Editing America First Committee

{{short description|American isolationist group prior to World War II}}
{{For|similar terms|America First (disambiguation){{!}}America First}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                = America First Committee
| logo                = America First Committee.jpg
| logo_size           = 200px
| abbreviation        = '''AFC'''
| formation           = {{Start date|1940|9|4}}
| founder             = [[R. Douglas Stuart Jr.|Robert D. Stuart Jr.]]
| founding_location   = [[Yale Law School]], [[New Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.
| dissolved           = {{End date|1941|12|11}}
| type                = [[Non-partisan]] [[pressure group]]
| purpose             = [[United States non-interventionism|Non-interventionism]]
| headquarters        = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| membership          = 800,000–850,000
| membership_year     = 1941
| leader_title        = Chairman
| leader_name         = [[Robert E. Wood]]
| leader_title2       = Spokesperson
| leader_name2        = [[Charles Lindbergh]]
| key_people          = {{unbulleted list|[[Henry Ford]]}}
{{Collapsible list
 | title = {{nobold|...{{nbsp}}''and others''}}
 | [[William H. Regnery]]
 | [[Robert E. Wood]] 
 | [[Charles A. Lindbergh]]
 | [[Lillian Gish]]
 | [[Robert R. McCormick]] 
 | [[Norman Thomas]]
 | [[Sargent Shriver]]
 | [[Potter Stewart]]
 | [[Ruth Sarles Benedict]]
}}
| subsidiaries        = 450 chapters
| revenue             = $370,000
| revenue_year        = 1940
}}{{conservatism US|history}}

The '''America First Committee''' ('''AFC''') was an American [[isolationist]] [[pressure group]] against the [[United States]]' entry into [[World War II]].<ref name="deconde"/><ref name="cole-1974-115"/> Launched in September 1940, it surpassed 800,000 members in 450 chapters at its peak.<ref name="Wayne S. Cole 1953" /> The AFC principally supported [[isolationism]] for its own sake, and its varied coalition included [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], [[National Progressives of America|Progressives]], farmers, industrialists, [[communists]], [[Anti-communism|anti-communists]], students, and journalists &ndash; however, it was controversial for the [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] and pro-[[fascism|fascist]] views of some of its most prominent speakers, leaders, and members.<ref name="atl-af-2017">{{Cite news |last=Calamur |first=Krishnadev |date=2017-01-21 |title=A Short History of 'America First' |language=en-US |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-america-first/514037/ |access-date=2018-11-23}}</ref><ref name="lat-af-2017">{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-america-first-20170120-story.html|title='America First,' a phrase with a loaded anti-Semitic and isolationist history|last=Bennett|first=Brian|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=20 January 2017|access-date=2018-11-23}}</ref><ref name="dunn-66"/><ref name="dunn-57">Dunn p 57</ref> The AFC was dissolved on December 11, 1941, four days after the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] brought the United States into the war.

The AFC argued that no foreign power could successfully attack a strongly defended United States, that a [[United Kingdom|British]] defeat by [[Nazi Germany]] would not imperil American national security, and that giving military aid to Britain would risk dragging the United States into the war. The group fervently opposed measures for the British advanced by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] such as the [[destroyers-for-bases deal]] and the [[Lend-Lease#Lend-Lease proposal|Lend-Lease bill]], but failed in its efforts to block them.

The AFC was founded by [[Yale Law School]] student [[R. Douglas Stuart Jr.]], a [[Princeton]] graduate who was heir to the [[Quaker Oats Company]] fortune, and headed by [[Robert E. Wood]], a retired U.S. Army general who was chairman of [[Sears, Roebuck and Co.]] Its highest-profile early official member was [[Henry Ford]], the automotive pioneer and notorious anti-Semite, who resigned in controversy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baime |first=A. J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/859298844 |title=The arsenal of democracy : FDR, Detroit, and an epic quest to Arm an America at war |date=2014 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-547-71928-3 |location=Boston |oclc=859298844}}</ref><ref name="dunn-66" /> Halfway through the committee's 15-month existence, aviator [[Charles Lindbergh]], who had already delivered 13 speeches on the group's behalf, officially joined it and became the most prominent speaker at its rallies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mnhs.org/lindbergh/learn/controversies|title=America First and WWII|publisher=Charles Lindbergh House and Museum|accessdate=April 6, 2025}}</ref> Lindbergh's presence resulted in increased criticism that America First embraced overt anti-Semitism and fascist sympathies. Historian Susan Dunn has concluded that, "Though most of its members were probably patriotic, well-meaning, and honest in their efforts, the AFC would never be able to purge itself of the taint of anti-Semitism."<ref name="dunn-66"/>

==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>

==Organization and membership==
America First chose retired Brigadier General [[Robert E. Wood]], the 61-year-old chairman of [[Sears, Roebuck and Co.]], to preside over the committee.<ref name="deconde"/> Wood remained in his post until the AFC was disbanded in the days after [[Japan during World War II|Japan]]'s attack on Pearl Harbor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-history-behind-plot-against-america-180974365/|title=The True History Behind 'The Plot Against America'|last=Solly|first=Meilan|date=16 March 2020|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|access-date=2020-04-21|quote=}}</ref>

Organizationally, America First had an executive committee of about seven people, which took the lead in forming America First policies.<ref name="cole-1974-116">Cole 1974, p 116</ref> Its initial members included Wood, Stuart, and several businessmen from the Midwest.<ref name="cole-1974-116"/>  There was also a larger national committee, which was composed of prominent individuals who supported America First's aims.<ref name="cole-1974-116"/> Over the course of the organization's existence, some fifty people were part of the national committee.<ref name="cole-1974-116"/> Finally, there were local chapters organized in cities and towns of various size wherever a sizeable anti-interventionist feeling existed.<ref name="cole-1974-117"/> The existence of chapters permitted a more decentralized fundraising structure, with the chapters typically relying more on small contributions than the national entity.<ref>Cole 1974, pp 116–117</ref>

Serious organization and recruitment efforts took place from Chicago, the national headquarters of the committee, not long after the AFC's September 1940 establishment.<ref>Cole 1974, pp 115–117</ref> These included the taking out of full-page advertisements in leading newspapers in various cities and paying for radio broadcasts.<ref name="cole-1974-117"/>
Fundraising drives produced about $370,000 from some 25,000 contributors. Nearly half came from a few millionaires such as [[William H. Regnery]], H. Smith Richardson of the [[Vicks#History|Vick Chemical Company]], General Robert E. Wood of Sears-Roebuck,  publisher [[Joseph Medill Patterson|Joseph M. Patterson]] (New York ''Daily News'') and his cousin, publisher [[Robert R. McCormick]] (''[[Chicago Tribune]]'').<ref>Cole 1953. p. 15.</ref> Other funding came from executives of [[Montgomery Ward]], [[Hormel Foods]], and the [[Inland Steel Company]].<ref name="lafeber">{{cite book | author-first=Walter | author-last=LaFeber | title=The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad since 1750 | publisher=W. W. Norton & Co. | location=New York | year= 1989 | page=374}}</ref>

[[Image:America First Rally flyer April 4 1941.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.0|Flyer for an America First Committee rally in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] in early April 1941]]

At its peak, America First claimed 800,000–850,000 members in 450 chapters, making the AFC one of the largest [[Anti-war movement|anti-war organizations]] in the history of the United States.<ref>Bill Kauffman, ''Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism'' (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008), pp. 6–7.</ref> Two-thirds of members were located within a 300-mile radius of Chicago,<ref name="Wayne S. Cole 1953">Cole 1953, p 30</ref> and 135,000 members in 60 chapters throughout Illinois, its strongest state.<ref>Schneider p 198</ref> There were almost no AFC chapters in the [[American South]], where traditions of involvement in the military and ancestral ties to the  [[United Kingdom]] ([[Great Britain]]) were both strong.<ref>Dunn pp 57, 335n4</ref>

The AFC was never able to draw sufficient funding to conducting its own public opinion polling. The New York chapter received slightly more than $190,000, most of it coming from its 47,000 contributors. As the AFC never had a national membership form or national dues, and local chapters were quite autonomous, historians point out that the organization's leaders had no idea how many "members" it had.<ref>Cole 1953, 25-33; Schneider 201-2</ref>

The America First Committee attracted the sympathies of political figures, including: Democratic senators [[Burton K. Wheeler]] of Montana and [[David I. Walsh]] of Massachusetts, and Republican senators [[Gerald P. Nye]] of North Dakota and [[Henrik Shipstead]] of Minnesota. [[Philip La Follette]], former Governor of Wisconsin and a founder of the [[Wisconsin Progressive Party]], was another prominent member.<ref name="dunn-65"/> Overall, support from politicians was strongest in the Midwest.<ref name="lafeber"/> Wheeler and Nye were especially active as speakers at America First rallies.<ref name="cole-1974-117"/>  Other celebrities supporting America First were actress [[Lillian Gish]] and architect [[Frank Lloyd Wright]].<ref name="starr">{{cite book|author=Kevin Starr|title=Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PKL4DQ4XLtUC&pg=PA6|year=2003|publisher=Oxford UP|page=6|isbn=9780195168976}}</ref> Following his resignation as [[List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom|ambassador to the Court of St. James's]] in late 1940, the increasingly isolationist, anti-British, and defeatist [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]] was offered the chance to head the America First Committee.<ref>Dunn pp 268–271</ref> Members of the national committee included: advertising executive [[Chester Bowles]], diplomat [[William Richards Castle Jr.]], journalist [[John T. Flynn]], writer and socialite [[Alice Roosevelt Longworth]], military officer and politician [[Hanford MacNider]], novelist [[Kathleen Norris]], [[New Deal]] administrator [[George Peek]], and [[World War I]] flying ace and later aviation executive [[Eddie Rickenbacker]].<ref name="cole-1974-116"/>

The aforementioned Gerald Ford was one of the first members of the AFC when a chapter formed at Yale University<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theweek.com/articles/621645/defense-america-first|title=In defense of America First|date=2 May 2016|first=Michael Brendan |last=Dougherty|magazine=The Week}}</ref> (however he resigned from the AFC shortly afterward, lest he endanger his position as an assistant coach for [[Yale Bulldogs football]]);<ref name="dunn-338n52">Dunn p 338n52</ref> Potter Stewart also served on the original committee of the AFC.<ref name="rosie">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/05/america-first-was-not-a-pro-nazi-organisation|title=America First was not a pro-Nazi organisation – Letters|first=George |last=Rosie|date=5 March 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}} Author a Scottish journalist.</ref>
Another future president, and son of the former and recently resigned American ambassador to Britain ([[Joseph P. Kennedy]]), [[John F. Kennedy]] contributed $100 with an attached note, "What you are doing is vital."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maier |first=Thomas |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/904459783 |title=When lions roar : the Churchills and the Kennedys |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-307-95680-4 |edition=First paperback |location=New York |pages=303 |oclc=904459783}}</ref>

==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"/>

==Antisemitism, Lindbergh, and other extremists==
"Seeking to brand itself as a mainstream organization, America First struggled with the problem of anti-Semitism of some of its leaders and many of its members", according to the historian Dunn.<ref name="dunn-66"/> The group had some Jewish members at the outset: Sears heir and philanthropist [[Lessing J. Rosenwald]] was on the national committee; former California congresswoman [[Florence Prag Kahn]] was a member; and the first publicity director for the New York chapter was Jewish.<ref name="dunn-66"/> However, the automotive pioneer and infamous anti-Semite [[Henry Ford]] had joined the national committee at the same time as Rosenwald, which soon led to Rosenwald resigning.<ref name="cole-1953-132-133">Cole 1953, pp 132–133</ref> In response, America First removed Ford from the national committee and also removed from it [[Avery Brundage]], whose [[1936 Summer Olympics#Controversies|actions at the 1936 Berlin Olympics]] were associated with anti-Semitism.<ref name="dunn-66"/> Attempts by America First to recruit other Jewish people to the national committee found no takers.<ref name="cole-1953-132-133"/> As Dunn writes, "the problem of anti-Semitism remained; some chapter leaders spewed anti-Semitic accusations, while others invited anti-Semitic speakers to address their members."<ref name="dunn-66"/> America First tried to keep some distance between itself and the popular radio priest and fascist sympathizer [[Father Coughlin]].<ref>Cole 1953, pp 134–138</ref>

The world-famous American aviator [[Charles Lindbergh]] was admired in Germany and was allowed to see the buildup of the German air force, the [[Luftwaffe]], in 1937. He was impressed by its strength and secretly reported his findings to the General Staff of the [[United States Army]], warning them that the U.S. had fallen behind and that it must urgently build up its aviation.<ref>{{cite book|author=James Duffy|title=Lindbergh vs. Roosevelt: The Rivalry That Divided America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rAiVCRELHsQC&pg=PA76|year=2010|publisher=Regnery|pages=76–77|isbn=9781596981676}}</ref> Lindbergh, who had feuded with the Roosevelt administration for years,<ref>Cole 1974, pp 124–130</ref> delivered his first radio speech on September 15, 1939, through all three major radio networks.<ref name="olson"/> Voicing his belief that people of Northern and Western European descent were the safeguards of civilization against Asia (which included the Soviet Union),<ref>Cole 1974, pp 78–81</ref> his speech argued that instead of fighting, all of Europe and the United States should "defend the white race against foreign invasion".<ref name="olson">{{Cite book |last=Olson |first=Lynne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/797334548 |title=Those angry days : Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's fight over World War II, 1939-1941 |date=2013 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4000-6974-3 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=69–72 |oclc=797334548}}</ref>

For the first half of America First's 15 months of existence, the group and Lindbergh kept at arm's length from each other, as Stuart was leery of being too closely associated with some of the extreme views of Lindbergh's circle, while for his part the aviator preferred to act independently.<ref>Cole 1974, pp 118–119</ref> Wood, however, wanted to bring Lindbergh on, and on April 10, 1941, it was agreed that Lindbergh would join the national committee, with the aviator's first rally appearance taking place on April 17 at the [[Chicago Arena]].<ref>Cole 1974, pp 119–121, 123</ref>

Once he did join,<ref name="starr"/> Lindbergh became America First's most prominent speaker.<ref name="deconde"/> His involvement significantly increased rally attendance and organization membership, but it also greatly increased the level of criticism that America First faced from interventionists and from the Roosevelt administration.<ref>Cole 1974, pp 122–124</ref>

On June 20, 1941, Lindbergh spoke to 30,000 people in Los Angeles and billed it as a "Peace and Preparedness Mass Meeting". Lindbergh criticized the movements that he perceived were leading America into the war and proclaimed that the U.S. was in a position that made it virtually impregnable. He also claimed that the interventionists and the British who called for  "the defense of England" really meant "the defeat of Germany."<ref>{{cite book|author=Louis Pizzitola|title=Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KW7ago9Wo3MC&pg=PA401|year=2002|publisher=Columbia UP|page=401|isbn=9780231116466}}</ref><ref>Cole 1974, p 9</ref>

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Senator Shipstead and Charles Lindbergh. America First Committe meeting.jpg|thumb|Senator Shipstead second from left with Charles Lindbergh far right at America First Commitee meeting, in Minnesota, May 10th, 1941.]] -->[[File:Charles Lindbergh speaking at America First rally.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|left|Charles Lindbergh speaking at an America First Committee rally in [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]], in early October 1941]]

A speech that Lindbergh delivered to a rally in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], on September 11, 1941, may have significantly raised tensions. He identified the forces pulling America into the war as the British, the Roosevelt administration, and [[American Jews]]. While he expressed sympathy for the plight of the Jews in Germany, he argued that America's entry into the war would serve them little better:

{{blockquote|It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race. No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution the Jewish race suffered in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them.

Instead of agitating for war the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation. A few farsighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not. Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government.<ref>Cole 1953, p. 144</ref>}}Many condemned the speech as [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]]. Journalist [[Dorothy Thompson]] wrote for the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' an opinion that many shared: "I am absolutely certain that Lindbergh is pro-Nazi."<ref name="atl-af-2017"/> Republican presidential candidate [[Wendell Willkie]] criticized the speech as "the most un-American talk made in my time by any person of national reputation."<ref name=":0" /> In the end, Lindbergh's remarks hurt the cause of the isolationists.<ref name="lafeber"/>

During the period after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|Molotov–Ribbentrop non-aggression pact]], most American Communists were opposed to the United States entering World War II, and they tried to infiltrate or take over America First.<ref>{{cite book|author=Selig Adler|title=The isolationist impulse: its twentieth-century reaction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2UqAAAAYAAJ|year=1957|pages=269–70, 274|publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780837178226}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=June 2022}} After June 1941, when [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] launched [[Operation Barbarossa]], the invasion of the Soviet Union, they reversed positions and denounced the AFC as a Nazi [[front organization|front]], a group infiltrated by [[Nazi Germany|German]] agents.<ref>[[Albert E. Kahn|Kahn, A. E.]], and M. Sayers. ''[http://www.shunpiking.com/books/GC/ The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412211409/http://www.shunpiking.com/books/GC/ |date=2009-04-12 }}''. 1st ed. Boston: [[Little, Brown and Co.]], 1946, chap. XXIII (American Anti-Comintern), part 5: Lone Eagle, pp. 365-378. Kahn, A.E., and M. Sayers. [https://www.questia.com/read/3580839?title=The%20Plot%20against%20the%20Peace%3a%20A%20Warning%20to%20the%20Nation! ''The Plot against the Peace: A Warning to the Nation!'']. 1st ed. New York: [[Dial Press]], 1945, chap. X (In the Name of Peace), pp. 187-209.</ref> Nazis also tried to use the committee. The aviator and orator [[Laura Ingalls (aviator)|Laura Ingalls]]' pro-Nazi rhetoric and straight-armed Nazi salutes on her America First speaking tour worried the group's leadership, but they allowed her to continue because of praise from local chapters where she had spoken.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Jeansonne |first=Glen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33043098 |title=Women of the far right : the mothers' movement and World War II |date=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |others=Mazal Holocaust Collection |isbn=0-226-39587-1 |location=Chicago, Ill. |pages=68–69 |oclc=33043098}}</ref><ref>''New York Times'', December 18, 1941, "Laura Ingalls Held as Reich Agent:  Flier Says She Was Anti-Nazi Spy".</ref> When Ingalls was arrested in December 1941 and put on trial for being an unregistered Nazi agent, the prosecution revealed that her handler, German diplomat Ulrich Freiherr von Gienanth, had encouraged her to participate in AFC activities.<ref name=":1" /> In addition to Ingalls, who was convicted, another America First speaker would be convicted for failing to register as a Japanese agent.<ref name="dunn-237">Dunn, p 237</ref>

Various historians have described attempts to keep Nazi and fascist sympathizers out of its chapters as not always successful.<ref name="dunn-237" /> Historian [[Alexander DeConde]] wrote, "Most of the America First supporters were middlewestern Republicans who distrusted the President for various reasons, but it was not a purely sectional organization or partisan political movement. Thousands of sincere Americans of varied background and from both political parties joined and contributed to it. It also attracted support from a number of fringe hate organizations, from anti-Semites, and from Nazi sympathizers. This minority support tarnished its reputation."<ref name="deconde"/> Author [[Max Wallace]] argues that by the summer of 1941, "extremist elements had successfully hijacked the movement".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Max |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51454223 |title=The American axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich |date=2003 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-29022-5 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=279–281 |oclc=51454223}}</ref>

==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>

==Legacy==
In 1983, after his time as president of Yale had concluded,  Brewster said he was glad that he and the other isolationists had failed. He also acknowledged that, consciously or not, there was anti-Semitism among the elites at Yale during that period.<ref name="dunn-338n52"/>
Asked in a 2000 interview whether the leading members of the America First Committee had ever staged a reunion after the war, founder Stuart said, "No, we did not. We may be a little sensitive to the fact that the world still thinks we're the bad guys."<ref name="rosie"/>

Paleoconservative commentator [[Pat Buchanan]] has praised America First and used its name as a slogan. "The achievements of that organization are monumental," wrote Buchanan in 2004. "By keeping America out of World War II until Hitler attacked Stalin in June 1941, Soviet Russia, not America, bore the brunt of the fighting, bleeding and dying to defeat Nazi Germany."<ref>{{Cite news|author-first=Pat|author-last=Buchanan|title=The Resurrection of 'America First!'|url=http://www.theamericancause.org/patamericafirst.htm|publisher=The American Cause|date=October 13, 2004|access-date=2008-02-03|archive-date=2008-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203051758/http://www.theamericancause.org/patamericafirst.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>  Historian Wayne S. Cole concludes that while the America First Committee did not actually defeat any Roosevelt administration proposal in Congress, it made the margins of several such actions smaller than they would have been otherwise; and that throughout 1941, Roosevelt was constrained in his actions in support of Britain due to isolationist pressures in public opinion that America First did the most to mobilize.<ref>Cole 1953, pp 196–199</ref>

The re-use of the [[America First (policy)|"America First" phrase]] by [[Donald Trump]] in the [[United States presidential election, 2016|2016 United States presidential election]] led to a look back at the America First Committee through the filter of contemporary events. This included views on the level of extremism found in the 1940–41 movement as well as analysis of whether the new [[First presidency of Donald Trump|Trump administration]] was isolationist in the same sense.<ref name="atl-af-2017"/><ref name="lat-af-2017"/>

==See also==
* [[America First Party (1943)]]
* [[List of anti-war organizations]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[A. Scott Berg|Berg, A. Scott]] (1999) ''[[Lindbergh (book)|Lindbergh]]'' pp .84–432 
* Cole, Wayne S. (1974) [https://archive.org/details/charlesalindberg00wayn/page/115/mode/2up?view=theater ''Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II''] 
* Cole, Wayne S. (1953) [https://archive.org/stream/americafirsttheb000771mbp#page/n32/mode/1up ''America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41'']
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]]  ed. (1990) ''In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940–1941 as revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee''
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]]  (2000) ''Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941''
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]]  (Summer/Fall 1982) [http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/6_3/6_3_1.pdf "American Isolationism, 1939-1941"] ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'' 6(3), pp.&nbsp;201–216
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]]  (Summer 1987) [http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/8_2/8_2_10.pdf "Anti-Interventionism of Herbert Hoover"] ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'' 8(2), pp.&nbsp;311–340. 
* {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/1940fdrwillkieli0000dunn/mode/2up?view=theater|title=1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler—The Election amid the Storm|last=Dunn|first=Susan|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Connecticut|year=2013|isbn=978-0-300-19513-2|language=en}}
* Gleason, S. Everett and Langer, William L. (1953) ''The Undeclared War, 1940-1941''
**semi-official government history
* Goodman, David (2007) "Loving and Hating Britain: Rereading the Isolationist Debate in the USA" in Darian-Smith, Kate; Grimshaw, Patricia; and Macintyre, Stuart eds. ''Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures,'' Carlton: Melbourne University Press. pp187–204. {{ISBN|978-0-522-85392-6}}
* Gordon, David (2003) [http://libraryautomation.com/nymas/americafirst.html ''America First: the Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh and the Second World War, 1940-1941''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302065250/http://libraryautomation.com/nymas/americafirst.html |date=2007-03-02 }} 
** presentation to the [[New York Military Affairs Symposium]]
* Jonas, Manfred (1966) ''Isolationism in America, 1935-1941''
* Kauffman, Bill (1995) ''America First!: Its History, Culture, and Politics'' {{ISBN|0-87975-956-9}}
* Parmet, Herbert S. and Hechy, Marie B. (1968) ''Never Again: A President Runs for a Third Term'' 
* Schneider, James C. (1989) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105486029 ''Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939-1941'']

===Primary sources===
* {{cite book|author=America First Committee|title=In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940-1941 As Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bhnf0fxI260C&pg=PA448|year=1990|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=9780817988418}}
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]] ed. ''In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940–1941 as Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee'' (1990) [https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Undaunted-Anti-Interventionist-Committee-Documentaries/dp/0817988424/ excerpt]

===Historiography===
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]] (Spring 1983) [http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/7_1/7_1_10.pdf "Literature of Isolationism, 1972–1983: A Bibliographic Guide"] ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'' 7(1), pp.&nbsp;157–184
* [[Justus Drew Doenecke|Doenecke, Justus D.]] (Winter 1986) [http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/8_1/8_1_10.pdf "Explaining the Antiwar Movement, 1939–1941: The Next Assignment"] ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'' 8(1), pp.&nbsp;139–162. 
* {{cite book|editor=Hogan, Michael J. |title=Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcKEwnVi_IYC&pg=PA258|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=258|isbn=9780521664134}}

==External links==
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9s20075g/ America First Committee Records, 1940-1942] at the Hoover Institution Archives

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[[Category:History of Chicago]]
[[Category:Non-interventionism]]
[[Category:Old Right (United States)]]
[[Category:Opposition to World War II]]
[[Category:Peace organizations based in the United States]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1940]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1941]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in Illinois]]
[[Category:Anti-communism in the United States]]
[[Category:American nationalism]]
[[Category:Political history of the United States]]
[[Category:History of United States isolationism]]