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N 45° 59.193′ W 94° 22.295′
Prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, a debate raged across America over the possibility of intervention in the war. The Germans had invaded France and Britain seemed on the verge of defeat at the hands of Hitler, but a strong isolationist impulse remained in the United States. "America First," a prominent anti-interventionist organization, believed that America needed to focus on its own defense rather than engage in a futile attempt to battle the Axis Powers. Trusting that the Western Hemisphere could be made safe from outside threats, America First members urged energy to be channeled into what they termed "Fortress America."
One of the most prominent spokesmen for America First, Charles A. Lindbergh vehemently argued that no successful air attack could ever be carried out against America. As the first man to make the transatlantic flight, Lindbergh brought instant credibility to the organization. He had served as a key intelligence source for the U. S. government, performing extensive inspections of the German, Russian, British, and French air forces. His investigations into foreign air power, which included test flights of Luftwaffe airplanes, led him to conclude that America could rest easy about the possibility of a German air threat.
Lindbergh's isolationism was partly influenced by his Swedish-born father's opposition to Wilsonian foreign policy during World War I. The elder Lindbergh believed that American involvement in the war was linked to Wall Street and amounted to an effort to further pad the pocketbooks of financiers and captains of industry. Charles Lindbergh, on the other hand, argued more from the standpoint that America was incapable of military victory in the European theater. He, like other America First adherents, believed that the fate of Europe would not adversely affect the quality of life in the United States regardless of who emerged victorious. Lindbergh's speech on 23 April 1941 was merely one of many that he gave across the country, but his popularity would wane after anti-Semitism crept into an 11 September speech of that year in Des Moines, Iowa. He soon became branded as a modern "copper-head." Subsequently, President Franklin D. Roosevelt waged a public campaign against Lindbergh and America First.
Paul S.Bartels,
Villanova University
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Welcome to the Little Falls Area! We have a series of caches dedicated to the people that have and are making the area a great part of the Minnesota quilt. These caches are placed under the name TeamGeoPilot in honor of our team of Cache Hiders! Enjoy and hopefully you will all be Little Falls experts after you search these out.