America First Committee, a group that opposed entry of the United States into World War II
The AFC was established on September 4, 1940, by Yale Law School student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. (heir to the Quaker Oats fortune), along with other students, including future President Gerald Ford, future Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and future U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart.
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The many student chapters included future celebrities, such as author Gore Vidal (as a student at Phillips Exeter Academy), and the future President Gerald Ford, at Yale Law School.
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Other celebrities supporting America First were novelist Sinclair Lewis, poet E. E. Cummings, Washington socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth, film producer Walt Disney, and actress Lillian Gish.
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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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To preside over their committee, America First chose General Robert E. Wood, the 61 year-old chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co..
Rosenwald was the best known Jewish supporter of the America First Committee, which advocated American neutrality in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and was led by his successor at Sears-Roebuck and lifelong friend Robert E. Wood.
Hammond was also active in Republican Party politics and served as the chairman of the Illinois Citizens Republican Finance Committee and the Chicago America First Committee.
North America | South America | Latin America | Confederate States of America | America | Boy Scouts of America | Good Morning America | Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names | International Olympic Committee | Bank of America | Committee of Public Safety | UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee | Central America | United Way of America | Captain America | Voice of America | Republican National Committee | Miss America | Central Committee | Democratic National Committee | All-America | America's Got Talent | America's Next Top Model | The Catholic University of America | America One | Socialist Party of America | House Un-American Activities Committee | Evangelical Lutheran Church in America | International Committee of the Red Cross | Copa América |
Opponents of the policy included a powerful supporter of the isolationist America First Committee, Senator Burton K. Wheeler.
R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. (born 1916), founder of the America First Committee, CEO of Quaker Oats; and United States Ambassador to Norway, 1984–1989