Charles Lindbergh – Nazi Sympathizer?

America First?

It is hard to think of an aviator more recognizable than Charles Lindbergh, everyone knows of him even without knowing his exploits. He made the history books by making the first trans-Atlantic flight in The Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris and was considered a hero. Despite all of his achievements in the realm of aviation, Lindbergh became quite a controversial figure as WWII loomed.

In the late 1930s, Charles Lindbergh traveled to Germany on behalf of the United States Military. He met with many of Germany’s most prominent aviation figures such as Hermann Göring, Willy Messerschmitt, and Ernst Heinkel. Lindbergh had the opportunity to evaluate the Junkers Ju 88 and the Messerschmitt Bf-109 which he gave the highest praise. Lindberg was even presented with the Service Cross of the German Eagle on behalf of Adolf Hitler. Lindbergh considered moving his family to Germany but decided against it after learning the atrocities of Kristallnacht and the violence against the Jewish people.

Upon his return to the United States, Charles Lindbergh became one of the strongest voices of an American Isolationist policy as WWII broke out. His public speeches against providing aid to European nations, even implying that a Nazi domination of Europe would lead to a stronger conflict against communist Russia.

“I was deeply concerned that the potentially gigantic power of America, guided by uninformed and impractical idealism, might crusade into Europe to destroy Hitler without realizing that Hitler’s destruction would lay Europe open to the rape, loot and barbarism of Soviet Russia’s forces, causing possibly the fatal wounding of western civilization.”

– Charles Lindbergh

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Charles Lindberg did join the war effort in the Pacific as a consultant. He was unable to take up an active military role after his public stance was decried by President Roosevelt, however, he did fly combat missions as a “civilian.”

“If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this, I am absolutely convinced Lindbergh is a Nazi.”

– President Roosevelt (1941)

Charle’s Lindbergh’s reputation was tarnished by his viewpoint and made more public by his celebrity status. The Smithsonian Channel goes into further detail on Charles Lindbergh’s isolationist stance and time in Germany in this clip.