I understand Lindbergh was a hard core isolationist and spoke against American participation when WWII started in Europe.

Interesting. Lindbergh was anti-Semitic, isolationist, and very outspoken about staying out of the war in Europe. He was pro-Germany, if not outright pro-Nazi, in my opinion.

I've never heard that story, but given the panic of the days, I wouldn't be surprised if he was "invited" to stay out of the public eye for a while, when war broke out.

He never did support the war in Europe, but was an advisor for Lockheed in the Pacific theater, teaching pilots how to get maximum range from their planes.

He even flew missions in a P-38, and supposedly downed one Japanese fighter.

After the war, he had at least two secret German families and something like 7-8 kids with German women

CanyonAg77 said:

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He never did support the war in Europe, but was an advisor for Lockheed in the Pacific theater, teaching pilots how to get maximum range from their planes.

He even flew missions in a P-38, and supposedly downed one Japanese fighter.

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It was more wink, wink, nudge, nudge. He started out in F-4U Corsairs with the Marine Corps.

Charles Lindbergh in the Pacific

Excerpt:

"First one, then two pilots reported dwindling fuel and broke off for home. MacDonald ordered the squadron back but because Lindbergh had nursed his fuel, he asked for and received permission to continue the hunt with his wingman. After a few more strafing runs, Lindbergh noticed the other Lightning circling overhead. Nervously the pilot told Lindbergh that he had only 175 gallons of fuel left. The civilian told him to reduce engine rpms, lean out his fuel mixture, and throttle back. When they landed, the 431st driver had seventy gallons left, Lindbergh had 260. They had started the mission with equal amounts of gas.

Lindbergh talked with MacDonald. The colonel then asked the group's pilots to assemble at the recreation hall that evening. The hall was that in name only, packed dirt floors staring up at a palm thatched roof, one ping pong table and some decks of cards completing the decor. Under the glare of unshaded bulbs, MacDonald got down to business. "Mr. Lindbergh" wanted to explain how to gain more range from the P-38s. In a pleasant manner Lindbergh explained cruise control techniques he had worked out for the Lightnings: reduce the standard 2,200 rpm to 1,600, set fuel mixtures to "auto-lean," and slightly increase manifold pressures. This, Lindbergh predicted, would stretch the Lightning's radius by 400 hundred miles, a nine-hour flight. When he concluded his talk half an hour later, the room was silent."

Lindbergh was certainly not alone in his isolationism.

During the period from Britain's entry into the war in 1939 and the especially dangerous time from the collapse of France through the Battle of Britain, it seemed to many observers that Britain would not be able to resist the Nazis without major support from the U.S.

Our Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph Kennedy, was fired because he believed that Britain could not win and persisted in making his views public.

Lindbergh was of course anti-Semitic, but as has been said, most people in the U.S. were at this time. He did not seem to understand the threat to democracy that the Nazis represented, was seemingly indifferent to anti-Jewish violence, and was more concerned about Stalin.

He was no fan of Britain, though he himself had retreated to Britain to escape the public eye after the killing of his son. (His wife, whose family was strongly interventionist, cringed at his anti-British speeches, for she well knew how much they owed some of their friends in England.)

Although there were numerous well-intentioned and fair-minded folks on both sides of what became a very acrimonious debate, FDR vilified Lindbergh.

Lindbergh was called a fascist and a Nazi by major newspaper columnists and by major figures in the Roosevelt administration, and FDR in a press conference compared him to Clement Vallandigham, a northern Democrat who sympathized with the South in the Civil War.

It is frightening to note the extent to which FDR used the resources of government to go after Lindbergh and anyone who agreed with him, especially since the US was not yet in a shooting war and theoretically all that was still up for debate.

When the US entered the war, Lindbergh tried to rejoin the military, but Roosevelt, in an act of spite and pettiness, refused to allow him to, which led to the off-the-record exploits in the Pacific.

Lindbergh was a strange and complicated fellow.