This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor. I welcome Professor H.W. Brands, Bill Brands,

his new book, America First, Roosevelt versus Lindberg, in the shadow of war.

It is April 1939.

A young man is exiting a transatlantic steamer,

and he's greeted by what appear to be a football team of flashbulbs,

popping as he walks off the police form a barrier for him to get off the ship.

His name is Charles Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy,

and he remarks in his diary,

and I have this thanks to the professor,

that the bulbs were popping so fast and they were smashing to the ground

that it was like walking across glass.

The excitement here is because of events in Europe and events in the United States that are about to lead to a huge controversy

based on the understanding of not going to war again as we did in 1917 because the American people

resented what they'd been told the war was for, the war to end all wars, the war to save

democracy, and the results had been the usual colonial empires battling each other for regions and space and resources in Europe

while America went home in grief.

Professor, congratulations.

This is an incredibly rich story with all kinds of connections about America and its reluctance to get involved in European wars.

Lindberg, at this point, he's 37 years old, and he's world famous.

Why? What is it that they're still celebrating about him 12 years after the Spirit of St. Louis

flew the Atlantic in a solo flight. Good evening

to you. Well, thank you. So the reason that Lindberg was famous in 1939 is precisely for what he did

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