America First Committee [against intervention in European war with Germany]

Aediles Posts : 59 Join date : 2021-09-10

Formed in September 1940, its purpose was to mobilise public opinion in America against joining the war against Nazi Germany in Europe, it fought to preserve traditional American non-entanglement in Europe's quarrels. The founder of America First was a graduate at Yale law school R. Douglas Stuart Jr, by consulting leading isolationists in Congress, and using family connections with prominent businessmen in Chicago, he drew together the diverse voices of non-intervention.

America Firsters were strong nationalists, and like many Americans they were suspicious of Europe, they were quite happy with the selling of arms to Britain on a “cash and carry” basis , but did not see Britain as an asset to American security, and Nazi Germany in their view was no threat to it. They believed America should build up its own military force primarily for national defence, in addition relying on their far distance from Europe as a protection, involvement in that area they further believed, would weaken American democracy.

As the European war gathered pace America First began to fight an uphill battle, it was hard to argue that the USA would be safer in the long run defending its own side of the Atlantic, than by keeping the war on the other side by supporting Britain and later the Soviet Union, especially when U-boats were already sinking ships close to American shores.

Adding to the problems of America First were the contradictory views of its members, its core was the anti-New deal Republicans, this conservatism sat poorly with liberals who had joined the movement mainly through fear that foreign involvement would wreck their domestic reform agenda. Though unwelcome to America First leadership, pro-Nazi and fascist organisations started to infiltrate local branches. One prominent America First speaker proved to be a German agent. The Anglophobia of many America Firsters was also a handicap at a time when much sympathy existed for the UK's plight.

Most damaging to the committee however, was the reputation it earned for anti-Semitism, as a result of Charles Lindbergh's speech at a America First meeting on 11 September 1941, when he expressed sympathy for the Jew hatred of Nazi Germany, he warned against agitating for war.

Despite its weaknesses and embarrassments America First fought on, but by the time of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, things began to turn against the isolationist bloc, its fight represented the last stand of American detachment from world politics, it was disbanded after Pearl Harbour.

Summing up, it is hard to see many strategic reasons for America going to war against Germany, until December 11 1941 when Hitler declared war on the U.S., even after Pearl Harbour a few days earlier, war against Germany did not seem desirable. Roosevelt's policy despite personal reservations was up-to Pearl Harbour, and probably until the German declaration of war, broadly isolationist. Some might even query why America got so heavily involved in the European theatre of operations after December 11 1941, and why they did not direct all their resources towards the war against Japan.

On 16 May 1940 President Roosevelt put before Congress the proposal to construct the world’s largest military-industrial complex, a manufacturing base capable of supplying the United States with 50,000 aircraft per year. The Luftwaffe and the RAF never conceived of aircraft production on this scale. ‘Fifty thousand per year’ was less a planning target than a statement of American industrial supremacy. A few weeks later, Congress approved the Two Oceans Navy Expansion Act, which laid the foundations for vast fleets with which the United States could project its force into every corner of the globe. There followed over the summer the unprecedented introduction of a peacetime draft, designed to raise a trained force of 1.4 million men. By 1941, despite being at peace, the USA was producing almost as much weaponry as either Germany or Britain and was doing so whilst at the same time enjoying the first sustained increase in civilian consumption since the late 1920s.

According to Adam Tooze (2007) ‘The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy’, Roosevelt wanted the USA to be a position to make a major to an air war against Germany since at least November 1938. By the autumn of 1940, following the Tripartite Pact signed between Japan, Italy and Germany on 27 September 1940, Roosevelt was able to convince a large majority of Americans that they had a stake in Britain’s survival. The Tripartite Pact committed the three nations to mutual assistance if they were attacked by a power not currently involved in the war. Since the USSR was explicitly excluded from the terms of the agreement, this was clearly directed against the United States. In Washington it was seen as confirming the aggressive intentions of the Axis powers and it served only to reinforce Roosevelt’s growing commitment to Britain. Once re-elected in November 1940, Roosevelt openly committed America to providing Britain with ‘all support short of war’. The British would fight with American weapons.

On 31 July 1940 Hitler emphasized to his generals that the Soviet Union would have to be eliminated. ‘Britain’s hope lies in Russia and the United States. If Russia drops out of the picture, America, too is lost for Britain, because elimination of Russia would tremendously increase Japan’s power in the Far East.’ Russia, according to Hitler, was the ‘Far Eastern sword of Britain and the United States,’ a spearhead pointed at Japan. Attacking and decisively defeating the Soviet Union in 1941 would remove this. If Britain did choose to continue the war and if there was a USA-Japanese war, complete control of the Eurasian landmass would secure for Germany the resources it needed for a trans-Atlantic confrontation. As Hitler put it on 9 January 1941, after the conquest of Lebensraum in the East, Germany would be ready for a ‘war against continents’. It was this vision of a combined Japanese-German war on Britain and America to which he returned six months later in July 1941 when he proposed to the Japanese ambassador an offensive alliance against the United States.

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America First Committee [against intervention in European war with Germany]

America First Committee [against intervention in European war with Germany]

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