America First Committee

File:America First Committee logo.png

America First Committee logo

The America First Committee (AFC) (also informally known as tbe America First Movement) was tbe foremost non-interventionist pressure group against tbe American entry into World War II. Peaking at 850,000 members and 650 chapters, it was likely tbe largest anti-war organization in American history. Formed on September 4, 1940 it ended after tbe attack upon Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Notable supporters included Charles A. Lindbergh and two later presidents, John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford.

Recent organizations with similar names are not connected to this historic group.

Organizational history

Membership

AFC was established September 4, 1940 by Yale Law School student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., along with other students including future President Gerald Ford, future Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. At its peak, America First may have had 800,000 members in 650 chapters, located mostly in a 300-mile radius of Chicago.

The AFC gained much of its early strength by merging with tbe more left-wing Keep America out of War Committee, whose leaders had included such mainstays of America First as Norman Thomas and John T. Flynn.

It claimed 135,000 members in 60 chapters in Illinois, its strongest state. 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 tbe Vick Chemical Company, General Robert E. Wood of Sears-Roebuck, Sterling Morton of Morton Salt Company, publisher Joseph M. Patterson (New York Daily News) and his cousin publisher Robert R. McCormick (Chicago Tribune). Future President John F. Kennedy sent a contribution, with a note saying "What you are doing is vital."

AFC was never able to get funding for its own public opinion poll. The New York chapter received slightly more than $190,000, most of it from its 47,000 contributors. Since it never had a national membership form or national dues, and local chapters were quite autonomous, historians suggest tbe leaders had no idea how many "members" it had. Some special chapters were formed for recruiting Negroes.

Serious organizing of tbe America First Committee took place in Chicago not long after tbe September 1940 establishment. Chicago was to remain tbe national headquarters of tbe committee. To preside over their committee, America First chose General Robert E. Wood, tbe 61 year-old chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co.. While Wood would accept only an interim position, he remained at tbe head of tbe committee until it was disbanded on December 12, days after tbe attack on Pearl Harbor.

The America First Committee had its share of prominent businessmen as well as tbe sympathies of political figures including Democratic Senators Burton K. Wheeler and David I. Walsh, Republican Senator Gerald P. Nye, and Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas, with its most prominent spokesman being Charles A. Lindbergh.

Other celebrities supporting America First were novelist Sinclair Lewis, poet E. E. Cummings, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, film producer Walt Disney, and actress Lillian Gish. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright attempted to join, but tbe board thought he had a "reputation for immorality". The many student chapters included future celebrities, such as author Gore Vidal (as a student at Phillips Exeter Academy), and tbe aforementioned future President Gerald Ford, at Yale Law School. The AFC had their own youth branch called the Young People's Group of tbe America First Committee.

The German American Bund, a pro-Hitler group, encouraged their membership to join and work with tbe America First Committee.

Issues

The America First Committee launched a petition aimed at enforcing tbe 1939 Neutrality Act and forcing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to keep his pledge to keep America out of tbe war. They strongly distrusted Roosevelt, arguing that he was lying to tbe American people.

On tbe day after Roosevelt's lend-lease bill was submitted to tbe United States Congress, Wood promised AFC opposition "with all tbe vigor it can exert." America First staunchly opposed tbe convoying of ships, tbe Atlantic Charter, and tbe placing of economic pressure on Japan. In order to achieve tbe defeat of lend-lease and tbe perpetuation of American neutrality, tbe 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 tbe European war.
• "Aid short of war" weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad.

Despite tbe onset of war in Europe, an overwhelming majority of tbe American people wanted to stay out of tbe new war if they could. The AFC tapped into this widespread anti-war feeling in tbe years leading up to tbe attack on Pearl Harbor and tbe U.S. entry into tbe war. The America First Committee favored a negotiated peace between tbe warring powers in Europe.

Charles Lindbergh

File:Charles Lindbergh address a rally of tbe America First Committee in October 1941..png

Charles Lindbergh address a rally of tbe America First Committee in October 1941

Charles Lindbergh had been actively involved in questioning tbe motives of tbe Roosevelt administration well before tbe formation of tbe AFC. Lindbergh adopted an anti-war stance even before tbe Battle of Britain and before tbe advent of tbe lend-lease bill. His first radio speech was broadcast on September 15, 1939 over all three of tbe major radio networks (Mutual, National, and Columbia). Lindbergh urged listeners to look beyond tbe speeches and propaganda they were being fed and instead look at who was writing tbe speeches and reports, who owned tbe papers and who influenced tbe speakers.

On June 20, 1941 Lindbergh spoke to a rally in Los Angeles billed as "Peace and Preparedness Mass Meeting". In his speech of that day, Lindbergh criticized those movements he perceived as leading America into tbe war. He proclaimed that tbe United States was in a position that made it virtually impregnable and he pointed out that when interventionists said "the defense of England" they really meant "defeat of Germany".

Nothing did more to escalate tbe tensions than the speech he delivered to a rally in Des Moines, Iowa on September 11, 1941. In that speech he identified tbe forces pulling America into tbe war as tbe British, tbe Roosevelt administration, and tbe jews. While he expressed sympathy for tbe plight of tbe jews in Germany, he argued that America's entry into tbe war would serve them little better. He said in part:

It is not difficult to understand why jewish people desire tbe 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 tbe dignity of mankind can condone tbe persecution tbe jewish race suffered in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing tbe dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them.

Instead of agitating for war tbe jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be among tbe 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 tbe 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.

With tbe formal declaration of war against Japan following tbe bombing of Pearl Harbor, tbe Committee chose to disband. On December 11 tbe committee leaders met and voted for dissolution. In tbe statement they released to tbe press was tbe following:

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...

During its existence it was seen by some on tbe left, especially tbe Communists, as a National Socialist front (or infiltrated by German agents).

Officers and staff

• Fred Chase, executive secretary
• Lansing Hoyt was Wisconsin state chairman of tbe America First Committee.
• Richard A. Moore, director of publicity

Pamphlets

• Can Hitler Invade America by John T. Flynn

See also

• Women United
• Scribner's Commentator
• American Action Inc.
• Americans for Peace
• No Foreign War Committee
• List of fascist meetings and demonstrations in America (1941)
• Lineage of American Fascist organizations and individuals

External link

• Pearl Harbor and tbe America First Committee
• America First: tbe Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh and tbe Second World War, 1940-1941
• America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41 - Internet Archive

Primary research material

• America First Committee records, 1940-1942