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- Charles
Lindbergh
- American
Aviator, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author, Environmentalist
- Rare
Document Signed Check Signed
- To
the 'America First Committee'
-
 Charles
Lindbergh (1902-1972). Pioneer
American Aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop
flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, Pulitzer Prize Winning
Author, Environmentalist.
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- Extraordinarily Rare Document Signed
Check to the America First Committee, dated
May 26, 1941, payable to Mr. Charles Lindbergh and endorsed to
the 'America First Committee.' Signed: "C.A. Lindbergh"
.
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- The America First movement was an isolationist
group that opposed United States involvement in World War II.
The America First Committee (AFC) was founded in September of
1940 not long after Germany's invasion of Poland. While the America
First Committee had its share of prominent businessmen as well
as the sympathies of political figures like Senator Burton K.
Wheeler or Senator Gerald P. Nye, and future President Gerald
Ford, no one figure was more representative of the movement than
Charles A. Lindbergh. The heart of Lindbergh's arguments, as
it would be in his America First speeches, was his advocacy of
a hemispheric defense.
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- In one of the more conflicting and controversial
periods of his long public career, as Nazi Germany began World
War II, Lindbergh became a prominent speaker in favor of an isolationist
policy, which was construed as being overly or pro-German, and
latent with anti-Semitism. On January 23, 1941, Lindbergh testified
before Congress and recommended that the United States negotiate
a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler. At a rally in Des Moines,
Iowa, on September 11, 1941, he accused "the Jewish race"
of being behind the drive to have America enter World War II
on the side of Allies. His isolationist policies led to resigning
his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps when President Franklin
D. Roosevelt openly questioned his loyalty.
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- That said, after the attack on Pearl Harbor
in 1941, he attempted to return to the Army Air Corps, but was
denied when several of Roosevelt's cabinet secretaries registered
objections. He went on to assist with the war effort by serving
as a civilian consultant to aviation companies and the government,
as well as flying about 50 combat missions (again as a civilian)
in 1944 in the Pacific. His contributions include engine-leaning
techniques that Lindbergh showed P-38 Lightning pilots. This
significantly increased their range.
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- A remarkable piece of history, essential
for any Lindbergh collector. Intermittent punch holes, otherwise,
very good. $2,500.
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