Editing America First Committee (section)

==After Pearl Harbor==
After the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, AFC canceled a rally with Lindbergh at [[Boston Garden]] "in view of recent critical developments,"<ref name="nyt19411209">{{Cite news |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/12/09/105168767.html?smid=tw-nytarchives&smtyp=cur&pageNumber=40 |title=No America First Rally |date=1941-12-09 |newspaper=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |page=40}}</ref> and the organization's leaders announced their support of the war effort. Lindbergh gave this rationale:<ref name="nytafc19411209">{{Cite news |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/12/09/105168813.html?smid=tw-nytarchives&smtyp=cur&pageNumber=44 |title=Isolationist Groups Back Roosevelt |date=1941-12-09 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=44}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We have been stepping closer to war for many months. Now it has come and we must meet it as united Americans regardless of our attitude in the past toward the policy our government has followed.

Whether or not that policy has been wise, our country has been attacked by force of arms and by force of arms we must retaliate. Our own defenses and our own military position have already been neglected too long. We must now turn every effort to building the greatest and most efficient Army, Navy and Air Force in the world. When American soldiers go to war it must be with the best equipment that modern skill can design and that modern industry can build.}}

With the formal declaration of war against Japan, the organization chose to disband. On December 11, the committee leaders met and voted for dissolution,<ref name="nyt-afc-end">{{cite news | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/12/12/119450149.html?pageNumber=22 | title=America First Acts to End Organization | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 12, 1941 | page=22}}</ref><ref>Cole 1953, pp 194–195</ref> the same day upon which [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy]] declared war on the [[United States]]. In a statement released to the press, the AFC wrote:

{{blockquote|Our principles were right. Had they been followed, war could have been avoided. No good purpose can now be served by considering what might have been, had our objectives been attained.

We are at war. Today, though there may be many important subsidiary considerations, the primary objective is not difficult to state. It can be completely defined in one word: Victory.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hFxFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3259%2C4276685 | title=America First Group to Quit | work=The Telegraph-Herald | date=1941-12-12 | agency=United Press International | access-date=November 16, 2011 | location=Dubuque, Iowa | pages=13}}</ref>}}

Once war was declared, the national leaders of the America First Committee supported the United States war effort, with many serving in some capacity. Similarly, many of the leaders of local chapters volunteered for service in the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. armed forces]]; a few continued to involve themselves in anti-war actions.<ref name="cole-1953-196">Cole 1953, p 196</ref>