This is John Batchel, speaking with Professor H.W. Brands, his new book, America First,

Roosevelt versus Lindberg in the shadow of the war. It's the story of Lucky Lindberg,

coming back to the United States in 1939, to assume the role of man who is anti-war because of the

experience of the first war, where tens of thousands

of Americans were killed, and Europe went back to its thieving colonial empire exploiting ways.

No improvement in democracy, no confidence that there wouldn't be another war, as there is imminent

in 1939. As Lindbergh returns.

He takes to the radio and here the professor explains his thinking about a private man going public.

Much more of this later in the week. H.W. Brands, Lindberg.

It's something that I wrestled with in writing this book,

because Lindberg says again and again, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, but he

does it again and again. So is he being perfectly honest with himself? Is there some aspect of

the fame, the notoriety that comes from being Charles Lindberg that he values.

Well, he certainly values it in the sense that it gives him a platform. He is, in essence,

a private figure. But when he calls up the mutual broadcasting system and CBS and other networks,

and says, I want to give a radio talk. They give him airtime.

You know, an ordinary person couldn't do this, but Charles Lindberg could because there would be an

audience. And so the broadcast would attract sponsors and would pay for itself. So he decides he

needs to do this because Lindberg's father had been a member of Congress,

and he had been opposed to American intervention in the First World War, and he had fallen

afoul of the Sedition Act of the First World War, and he had been driven out of politics for his,

well, what he thought were his independent views. And he had been driven out of politics for his, well, what he thought were his

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