I'm John Batchel with visiting with Professor H.W. Brands.

His new book is America First Roosevelt versus Lindberg in the shadow of war.

Poland's cut up. The people of the bloodlands are massacred.

Some of this is known. It's generally understood that the Hitlerites are hostile,

but then, again, so are the Stalinists. This is a part of the war where Germany and Russia

seem to be cooperating. However, watching this from America, FDR, knows that he needs to adjust the Neutrality Act. And he's in correspondence with

the man who's become the first Lord of the Admiralty again, whom we all know is the hero of

the Second War, Winston Churchill. However, the relationship between FDR and Winston Churchill is transactional. They both want something

from each other, and they carry on a correspondence beginning 1940, early in 1940,

while Roosevelt is trying to convince Congress to let him adjust the Neutrality Act. I'm interested in how

Lindbergh was viewing all this. He's visiting with senior members of Congress, some very

famous senators, Burton Wheeler, Gerald Nye, Robert Bora himself, for heaven's sakes, you know, the man who connects us to

TR. What are the senators telling him? What do they want from him, Professor? Well, the first thing

that they're telling him is don't trust Roosevelt. They didn't trust Roosevelt. They believe that

Roosevelt was saying one thing while aiming to do

something else. So upon the outbreak of war, Roosevelt requests that Congress modify the

neutrality legislation. I should add here that Congress had passed a series of law starting in

1935 to prevent exactly those steps that had led gradually the United States into war the

first time around. So, for example, selling weapons to belligerents, making loans to the

belligerents, American nationals sailing on the ships of belligerents. And each one of those

contributed to America's entry into the first World War.

So Congress wrote a series of laws saying, you can't do that.

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