There was debate whether or not Iraq should be invaded or if soldiers should remain in Afghanistan. People looked back at World War 2 and viewed that war as a war that was both good and just. The American involvement in the war was deemed necessary; however, it wasn’t as simple as one may believe.
The American people were divided in the decision to send military aide. There was even more discontent when the subject of actually joining Britain and France in the war. Only when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and Germany declared war on the United States did the Americans decide it was time to enter the war. Up until that moment, America was divided between isolating themselves and intervening.
Lynne Olson penned a book, Those Angry Days, that describes the inner workings behind the debates of the US entering the war, npr reports.
In her book, she describes Presidents Roosevelt’s desire to intervene, whereas Charles Lindbergh urged the nation to remain solitary and isolate themselves from the conflict.
Lindbergh was often painted as a Nazi sympathizer, however the accusations weren’t entirely true. While the man was a racist and shared the view that whites were superior to those who were not of the same race, he did not condone what the Germans were doing.
When the US entered the war, Lindbergh wanted to fly for his nation. Roosevelt did not allow Lindbergh to fly, however Lindbergh had friends who arranged for him to act as a civilian consultant to fly testing planes in the South Pacific.
“Charles Lindbergh was never happier than in a cockpit,” Olson says. ” … He didn’t really like politics at all, but [the cockpit] was his place.”
