I'm John Batchew with Professor H.W. Brands, Bill Brands. America First is the book, Roosevelt versus

Lindbergh in The Shadow of War. This is like a drama, a play, in which the two principles

each can take the stage alternately, and they're playing often to the same foils, the same chorus.

This time it's Congress, before it was the American people.

The date I have is 1.1541.

Congressman Bloom invites Lindberg to testify to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Senate within 24 or 48 hours, the same invitation. And at the end, there's applause as Lindberg stands up. He talks about

what needs to be done to defend America. We don't need to send troops to Europe. Professor, at this

point, I worried about Lindbergh.

He's in over his head.

Does he know it?

He's in over his head politically.

He's beginning to realize that Roosevelt is really good at politics, of making things in politics happen the way he wants them to happen.

Lindberg recognizes that he's a bit of a babe in the woods politically,

but he takes a certain pride in that very innocence or naivete because it means that he hasn't succumbed to the culture of

politics in the way Roosevelt has. So he likes to think of himself as this person who stands aside

and speaks the truth as he sees it without shading it in one direction or another. So that's the position

that he takes. Now, he still gets a hearing in Congress because there are still opponents of

Roosevelt. By this time, they're nearly all Republicans, and they have it against Roosevelt on

partisan grounds as well as on policy grounds.

And of course, in politics, it's always impossible to tease out entirely what's personal and what's political.

But they bring Lindberg forward not because of his views on politics, but because of his expertise on matters of air warfare.

...