When the United States first fought fascism
We’re joined by Paul M. Sparrow, former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, to discuss the subject of his exciting new book “Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR’s War on Words with Charles Lindbergh—and the Battle to Save Democracy” and how that battle is mirrored today with Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.
We also look at how Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s public emergence years after the tragic murder of their baby, when they became leading voices against American involvement in World War II, believing that democracy’s stint might be over and that totalitarianism was the wave of the future.
The Lindberghs were a stark contrast from FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, who used their voices to guide a nation to fight for democracy and freedom.
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It was written above that the Roosevelts “used their voices to guide a nation to fight for democracy and freedom.” Wasn’t this the same Roosevelt who used his Presidential powers to hold thousands of patriotic Japanese Americans prisoner in his WWII concentration camps? Some voice for democracy and freedom…
Author
I was specifically referring here to FDR’s ability to motivate the American people and military to fight for a clearly defined cause. FDR’s treatment of Japanese Americans was unquestionably deplorable and shouldn’t be forgotten. At the same time, his actions prepared the United States to fight the spread of a fascist regime (with actual death camps), and that shouldn’t be ignored or forgotten either.