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The Maddeningly Familiar Naivety of “America First”
History often rhymes, but sometimes it has to repeat itself.
On September 4th, 1940, almost a year to the day after Hitler invaded Poland, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, communists and anti-communists, joined forces to prevent America’s involvement in WWII.
They called themselves the America First Committee (AFC).
At its peak, AFC membership exceeded 800,000 people, they had 450 chapters across the United States, and they organised protests through the streets waving slogans like, “Let’s Stay Out Of Europe’s War,” and, “Why Not Peace With Hitler?"
Sure, some of their Hitler-friendly leaders turned out to be raving antisemites and would-be fascists, admittedly, Hitler wasn’t a paragon of morals and decency, and yes, millions of Europeans were busy dying to prevent the Nazis from taking over.
But the AFC was confident that a British defeat to the Nazis posed no threat to American national security, there was no need to waste their taxpayer’s dollars on military aid to the United Kingdom, after all, they assured themselves, all that fuss happening on the other side of the big, beautiful ocean had nothing to do with them.
