The Lone Eagle
by Mickey Z.
Perhaps the most visible pro-Nazi/anti-communist American isolationist was Colonel Charles
A. Lindbergh, Jr. A folk hero like his partner in servile anti-Semitism Henry Ford,
Lucky Lindy followed in the isolationist footsteps of his congressman father, Charles A.
Lindbergh, Sr., who, in his book Why Is Your Country at War?, railed against
America's entry into World War I.1
On May 25, 1936, the younger Lindbergh, still wielding an abundance of international clout
thanks to his Spirit of St. Louis exploits, received an invitation to visit
Germany--an invite that came "in the name of General Goering and the German Air
Ministry." The offer was accepted and Lindbergh landed in Berlin on July 22 of
that same year.
As described by his biographer Wayne S. Cole, Lindbergh used that first visit to inspect
"an elite Luftwaffe fighter group, a major German air research institute, and Heinkel
and Junkers aircraft factories. He piloted two German planes and inspected
others--including the JU-87 Stuka dive bomber that was so terrifyingly effective in ground
support operations early in the European war."
After a few weeks of touting German air power, Lucky Lindy was feted by Goering at a
luncheon and attended the opening ceremonies of the Berlin Olympic Games. Although
he did not get to meet Hitler, the famed aviator, according to Cole, characterized the
dictator as "undoubtedly a great man" who had "done much for the German
people" and helped to make Germany "in many ways the most interesting nation in
the world." Other examples of Lindbergh's ability to assess reality include his
impression that Hitler was "especially anxious to maintain a friendly relationship
with England" and had no intention "of attacking France for many years to come,
if at all." Overall, he found developments in Germany to be
"encouraging...rather than depressing."
On his next excursion to the Fatherland, Lindbergh flew himself and his wife to Munich in
October, 1937 for more aviation-related meetings. Juxtaposing the "headlines of
murder, rape and divorce on the billboards of London" with the situation in Germany,
Cole reports that the Colonel noted "a sense of decency" within the Nazi regime
"which in many ways is far ahead of our own."
One year later, the American aviator returned to Berlin to attend a "stag
dinner" at the U.S. embassy in honor of himself and Hermann Goering. It was
there, on October 18, 1938, that Goering bestowed upon Lindbergh--in the name of der
Fuhrer--the Service Cross of the Order of the German Eagle with the Star.
Despite negative press in the States, Cole writes, Lindy saw "nothing constructive
gained by returning decorations which were given in periods of peace and good
will." (By 1955, with a full decade to digest the horrors of WWII, Lindbergh
still insisted that the medal hadn't ever caused him any worry. He never returned
it.)
After a brief flirtation with moving his family to Berlin, Lindbergh spent the next
several months touring the continent, urging a policy of peace through negotiation, before
returning home on the Aquitania on April 8, 1939.
"After pronouncing Germany's military superiority, Lindbergh returned to America to
become an outspoken leader of the isolationist 'America First' movement, funded with Ford
money, that tried to keep the United States out of World War II," writes historian
Kenneth C. Davis. He notes that Lindbergh, in one speech, told American Jews to
"shut up" and accused the "Jewish-owned press" of pushing the U.S.
into the war.2
From September 1939, right up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor more than two years
later, "Lindbergh was the most praised, the most criticized and the most maligned
noninterventionist in the United States," says Cole. In fact, even before
he joined the popular anti-interventionist group, the America First Committee, Colonel
Lindbergh had made five nationwide radio broadcasts, addressed two public meetings,
published three articles in popular national magazines and testified before two major
legislative committees--all in the name of American isolationism.
Even after the Nazis conquered France in 1940, Lindbergh lectured on, declaring that
nothing could come of "shouting names and pointing the finger of blame across the
ocean" at Hitler and the Germans. Lindbergh's son, Reeve, recalled a speech in
which the elder Lindbergh identified three groups that were pushing the U.S. to enter the
war, "the British, the Roosevelt Administration and the Jews."3
What, one might have wondered at the time, would be the catalyst to spur the reluctant
aviator into war? A hint, says Cole, may lie in his declaration that America's
"bond with Europe is a bond of race and not of political ideology," and that
"The average intellectual superiority of the white race...is countered by the sensate
superiority of the black race." Thus, he added, if the white race were
"ever seriously threatened, it may then be time for us to take our part in its
protection, to fight side by side with the English, French and Germans, but not with one
against the other for our mutual destruction."
The imperialist in America's favorite pilot was rearing its ugly head. While his
public posturing was that of a staunch isolationist, Cole explains that the Colonel
believed that the U.S. should construct and maintain air bases in "Newfoundland,
Canada, the West Indies, parts of South America, Central America, the Galapagos Islands,
the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska."
In his diaries, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels highly praised Lindbergh on several
occasions. Here's a sampling:
April 19, 1941: "Public opinion in the USA is beginning to waver. The Isolationists are very active. Colonel Lindbergh is sticking stubbornly and with great courage to his old opinions. A man of honor!"
April 30, 1941: "Lindbergh has written a really spirited letter to Roosevelt. He is the president's toughest opponent. He asked us not to give him too much prominence, since this could harm him. We have proceeded accordingly."
June 8, 1941: "These American Jews want war. And when the time comes they will choke on it. Read a brilliant letter from Lindbergh to all Americans. It really tells the Interventionists where to get off. Stylistically magnificent. The man has something."4
Lindbergh may have
had "something," but it definitely wasn't much in the way of reservations
concerning Germany's behavior. The best America's most famous navigator could muster
was this tepid disclaimer: "They [the Nazis] undoubtedly have a difficult
Jewish problem, but why is it necessary to handle it so unreasonably?"
After a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Colonel quickly became a target of derision.
Popular opinion turned against him, and even FDR confided to his Secretary of the
Treasury, Henry Morganthau, Jr., that "If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know
this. I absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi."
The "Lindbergh Beacon" that sat atop a Chicago skyscraper was quickly renamed
"Palmolive Beacon," and the Colorado Rockies mountain dubbed "Lindbergh
Park" after his cross-Atlantic flight was judiciously rechristened "Lone Eagle
Peak."
However, in the end, the damage Lindbergh did to his image was eventually forgiven thanks
to the stories of his combat missions in the Pacific war.
"His heroics kept his reputation intact," says Davis.
Hero, isolationist, Nazi apologist, anti-Semite, a figure of national controversy, and
then hero again, Colonel Lindbergh's career trajectory was indeed hard to follow.
But perhaps and April 25, 1941 editorial in the Daily Worker captured the true
essence of his durability when it labeled him "a reactionary imperialist, part and
parcel of the same imperialist class which runs the show at Washington, he just happens to
have a difference of opinion with them at the moment on how best to go about expanding the
American empire, and preparing for war against the Soviet Union."
Notes:
1. Cole, Wayne S., Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American
Intervention in World War II (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), p.
137.
2. Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You
Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (New York: Avon
Books, 1990), p. 283.
3. Reeve Lindbergh wrote about his father in a special edition of Time
magazine (June 14, 1999) p. 75.
4. Taylor, Fred, ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 1939-1941 (London H. Hamilton,
1982) pp. 322, 341, 400-1.
Originally appeared in Saving Private
Power: The Hidden History of "The Good War". Soft Skull Press, 100 Suffolk
St., New York, NY 10002. web: www.softskull.com.
email: sander@softskull.com.