America First Committee
The American First Committee was an isolationist organization that opposed United States involvement in World War II. Founded by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. in September 1940, its supporters grew to number 800,000 including the Hearst newspapers, Sen. Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., Socialist leader Norman Thomas, and aviation hero Charles Lindbergh.
The committee collapsed after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It had been thoroughly discredited and most of the activists reversed positions. Intervenionists for years attacked their opponents as "America Firsters".
Supporters
The movement was quite weak in the South, where both liberals and conservatives (and whites and blacks) supported FDR's foreign policy. America First did try to organize local chapters in the South, sponsor noninterventionist rallies, distribute pamphlets and solicit cash. None of the chapters became effective units and no major rallies were held in the South.[1]
See also
Bibliography
- Cole, Wayne S. Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II (1974)
- Cole, Wayne S. America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41 (1953)
- Doenecke, Justus D. The Battle Against Intervention, 1939-1941 (1997), includes short narrative and primary documents.
- Doenecke, Justus D. Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 (2000).
- Doenecke, Justus D. "American Isolationism, 1939-1941" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer/Fall 1982, 6(3), pp. 201-216. online version
- Doenecke, Justus D. "Explaining the Antiwar Movement, 1939-1941: The Next Assignment" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Winter 1986, 8(1), pp. 139-162. online version
- Doenecke, Justus D. "Literature of Isolationism, 1972-1983: A Bibliographic Guide" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Spring 1983, 7(1), pp. 157-184. online version
- Doenecke, Justus D. "Anti-Interventionism of Herbert Hoover" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer 1987, 8(2), pp. 311-340. online version
- Gordon, David. America First: the Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh and the Second World War, 1940-1941; presentation to The New York Military Affairs Symposium in 2003
- Jonas, Manfred. Isolationism in America, 1935-1941 (1966).
- S. Everett Gleason and William L. Langer; The Undeclared War, 1940-1941 1953 Policy toward war in Europe; pro FDR
- Kauffman, Bill, America First! Its History, Culture, and Politics (1995) ISBN 0-87975-956-9
- Parmet, Herbert S., and Marie B. Hecht; Never Again: A President Runs for a Third Term 1968.
- Schneider, James C. Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939-1941 (1989)