after the murder and kidnapping of his son in the 1930s charles lindbergh took refuge in europe with his family, first in britain, then in france. george also mentioned lindbergh was never comfortable with his celebrity. somebody who wrote about my book on amazon, the best line about charles lindbergh i ever read which was no one was less suited to the charles lindbergh than charles lindbergh and that is absolutely true. he never liked publicity. he was a very solitary reserved man who didn't much being -- like being around people, he hated the press from the beginning and always trying to stay away from it. he and his wife were convince the kidnapping of his son, the murder of his son was directly connected with the publicity that surrounded them and him from islam moment he made that flight. he decided to go to europe where he said people treated him better and he basically lost trust in american democracy. equated what happened to him with the state of american democracy and the state of american politics. for several years he and his family first lived in england and then in franc

i always assumed that charles lindbergh got in his head he would fly in the ocean and got a plane andid it. i it wasn't anything as simple as that. it was a prize called the ortiz prize, named after a french man, raymond ortiz, and just loved aviation. became very excited by aviation during the first world war with the dogfights and everything, and he put up a very generous pride, $25,000, a lot of money in those days, for the first people or team of people who could fly between new york and paris in either direction. so lots of teams were getting ready to fly and take off that summer, and every single one of them was better prepared and better funded than charles lindbergh, and lindbergh was just a kid. really, 25-year-old kid from the midwest, who flies into new york, with a plane with one engine. no navigator no copilot, him and a simple small plane, essentially just a flying gas tank, and everybody thought it was suicide and if he got away first he would crash in the water, and of course he beat everybody because he had so much -- his plane was so much simpler and so much less tha

charles lindbergh, one of the things about charles lindbergh he was always, whenever he took a position he always thought he was right. there was never any doubt in charles lindbergh's mind about what he should be doing or thinking. .. when i think it was the busiesti -- loci middle of mistakes, butl it was certainly the biggest mistake during that time that he made. tha he just tarnished his reputation as a result of that. his he was never happy lesson was flying. what he could do really well waa fly. do he new aviation inside now.he and getting involved in know, smething he knew nothing about was a very big mistake and ise part. part. >> after the war started, can you tell us briefly about what charles lindbergh did? i mean, he had a lot of, i guess, intelligence based on his tour of germany and all that kind of stuff. was he, um, participating after the war broke out in any kind of way on a pro-u.s. side? >> that is one -- that's really one of the most interesting things about charles lindbergh's life, is what happened after the war. after the war, when pearl harbor happened, he disa

charles and anne lindbergh supported wilkie in the election of 1940, but wilkie was appalled by their vision of a fascist future. in a speech he gave that fall, he said i see an america of which democracy arises to a new birth, an america that will once more provide this war torn world with a clear glimpse of the destiny of man. october 29th, one week before the november elections, a lottery took place in the auditorium in washington. a few weeks earlier, congress had passed the selective service act for universal come compulsoy military training and service. it was the first peacetime draft in american history. the lottery would determine the order in which american boys would be called up. there was a huge bowl filled with 9,000 blue capsules. each containing a different registration number. the audience packed with cabinet members, senators, congressmen, young men, parents, and reporters. nay grew quiet when they saw president roosevelt walk slowly on to the stage on the arm of his assistant, and he gave a short talk, and this is a solemn ceremony with no fanfare or beating of drum

and every single one of them was better prepared and funded and charles lindbergh.nd with just being a kid at of the midwest, he flies into new york with the plane with one engine, no navigator, no co-pilot, just him and a simple, small plane, essentially just a flying gas tank in everyone thought that it was suicide and he would crash in the water. of course, he was the one who beat everybody. because his plan was so much simpler and there was so much less necessary to get it ready to take off. >> you open the but by talking about a fire in new york city and that people would gather for events >> it's amazing. this happens again and again. i don't know what it was or that anyone could possibly say what it was, but there was this affinity of people together in huge crowds for almost anything. this hotel in new york on fifth avenue which was under construction, nearly finished, whole lot of wooden scaffolding around the top of it. they were just finishing off. somehow it car fire and all of the wooden scaffolding went up. it was a little bit like a matchbox. in a cou

the neutrality forces in the united states, in part charles lindbergh was involved with that were verysevelt was bound by law that we couldn't sell military equipment, we couldn't give money to england. that's when he came up with the unique idea of lend-lease. "well, we'll lend you stuff. "we'll rent it to you." so they signed a lend-lease agreement. but as time went on, churchill and roosevelt decided that they really needed to be able to talk to each other face-to-face. so, yes, you're absolutely right, they had this secret meeting. roosevelt saying he was going fishing at the time and this meeting on this ship generated the "atlantic charter," and the atlantic charter was not a legal treaty, but it was an agreement between the united states and england of what their goals would be with the future of the war, in part that we had no designs on acquiring property and that if any borders were to be shifted it would be through the approval of the citizenry, freedom of the seas. all of these ideas were bound into the atlantic charter. and that's what came out of this meeting. and when yo