America First

America First. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, thereby unleashing World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to aid the Allies by such means as cash‐and‐carry (September 1939) and the exchange of fifty American destroyers for eight British bases in the Western hemisphere (September 1940). In the summer of 1940, amid rumors of increased shipments of American ships, tanks, and aircraft to Britain, Yale law student R. Douglas Stuart Jr. organized the Emergency Committee to Defend America First, which late in August renamed itself the America First Committee (AFC). The AFC was the primary “isolationist” organization that led opposition to Roosevelt's interventionist measures during 1940 and 1941.

Chaired by Sears Roebuck executive Robert E. Wood, the AFC included such diverse members as journalist John T. Flynn, retired diplomat William R. Castle, former New Dealer Hugh Johnson, advertising executive Chester Bowles, textile manufacturer William H. Regnery, and Chicago financier Sterling Morton. Stuart became executive secretary. Aviator Charles Lindbergh, who joined the AFC national committee in April 1941, was its chief drawing card, though he dealt the committee a severe blow that September by publicly claiming that Jews as a group sought full‐scale American participation in the war. A staff composed of socialists, pacifists, and liberals prepared its position papers. At its peak in 1941, the AFC had 450 chapters, a membership of 850,000, and an income of $370,000 donated by 25,000 contributors. Huge AFC rallies featured such speakers as Lindbergh, Flynn, Senator Burton K. Wheeler (Dem.–MT), Senator Gerald P. Nye (Rep.–ND), Representative Hamilton Fish (Rep.–NY), and socialist leader Norman Thomas. Although unable to defeat Roosevelt on any specific issue, the AFC undoubtedly caused him to be more circumspect on such matters as extending terms for draftees and convoying British vessels. The AFC disbanded after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
See also Isolationism.

Bibliography

Wayne S. Cole , America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940–1941, 1953.
Justus D. Doenecke, ed., In Danger Undaunted: The Anti‐Interventionist Movement as Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee, 1990.

Justus D. Doenecke