The history of the America First movement

In the aftermath of World War I, Americans were very leery of getting involved in another World War. When war began again in Europe in September 1939, most Americans demanded neutrality regarding the war. The America First Committee was established on September 4, 1940, in response to the neutrality efforts. A group of Yale law students established the committee including; R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., future U.S. President Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. 

Prominent business people and politicians agreed with the committees cause and soon joined on. Senators Burton K. Wheeler, David I. Walsh and Gerald P. Nye joined the movement. Soon celebrities like Charles A. Lindbergh, Lillian Gish and Frank Lloyd Wright also joined the movement. Another future U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, donated $100 to the committee. America First chose General Robert E. Wood who was the chairperson of Sears as its first president. 

The committee launched a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act and to force President Franklin D. Roosevelt to keep his pledge to keep America out of war. The committee distrusted Roosevelt and constantly argued he was lying to the American public.

At a committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa on September 11, 1941, Lindbergh gave a speech that significantly raised tensions against the group. Lindbergh identified the forces that were pulling for America to enter the war as the British, the Roosevelt administration, and American Jews. He argued that America’s entry into World War II wouldn’t really help the Jews. Lindbergh also argued that the greatest danger facing America is the large Jewish ownership and influence in motion pictures, press, radio and government.

Many interpreted the speech as anti-Semitic. Journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote in the New York Herald, “I am absolutely certain that Lindbergh is pro-Nazi.” 

American Communist who also opposed U.S. entry into the war joined the committee. After Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, their opinions changed, and they denounced the committee as a Nazi front. Pro Nazi sympathizers also joined as they liked the idea of America not being involved in World War II. 

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the committee reversed its viewpoint and supported the war effort. After the U.S. formally declared war on Japan, they disbanded the committee. The committee still insists that their principles were right and if the U.S. had followed the principles, it could have avoided war. 

At its peak, America First claimed 800,000 dues-paying members in 450 chapters. Illinois was the state with the largest membership with 135,000 members. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump revived the America First slogan during his presidential run in 2016. Trump promised that “America First would be the major and overriding theme” of his administration, and advocated nationalist and anti-interventionist positions. 

After Trump won the election, America First became the official foreign policy doctrine of the Trump administration. Trump even used the phrase in his inauguration address. President Trump introduced policies that would sever American dealings with the European Union. Many scholars and Jewish organizations criticized Trump’s use of the slogan because of the historical association with anti-Semitism. 

Trump’s “America First” policy was a major factor in the international isolation of the United States during the Trump policy. Now President Joe Biden discontinued many of Trump’s “America First” policies at the beginning of his presidency.

Mistakes were Made:

By the time of the 1930s, Americans were tired of war. The Spanish American and World War had cost the country thousands of lives and millions of dollars, and the American public thought we got little return for that investment. The problem was Fascism and military buildup ran rampant in Europe and Asia during this time frame. While the U.S. stayed out of world affairs, something evil brewed that would eventually get all the major countries in the world involved in a giant war. 

During the Trump administration, America First took on a new meaning. Instead of emphasizing isolationism and non-interventionism, this America First means withdrawing from international treaties and organizations. This way of thinking also followed over a decade of wars in the Middle East that cost thousands of U.S. Lives and billions of dollars with very little if any payoff for the average American. The issues this time is that nuclear weapons, terrorism, pandemics, climate change and cyber attacks are global issues. America ducking its head in the sand and playing solo won’t make these issues disappear. 

The new America First agenda has racist overtones just like the old one did. Anti-immigration, and building walls along the U.S./Mexico border are part of this new America First vision. The condemning of Black Lives Matter protests also plays into this new America First vision. America First = Make America white again among other things.

We’ve been down this road before with the America First movement and it ended with a whimper and apology about how wrong that line of thinking was. 90 years later its being revived under similar circumstances but with more of an economic/ immigration bend to it. Will it work? Probably not because most of the issues that face us are global and need to be dealt with a cooperative global strategy instead of the U.S. doing things solo.

The U.S. needs to be the beacon of progress, innovation and democracy it used to be in the past. Instead of reviving old failed policies, how about the U.S. be among the leaders in making our world a better place? The U.S. involving itself in costly long drawn out wars is outdated thinking, but it should stay involved in global issues that affect the fate of Americans and humanity.