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Book Review of The American Axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich

The American Axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich
perryfran avatar reviewed on + 1168 more book reviews


A few months ago, I read Philip Roth's THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA. In this alternate history, Roth poses the question "what would have happened if Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semitic isolationist, had been elected president in 1940." In the novel, Lindbergh gradually unleashes quasi-Nazi forces in the US. He negotiates a cordial understanding with Adolf Hitler, and accepts his anti-Semitic policies. All of this has profound effects on the American Jewish population and America in general. Henry Ford also plays a role in the fictional government posed by Roth. After reading this, I wanted to know more information about Lindbergh and his political views.

I have had AMERICAN AXIS on my shelves for several years and finally got around to reading it. The book details the historical anti-Semitic views and Nazi sympathies of both Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh prior to and during WWII.

Henry Ford propagated one of the most vile anti-Semitic campaigns in American history in the 1920s and 1930s. Ford used his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, to blame the Jews for most of the world's troubles. The newspaper introduced Americans to a variety of virulent anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, including the notorious "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" which purported to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. A series of Ford's articles trumpeting this theme was translated into German and published in book form as "The International Jew". The book was later cited by many Nazis as deeply influential and Hitler even hung a portrait of Ford over his desk at his Munich headquarters and told a Detroit columnist that he regarded Ford as "my inspiration." Ford is the only American mentioned in Hitler's manifesto, Mein Kampf. The Nazis presented Ford with Germany's highest civilian decoration, the Order of the German Eagle, on his 75th birthday in 1938. Although Ford tried to repudiate his anti-Semitic views, he and his company provided military equipment to the Nazis during the war and even used slave labor in its plant in Germany.

After Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic and the kidnapping and murder of his first born child, he became disenchanted with his fame and with America. He came to know a French doctor, Alexis Carrel who became his mentor. Carrel was a firm believer in "Eugenics", the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Lindbergh became to believe this as well and was soon preaching anti-Semitic beliefs. He was soon taking many trips to Germany and even wanted to move his family there because of his infatuation with the country. He became a dupe of the Germans who used him to vastly inflate German air estimates at a time when the German air force was much weaker than it pretended. The book argues that Lindbergh's well publicized description of German air superiority played a major role in the west's decision to appease Hitler at Munich in 1938. Soon after this, Germany also presented Lindbergh with with their highest civilian honor, the Order of the German Eagle. The book describes Lindbergh's prominent role as a leader of the isolationist movement after the commencement of the second world war in Europe and as a spokesperson for the America First Committee lobbying to keep America out of the war. President Roosevelt told his secretary of Treasury, "If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this. I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi."

This book was full of interesting facts about both Ford and Lindbergh that I was previously unaware of. It also was very informative in showing the atmosphere of America prior to and during the war and providing many fascinating details of the misguided feelings of not only Ford and Lindbergh but much of America.