So, did you guys sing Those Daring Young Men and Their Urine Soaked Flying Machines to pass the time or is that another one of those Hollywood myths?
A friend who was a Marine pilot told me every military aircraft he’s been in stank of urine and vomit.
Maybe he had a queasy stomach.
While the war was on we drove the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce. You got up and walked to the relief tube completing the job in a civilized manner and not like some animal stuck in a shipping container.
That’s about what I thought, too. A great pilot and a brave man, but as a social commentator… not so much.
A sidenote: Lindbergh appears or is mentioned in two notable alternative-history novels. In Robert Harris’s excellent Fatherland, Lindbergh is the U.S. ambassador in Berlin in 1964, and apparently gets along pretty well with the Nazi regime. In Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, Lindbergh defeats FDR (in 1936, I think) and, once in the White House, cozies up to Hitler, introducing anti-Semitic (but not genocidal) policies here, too.
Neither is too great a leap of the imagination, IMHO.
I read Roth’s novel. It is told thru the eyes of a 9-year-old Phillip Roth living with his family in a New Jersey slum. In this alternate-history, Lindbergh defeats Roosevelt in 1940 mainly on a populist movement (he accepts the Republican nominatioin at the New York Convention after an improptu arrival where he strides across the floor in his flight suit). As his presidency progresses, he comes off mainly as an easily manipulated dupe who relies on his heroic reputation to navigate the forces around him (he takes to occasionally flying his personal plane around DC).
Over time, you begin to see the seamy underbelly of anti-semitic support for Lindbergh’s policies (he starts a ‘voluntary’ national relocation program for Jews called “Just Folks”, designed to somehow melt Jewish culture into the American melting pot; guess how that goes) . Walter Winchell, of all people, comes off as the tireless journalist determined to expose the truth.
The “real” history in this alternate-history novel was enlightening for me, but I read it more as a parable for our own times. The flight-suit stride is an obvious reference to Bush’s aircraft carrier landing, and by casting noted isolationist Burton Wheeler as the new vice president I believe Roth has Dick Cheney in mind (I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I’ll leave it at that). A wonderful read, I highly recommend it whether or not you know much about the historical figures involved.
It doesn’t take any leap of the imagination at all. Informal, “gentlemen’s agreement” type rules as to where Jews could and couldn’t belong were already in operation in the US.
I remember hearing comments in Army barracks from true-blue, red-blooded saviors of democracy that, while Hitler was pretty bad , He cetainly knoes how to handle the Jews.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
A sidenote: Lindbergh appears or is mentioned in two notable alternative-history novels. In Robert Harris’s excellent Fatherland, Lindbergh is the U.S. ambassador in Berlin in 1964, and apparently gets along pretty well with the Nazi regime. In Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, Lindbergh defeats FDR (in 1936, I think) and, once in the White House, cozies up to Hitler, introducing anti-Semitic (but not genocidal) policies here, too.
[QUOTE]
I read Roth’s novel. It is told thru the eyes of a 9-year-old Phillip Roth living with his family in a New Jersey slum. In this alternate-history, Lindbergh defeats Roosevelt in 1940 mainly on a populist movement (he accepts the Republican nominatioin at the New York Convention after an improptu arrival where he strides across the floor in his flight suit). As his presidency progresses, he comes off mainly as an easily manipulated dupe who relies on his heroic reputation to navigate the forces around him (he takes to occasionally flying his personal plane around DC).
Over time, you begin to see the seamy underbelly of anti-semitic support for Lindbergh’s policies (he starts a ‘voluntary’ national relocation program for Jews called “Just Folks”, designed to somehow melt Jewish culture into the American melting pot; guess how that goes) . Walter Winchell, of all people, comes off as the tireless journalist determined to expose the truth.
The “real” history in this alternate-history novel was enlightening for me, but I read it more as a parable for our own times. The flight-suit stride is an obvious reference to Bush’s aircraft carrier landing, and by casting noted isolationist Burton Wheeler as the new vice president I believe Roth has Dick Cheney in mind (I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I’ll leave it at that). A wonderful read, I highly recommend it whether or not you know much about the historical figures involved.
They didn’t know about the concentration or death camps, right?
That didn’t come out until they were liberated I believe.
Anti Jewish measures began soon after the Nazi’s gained power and were well known in the US and other places. The attack during “Krystal Nacht” on Jewish homes and business took place in 1938 and was well publicized. The Nuremburg Laws were promulgated in 1935 and again were publicized. Persecution of Jews started long, long before the “Final Solution” was undertaken.
The super patriotic defenders of human rights in my barracks didn’t necessarily want Jews slaughtered - as long as they “knew their place” and stayed in it.