America First: the Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh

Democratic nations seldom go to war willingly. The natural instinct of voters is to preserve peace whenever possible. Aided by a free press, there is also never a shortage of those ready to suggest alternatives to conflict. Yet sometimes war is inevitable. This is most obviously true when a nation is attacked. For some there is no other legitimate reason for war. Others believe that hostile intent on the part of other countries is also sufficient cause. The legitimacy of this view, as well as the question of how one measures intent, can be the subject of much debate. Such times are painful moments in the life of a nation. The United States faced such a crisis during the first years of the Second World War. Following the fall of France in the spring of 1940, some Americans wanted to enter the war on the side of Britain against what they believed was a Nazi threat to democracy everywhere. The great majority did not. Yet most also believed Germany would eventually attack the United States.[1] They therefore wanted to give Britain whatever it needed to survive, in order to preserve it as a bulwark against eventual Nazi aggression.

The America First Committee, created in September 1940, was not only against entry into the war. It also opposed aid. Its program was simple. Since the United States, if properly armed, was impregnable against German attack, there was no reason to help England. Aid would not only fatally weaken America‘s own defenses. It would also draw the country into the conflict.[2] The leaders of the AFC claimed they were motivated by concern for American lives. For some, this was no doubt true. For others, humanitarian rhetoric hid different motives. Many joined the AFC as a way of attacking President Roosevelt and the New Deal. Still others had more sinister reasons. The evolution of the America First movement in the eighteen months of debate preceding Pearl Harbor revealed xenophobic and anti-Semitic sentiment both...