{"id":8712,"date":"2026-02-28T21:40:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/?p=8712"},"modified":"2026-03-01T01:45:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T01:45:29","slug":"charles-lindbergh-from-hero-to-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/28\/charles-lindbergh-from-hero-to-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Lindbergh: From Hero to Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>En 1941, el piloto estadounidense Charles Lindbergh pas\u00f3 de h\u00e9roe nacional a enemigo n\u00famero uno debido a su acercamiento al nazismo. Una serie de televisi\u00f3n basada en una novela de Philip Roth recuerda su figura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/content.speakup.es\/medio\/2024\/11\/20\/lindbergh-and-his-plane-spirit-of-st-louis-in-may-1927_3deb958c_241120113017_1280x720.webp\" alt=\"Lindbergh and his plane Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927. \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/04-charles-lindbergh_94e04203_241120113828_0x0.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1927, Charles Lindbergh revolutionised the aviation industry by completing the first&nbsp;<strong>solo non-stop flight<\/strong>&nbsp;across the Atlantic, from New York to Paris. It was also the longest transatlantic flight&nbsp;<strong>on record<\/strong>&nbsp;by almost two thousand miles. By the time the twenty-five-year-old&nbsp;<strong>landed<\/strong>&nbsp;his tiny monoplane Spirit of St. Louis after 33 hours and 30 minutes in the air, he was an international superstar. The world media promoted his&nbsp;<strong>achievements<\/strong>&nbsp;as representing the spirit of modern America. &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>FAME AND TRAGEDY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Back5 in the US, Lindbergh&nbsp;used his fame to promote the development of aviation, particularly in his home state of Missouri.&nbsp;<strong>However<\/strong>, the media attention he received also turned him into a&nbsp;<strong>target<\/strong>: one evening in March 1932, Lindbergh\u2019s twenty-month-old son was&nbsp;<strong>kidnapped<\/strong>. The Lindberghs paid the $50,000&nbsp;<strong>ransom<\/strong>, but the baby\u2019s body was found in the&nbsp;<strong>nearby woods<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>EXILE IN EUROPE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The controversial case, which saw the&nbsp;<strong>convicted<\/strong>&nbsp;man protest his innocence&nbsp;<strong>all the way to<\/strong>&nbsp;the electric chair, fomented such hysteria that the Lindberghs went into exile in 1935. They lived in England and then in France, where Lindbergh&nbsp;<strong>served<\/strong>&nbsp;on the&nbsp;<strong>board of directors<\/strong>&nbsp;for Pan-American World Airways. On one occasion, he was invited by Nazi leader&nbsp;Hermann G\u00f6ring to tour German aviation&nbsp;<strong>facilities<\/strong>. He was very impressed by what he saw.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>AMERICA FIRST<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1939, with World War Two&nbsp;<strong>approaching<\/strong>, Lindbergh returned to the US. He became a&nbsp;<strong>spokesperson<\/strong>&nbsp;for the America First Committee, a non-interventionist pressure group, against US entry into the European war. Lindbergh&nbsp;<strong>argued<\/strong>&nbsp;that no power could&nbsp;<strong>beat<\/strong>&nbsp;the German air force. But there was more to it than that. In a notorious&nbsp;<strong>essay<\/strong>, published by&nbsp;<em>Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>, he suggested a superiority of races,&nbsp;<strong>claiming<\/strong>&nbsp;that Western nations should preserve \u201cour&nbsp;<strong>inheritance<\/strong>&nbsp;of European blood.\u201d Then, in 1941, he gave a speech in which he called Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s government and the Jewish race \u201cnot American\u201d as they \u201cwish&nbsp;<strong>to involve<\/strong>&nbsp;us in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>DISGRACE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Anti-semitism was not unusual at the time, but the speech was&nbsp;<strong>widely<\/strong>&nbsp;condemned. Even newspapers&nbsp;<strong>sympathetic<\/strong>&nbsp;to non-interventionists called it \u201cun-American.\u201d The once-celebrated pilot was forced&nbsp;<strong>to resign<\/strong>&nbsp;from the US Air Force. Three months later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and Lindbergh&nbsp;<strong>dramatically<\/strong>&nbsp;changed his position.&nbsp;<strong>Although<\/strong>&nbsp;Roosevelt refused&nbsp;<strong>to recommission<\/strong>&nbsp;him, he&nbsp;<strong>flew<\/strong>&nbsp;more than fifty combat missions in the Pacific with the private company United Aircraft. After the war he returned to Europe to support rebuilding the Continent. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific author, explorer, inventor and&nbsp;<strong>environmentalist<\/strong>, but his reputation never&nbsp;<strong>recovered<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new HBO series\u00a0<em>The\u00a0<\/em><strong>Plot<\/strong><em>\u00a0Against America<\/em>\u00a0is based on the 2004 novel by Philip Roth. Roth imagines that Lindbergh, a xenophobic populist, becomes US president. While,\u00a0<strong>according to<\/strong>\u00a0his Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh had no such political ambitions, the series associates the fictionalised figure with a real US President. Donald Trump\u2019s adoption of the slogan \u2018America First\u2019 in his 2016 campaign, and his\u00a0<strong>pursuit<\/strong>\u00a0of a\u00a0<strong>foreign policy<\/strong>\u00a0that emphasises US nationalism and protectionism, could be compared with Lindbergh\u2019s position with America First. Yet while there are similarities, Philip Roth\u00a0<strong>warned<\/strong>\u00a0David Simon, co-creator of the new series, that the two figures should not be confused. Lindbergh, Simon says, was \u201can\u00a0<strong>astounding<\/strong>\u00a0hero and an American icon. He had the power that Trump as a reality show host and failed casino owner did not have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-vivid-cyan-blue-color has-text-color\">Glossary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<span class=\"collapseomatic \" id=\"id69e212cdcf85d\"  tabindex=\"0\" title=\"See more\"    >See more<\/span><div id=\"target-id69e212cdcf85d\" class=\"collapseomatic_content \"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>solo non-stop flight:\u00a0<\/strong>vuelo en solitario sin paradas<br><strong>on record:\u00a0<\/strong>documentado<br><strong>to land:\u00a0<\/strong>aterrizar<br><strong>achievements:\u00a0<\/strong>logros, haza\u00f1as<br><strong>however:\u00a0<\/strong>con todo<br><strong>target:\u00a0<\/strong>objetivo<br><strong>to kidnap:\u00a0<\/strong>secuestrar<br><strong>ransom:\u00a0<\/strong>rescate<br><strong>nearby woods:\u00a0<\/strong>bosques cercanos<br><strong>to convict:\u00a0<\/strong>condenar<br><strong>all the way to:\u00a0<\/strong>incluso hasta<br><strong>to serve:\u00a0<\/strong>ejercer<br><strong>board of directors:\u00a0<\/strong>junta de accionistas<br><strong>facilities:\u00a0<\/strong>instalaciones<br><strong>to approach:\u00a0<\/strong>acercarse<br><strong>spokesperson:\u00a0<\/strong>portavoz<br><strong>to argue:\u00a0<\/strong>argumentar<br><strong>to beat:\u00a0<\/strong>derrotar<br><strong>essay:\u00a0<\/strong>ensayo<br><strong>to claim:\u00a0<\/strong>afirmar<br><strong>inheritance:\u00a0<\/strong>herencia<br><strong>to involve:\u00a0<\/strong>involucrar<br><strong>widely:\u00a0<\/strong>ampliamente<br><strong>sympathetic:\u00a0<\/strong>favorable<br><strong>to resign:\u00a0<\/strong>dimitir<br><strong>dramatically:\u00a0<\/strong>dr\u00e1sticamente<br><strong>although:\u00a0<\/strong>si bien<br><strong>to recommission:\u00a0<\/strong>recontratar<br><strong>to fly:\u00a0<\/strong>volar<br><strong>environmentalist:\u00a0<\/strong>ecologista<br><strong>to recover:\u00a0<\/strong>recuperarse<br><strong>plot:\u00a0<\/strong>complot<br><strong>according to:\u00a0<\/strong>seg\u00fan<br><strong>pursuit:\u00a0<\/strong>seguimiento<br><strong>foreign policy:\u00a0<\/strong>pol\u00edtica exterior<br><strong>to warn:\u00a0<\/strong>alertar<br><strong>astounding:\u00a0<\/strong>sorprendente<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>En 1941, el piloto estadounidense Charles Lindbergh pas\u00f3 de h\u00e9roe nacional a enemigo n\u00famero uno debido a su acercamiento al nazismo. Una serie de televisi\u00f3n basada en una novela de Philip Roth recuerda su figura. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh revolutionised the aviation industry by completing the first&nbsp;solo non-stop flight&nbsp;across the Atlantic, from New York to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/28\/charles-lindbergh-from-hero-to-enemy\/\">Seguir leyendo <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8712"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8724,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8712\/revisions\/8724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishreally.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}