- [Narrator] In the
summer and fall of 1940, as Britain was under relentless
attack from German bombs, President Roosevelt ran for
an unprecedented third term. He would have to persuade voters that while he opposed
American entry into the war, he also needed to
provide aid to Britain as the last best hope
of defeating Hitler and to ready the United
States for conflict if it came as well. On September 16th, 1940, he signed into law the
first peacetime draft in the history of the country. - For the 16 million young
men who register today, I say the democracy
is a huge cause, the cause of youth. - [Narrator] The odds
against the democracies had lengthened further. Germany was now allied with
fascist Italy and Europe and Imperial Japan
in Asia, the Axis. Roosevelt's Republican
opponent, Wendell Willke, nominated just a few
days after France fell shared Roosevelt's belief
that Britain had to be helped. Now so did nearly three
quarters of the American people. Public opinion was slowly
beginning to change. But soon after Roosevelt
agreed to provide Britain with 50 old Destroyers, Charles Lindbergh became
the chief spokesman for a new isolationist
organization dedicated to keeping
America out of the war, the America First Committee. - France has now been defeated. And despite the propaganda and
confusion of recent months, it is now obvious that
England is losing war. I believe- (people cheering) And I have been forced
to the conclusion that we cannot win
this war for England regardless of how much
assistance we send. That is why the America First
Committee has been formed. - [Narrator] It was founded
by a handful of students at the Yale Law School and
run by a national committee that at various times included
General Robert E. Wood, chairman of the board
of Sears, Roebuck, the head of the United
States Olympic committee, Avery Brundage, the automobile
magnate, Henry Ford, World War I ace,
Eddie Rickenbacker, Lillian Gish, the star
of birth of a nation, and Theodore
Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. The committee soon had
some 800,000 members in 450 chapters all
across the country, the largest anti-war
organization in the history of
the United States. (people cheering) Despite the opposition, FDR
was reelected to a third term and soon proposed
a Lend-Lease Bill allowing him to supply Britain with more desperately needed
military and Naval supplies. - I asked this Congress
for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture
additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds to be turned over
to those nations which are now in actual
war with aggressor nation. - [Narrator] The bill
was designated H.R. 1776 in hope that voters would
see its passage as patriotic. Isolationists called
it the dictator bill. Charles Lindbergh
testified against it. He favored neither a British
nor a German victory. He said and warned that US entry into the war would be
the greatest disaster this country has
ever gone through. FDR denounced him
as an appeaser. Isolationist and
antisemitic groups now flooded the halls of the
capital to oppose the new bill including black clad members of a self-proclaimed
Mother's movement who cursed legislators and
insisted that Jews were behind what they believe to be
Roosevelt's rush toward war. - It's not just something
that is hypothetical. England can fall. Hitler will take over all
of the European continent. The America first
fails to see the danger to the world at large. Tyrants will go as far
as you allow them to go. They're always
testing the waters. Can I go further? Can I push stronger? And the American First
and the isolationist refused to acknowledge that. - [Narrator] In the end,
the Lend-Lease bill passed. - [Reporter] Guns and
munitions of all sorts pour into Britain as almost
hourly convoys from the States bring their precious cargoes. The original $7 billion
of Lend-Lease aid has already been allocated. Now, Congress studies final
passage of another six billion and Britain studies
invading the continent with arms made in the USA. Hi, this is Ken Burns. Thanks for watching that excerpt from our film "The U.S. and the Holocaust" which explores the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century. Here are some more clips from the film and you can watch the entire series on the PBS Video app or at PBS.org
