Des Moines speech

The Des Moines speech, formally titled "Who Are the War Agitators?", was an isolationist and antisemitic speech that American aviator Charles Lindbergh delivered at a 1941 America First Committee rally held in Des Moines, Iowa. In the speech, Lindbergh argued that participation in World War II was not in the United States' interest, and he accused three groups of trying to push the country toward war: the British, who, he said, were propagandizing the United States; Jews, whom Lindbergh accused of exercising outsized influence and of controlling the American news media; and the Roosevelt administration, who, he said, wanted to use a war to consolidate power. Called Lindbergh's "most controversial public speech", his use of antisemitic tropes and monolithic characterization of American Jews as war-agitating outsiders prompted a nationwide backlash against him and America First that the organization "never recovered from".

After completing the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, American aviator Charles Lindbergh became an internationally famous and admired public figure. He was the first ever Time Person of the Year. An advocate for aviation, Lindbergh was interested in the military airpower of various European nations; he personally considered the Royal Air Force deficient and Luftwaffe impressive in that regard. In 1937, Lindbergh praised German aviation as being, in his words, "without parallel", and he thought Germany had a "sense of decency and value [...] far ahead of" those of America. When the Embassy of the United States, Berlin hosted a dinner with Lindbergh and Hermann Göring (the head of the Luftwaffe and second most powerful man in Nazi Germany after Adolf Hitler) in attendance as guests of honor on October 8, 1938, Göring awarded Lindbergh the Service Cross of the Order of the German Eagle with the Star, which Lindbergh accepted.

In the summer of 1940, Lindbergh wrote in his diary that he believed American society was deteriorating, lamenting that Americans, according to him, "lack[ed] understanding of, or interest in, fundamental problems" and that there were, in his view, too many Jewish people in the United States, for "too many create chaos", Lindbergh believed. Members of the Roosevelt administration, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, privately concluded that Lindbergh was sympathetic to Nazism.

Between 1939 and 1941, there was public disagreement in the United States about whether or not the country should enter the then ongoing Second World War. Lindbergh strongly opposed America involvement in the war. He believed the United States would lose in a European war with Germany, and in June 1940 predicted a German victory over Britain. In 1941, Lindbergh became a member of the national committee for the America First Committee, an isolationist advocacy group that lobbied against America entering World War II and over the course of its existence increasingly adopted nativism and antisemitism.

Lindbergh gave speeches at thirteen rallies held by America First. Lindbergh's speeches were broadcast over radio and excited audiences, who wrote to him with praises—such as for his rhetorical appeal to reason and calming voice—and according to historian David Goodman, he was "the most popular and charismatic orator" in the public debate about intervention. Beginning in 1941, Lindbergh made several public criticisms of president Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration, accusing Roosevelt of ignoring the will of the American people, deceiving the public, and "advocat[ing] world domination".

By September 1941, Lindbergh thought the United States was on the brink of entering World War II, and he decided he wanted to give a speech identifying those who he believed were "responsible for pushing" the country to join the war. In previous speeches, Lindbergh had referred vaguely to what he called "powerful elements" in favor of interventionism without specifically naming or identifying them. Preparing for a scheduled address at an America First rally to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, Lindbergh wrote several drafts of a speech he initially titled "Who Are the Interventionists?" before retitling it "Who Are the War Agitators?". Anne Morrow Lindbergh, married to Charles Lindbergh, encouraged him to put more emotion into his public speaking in general, but he dissembled from practicing, disliking rehearsal because he thought, in his words, that he "seem[ed] to lose spirit and feeling in the second reading".

When Anne Lindbergh read Charles Lindbergh's "Who Are the War Agitators?", she was alarmed and warned him against delivering the speech as written, as she predicted the press would consider the speech and him antisemitic. Lindbergh insisted that he intended no antisemitism and refused to revise the speech to alleviate Anne's concern, getting into what she called a "terrible row" with her. In a conversation with poet Selden Rodman a few weeks before giving the speech, Charles Lindbergh said he believed Jewish people had "themselves to blame".

Lindbergh delivered "Who Are the War Agitators?" at an America First rally held in the Des Moines Coliseum in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941. Eight thousand people attended in person, and it was broadcast by radio to a national audience. When Lindbergh got on stage with others from the America First Committee, members of the crowd variously applauded and booed. After a few other speakers preceded him, Lindbergh spoke, and his remarks lasted 25 minutes. He began by saying that there was an "ever-increasing effort to force the United States into" World War II and that he would identify groups who he thought were "responsible for changing our national policy" to favor participation in the war.