Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 30 Tried and Found Wanting

1. 1. Lippmann argued that lifting the arms embargo while retaining shipping and finance embargoes would prevent American involvement in the war.
2. 2. Lippmann insisted that only a lunatic would contemplate military intervention in the Atlantic with no navy to assure the return of American forces.
3. 3. Keynes found Lippmann's argument for neutrality distasteful, saying no one expects or desires American entry as before.
4. 4. Lippmann called Stalin's demands on Finland a dreadful catastrophe and urged German conservatives to purge Nazis to defend the West.
5. 5. Lippmann later admitted his call for war against the Soviet Union to save Finland was the most foolish thing he could remember.
6. 6. General Gamelin explained that the Maginot Line's open side was needed as a battlefield to attack and destroy the German army.
7. 7. Lippmann warned that if France fell, America would be isolated in a world dominated by the most formidable alliance of conquerors in history.
8. 8. France's capitulation stunned Lippmann, who had thought repeal of the Neutrality Acts would allow Britain and France to hold back Hitler.
9. 9. Lippmann charged that the postwar generation was duped by a falsification of history into believing America entered WWI for British propaganda and bankers.
10. 10. Lippmann believed American interests in Europe were primary, and Japan could not threaten the hemisphere, so the US should withdraw its Pacific fleet if war with Germany came.
11. 11. Lippmann predicted historians would find it ironic that isolationist leaders precipitated a challenge to Japan on the eve of a great war.
12. 12. Lippmann helped write General Pershing's speech endorsing the destroyer-bases deal, which he then promoted to outflank isolationists.