1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitlerâthe Election Amid the Storm by Susan Dunn
Author:Susan Dunn [Dunn, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300195132
Google: 9ZUniR1uQcUC
Published: 2013-06-04T16:37:12+00:00
Chapter 17
Final Days, Final Words
WHAT CHANGE HAS COME OVER US?â demanded Charles Lindbergh in a nationwide radio address on October 14, at the height of the fall campaign season. âWhere is the blood of such leaders as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, blood that stood firm on American soil?â Whereas Roosevelt underscored that, no matter the race, color, or creed, âwe are American,â Lindbergh made blood the test of patriotism, loyalty, and leadership.
As if he were himself campaigning for the presidency, he regaled his audiences with his own formula for great leadership. âWe have not confidence in our leaders,â he said. âWe have not confidence in their efficiency or in their judgment,â in their ability to turn âadversity and hardship into virility and success.â Blood, efficiency, virility, success: Lindbergh injected all the fascist code-words into his prescription for American leadership.
Lindbergh insisted that âthe first step must be to assure ourselves of leadership which is entirely and unequivocally American,â as he told a radio audience three weeks before the November election. âThere must not be even the remotest question of foreign influence involved.â It was âamazing,â he said in his talk, that he was forced to âplead for American independence in a nation with a heritage such as ours.â Reminding his listeners that Americans had fought a revolutionary war against âforeign control,â he voiced dismay that the nationâs independence and destiny âwere never more in jeopardy than they are today.â In addition to stooping to the insinuation, long heard in conservative, anti-Semitic, and pro-fascist circles, that FDR had Jewish ancestors, that his real name was Rosenfeld, the aviator was also displaying his ignorance of the key roles that foreigners like Lafayette, General de Rochambeau, Admiral de Grasse and the French fleetâand even the Caribbean-born Alexander Hamilton himselfâplayed in the American War of Independence.
His thinking and values influenced by German Nazis and French fascists like his friend, the eugenicist Alexis Carrel, Lindbergh warned that the policies of interventionists like Roosevelt would be âfatal to our nation.â He urged Americans to vote for âmen, regardless of their party, who will lead us to strength and peace.â The United States desperately needed leaders âwhose promises we can trust, who know where they are taking us, and who tell us where we are going!â1
Despite his dread of a Roosevelt victoryââno one I know trusts Roosevelt,â he had written a few weeks earlierâLindbergh had minimal interest in endorsing the presidentâs rival and never even pronounced Willkieâs name in public. He supported the GOP candidate faute de mieuxââI wish that someday I could vote for a President in whose leadership I had real confidence,â he would write on Election Day.2 But his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was far more enthusiastic: she saw in the GOP candidate a perspicacious, forthright leader who knew where he wanted to take the nation. âAt least he knows we cannot turn backwards and has some conception of the forces of the future,â Anne wrote.3 Did she think that Willkie would subscribe to the
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