Des Moines speech

Des Moines speech
Newspaper header preceding a reprint of Charles Lindbergh's Des Moines speech, delivered September 11, 1941. Following the title "Lindbergh Text", the prose reads, "Des Moines—Following is the text of Charles A. Lindbergh's speech here Thursday night:"
The Burlington Daily Hawk Eye Gazette reporting on the speech, September 12, 1941
DateSeptember 11, 1941 (1941-09-11)
Duration25 minutes
VenueDes Moines Coliseum
LocationDes Moines, Iowa, U.S.
ParticipantsCharles Lindbergh

The Des Moines speech, formally titled "Who Are the War Agitators?", was an isolationist and antisemitic speech that American aviator Charles Lindbergh delivered at a 1941 America First Committee rally held in Des Moines, Iowa. In the speech, Lindbergh argued that participation in World War II was not in the United States' interest, and he accused three groups of trying to push the country toward war: British people, who, he said, propagandized the United States; Jewish people, whom Lindbergh accused of exercising outsized influence and of controlling the news media; and the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, he said, wanted to use a war to consolidate power. Called Lindbergh's "most controversial public speech",[1] his use of antisemitic tropes and his monolithic characterization of American Jews as war-agitating outsiders prompted a nationwide backlash against him and America First that the organization "never recovered from".[2]

  1. ^ Goodman (2008, p. 351).
  2. ^ Dunn (2013, p. 303).