Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle", was a United States aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

Some believe Lindbergh tarnished his good name by his leadership in the movement to keep the US out of World War II. Others credit Lindbergh for his brave championing of a respectable view that was losing popular support.

Early life

Lindbergh as a child poses with his father

Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Swedish immigrants. He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father, Charles Lindbergh Sr., was a lawyer and later a U.S. Congressman who opposed the entry of the U.S. into World War I; his mother was a chemistry teacher. Early on, he showed an interest in machinery, especially aircraft. Lindbergh, for a short time, attended Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California [1].

In 1922, he quit a mechanical engineering program, joined a pilot and mechanics training program with Nebraska Aircraft, bought his own plane, a World War I-surplus Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", and became a stunt pilot. In 1924, he started training as a pilot with the Army Air Service. During this time he also held a job as an airline mechanic in Billings, Montana working at Logan International Airport.

After finishing first in his class, Lindbergh took his first job as lead pilot of an airmail route operated by Robertson Aircraft Co. of Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri. He flew the mail in a DeHavilland DH-4 biplane to Springfield, Peoria, and Chicago, Illinois. During his tenure on the mail route, he was renowned for delivering the mail under any circumstances. He even salvaged stashes of mail from his burning aircraft and immediately phoned Alexander Varney, Peoria's airport manager, to advise him to send a truck.

In April 1923, while visiting friends in Lake Village, Arkansas, Lindbergh made his first ever nighttime flight over Lake Village and Lake Chicot.

First solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean

File:Lindberghparade.jpg

Lindbergh drives through a parade in downtown Atlanta where crowds line the street on October 11, 1927.

Lindbergh gained sudden great international fame as the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Roosevelt Airfield (Nassau County, Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20-May 21, 1927 in his single-engine aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis which had been designed by Donald Hall and custom built by Ryan Airlines of San Diego, California. He needed 33.5 hours for the trip. (His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002 in 17 hours 17 minutes.) The President of France bestowed on him the French Legion of Honor and on his arrival back in the United States, a fleet of warships and aircraft escorted him to Washington, D.C. where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross. It was the first solo non-stop flight.

Lindbergh's accomplishment won him the Orteig Prize of $25,000 on offer since 1919. A ticker-tape parade was held for him down 5th Avenue in New York City on June 13, 1927.[2] His public stature following this flight was such that he became an important voice on behalf of aviation activities until his death. He served on a variety of national and international boards and committees, including the central committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States. On March 21, 1929, he was presented the Medal of Honor for his historic trans-Atlantic flight.

Lindbergh's Medal of Honor

The massive publicity surrounding him and his flight boosted the aircraft industry and made a skeptical public take air travel seriously. Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel.

Although Lindbergh was the first to fly solo from New York to Paris non-stop, he was not the first aviator on a Transatlantic heavier-than-air aircraft flight. That had been done first in stages by the crew of the NC-4, in May 1919, although their flying boat broke down and had to be repaired before continuing. The NC-4 flights took 19 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The first truly non-stop Transatlantic flight was achieved nearly eight years previously by two British fliers, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in their Vickers Vimy IV modified bomber on June 14/15th 1919. They flew from Lester's Field near St. Johns, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland (which, it must be noted, was a far shorter flight than Lindbergh's) and in doing so won the Daily Mail prize of 10,000 pounds sterling which was presented to them by Winston Churchill. A statue celebrating this first non stop Transatlantic flight is to be seen at London Heathrow Airport. It has been estimated that 81 people had flown across the Atlantic before Lindbergh did.

Marriage, children, kidnapping

Main article: Lindbergh kidnapping

According to a Biography Channel profile on Lindbergh, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the daughter of diplomat Dwight Morrow, was the only woman he had ever asked out on a date. He taught her how to fly and did much of his exploring and charting of air-routes with her. They had six children: Charles, III. (1930-1932), Jon (b.1932), Land (b.1937), Anne (b.1940), Scott (b.1942) and Reeve (b.1945).

Charles Augustus Lindbergh III., 20 months old, was abducted on March 1, 1932, from their home. An infant corpse, presumed to be Charles Augustus Lindbergh III., was found on May 12 in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home, after a nationwide 10-week search and ransom negotiations with the kidnappers. More than three years later, a media circus ensued when the man accused of the murder, Bruno Hauptmann, went on trial in Flemington, New Jersey. Tired of being in the spotlight and still mourning the loss of their son, the Lindberghs moved to Europe in December 1935. Hauptmann, who maintained his innocence until the end, was found guilty and was executed on April 3, 1936.

Pre-war activities

In Europe, during the pre-war period, Lindbergh traveled to Germany several times at the behest of the U.S. military, where he reported on German aviation and the Luftwaffe (air force). Lindbergh was intrigued, and stated that Germany had taken a leading role in a number of aviation developments, including metal construction, low-wing designs, dirigibles, and Diesel engines. Lindbergh also undertook a survey of aviation in the Soviet Union in 1938 and reported to the United States military upon his return from each of these trips.

The Lindberghs lived in England and Brittany, France during the late 1930s in order to find tranquility and avoid the celebrity that followed them everywhere in the United States after the kidnapping trial.

While living in France, Lindbergh worked with Nobel Prize-winning French surgeon Dr. Alexis Carrel, with whom he had collaborated on earlier projects when the latter lived in the United States. In 1930, Lindbergh's sister-in-law developed a fatal heart condition. Lindbergh began to wonder why no one could repair hearts with surgery. He discovered it was because organs could not be kept alive outside the body, and set about working on a solution to the problem with Carrel. Lindbergh's invention, a glass perfusion pump, was credited with making future heart surgeries possible. [3] The device in this early stage was far from perfected, however. Although perfused organs were said to have survived surprisingly well, all showed progressive degenerative changes in a few days. [4]

In 1929, Lindbergh became interested in the work of U.S. rocket pioneer Robert Goddard. The following year, Lindbergh helped Goddard secure his first endowment from Daniel Guggenheim, which allowed Goddard to expand his independent research and development. Lindbergh remained a key supporter and advocate of Goddard's work throughout his life.

Lindbergh's German Eagle

In 1938, Lindbergh and Carrel collaborated on a book, The Culture of Organs, which summarized their work on perfusion of organs outside the body. Lindbergh and Carrel discussed an artificial heart [5] but it would be decades before one was actually built.

Since 2002, the annual Lindbergh-Carrel Prize is awarded at a Charles Lindbergh Symposium for an outstanding contribution to development of perfusion and bioreactor technologies for organ preservation and growth.

But his involvement with German aviation brought Lindbergh back into the American limelight once again. In 1938, the American ambassador to Germany, Hugh Wilson, invited Lindbergh to a dinner with Hermann Göring at the American embassy in Berlin. The dinner included diplomats and three of the greatest minds of German aviation, Ernst Heinkel, Adolf Baeumaker and Dr. Willy Messerschmitt. Göring decorated Lindbergh with the German medal of honor (the Verdienstkreuz Deutscher Adler) for his services to aviation and particularly for his 1927 flight (Henry Ford received the same award earlier in July). Lindbergh's decoration later caused an outcry in the United States.

Lindbergh declined to return the medal to the Germans because he claimed that to do so would be "an unnecessary insult" to the German Nazi government. He returned to the United States soon after World War II broke out in Europe.

Lindbergh and the Munich Crisis

Lindbergh went to Germany at the urgent request of the US Military Attaché in Berlin, who was charged with learning everything possible about Germany's new warplanes. Thus Lindbergh travelled repeatedly to Germany, touring German aviation facilities, where the Luftwaffe Chief tried to convince Lindbergh that the Luftwaffe was far more powerful than it actually was. Lindbergh used his prestige to gain far more knowledge of German warplanes than any American. As historian Wayne Cole explains:

"Of particular importance were the Junkers 88 and, again, the Messerschmitt 109. With the approval of Goering and Ernst Udet, Lindbergh was the first American permitted to examine the Luftwaffe's newest and best bomber, the JU-88. And he got the unprecedented opportunity to pilot its finest fighter, the ME-109. He was highly impressed by both aircraft and knew "of no other pursuit plane which combines simplicity of construction with such excellent performance characteristics" as the ME‐ 109. In his visits to Germany from 1936 through 1938, Colonel Lindbergh closely inspected all the types of military aircraft that Germany was to use against Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and England in 1939 and 1940. The ME-109 and JU-88 were first-line German combat planes throughout World War II. And Lindbergh's findings about those various planes found their way into American air intelligence reports to Washington long before the European war began." [Cole p 39-40]

At the urging of U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, Lindbergh wrote a secret memo for the British arguing that if England and France attempted to stop Hitler's aggression, it would be military suicide. Some military historians argue that Lindbergh was basically accurate and that his warnings helped save Britain from likely defeat in 1938. Others say that this actually saved the 3rd Reich from defeat in early 1938, had the British and French gone to war in that early stage. In fact, it is said that Goering intentionally used Lindbergh to keep the French and British at bay while manoeuvring in eastern Europe. Lindbergh favored a war between Germany and Russia, but deplored the war between Germany and Britain.

Outbreak of war

As World War II began in Europe, Lindbergh became a prominent speaker in favor of non-intervention, going so far as to recommend that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany during his January 23, 1941 testimony before Congress. He joined the antiwar America First Committee and soon became its most prominent public spokesman, speaking to overflow crowds in Madison Square Garden in New York City and Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Charles Lindbergh speaking at an AFC rally

In a speech at an America First rally on September 11, 1941 in Des Moines, Iowa entitled "Who Are the War Agitators?", Lindbergh claimed that three groups had been "pressing this country toward war" - the Roosevelt Administration, the British, and the Jews - and complained about what he insisted was the Jews' "large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government." Although he made clear his opposition to German anti-Semitism, stating that "All good men of conscience must condemn the treatment of the Jews in Germany", other comments seemed to suggest that he believed that Jews should expect trouble for supporting the war: "Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation." [6]

There was widespread negative reaction to the speech, and Lindbergh was forced to defend and clarify his comments by noting again that he was not anti-Semitic, but he did not back away from his words. Lindbergh resigned his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps when President Roosevelt openly questioned his loyalty. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (which did severe damage to his reputation at the time), Lindbergh attempted to return to the Army Air Corps, but was denied when several of Roosevelt's cabinet secretaries registered objections.

He went on to assist with the war effort by serving as a civilian consultant to aviation companies and the government, as well as flying about 50 combat missions (again as a civilian) in 1944 in the Pacific War. His contributions include engine-leaning techniques that Lindbergh showed P-38 Lightning pilots. This improved fuel usage while cruising, enabling aircraft to fly longer-range missions such as the one that killed Admiral Yamamoto. He also showed Marine F4U pilots how to take off with twice the bomb load that the aircraft was rated for. He is credited with shooting down one enemy aircraft [7]. The U.S. Marine and Army pilots who served with Lindbergh admired and respected him, praising his courage and defending his patriotism regardless of politics [8][9].

Nazi sympathies

1941 cartoon by Dr. Seuss.

Because of his numerous scientific expeditions to Nazi Germany, combined with a belief in eugenics which infused much of his rhetoric, Lindbergh was tarred by many in his own time and since as a Nazi sympathizer. FDR considered him a Nazi and banned him from joining the military (his subsequent combat missions as a civilian consultant restored his reputation after the public found out about them, but only to an extent). However, his much acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize winning biographer A. Scott Berg contends that Lindbergh was not so much a supporter of the Nazi regime as someone so stubborn in his convictions and inexperienced in political maneuvering that he easily allowed rivals to portray him as one, and that in his support for the America First Committee he was merely giving voice to the sentiments of some American people. The war had not yet broken out in Europe in 1938, and the German medal was approved without objection by the American embassy. It did not cause much controversy until the war began and he returned to the United States in 1939 to spread his message of non-intervention. His anti-Communism resonated deeply with many Americans, and many of his views were common before World War II.

Many of Lindbergh's views, such as his expressed belief in American democracy at home[10] and a surprisingly positive attitude toward blacks for the time [11] (something that was scheduled to be fully revealed in an undelivered speech interrupted by Pearl Harbor [12]) were quite inconsistent with the racial and political beliefs of Hitler's Nazis. Still, many people strongly dislike him to this day for clearly stating in numerous articles and speeches that he considered the survival of the white race to be more important than the survival of democracy in Europe. "Our bond with Europe is one of race and not of political ideology," he declared.

Lindbergh was critical of the Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews, which he said in 1941 that "[n]o person with a sense of dignity of mankind can condone." But he did not think America had any business attacking Germany. He believed in upholding the Monroe Doctrine, which his interventionist rivals felt was outdated. He also feared that destroying a powerful European nation would lead to the downfall of Western Civilization and a rise in Communist supremacy over Europe.

Much of his position had to do with the fact that he considered many Russians to be "semi-Asiatic" rather than European, and because he found Communism to be an ideology that would destroy the West's "racial strength" and eventually replace everyone of European descent with "a pressing sea of Yellow, Black, and Brown." He believed that race was directly correlated to national success and non-whites were intellectually inferior. Lindbergh admired specific elements from European nations, such as "the German genius for science and organization, the English genius for government and commerce, the French genius for living and the understanding of life." He believed that "in America they can be blended to form the greatest genius of all." His interrupted plan to voice his support for black civil rights was possibly inspired by his belief in black "sensate superiority" as well as an opportunity to expose what he saw as FDR's hypocrisy. Although he considered Hitler a fanatic even before the Holocaust, Lindbergh did openly state that if he had to choose he would rather see his country allied with Nazi Germany than Soviet Russia. [13]

The American Axis, written by Holocaust researcher and investigative journalist Max Wallace, takes a harsh view of Lindbergh's pre-war actions, essentially agreeing with FDR's assessment that Lindbergh was pro-Nazi. However, Wallace finds that the Roosevelt Administration's accusations of dual loyalty or treason are unsubstantiated. Wallace considers Lindbergh a well-intentioned, but bigoted and misguided, dupe of the Nazis whose career as the leader of the isolationist movement had a destructive impact on Jewish people. In his 1999 biography of Lindbergh, A. Scott Berg generally displays a positive view of the aviation pioneer's character, intentions, and patriotism. However, Berg criticizes many of Lindbergh's beliefs, especially about Jews (even in that case the book distinguishes between what Berg sees as Lindbergh's paranoia about the intentions of most American Jews and the virulent anti-Semitism of the Nazis).

The same year Berg's Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller Lindbergh was published, a highly controversial book by outspoken commentator Pat Buchanan entitled A Republic, Not An Empire: Reclaiming America's Destiny was published during Buchanan's presidential campaign. The book portrays Lindbergh and other pre-war isolationists as American patriots and victims of a smear campaign by FDR and others who wanted to aid the Allies during the years leading up to Pearl Harbor, and claims it was the interventionists who had dual loyalties. Buchanan even defends the unpopular Des Moines speech, believing it to have been taken out of context by a hostile and biased media. The book ignited a firestorm of controversy that led to Buchanan's split with the Republican Party.

Critics of Charles Lindbergh's pre-war activities say they contributed to military unpreparedness during World War II, though Lindbergh had always preached military strength and alertness[14][15] He believed that a defensive war machine as well as his controversial ideas about race would make America an inpenetrable fortress, and that this was the U.S. military's sole purpose[16]. Defenders say his leadership helped bleed Josef Stalin's military and praise him as forseeing the rise of the Iron Curtain, and some still agree with his view that the Soviet Union was the real enemy. Others may not entirely agree with his view of the war, but respect him for helping keep American public opinion isolationist until 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union (which suffered far more casualties in World War II than the United States)[17].

Later life

The Spirit of St. Louis on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

After World War II he lived quietly in Connecticut as a consultant both to the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and to Pan American World Airways. Much of Europe having fallen under Communist control, Lindbergh believed his pre-war assessments had been correct all along. But Berg reports that after witnessing the defeat of Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust firsthand shortly after his service in the Pacific, "he knew the American public no longer gave a hoot about his opinions." His 1953 book The Spirit of St. Louis, recounting his non-stop transatlantic flight, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Dwight D. Eisenhower restored Lindbergh's assignment with the Army Air Corps and made him a Brigadier General in 1954. In that year, he served on the congressional advisory panel set up to establish the site of the United States Air Force Academy. In the 1960s, he became a spokesman for the conservation of the natural world, speaking in favor of the protection of whales, against supersonic transport planes and was instrumental in establishing protections for the "primitive" Filipino group the Tasaday. In December 1968, he visited the crew of Apollo 8 on the eve of the first manned spaceflight to leave earth orbit.

From 1957 until his death in 1974, Lindbergh had an affair with a woman 24 years his junior, German hat maker Brigitte Hesshaimer. On November 23, 2003, DNA tests proved that he fathered her three children: Dyrk (1958), Astrid (1960), and David (1967). The two managed to keep the affair secret; even the children did not know the true identity of their father, whom they saw when he came to visit once or twice per year. Astrid later read a magazine article about Lindbergh and found snapshots and more than a hundred letters written from him to her mother. She disclosed the affair after both Brigitte and Anne Morrow Lindbergh had died.

It is speculated that Lindbergh may also have fathered two children by Brigitte’s sister Marietta (Vago, 1962; and Christoph, 1966), and two more children with his private secretary Valeska (a son in 1959 and a daughter in 1961). This has been connected with his statement after the murder of his son that "there will still be many Lindberghs".

In his final years, Lindbergh became troubled that the world was out of balance with its natural environment, and he stressed the need to regain that balance. In the early 1960s, he began working to help "primitive" Philippine and African tribes, campaigned to protect endangered species like humpback and blue whales, and he supported the establishment of a national park.

Lindbergh's speeches and writings later in life emphasized his love of both technology and nature, and a lifelong belief that "all the achievements of mankind have value only to the extent that they preserve and improve the quality of life." In a 1967 Life magazine article, he said, "The human future depends on our ability to combine the knowledge of science with the wisdom of wildness."

In honor of Charles and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh's vision of achieving balance between the technological advancements they helped pioneer, and the preservation of the human and natural environments, every year since 1978 the Lindbergh Award has been given by the Lindbergh Foundation to recipients whose work has made a significant contribution toward the concept of "balance".

His final book, Autobiography of Values, was published posthumously.

Overall image of Charles Lindbergh grave

Lindbergh spent his final years on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he died of cancer on August 26, 1974. He was buried on the grounds of the Palapala Ho'omau Church in Kipahulu, Maui. His epitaph on a simple stone which quotes Psalms 139:9, reads: Charles A. Lindbergh Born: Michigan, 1902. Died: Maui, 1974. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. — CAL

The Lindbergh Terminal at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport was named after him, and a replica of The Spirit of St. Louis hangs there. There also is a replica of his plane hanging from the ceiling of the great hall at the recently rebuilt Jefferson Memorial at Forest Park in St. Louis where the definitive oil painting of Charles Lindbergh by St. Louisan Richard Krause entitled "The Spirit Soars" has also been displayed. He also lent his name to San Diego's Lindbergh Field, which also is known now as San Diego International Airport. The airport in Winslow, Arizona has been renamed Winslow-Lindbergh Regional. Lindbergh himself had designed the airport in 1929 when it was built as a refueling point for the first coast-to-coast air service. The airport in Little Falls, Minnesota, where he grew up, has been named Little Falls/Morrison County-Lindbergh Field.

In 1952, Grandview High School in St. Louis County was renamed Lindbergh High School. The school newspaper is the Pilot, the yearbook is the Spirit, and the students are known as the Flyers. The school district was also later named after Lindbergh. The stretch of U.S. 67 that runs through most of the St. Louis metro area is called "Lindbergh Blvd." Lindbergh has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Lindbergh is a recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America.

References

• Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh (1999).
• Cole, Wayne S. Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II (1974)

Lindbergh in fiction

A fictional version of Lindbergh is a major character in Philip Roth's 2004 alternative history novel, The Plot Against America. In Roth's narrative, Lindbergh successfully runs against Roosevelt in the 1940 US presidential election, and aligns his country with the Nazis. This portrayal engendered great controversy.

Another alternative history novel, Robert Harris' Fatherland, published in 1992, has Lindbergh as the American Ambassador in 1964 Nazi Germany.

The Agatha Christie book and movie Murder on the Orient Express begin with a fictionalized depiction of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

James Stewart played Lindbergh in the biographical The Spirit of St. Louis, directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with events leading up to the flight before giving a gripping and intense view of the flight itself.

Shortly after Lindbergh made his famous flight, the Stratemeyer Syndicate began publishing the Ted Scott Flying Stories by Franklin W. Dixon wherein the hero was closely modeled after Lindbergh.

More recently, British Sea Power wrote, recorded and released (in 2002) a song in his honor entitled "Spirit of St Louis", a live favorite.

See also

• NC-4 (the first flight across the Atlantic in a heavier-than-air aircraft)
• Alcock and Brown (the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in a heavier-than-air aircraft)
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

Awards and Decorations

• Legion of Honor {French}
• Medal of Honor {USA}
• Distinguished Flying Cross {USA}
• Service Cross of the German Eagle {German}
• Pulitzer Prize (USA)
• Silver Buffalo Award {USA}

External links

• 1927 Video of Charles Lindberg's Transatlantic Flight
• Lindbergh foundation
• Pat Ranfranz: CharlesLindbergh.com
• Woody Guthrie on Lindbergh
• FBI History - Famous cases: The Lindbergh kidnapping
• PBS companion site to The American Experience program on Charles Lindbergh
• The Lone Eagle: 75 Years Later
• Lindbergh's Public Statements Were More Troubling Than His Private Affairs
• THE AMERICAN AXIS: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich
• PBS Article: Charles Lindbergh in the 1940s
• St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Charles A. Lindbergh at IMDb
• Recent criticism of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh as part of a struggle to define American identity

Sources

• Gerd Kröncke: "Der Amerikaner und die Hutmacherin", Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 2, 2003 (German).
• Better Above than Below: [18] By Ellen Chesler, New York Times, March 7, 1993
• Charles Lindbergh:[19]Sept. 11, 1941 speech at Des Moines, Iowa, transcript via PBS.