[Dr. Seuss]] editorial cartoon from early October 1941 criticizing America First]]The America First Committee launched a petition aimed at enforcing the [[Neutrality Acts of 1930s#Neutrality Act of 1939|1939 Neutrality Act]] and forcing President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] to keep his pledge to keep America out of the war. The committee profoundly distrusted Roosevelt,<ref name="atl-af-2017"/> and argued that he was lying to the American people.

On January 11, 1941, the day after Roosevelt's [[Lend-Lease#Lend-Lease proposal|Lend-Lease bill]] was submitted to the [[United States Congress]], Wood promised AFC opposition "with all the vigor it can exert."<ref>Cole 1953 p 43</ref> America First staunchly opposed [[List of Allied convoys during World War II by region|the convoying of ships involving the U.S. Navy]], believing that any exchange of fire with German forces would likely pull the United States into the war.<ref>Cole 1974, pp 117–118</ref> It also opposed the [[Atlantic Charter]] and the placing of economic pressure on Japan.

Consequently, America First objected to any material assistance to Britain, such as in destroyers-for-bases, that might drag the United States into the war and remained firm in its belief that Nazi Germany posed no military threat to the United States itself.<ref name="deconde"/> The America First Committee was not a pacifist organization, however, and it based its beliefs around the aim that the United States would embody preparedness with a modern, mechanized army and a navy that would be strong in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.<ref name="dunn-65"/>

The principal pressure group opposing America First was the [[Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies]], which argued that a German defeat of Britain would in fact endanger American security, and which argued that aiding the British would reduce, not increase, the likelihood of the United States being pulled into the war.<ref name="cfr-lindsay">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cfr.org/blog/history-lessons-america-first-committee-forms|title=History Lessons: The America First Committee Forms|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|language=en|access-date=2020-04-21|author-first=James M. |author-last=Lindsay|date=September 6, 2012}}</ref>

The Lend-Lease bill was debated fiercely in Congress for two months, and the America First Committee devoted its strength towards defeating it, but with the addition of a few amendments it was passed with solid margins in both houses of Congress and signed into law in March 1941.<ref name="deconde"/> In the end, America First failed in all its efforts to prevent Roosevelt's increasingly close relationship with Britain and failed in its efforts to legislatively block Roosevelt's actions.<ref name="cfr-lindsay"/>