America First Party (1940)
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The America First Party is a political party with roots in the America First Committee, founded in September, 1940. The party, founded in approximately 1942 or 1943, lived on through World War II and several years thereafter. The America First Committee had accused President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of conspiring to get the United States into WWII on the side of the Soviet Union. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and many other members of America First quickly abandoned any dissent and enlisted in the military.
Note this party is not related to a second America First Party (2002) that was formed in 2002.
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The America First Party founding
1941-1944
Despite the dissolution of the America First Committee, some members suspected that Roosevelt had intentionally created a diplomatic crisis with Japan in order to provoke at attack and generate support for entering the war. They vowed to fight on with their opposition to involvement in WWII, and founded the America First Party. Its leader, Gerald L. K. Smith, was the party's presidential candidate in the 1944 U.S. Presidential Election. The results were less than encouraging for its members; Smith received 1,780 votes, mostly from the states of Texas and Michigan.
Smith's specific full party platform is not known as of the time of this writing.
Post 1944
The America First Party lived on in some form beyond 1944 and is believed to have been the same party (by name) formed in that year. Its platform beyond 1944 is not known at the time of this writing.
Presidential candidates
- 1952
- Nominated Douglas MacArthur of Wisconsin for President and Harry Flood Byrd of Virginia as Vice-President at convention held August 25, 1952 in Kansas City, Missouri. Received 233 votes.
- 1964