FDR’s War of Words with Lindbergh (Fall 2024 | Volume: 69, Issue: 4)

FDR’s War of Words with Lindbergh

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Authors: Paul Sparrow

Historic Era: Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

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Fall 2024 | Volume 69, Issue 4

Editor’s Note: Paul M. Sparrow is the former Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. He has recently published Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR's War of Words With Charles Lindbergh — and the Battle to Save Democracy, which tells the dramatic story of how Roosevelt prepared the nation for the fight to save democracy at a time when most Americans opposed intervention, and the America First movement fought aggressively to thwart his efforts. Mr. Sparrow provides an adaptation from his fascinating book in the essay that follows.

Lindbergh announced his support for America First at a large rally in Chicago Stadium, the largest indoor arena in the world when it was built. Ironically, FDR had been nominated for President in the same stadium in 1932.
Lindbergh announced his support for America First at a large rally in Chicago Stadium, the largest indoor arena in the world when it was built. Ironically, FDR had been nominated for president in the same stadium in 1932.

Late in the afternoon of April 17, 1941, pedestrians began streaming through Chicago’s downtown, heading for the stadium at the corner of Erie and West Madison. When completed in 1929, Chicago Stadium had been the world’s largest indoor arena, home ever since to the Second City’s beloved Blackhawks. Tonight, the stadium was hosting a rally booked by the America First Committee and featuring that group’s newest spokesperson, Charles Lindbergh. After months of keeping America First at arm’s length, the celebrity isolationist had finally reasoned that the nation’s many such entities ought to unite under a single banner — the banner of America First.

More than 10,000 people had crammed into the enormous hall; loudspeakers outside reached another 4000 milling partisans. From the high vaulted ceiling hung more than 50 giant American flags and enormous loops of red, white, and blue bunting. Onstage stood portraits of George Washington and large signs reading “Defend America First.” Charles Lindbergh came to the podium to ecstatic cheers and applause. Once the ovation dwindled Lucky Lindy explained why he had finally allied publicly with the event’s sponsor.

There are a “hundred-odd million people in our country who oppose sending our soldiers to Europe again,” Lindbergh said.

“The America First Committee is a purely American organization formed to give voice to the hundred odd million people in our country who oppose sending our soldiers to Europe again,” Lindbergh said. “Our objective is to make America impregnable at home, and to keep out of these wars across the sea. Some of us, including myself, believe that the sending of arms to Europe was a mistake — that it has weakened our position in America, that it has added bloodshed in European countries and that it has not changed the trend of the war.”

The audience repeatedly screamed its support as if with one voice, interrupting him 31 times, according to the Chicago Tribune, whose publisher Robert McCormick was helping to finance America First.

“This war was lost by England and France even before it was declared, and that it is not within our power in America today to win the war for England,” Lindbergh went on. A few hours earlier, London had come under one of the Luftwaffe’s most devastating attacks so far, as 46,000 incendiary bombs and 350 tons of explosives fell on the capital city. Among targets severely damaged was St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Having joined America First, Lindbergh committed himself to fighting Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease program at every opportunity. Six days after his coming-out party in Chicago, he headlined an America First rally at the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street in New York. More than 10,000 souls packed the former opera house, and millions more coast to coast tuned in on radio. The once self-effacing Lindbergh took the stage with a swagger akin to that of Germany’s and Italy’s dictators. The crowd roared approval for three minutes, breaking into chants of “We Want Lindy!” That night’s audience included members of the American Bund, fanatics from Father Coughlin’s Christian Front, and other Hitler supporters. The New York Times reported that “German accents were numerous” in the crowd.

Senator Burton Wheeler gave a rousing anti-Roosevelt speech, claiming the president was in thrall to “jingoistic journalists and saber-rattling bankers in New York.” When the cavernous hall finally quieted, Lindbergh gave his fellow isolationists the rhetorical red meat they craved.

“When history is written, the responsibility for the downfall of the democracies of Europe will rest squarely upon the shoulders of the interventionists who led their nations into war uninformed and unprepared,” claimed Lindbergh.

“I know I will be severely criticized by the interventionists in America when I say we should not enter a war unless we have a reasonable chance of winning,” he said. “When history is written, the responsibility for the downfall of the democracies of Europe will rest squarely upon the shoulders of the interventionists who led their nations into war uninformed and unprepared. With their shouts of defeatism, and their disdain for reality they have already sent countless thousands of young men to death in Europe.”

Men standing near the front shouted out Lindbergh’s name and raised the “Sieg heil” salute. Repeating his thinly veiled reference to the myth that Jews controlled the media, he brought the crowd back to its feet.

“We have been led toward war by a minority of our people,” Lindbergh declared. “This minority has power. It has influence. It has a loud voice. That is why the America First Committee has been formed — to give voice to the people who have no newspaper, or newsreel, or radio station at their command; to the people who must do the paying, and the fighting, and the dying, if