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In addition to his autobiography, I’ve read 2 acclaimed biographies of Lindbergh. Lindbergh was without doubt a flawed and failed human being.

Yes, Lindbergh once expressed some comments that could be construed as anti-Semitic — as did many men of that day — but Lindbergh had no sympathies for Nazism as is frequently claimed by many historians. Yet Lindbergh’s main sin was he was an outspoken critic of Roosevelt’s New Deal and publicly stated that he believed the progressive hero FDR was secretly maneuvering to embroil the United States into another European war.

Viewing Lindbergh as a political rival, FDR held a grudge against him and would not allow the Army to reinstate Lindbergh’s commission after the United States declared war on Japan. Yet undaunted, Lindbergh was hired by the Army Air Corps as a civilian contractor and pilot, quietly helping to develop such notable airplanes as the Army B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the Navy F4U Corsair.

It is you who should educate yourself and quit lapping up agit-prop from the Smithsonian Institute — a “woke” bastion of political correctness if one ever existed. A good starting point would be Lindberg by A. Scott Berg.

Thank you for that - He was a hero of mine as a child growing up in the late 40s - then in college I learned about his NAZI tendencies and felt betrayed. Never did any research but never heard a defense of him until /\ this /\ post

I need to do some reading - thanks for the input ===> one way or the other.

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Posted by Toomer Deplorable

Team Bitter Clinger

Member since May 2020

17987 posts

Posted on 7/4/20 at 9:57 am to ChineseBandit58

quote:
Thank you for that - He was a hero of mine as a child growing up in the late 40s - then in college I learned about his NAZI tendencies and felt betrayed. Never did any research but never heard a defense of him until /\ this /\ post

I need to do some reading - thanks for the input ===> one way or the other.

Well, Lindbergh’s public comments about the Jewish influence in the media were no doubt an unfortunate occurrence at a time of heightened tensions over the looming war in Europe. And Lindbergh faced a tremendous public backlash for those comments at the time.

Yet Jimmy Stewart, a fine American hero in his own right, believed that because of Charles Lindbergh’s heroic contribution to the war effort, Lindbergh deserved to once again be honored as the American hero that he was. Stewart thus lobbied to make a film based on Lindbergh’s famed solo flight across the Atlantic.

Stewart so believed in the project that he forwent his salary and negotiated to be paid by a share of the ticket receipts. This was a highly unusual move for a movie-star of Stewart’s stature but it speaks to the high esteem that Jimmy Stewart — and indeed many Americans — held Lindbergh.

Lindbergh indeed should be judged by the totality of his life — not the orchestrated smear campaign that has attempted to define him solely by an unfortunate choice of words at a time when the entire nation was deeply divided about the prospect of entering yet another European war. Charles Lindbergh is a great American hero whose bravery was not simply limited to his famed flight across the Atlantic.

Whistling Death: The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair....Charles Lindberg in Combat With the F4U

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Lindbergh as a civilian pilot with Marine Corps pilots and a F4U Corsair in the South Pacific, WII.

.... It was the Corsair that led to famed aviator Charles Lindbergh’s combat role in World War II. Blackballed by the White House and U.S. Army Air Forces commander General Henry H. Arnold because of his outspoken opposition to U.S. involvement in the war in Europe and the prewar resignation of his commission as a colonel in the Army Air Corps, Lindbergh sought a position in the aviation industry. In early 1942 United Aircraft President Eugene Wilson, a friend of Lindbergh’s, offered him a position with the company, but the offer was withdrawn due to pressure from the White House.

Lindbergh instead went to work for Henry Ford, who had no fear of the Roosevelt Administration and whose huge company was badly needed to produce war materials, including Consolidated Aircraft Company’s B-24 Liberator, Republic’s P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, and Pratt & Whitney’s family of engines. After Lindbergh became involved in high-altitude research work in fighters, Wilson reconsidered his relationship with the White House and asked Lindbergh to come to work for him in the Corsair program. At first, Lindbergh went back and forth between the two companies, but by the spring of 1944 he was working solely for United in research and development. As an experienced military pilot, he flew Corsairs on maneuvers with Marine units and on one occasion engaged two of the Corps’ best fighter pilots in a mock dogfight and beat them both. He was a man who knew the Corsair, and the leaders of Marine Aviation knew it.

Lindbergh’s involvement with the Corsair placed him in contact with many members of the military, and in the spring of 1944 he attended a meeting with Marine Corps representatives in Washington, D.C. During the course of the meeting, Lindbergh mentioned that United was getting conflicting reports on the capabilities of single- and twin-engine fighters, and he thought it would be a good idea for someone with considerable Corsair experience to visit Marine units in the Pacific and observe combat operations firsthand.

Marine Brig. Gen. Louis Wood said, “Why don’t you go?” Lindbergh replied that his relationship with the White House was not very good. Wood said that the White House did not need to know and that he would make the necessary arrangements for the trip.

In April 1944, Lindbergh left for the South Pacific as a Corsair technical representative with authorization to fly missions as an observer. The first leg of the journey was a cross-country flight to deliver a Corsair to the Marine airfield at El Toro, California. He remained in California for a few days, visiting Marine fighter squadrons and talking to the pilots. His next stop was Hawaii, where he took time to visit bases and meet with fighter pilots, including a visit to Midway atoll before continuing to the South Pacific. He visited with Marine squadrons out of Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal, and he started flying combat missions out of Green Island on May 22.

At first, there was some reluctance by senior Marine officers to allow a civilian to fly combat missions, but when a few flights to test the water produced no repercussions, the Lone Eagle was turned loose in South Pacific skies. By June 10, he had flown 13 missions, including escort missions and strafing attacks on Japanese barges. Lindbergh left the Marines for a while to fly P-38s with the Army, but stopped off for a few more weeks with Marine squadrons at Kwajalein and Tarawa before he returned to the United States. He intended to spend a few days in Guam, but decided to stop in the Marshall Islands first.

During his second visit with the Marines, the veteran aviator taught Corsair pilots new techniques for dive-bombing and convinced them that the fighter could carry much larger bombs than they believed. He proved to the Marines that the Corsair could carry a 3,000-pound bomb load on September 3, 1944, when he dropped three 1,000-pound bombs on Wotje Atoll. On September 8, he dropped the first 2,000-pound bomb ever delivered by a Corsair in another attack on Wotje. Five days later, he upped the ante to 4,000 pounds when he took off with one 2,000-pound bomb and two 1,000-pounders to drop in another attack.

Lindbergh also taught the Marines how to conserve fuel by operating at lower rpms and higher manifold pressure, a technique that extended the combat range of the fighters by several hundred miles. He had taught the same technique to Army pilots, a technique that allowed fighter pilots to escort bombers much deeper into Japanese territory than they had ever gone.....