Reflections on History
Shwu Lih Lin
Most people have heard, to some extent , about the achievements of Charles Lindbergh. The most unforgettable among them was surely his solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. At a time when aviation was still in its infancy, he navigated the vast unknown without sleep or rest and, after 36 hours, landed at a small airfield near Paris. From that point on, the dramatic and often tragic events of his life, together with those of his writer wife, became the focus of worldwide attention.
The kidnapping and murder of their infant son led the Lindbergh family to move to England in 1935, where they came into contact with influential political and social figures throughout Europe. Lindbergh was disappointed by Britain and France, both weakened after World War I. In contrast, Nazi Germany’s elite air force fascinated him and seemed to lift him from his personal grief. Under Hitler’s leadership, Germany had already reinstated conscription, expanded its military, and occupied the demilitarized Rhineland along the German-French border, actions that clearly violated the terms of the post-World War I peace treaties.
The United States, meanwhile, had entered World War I in 1917 in response to German provocations, eventually mobilizing four million soldiers and suffering more than 110,000 deaths. Yet after the war, the Treaty of Versailles failed to gain approval in U.S. Congress. Furthermore, since the stock market crash of 1929, the nation remained engulfed in the Great Depression. As militarism rose in Japan, Germany, and Italy, the long-standing American tradition of isolationism gained increasing support. Under pressure from many sectors of society, Congress repeatedly debated the matter and eventually passed the Neutrality Acts, which prohibited loans and arms sales to foreign nations. However, after Britain and France declared war on Germany, the legislation was amended to permit arms sales on a cash-and-carry basis, provided the buyers were not aggressor nations.
Upon returning to the United States in 1939, Lindbergh observed that the government’s neutrality policy was beginning to soften. He soon used radio broadcasts to advocate anti-war views. Despite this, President Franklin D. Roosevelt continued to value Lindbergh’s expertise and pushed Congress for substantial funding to build up America’s air power. Had Lindbergh supported Roosevelt’s efforts, he might well have become the first Secretary of the Air Force (at that time, the Air Force was still part of the Army). Unfortunately, the two men held vastly different assessments of the rapidly deteriorating global situation.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, a Democrat, appointed the pro-British Republican Henry Stimson as Secretary of War. Roosevelt worked tirelessly to persuade the anti-war Congress to revise existing laws and eventually secured passage of the far-reaching Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. This legislation authorized the President to provide supplies and weapons to countries such as Britain, the Soviet Union, and China in their struggle against Nazi Germany.
Lindbergh, however, regarded Stalin’s communist bloc as the greatest threat to Western civilization. He believed that a strong Germany would help defend Europe’s superior race and culture. As a result, he joined the America First Committee and became one of the most prominent spokespersons of the anti-war movement. In a speech delivered in September 1941 in Des Moines, Iowa, he sharply criticized American Jews, accusing them of using their influence to push the United States toward war for their own interests. This speech triggered a fierce backlash from the media and significantly damaged his reputation.
Undeterred, Lindbergh publicly challenged President Roosevelt, leading ultimately to his decision to resign as a colonel in the military reserves. Then, in December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered World War II. At that point, Lindbergh expressed his willingness to serve his country, only to find that Roosevelt had blocked every avenue for his return to military service.
I find it meaningful, and more engaging, to use influential historical figures as windows into the eras they lived in. Over the years, among the individuals I have studied are Che Guevara, the revolutionary of Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s, and T.E. Lawrence, who, on behalf of United Kingdom, helped the Arab fighting for independence during World War I. Their stories deeply fascinated me. They inspired my interest in Latin America and Middle East, as well deepened the understanding of great-power politics. Yet Lindbergh’s life intersected with events of even greater significance in modern history and therefore merits special attention.
A. Scott Berg, whose biography Lindbergh won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1998, once remarked that Lindbergh’s life provides an ideal lens through which to view the “American Century.” Indeed, this observation rings true. Beginning in 2019, I studied Berg’s book extensively, supplementing it with online resources and Lynne Olson’s Those Angry Days. I prepared a slideshow presentation and was invited by the Happy Life Club of New Jersey to give a lecture. Using Lindbergh’s life as the chronological framework and the major historical developments he witnessed as thematic threads, I sought to sketch the political and aviational history of America before and during World War II. I also included contemporaries such as Ernest Hemingway and Henry Guggenheim to enrich the audience’s sense of the era. This time, my emphasis was on historical realism.
By 2023, the devastation of the global pandemic had finally begun to subside, and preparations for the traditional East Coast Taiwanese Summer Camp resumed with great enthusiasm. I recalled having given a lecture there in 2010 on “Lawrence of Arabia and Arab independence”, which was warmly received. With the approval of the 2023 organizers, I presented another lecture entitled “The Aviator Hero Charles Lindbergh and America of His Time.”
I had thought that preparing the lecture for a second time would be easy. However, many details had faded from memory, and the emotional urgency and realism I once felt were no longer as vivid. I therefore decided not only to review my existing notes but also to conduct additional online research. By then, ChatGPT had become widely known and was already transforming the way people gather and use information. I explored it briefly and concluded that although it possessed enormous potential, its content still required careful verification.
One particularly interesting symposium I encountered during this preparation was held in 2019 by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs to mark the centennial of the Treaty of Versailles. Several experts discussed the treaty’s lasting impact on the modern world.
A Japanese American scholar from the City University of New York, Seiji Shirane, noted that Japan, one of the victorious powers after World War I, proposed a racial equality clause during the Versailles negotiations. According to Wikipedia, the proposal was supported by eleven of the seventeen participating nations, including France and China. Nevertheless, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson rejected it on the grounds that such a complex issue required unanimous approval. To compensate Japan for this disappointment, the great powers agreed to transfer Germany’s interests in China’s Shandong province to Japan. It is not difficult to imagine how deeply this rejection affected Japan and how it may have provided further justification for its later pursuit of the so-called “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Some historians have argued that the incident intensified Japan’s resentment toward the West.
Lindbergh died in 1974, yet he remains a controversial figure. Being labeled a “fellow traveler of the Nazis” seems to have become an inescapable part of his legacy. However, if we examine his anti-war arguments objectively, we find that many reflected opinions held by influential Western figures of the time. The renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes, for example, argued that the victorious powers imposed excessively harsh penalties on Germany after World War I, thereby planting the seeds of future disaster. During the Nazi conquest of Europe, General Albert Wedemeyer, who later served as commander of U.S. forces in China, considered the Soviet Union to be the West’s primary enemy. Furthermore, how should humanity confront ideas of racial or national superiority, including those associated with Jewish exceptionalism? Are such attitudes really the sins of only a few individuals or nations?
During World War II, Lindbergh was employed by Henry Ford, who shared many of his views, and contributed to the design and testing of bombers. Outside official channels, he also traveled to the Pacific theater, where he conducted approximately fifty combat-related flight evaluations. After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, Lindbergh gradually regained access to government service. He traveled to postwar Germany to assess German missile and aircraft technology and personally witnessed the horrific consequences of Nazi oppression of the Jews. From 1947 to 1957, he served as a special consultant to the U.S. Air Force and received numerous honors.
In the final twenty years of his life, Lindbergh devoted himself to environmental conservation and wildlife protection. He frequently ventured into remote wilderness areas and lived among indigenous peoples. It seems that the Lindbergh who once embraced notions of racial superiority was capable of reflection and change.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States had no choice but to enter World War II. Through the Lend-Lease Act, America supplied the Allied nations with vital materials and weapons, a key factor in the defeat of the Axis powers. Beyond Britain, the Soviet Union was one of the greatest beneficiaries of this aid.
Eighty years later, looking around the world, one cannot help but observe that Russia and China, heirs to communist systems, are often viewed by many as among the greatest challenges facing the free world. Taiwan continues to face pressure and infiltration from the Chinese Communist regime. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces, supported by democratic nations, mounted a determined resistance. The conflict continues, while Europe, shocked by the invasion, has been rearming itself. Looking back at Lindbergh’s once-condemned warnings, one cannot help but reflect on the ironies of history.
World War II’s massive mobilization rescued the United States from years of economic depression. Blessed with abundant resources and a talented, diverse population, America not only led the Allied victory but also helped rebuild Europe through the Marshall Plan. General Douglas MacArthur oversaw Japan’s postwar transformation. This time, unlike after World War I, the United States did not severely punish the defeated nations. Instead, it provided economic assistance. Compared with the post-World War I scramble by Britain and France to divide the spoils of the Middle East, this represented a remarkable step forward in human history. America, favored by fortune, did not fail the mission that history had entrusted to it.
Clash of civilization, competition among great powers, and inequalities in material conditions seem destined to persist. The United States, long celebrated as a “melting pot,” has offered unprecedented opportunities to countless immigrants. Yet it has also left behind painful stains through its mistreatment of different racial groups. In recent years, I have noticed the rapid emergence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committees across the nation.
Can humanity learn wisdom from history? I certainly hope so. We need not look far. Modern history alone demonstrates undeniable progress. Temporary setbacks may last years or even generations, but from a long-term evolutionary perspective, they may represent only transitional periods in which humanity takes two steps forward and one step back.
Whatever the case, there is no reason for humanity to despair.
Aug. 15, 2024
The Chinese version of this article was shared on the website of Greater New York Region Overseas Taiwanese Pen Club (2024 Article): 飛行英雄林白與當年的美國 -讀史感懷-
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