America First Committee

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AMERICA FIRST COMMITTEE

AMERICA FIRST COMMITTEE (AFC). Founded in 1940 to fight against U.S. participation in World War II, the AFC initially enjoyed the backing of Henry Ford and the historian Charles A. Beard. Isolationists in all parts of the United States were involved, but the committee was especially active in Chicago. Indeed, the entire American Midwest stood as one of the strongholds of isolationist feeling. After Charles Lindbergh, an AFC leader, made what was widely considered an anti-Semitic speech in September 1941, the organization began to decline. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 only further eroded support for the America First Committee and similar isolationist pressure groups.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Doenecke, Justus D., ed. In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940–1941 As Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1990.

WayneAndrews/a. e.

See alsoIsolationism ; andvol. 9:America First .