America First Committee
 |
|
| Abbreviation | AFC |
|---|---|
| Formation | September 4, 1940 |
| Founder | Robert D. Stuart Jr. |
| Founded at | Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Extinction | December 10, 1941 |
| Type | Non-partisan pressure group |
| Purpose | Non-interventionism |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
|
Membership (1941)
|
800,000 |
|
Chairman
|
Robert E. Wood |
|
Spokesperson
|
Charles Lindbergh |
|
Key people
|
|
| Subsidiaries | 450 chapters |
|
Revenue (1940)
|
$370,000 |
The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. Started on September 4, 1940, it was dissolved on December 10, 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor had brought the war to America. Membership peaked at 800,000 paying members in 450 chapters. It was one of the largest anti-war organizations in American history.
The AFC was established on September 4, 1940, by Yale Law School student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. (son of R. Douglas Stuart, co-founder of Quaker Oats), along with other students, including future President Gerald Ford, future Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and future U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. Future President John F. Kennedy contributed $100, along with a note saying "What you all are doing is vital." At its peak, America First claimed 800,000 dues-paying members in 450 chapters, located mostly in a 300-mile radius of Chicago.
The AFC gained much of its early strength by merging with the more left-wing Keep America Out of War Committee, whose leaders included Norman Thomas and John T. Flynn.
It claimed 135,000 members in 60 chapters in Illinois, its strongest state. Fundraising drives produced about $370,000 from some 25,000 contributors. Nearly half came from a few millionaires such as William H. Regnery, H. Smith Richardson of the Vick Chemical Company, General Robert E. Wood of Sears-Roebuck, Sterling Morton of Morton Salt Company, publisher Joseph M. Patterson (New York Daily News) and his cousin, publisher Robert R. McCormick (Chicago Tribune).
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