Part 2: Lindbergh after the flight

While Lindbergh was waiting at Roosevelt Field New York to take off on his historic flight across the Atlantic, an aviation buff engaged him in conversation. The fellow was Harry Guggenheim, the heir to one of America's largest mining fortunes (copper, silver, gold).

Harry was an entrepreneur in his own right, and had developed mines in Colorado, as well as several locations in South America. He was the founder of the very successful news magazine, Newsday, among other business ventures. But his chief interest was flying and aviation in general. He had been a Navy pilot in World War I, and had encouraged many aviation pioneering ventures, from mail routes, passenger service, and the first ventures into rocket science in this country.

Guggenheim and Lindbergh hit it off immediately, and Guggenheim invited Lindy to visit him on his return to the United States. (Guggenheim admitted later that he held out only a slim chance that Lindbergh would complete his mission). However, Lindbergh remembered the invitation and did indeed look up his friend when he got back to the U.S. Together, the two planned an extensive tour of the United States for Lindy and The Spirit of St. Louis -- the Guggenheim Tour, which Guggenheim sponsored. For three months Lindbergh and his plane toured -- through all 48 states, 92 cities. He gave 147 speeches, and rode in 1,300 miles of parades. His mission was to promote aviation, in all its phases, and he did a good job. Interest in aviation exploded worldwide.

At the end of the tour Lindbergh "rested" for a month at the Guggenheim estate on Long Island, where he wrote his best selling book, "We," which told the story of his 1927 solo trip across the Atlantic -- the "We" was Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis.

Late in 1927 the U.S. Government sponsored another tour for Lindbergh -- flying to Mexico and South American countries carrying his message promoting aviation. It was on this tour that he met his wife, Anne Morrow, the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador.

Lindbergh's engineering talents were not wasted. In the early '30s, in reaction to his sister-in-law's fatal heat condition, he worked to invent an artificial heart machine for the renowned French heart surgeon, Alexis Carrel. His efforts proved to be the basis for a successful heart/lung machine, which others perfected in the years after 1938.

In 1932 Lindbergh was again involved in a world-wide news story. In March of that year, his son, 2-year old, Charles Jr. was kidnapped from the family's New Jersey home. The boy was found, murdered, and two years later an immigrant carpenter, Bruno Hauptmann was arrested, tried and found guilty of the crime. He was executed in 1936.

The publicity the couple received at the time of the abduction and the ensuing trial -- the crush of reporters, photographers, and curiosity seekers, was overwhelming. Soon after the trial Charles, Anne, and 3-year old Jon escaped to Europe, where the family hoped to find a bit of privacy, and if not anonymity, then at least safety.

Already a member of the Air National Guard, Lindbergh eventually rose to the rank of colonel, in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the years prior to World War II. On European tours, Lindbergh was toasted wherever he went. The French people loved him, as did the English, and he was invited to tour the aviation facilities of every country he visited.

Lindbergh got along especially well with the Germans, in those early days of Hitler's Nazi regime. He was presented with the "Commander Cross of the Order of the German Eagle."

The German air force men accepted him as one of their own and were most proud to show him their aviation manufacturing facilities and the planes they were turning out. Lindbergh was very impressed and upon returning home attempted to pass along the information he had received to Roosevelt and his cabinet. He was not taken seriously, even when he predicted Nazi aggression against the other countries of Europe.

Lindbergh perhaps was overawed by the German advances in aviation, and swayed by his intense dislike and fear of the Soviet Communists, and repeatedly warned Roosevelt about going to war with the Nazis. This stand led to his active involvement in the American isolationist, "America First Party," leading to Lindbergh's resigning his commission in the Air Force, in protest to Roosevelt's interventionist policies.

Lindbergh maintained a very busy speaking schedule in the months leading up to World War II. He harped on the theme that the U.S. should support the Monroe Doctrine. He was not always careful about his remarks, and critics took portions of his speeches to show that he was anti-semitic, and pro-Nazi in his beliefs. His contention was that he was pro-American, and our interests would be best served by minding our own business, staying out of a European war, and to let the Nazis and the Soviets destroy each other.

After Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh's public statements changed. He sought to again assume his commission in the Air Force and serve an active role in the war against America's enemies. But Roosevelt refused, probably assuming that he was well rid of one very vocal critic. Lindbergh was relegated to the role of Civilian Consultant for a number of military airplane manufacturers, especially the Ford Motor Company.

In 1944, Lindbergh succeeded in having himself named Technical Advisor for United Aircraft Co. in the Pacific Theater -- as a civilian. He served in the South Pacific for six months, and during that time flew some 50 combat fighter/bomber missions (as a civilian), and shot down at least one enemy plane. Marine and Air Force pilots, with whom he served, praised his bravery and the innovations that he was able to bring to the aircraft that they were flying.

To a man they defended his patriotism.

After World War II Lindbergh visited some of the Nazi death camps and came away sickened by the evidence of atrocities he saw. Still, when so much of Eastern Europe came under the rule of the Soviet Union, he felt that the predictions he had made about the communists, before the war, had largely come true.

During the Eisenhower years Lindbergh's commission in the Air Force was restored and he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, and served as a consultant to the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and to Pan American World Air Lines. But he generally stopped speaking publically about U.S. military procedure. A friend wrote, "He knows that the American public no longer gives a hoot about his opinions."

In his later years, Lindbergh turned his attention to environmental causes -- saving the humpback whale and the Philippine eagle, among others. He stressed in his speeches and writings that man needed to regain the balance between the world and the natural environment. He spoke against the introduction of the supersonic airliners. In a 1967 article he wrote that "The human future depends upon our ability to combine the knowledge of science with the wisdom of the wilderness."

Each year since 1978, to honor the vision of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the Lindbergh Foundation has recognized "a person whose work has made a significant contribution toward achieving balance between the technological advancements they pioneered, and the preservation of human and natural environments."

Lindbergh spent his final years on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, where he died in 1974, of lymphoma. He is buried in the cemetery of the Palapala Hoomau Church in Kipahula, Maui, Hawaii, with only a simple headstone to mark his grave.