Lindbergh, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Charles A. Lindbergh")...

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Lindbergh, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Charles A. Lindbergh") Lindbergh, Charles. Autograph letter signed ("Charles A. Lindbergh"), 2 pages (5 ¼ x 8 ¼ in.; 133 x 210 mm.), "Washington," 20 December 1941 to "Dear Gen. Arnold"; staple holes present at the upper left corners with minor toning on right margin of page 2. Just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Charles Lindbergh offers his services to Gen. "Hap" Arnold's fledgling Army Air Corps. Written to General Henry "Hap" Arnold (1886-1950), the father of the U.S. Air Force. Lindbergh pens in full: "Dear Gen. Arnold: This is a personal note to tell you that if I can, at any time, be of assistance to you and to the Air Corps, there is nothing I would rather do. I fully realize the complications created by the political stand I have taken and by past incidents connected with that stand. However, I want you to know that if the opportunity should arise during this crisis, I am ready and anxious to be of service. Meanwhile I will you the greatest success. May God strengthen you for the ordeal ahead." In the months leading up to the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, Charles Lindbergh became an outspoken member of the America First Committee, an isolationist group that vehemently opposed American entry into yet another European war. As the most well-known celebrity in America, Lindbergh's speeches against American involvement were broadcast widely, angering Roosevelt Administration which believed his pronouncements were seriously eroding public support. After receiving this letter (offered here), Arnold politely deferred the decision to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Over the next few months, the Roosevelt Administration worked diligently to thwart Lindbergh's attempt at finding an honorable way to serve his country. The President believed Lindbergh to be subversive, if not downright treasonous. Roosevelt wrote to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, "If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this. I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi." Denied military service, Lindbergh was hired by Henry Ford to oversee manufacturing of B-24 Liberator bombers for the Air Corps. In addition to his war-time work for Ford, Lindbergh made high-altitude flights in the P-47 Thunderbolt and worked to improve the engine in the Navy's Corsair F4U. In April 1944 he went to the Pacific as a technical representative of United Aircraft and flew the Corsair with heavy bomb loads (to prove it could be done), and flew fifty combat missions, on one of which he shot down a Japanese fighter.