WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.379 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take this 00:00:02.379 --> 00:00:05.000 huge stack of sources, notes, and research you've 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.580 brought in and, well, we try to make sense of 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.640 it all. We do our best. And today, we are deep 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:13.470 diving into Charles Lindbergh. I mean, here's 00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:15.289 a man whose life wasn't a straight line. It was 00:00:15.289 --> 00:00:17.969 more like a series of these violent, fascinating 00:00:17.969 --> 00:00:20.750 arcs that just stand the entire 20th century. 00:00:20.890 --> 00:00:22.730 That is the perfect way to put it, because when 00:00:22.730 --> 00:00:24.469 most people hear Lindbergh, they immediately 00:00:24.469 --> 00:00:26.989 think of the Lone Eagle, right? The hero aviator 00:00:26.989 --> 00:00:30.050 from 1927. But what our sources show and what 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:33.009 we're really here to unpack is the full, complex 00:00:33.009 --> 00:00:36.310 and, well, frankly, often deeply uncomfortable 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:39.329 story of his 72 years. It's a lot. We're talking 00:00:39.329 --> 00:00:42.750 about unparalleled global fame, but also. profound 00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:45.009 personal tragedy. And then political disgrace, 00:00:45.329 --> 00:00:48.490 real scientific innovation, and then astonishingly 00:00:48.490 --> 00:00:51.710 decades of just startling secrecy. So our mission 00:00:51.710 --> 00:00:55.070 today is to move way beyond that iconic New York 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.750 to Paris flight and try to understand the man 00:00:57.750 --> 00:00:59.750 himself. We've got sources covering his whole 00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:02.729 timeline from his childhood in Minnesota right 00:01:02.729 --> 00:01:04.959 up to his death in Hawaii. Yeah. And we have 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.620 to cover it all. His early, really hardscrabble 00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:10.939 aviation career, the family horror that basically 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:13.340 drove him into exile. And then the controversial 00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:16.280 politics leading up to World War Two. His his 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:20.000 often overlooked medical inventions. Right. His 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.120 later career. as a brigadier general and environmental 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.099 activist. And then this hidden life that, you 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:27.879 know, only came to light long after he was gone. 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:30.540 It's an incredible paradox. He was this singular 00:01:30.540 --> 00:01:33.239 focus of hope for millions of people. But at 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:35.560 the same time, he held these views that put him 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:38.359 in direct opposition to American ideals. And 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:40.799 just to grasp the scale of his initial celebrity, 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.599 you have to understand the immediate, just shattering 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:45.819 impact of that flight. OK, set the stage for 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:48.000 us. Lindbergh was the very first time man of 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.049 the year back in 1927. He was the. youngest person 00:01:51.049 --> 00:01:53.390 ever to get that title. And he stayed the youngest 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:57.069 until 2019. Wow. Until 2019. Yeah. And his achievement, 00:01:57.150 --> 00:01:59.629 it wasn't just a stunt. It instantly transformed 00:01:59.629 --> 00:02:02.250 aviation from this dangerous kind of unreliable 00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:05.430 novelty into a serious, globally accessible industry. 00:02:05.769 --> 00:02:08.449 We called it the Lindbergh boom. Exactly. And 00:02:08.449 --> 00:02:10.250 it was a real phenomenon. We're talking about 00:02:10.250 --> 00:02:11.990 a transformation that affected infrastructure, 00:02:12.330 --> 00:02:15.110 finance, public imagination almost overnight. 00:02:15.349 --> 00:02:17.509 OK, so let's unpack the foundation of this man's 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:20.860 life. He was born in Detroit, 1902, but grew 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:23.439 up mostly in Little Falls, Minnesota, and also 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:25.840 Washington, D .C. Right. And what's really crucial 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.479 to understanding his drive is that his early 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:31.539 interests were completely rooted in mechanics. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:33.939 Just taking things apart. Taking things apart, 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:36.379 putting them back together, tinkering with his 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:39.460 family's car, a Saxon 6, and later his Excelsior 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:42.139 motorbike. It wasn't just a hobby for him. It 00:02:42.139 --> 00:02:44.180 was, you know, fundamentally how he understood 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:46.460 the world. And that mechanical curiosity, it 00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:48.479 seems like it was combined. with this really 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:50.979 staunch independence streak. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.580 And that defined his path. He mentioned his background. 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:55.819 His family environment was definitely unique. 00:02:55.979 --> 00:02:58.099 His father, Charles August Lindbergh Sr., was 00:02:58.099 --> 00:03:00.300 a U .S. congressman. Highly principled one. Very. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.819 He served from 1907 to 1917, and he was famously 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:07.099 outspoken against the U .S. entering World War 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:10.580 I. He had these very strong, isolationist, populist 00:03:10.580 --> 00:03:13.139 views. So the political leanings that define 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:15.620 the son's later controversy, they didn't just 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:17.870 come out of nowhere. Not at all. The seeds were 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:20.030 there. But despite that really political background, 00:03:20.310 --> 00:03:23.689 Charles Jr. only briefly attempted academic life. 00:03:23.969 --> 00:03:26.229 He enrolled in the College of Engineering at 00:03:26.229 --> 00:03:27.909 the University of Wisconsin -Madison. Right. 00:03:27.969 --> 00:03:30.689 In late 1920. But he drops out mid -sophomore 00:03:30.689 --> 00:03:34.550 year in 1922. And the reason is just. he became 00:03:34.550 --> 00:03:37.270 completely obsessed with flying. Yeah, he quit 00:03:37.270 --> 00:03:39.550 engineering a path that would have been financially 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:42.830 stable, you know, a respectable career, to chase 00:03:42.830 --> 00:03:46.069 this completely uncertain and, frankly, terrifying 00:03:46.069 --> 00:03:50.009 passion. And his early aviation career was, well, 00:03:50.110 --> 00:03:52.689 it was anything but glamorous. When we say hardscrabble, 00:03:52.689 --> 00:03:54.639 we really mean it. Oh, yeah. He started at a 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:57.020 flying school in Lincoln, Nebraska. He flew for 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:00.039 the first time as a passenger on April 9th, 1922. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:02.680 And here's the first detail that just highlights 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:05.159 his sheer grit. What's that? He couldn't afford 00:04:05.159 --> 00:04:07.360 the damage bond that was required to fly solo. 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:09.680 So if he crashed the plane, he was on the hook 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:11.659 for the cost, and he just didn't have the money. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:14.139 Exactly. So he was stuck. He was learning as 00:04:14.139 --> 00:04:17.120 a passenger and had to leave the school just 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:18.959 to try and earn the money and the experience. 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:22.860 So what did he do? He spent months. Barnstorming 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:25.370 across the Midwest and the West. performing these 00:04:25.370 --> 00:04:28.470 incredibly dangerous stunts just to survive. 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:31.149 He was literally Daredevil Lindbergh. That was 00:04:31.149 --> 00:04:34.509 his name. He was a wingwalker, a parachutist, 00:04:34.509 --> 00:04:37.310 an exhibition pilot. He was just scraping by, 00:04:37.449 --> 00:04:39.529 sometimes sleeping under the wings of his plane. 00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:41.410 Just enough money to keep the old planes running. 00:04:41.490 --> 00:04:44.290 Right. It was a completely unregulated, high 00:04:44.290 --> 00:04:46.850 -risk life. He was constantly crashing or, you 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:48.889 know, cracking up his planes because of engine 00:04:48.889 --> 00:04:51.769 failure or landing in rough fields. That makes 00:04:51.769 --> 00:04:54.529 his first solo flight even more incredible. It 00:04:54.529 --> 00:04:58.209 finally happens in May 1923 at Sutherfield in 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.389 Georgia. And that's after he managed to buy a 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:04.370 $500 surplus Curtis JN -4 Jenny biplane from 00:05:04.370 --> 00:05:07.029 World War I. And the sources confirm this, right? 00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:09.629 He had only a half hour of dual instruction before 00:05:09.629 --> 00:05:12.009 he was deemed ready to fly alone. A half hour. 00:05:12.050 --> 00:05:14.660 I mean, in today's world, that is just... Unimaginable. 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:16.899 It's insane. But it speaks volumes about his 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:20.339 inherent mechanical intuition and also, you know, 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.699 the brutal selection process of the time. If 00:05:22.699 --> 00:05:24.639 you couldn't teach yourself, the plane usually 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.360 taught you a fatal lesson. And he spent the rest 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:31.319 of 1923 just doing nonstop barnstorming as a 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:33.680 pilot, logging his first solo cross -country 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:35.920 flight, his first night flight. But this high 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:39.000 risk, disorganized life eventually gives way 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:41.279 to military discipline. And this was arguably 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.560 the most transformative period for him as an 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.420 aviator. March 1924, he reports to Brooks Field 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:49.800 for the yearlong military flight training. This 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.060 is with the U .S. Army Air Service. Right. And 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:54.560 this is where that raw talent was really honed 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:57.620 into precise skill. It was an extremely grueling 00:05:57.620 --> 00:06:00.519 and selective process. Of the 104 cadets who 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:03.139 started, only 18 graduated. And Lindbergh didn't 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:05.240 just graduate. He graduated. first overall in 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.740 his class. He himself credited this year with 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:10.240 solidifying his focus, his discipline, his goal 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.540 -oriented approach traits that would, you know, 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:14.420 serve him well later for better and for worse. 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.879 But the danger was always there. Just eight days 00:06:17.879 --> 00:06:21.699 before graduation, March 1925, he has his most 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:24.740 serious accident yet, a midair collision during 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:26.980 combat maneuvers. And he's forced to bail out. 00:06:27.550 --> 00:06:29.610 Just imagine being that close to earning your 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:31.850 wings and having to jump out of a failing aircraft. 00:06:32.189 --> 00:06:34.569 He earns his army pilot's wings and a commission, 00:06:34.750 --> 00:06:36.910 but the army didn't have active duty positions 00:06:36.910 --> 00:06:39.389 for pilots at the time. So he goes back to civilian 00:06:39.389 --> 00:06:42.170 life and eventually lands a job as a U .S. Air 00:06:42.170 --> 00:06:44.329 Mail pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corporation. 00:06:44.610 --> 00:06:47.490 He's flying the KM -2 route from St. Louis to 00:06:47.490 --> 00:06:51.279 Chicago. And this was... What, maybe the most 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.560 dangerous form of flying in the mid -1920s? Absolutely. 00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:57.139 For several reasons. First, the schedules were 00:06:57.139 --> 00:06:59.220 just unforgiving. The mail had to go through. 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:01.360 That meant night flights, often with minimal 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.879 instrumentation, in just appalling weather conditions. 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:06.220 And the planes were probably not the best. They 00:07:06.220 --> 00:07:08.000 were frequently unreliable surplus aircraft. 00:07:08.259 --> 00:07:10.139 And our sources note that twice during his time 00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:12.800 flying airmail, he was forced to bail out. Right. 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:16.279 Twice. In that one job. Twice. A combination 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:19.180 of bad weather, equipment failure, running out 00:07:19.180 --> 00:07:21.379 of fuel during those really tricky night approaches 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:24.939 to Chicago. He had to jump. Successfully parachuting 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.540 out of a plane twice and living to tell the tale. 00:07:27.699 --> 00:07:30.639 I mean, that's not just luck. That's sheer cold 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.240 calculation under extreme duress. That's the 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.740 key to understanding him. The man was hyper aware 00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:39.220 of risk and survival. And this incredibly dangerous 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:42.420 routine job became the literal transition point 00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:45.259 to his destiny. How so? Lindbergh reads about 00:07:45.259 --> 00:07:47.839 the horrific crash of the French case René Fonk, 00:07:47.939 --> 00:07:50.660 who was attempting the Orteig Prize in September 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:54.339 1926. Fonk's heavy, multi -engine plane failed 00:07:54.339 --> 00:07:56.660 on takeoff. And Lindbergh looks at his own situation. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:59.439 Exactly. He's risking his life daily for a modest 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:02.100 salary, and he decides that a nonstop flight 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:04.180 between New York and Paris would actually be, 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:06.620 and this is a quote, less hazardous than flying 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:09.930 mail for a single winter. Wow. That quote says 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:12.089 everything, doesn't it? It just encapsulates 00:08:12.089 --> 00:08:14.870 the stakes of early era mail and the mindset 00:08:14.870 --> 00:08:18.930 of Charles Lindbergh. That context just changes 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:21.730 everything. The world saw the Paris flight as 00:08:21.730 --> 00:08:25.269 this crazy romantic dare. But for Lindbergh, 00:08:25.269 --> 00:08:27.290 it was a calculated risk assessment. It was a 00:08:27.290 --> 00:08:30.069 professional step up from basically routine suicide 00:08:30.069 --> 00:08:32.679 missions. Precisely. So let's talk about that 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:36.000 prize, the Orteig Prize. The lure was this. A 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.539 French -born New York hotelier named Raymond 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:42.440 Orteig offered $25 ,000 for the first successful 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:44.919 nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. 00:08:45.139 --> 00:08:47.320 And that was a truly monumental sum of money 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.820 back then. It's equivalent to about $453 ,000 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:52.200 today. And it was a prize that had already claimed 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:54.259 lives and reputations. It had been offered and 00:08:54.259 --> 00:08:57.039 renewed since 1919. And the landscape was just 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:58.919 littered with tragedy. Right. There was René 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:02.159 Fonk's crash. And U .S. Naval aviators Noel Davis 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.679 and Stanton Wooster were killed just testing 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:07.350 their plane. Then, just days before Lindbergh's 00:09:07.350 --> 00:09:10.269 own attempt, two very famous French war heroes, 00:09:10.509 --> 00:09:13.470 Charles Nungesser and Francois Colli, they departed 00:09:13.470 --> 00:09:15.950 Paris trying the flight in reverse. And they 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:18.350 just vanished. Simply vanished over the Atlantic. 00:09:18.649 --> 00:09:20.970 So this was seen not as a sporting event, but 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:23.169 as a potential death sentence. The competition 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:26.470 was fierce and, more importantly, it was really 00:09:26.470 --> 00:09:29.649 well financed. But Lindbergh was a virtual unknown. 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:33.259 Just an airmail pilot. So getting funding was 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:35.559 a monumental struggle for him. He eventually 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.019 got support from a group of St. Louis businessmen, 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:41.279 and he contributed $2 ,000 of his own salary. 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:44.139 And the entire venture was budgeted at just $18 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:48.159 ,000, which was so much less than what his heavily 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:50.600 backed rivals were spending. Right. And his rivals 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:53.100 were all focused on safety through size and power. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.519 Multi -engine planes, heavy navigation equipment, 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:58.230 that sort of thing. But Lindbergh. Analyzing 00:09:58.230 --> 00:10:01.370 the failures of the past, he insisted on a single 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:04.210 -engine monoplane designed for maximum range 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:06.850 and minimum weight. Exactly. He partnered with 00:10:06.850 --> 00:10:08.929 the small, scrappy Ryan Airline Company in San 00:10:08.929 --> 00:10:11.149 Diego, and he worked extremely closely with our 00:10:11.149 --> 00:10:14.009 chief engineer, Donald A. Hall. And this collaboration 00:10:14.009 --> 00:10:17.990 results in the iconic spirit of St. Louis, a 00:10:17.990 --> 00:10:21.250 fabric -covered, single -seat, high -wing monoplane. 00:10:21.629 --> 00:10:24.409 And here is one of those astonishing logistical 00:10:24.409 --> 00:10:26.710 facts in our sources. The timeline. The timeline. 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:29.299 From the initial design on a drawing board to 00:10:29.299 --> 00:10:31.899 the final rollout, the plane was designed and 00:10:31.899 --> 00:10:34.700 built in just two months. Two months! It's just 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:37.000 unheard of for a custom aircraft built for an 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.919 intercontinental flight. It speaks to that singular 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:42.960 focus, that minimalist design philosophy. And 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.480 Lindbergh prioritized fuel capacity above everything 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.059 else. Above all else, which meant the main fuel 00:10:48.059 --> 00:10:50.860 tank, the heaviest single component, had to be 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.080 placed directly ahead of the cockpit. Which was 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.519 a critical safety measure, right? Right. It separated 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:57.980 him from the engine firewall and provided gravity 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:00.789 feed for the fuel. It did. But it came at a monumental 00:11:00.789 --> 00:11:03.289 cost to functionality. The cost being, of course, 00:11:03.289 --> 00:11:05.730 that Lindbergh had basically zero forward visibility 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:08.529 during takeoff and landing. None. He had to rely 00:11:08.529 --> 00:11:11.370 on a small side window and this rudimentary periscope 00:11:11.370 --> 00:11:13.450 system during the most crucial and dangerous 00:11:13.450 --> 00:11:15.769 parts of the flight. That one decision tells 00:11:15.769 --> 00:11:19.070 you everything about his calculation. He prioritized 00:11:19.070 --> 00:11:22.090 distance and safety over the convenience of sight. 00:11:22.269 --> 00:11:25.830 Which brings us to the takeoff. May 20th, 1927, 00:11:25.990 --> 00:11:29.370 from Roosevelt Field on Long Island. He was already 00:11:29.370 --> 00:11:31.429 fighting exhaustion, hadn't been able to sleep 00:11:31.429 --> 00:11:34.149 the night before. Too much going on. Final preparations, 00:11:34.669 --> 00:11:37.129 weather checks. And it was a rainy, muddy morning. 00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:39.889 The runway was soft. The situation was just so 00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:43.480 tenuous. The Spirit was loaded with 450 gallons 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.980 of fuel. The whole plane weighed 5 ,200 pounds, 00:11:47.179 --> 00:11:49.740 a thousand pounds heavier than it had ever been 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:52.080 tested. The sources described the scene where 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:54.960 men had to physically push the wing struts to 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:57.139 help it gain enough initial speed on that soft, 00:11:57.220 --> 00:11:59.779 muddy runway. The anxiety must have been unbearable. 00:12:00.009 --> 00:12:02.230 He used nearly the entire runway. Accounts say 00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:04.509 he hit a small bump late in the run that might 00:12:04.509 --> 00:12:06.690 have given him that final lift he needed. He 00:12:06.690 --> 00:12:08.769 cleared the telephone lines at the far end by 00:12:08.769 --> 00:12:11.210 only about 20 feet. 20 feet. But it was just 00:12:11.210 --> 00:12:13.730 enough. He had enough flying speed to climb away. 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:17.690 He was off, heading into the unknown, 3 ,610 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:20.950 miles away. And the 33 and a half hours he spent 00:12:20.950 --> 00:12:23.990 in the air were just brutal. Not just physically, 00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:26.570 but psychologically. Within hours, fatigue set 00:12:26.570 --> 00:12:29.870 in. And to battle that overwhelming urge to sleep, 00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:32.250 he deliberately descended and flew sometimes 00:12:32.250 --> 00:12:35.350 only 10 feet above the churning water. Just knowing 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:37.750 that a slight movement or a sudden dip would 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:40.149 shock him awake. It's incredible. And he faced 00:12:40.149 --> 00:12:42.769 extreme weather, too. He fought severe icing 00:12:42.769 --> 00:12:45.970 for several hours. At one point, flying blind 00:12:45.970 --> 00:12:49.190 through fog, he climbed to 7 ,500 feet to try 00:12:49.190 --> 00:12:51.009 and get above the clouds. And then even higher. 00:12:51.169 --> 00:12:53.750 Up to 10 ,000 feet. where he realized ice was 00:12:53.750 --> 00:12:56.590 forming. The sources say he deliberately thrust 00:12:56.590 --> 00:12:59.690 his bare hand out the cockpit window, felt the 00:12:59.690 --> 00:13:02.509 stinging ice particles confirm the danger, and 00:13:02.509 --> 00:13:04.990 then he banked hard and dove back down to warmer 00:13:04.990 --> 00:13:06.909 air. Just constantly making these life or death 00:13:06.909 --> 00:13:10.169 decisions based on tiny sensory inputs. And his 00:13:10.169 --> 00:13:12.809 navigation was astonishingly primitive for such 00:13:12.809 --> 00:13:16.289 a complex journey. He rejected the heavy, unreliable 00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:18.710 radio gear they had back then. He wasn't proficient 00:13:18.710 --> 00:13:20.929 in sun or star navigation either, right? No, 00:13:20.950 --> 00:13:23.139 too complex. too heavy to carry the instruments, 00:13:23.419 --> 00:13:25.659 he relied almost entirely on dead reckoning. 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:29.120 So calculating his position based only on his 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:32.860 compass, his speed, elapsed time, and just estimating 00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:35.100 the wind drift. The fact that he succeeded is 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:38.399 often attributed to sheer serendipity. The winds 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.360 over the Atlantic just happened to cancel each 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:42.500 other out over the course of the flight. So his 00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:45.100 rough calculations suffered zero net wind drift. 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:48.169 Exactly. If those winds had been consistently 00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:50.929 pushing him south or north, he would have missed 00:13:50.929 --> 00:13:54.769 Europe entirely. So 27 hours in, he finally sees 00:13:54.769 --> 00:13:58.169 something living. Porpoises, fishing boats off 00:13:58.169 --> 00:14:00.009 the coast of Ireland. That must have been the 00:14:00.009 --> 00:14:02.370 moment. The overwhelming confirmation that he 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:05.090 had done it. He'd crossed the Atlantic. He circled 00:14:05.090 --> 00:14:07.929 close, later saying he only saw one face watching 00:14:07.929 --> 00:14:10.429 him from a porthole. And his landfall was confirmed 00:14:10.429 --> 00:14:12.870 at Dingle Bay, County Kerry, Ireland. He was 00:14:12.870 --> 00:14:14.830 only two and a half hours ahead of schedule and, 00:14:14.909 --> 00:14:17.529 miraculously, less than three miles off course. 00:14:17.730 --> 00:14:19.929 By any measure, he was a master navigator, even 00:14:19.929 --> 00:14:22.210 if he used primitive means. He then flies over 00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:24.570 England and arrives over Le Bourget Aerodrome 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.629 outside Paris at 10 .16 p .m. Saturday, May 21st. 00:14:28.649 --> 00:14:31.309 And he didn't even recognize the landing strip 00:14:31.309 --> 00:14:34.330 at first because of the chaos. The lights he 00:14:34.330 --> 00:14:37.389 saw weren't airfield lights. They were the headlights. 00:14:38.009 --> 00:14:41.669 tens of thousands of spectators stuck in what 00:14:41.669 --> 00:14:44.990 they called the largest traffic jam in Paris 00:14:44.990 --> 00:14:48.830 history. And the landing itself. It just resulted 00:14:48.830 --> 00:14:52.090 in total uncontrollable pandemonium. A crowd 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:55.629 estimated at 150 ,000 people stormed the field. 00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:58.149 They dragged him out of the cockpit and literally 00:14:58.149 --> 00:15:00.230 carried him around on their shoulders for nearly 00:15:00.230 --> 00:15:03.149 half an hour. And the sources detail how terrifying 00:15:03.149 --> 00:15:06.360 that frenzy was. Souvenir hunters were so aggressive, 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:08.100 they were stripping the plane of everything which 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:09.720 could be taken off. They were cutting pieces 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:12.120 of the linen covering off the wings and fuselage 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:14.440 before military flyers and police could even 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:16.860 get to him. They tore his plane apart. That's 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:18.960 not just a celebration. That's a mob reacting 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.720 to an absolute icon. It really speaks to a world 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.039 that was just desperately hungry for a new kind 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:27.059 of hero after the trauma of World War I. Lindbergh 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:30.399 was that new, clean, technological hero. He finally 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.519 made it to safety at the U .S. Ambassador's residence, 00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:34.700 where he slept for the first time in about 60 00:15:34.700 --> 00:15:37.720 hours. And the immediate aftermath was just unprecedented 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:40.799 global acclaim. He received the Medal of Honor 00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:44.360 by a special act of Congress, no less, the Distinguished 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.419 Flying Cross, and France's Légion d 'honneur. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:49.879 And of course, Time magazine gave him that inaugural 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.059 Man of the Year title. The Lindbergh boom took 00:15:52.059 --> 00:15:54.820 hold instantly. The volume of airmail in the 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:58.179 U .S. went up by 50 % within six months. Applications 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:00.879 for pilot's licenses tripled. The number of planes 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.059 quadrupled as investment just poured in. To capitalize 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:06.500 on all this, he was sent on this huge U .S. tour. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:10.529 Nine months. Over 22 ,000 miles. Visiting 82 00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:13.830 cities in all 48 states in the spirit, delivering 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:18.029 147 speeches to 30 million people. This is an 00:16:18.029 --> 00:16:20.250 era before mass media could really connect people 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:22.090 like that. It was the most famous man on Earth. 00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:24.730 And this included a tour of Latin America, the 00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:27.750 Goodwill Tour. Right. And it was there in Mexico 00:16:27.750 --> 00:16:30.870 in December 1927 that he met Anne Morrow, the 00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:33.210 daughter of the U .S. ambassador. And that really 00:16:33.210 --> 00:16:35.850 marks the beginning of the next very public chapter 00:16:35.850 --> 00:16:38.309 of his life. So the icon marries Anne Morrow, 00:16:38.429 --> 00:16:42.330 daughter of a prominent diplomat, in 1929. She 00:16:42.330 --> 00:16:44.549 was instantly immersed in this world, but she 00:16:44.549 --> 00:16:46.990 also became a true partner in aviation. She really 00:16:46.990 --> 00:16:50.009 did. Lindbergh taught her to fly, and she became 00:16:50.009 --> 00:16:53.090 an essential navigator and chronicler. She accompanied 00:16:53.090 --> 00:16:55.730 him on charting air routes, like that groundbreaking 00:16:55.730 --> 00:16:59.049 1931 flight toward Asia, which she documented 00:16:59.049 --> 00:17:01.529 in her classic book, North to the Orient. So 00:17:01.529 --> 00:17:04.970 it was a partnership of shared exploration. But 00:17:04.970 --> 00:17:07.309 it seems like it was overshadowed by Lindbergh's 00:17:07.309 --> 00:17:09.690 personal nature. Yeah, the sources reveal a man 00:17:09.690 --> 00:17:12.089 whose perfectionism extended into his family 00:17:12.089 --> 00:17:14.609 life, making him a strict and, well, a somewhat 00:17:14.609 --> 00:17:17.289 distant father. He apparently saw his six children 00:17:17.289 --> 00:17:19.869 for only a few months each year. And maintained 00:17:19.869 --> 00:17:22.650 an almost clinical detachment. Meticulous, tracking 00:17:22.650 --> 00:17:25.349 even the smallest infractions, insisting Anne 00:17:25.349 --> 00:17:27.849 document every single penny of household expenses. 00:17:28.309 --> 00:17:30.650 The same discipline from the flight translated 00:17:30.650 --> 00:17:33.250 into this almost paranoid need for control at 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:36.000 home. It's hard to reconcile the soaring aviator 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.279 with the man obsessed with tracking gum -chewing 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:40.819 infractions in pennies. Was this perfectionism, 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:43.039 or was it a growing paranoia from the crushing 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:45.779 weight of fame? It seems to be a fusion of both. 00:17:46.019 --> 00:17:48.799 The fame was definitely isolating and intrusive, 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:52.599 but that core need for order, that really came 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:55.220 from his engineering mind. He felt that if he 00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:57.220 could control every variable, he could control 00:17:57.220 --> 00:18:00.039 the outcome. And then, fate delivered a variable 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.630 he absolutely could not control. That, of course, 00:18:02.710 --> 00:18:04.809 was the tragedy that cemented his family's place 00:18:04.809 --> 00:18:07.390 in history for all the wrong reasons. The kidnapping 00:18:07.390 --> 00:18:10.549 and murder of their firstborn, Charles Augustus 00:18:10.549 --> 00:18:13.890 Lindbergh Jr., on March 1st, 1932. From their 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:17.130 new, isolated rural home in New Jersey, the sheer 00:18:17.130 --> 00:18:19.250 magnitude of the public interest was just... 00:18:19.450 --> 00:18:22.150 unprecedented. The media dubbed it the crime 00:18:22.150 --> 00:18:24.410 of the century. The public frenzy around the 00:18:24.410 --> 00:18:27.009 search, the ransom negotiations, the eventual 00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:29.789 discovery of the child's remains in May. It was 00:18:29.789 --> 00:18:32.450 immense. And the tragedy spurred a massive and 00:18:32.450 --> 00:18:35.210 lasting legal response. Right. The lack of federal 00:18:35.210 --> 00:18:37.490 jurisdiction in kidnapping cases was immediately 00:18:37.490 --> 00:18:39.789 apparent. This led directly to the establishment 00:18:39.789 --> 00:18:43.009 of the Lindbergh law in 1932. Which made kidnapping 00:18:43.009 --> 00:18:45.230 a federal crime if the perpetrator crosses state 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:47.089 lines or, you know, uses interstate commerce 00:18:47.089 --> 00:18:50.650 like the mail. for ransom demands. That law remains 00:18:50.650 --> 00:18:53.309 one of the most immediate and tangible legal 00:18:53.309 --> 00:18:56.269 legacies of his tragedy. Eventually, Richard 00:18:56.269 --> 00:18:59.269 Hopman was arrested in 1934 after using some 00:18:59.269 --> 00:19:01.549 of that traceable ransom money. He was convicted 00:19:01.549 --> 00:19:05.650 and executed in 1936. But the public hysteria 00:19:05.650 --> 00:19:08.650 and the intense, continuous invasion of privacy 00:19:08.650 --> 00:19:11.859 after the trial. It was just overwhelming for 00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:14.019 the Lindberghs. The sources show a family completely 00:19:14.019 --> 00:19:17.259 under siege by late 1935, concerned for the safety 00:19:17.259 --> 00:19:19.680 of their second son, John, and just desperate 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.819 to escape the relentless press. The Lindberghs 00:19:21.819 --> 00:19:23.660 essentially fled the United States. They sailed 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:26.099 secretly from Manhattan under assumed names with 00:19:26.099 --> 00:19:28.660 diplomatic passports and went to Europe. They 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:31.200 lived there, first in England, later on a secluded 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:34.539 island off the French coast until 1939. And this 00:19:34.539 --> 00:19:36.980 period of self -imposed exile driven by trauma 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:39.480 and fame, it profoundly shaped the next direction 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:42.299 of his life. It really was a pivot point. While 00:19:42.299 --> 00:19:45.240 living in Europe, away from the spotlight, Lindbergh 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:46.900 poured his focus into a completely different 00:19:46.900 --> 00:19:49.380 field, pure scientific innovation, medicine. 00:19:49.849 --> 00:19:52.789 Yes, and this is his often overlooked and genuinely 00:19:52.789 --> 00:19:56.549 profound scientific legacy. His sister -in -law's 00:19:56.549 --> 00:19:59.250 fatal heart condition in 1930 had inspired him. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:01.980 Surgery couldn't solve it because doctors couldn't 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:04.720 keep tissue viable. So he collaborates with the 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:07.599 Nobel Prize -winning French surgeon Alexis Carroll 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:10.140 at the Rockefeller Institute. And their goal 00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:12.740 was to develop a way to keep whole organs alive 00:20:12.740 --> 00:20:15.259 outside the body for surgical experimentation. 00:20:15.660 --> 00:20:18.000 And he didn't just offer money or advice. He 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:19.880 actually went back to his engineering roots and 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:22.680 invented something. He did. He designed and built 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:26.039 a truly revolutionary piece of equipment, a large, 00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:29.359 complex glass perfusion pump. a sterile closed 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:32.119 system device for pumping blood substitutes through 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:34.920 an organ. They nicknamed it the Model T pump. 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:37.079 And to understand how groundbreaking this was, 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:39.420 you have to appreciate the medical context. Before 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:41.779 this, harvested organs could only survive for 00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:44.950 minutes, maybe a couple of hours. Exactly. His 00:20:44.950 --> 00:20:47.609 pump, while still far from perfect organs, would 00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:50.210 still degenerate within days. It allowed them 00:20:50.210 --> 00:20:52.769 to be kept viable for extended periods. This 00:20:52.769 --> 00:20:56.109 was the absolute foundation. It's directly credited 00:20:56.109 --> 00:20:58.450 with paving the way for future heart surgeries, 00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:01.289 organ transplantation, and eventually the first 00:21:01.289 --> 00:21:04.589 heart lung machine decades later. The irony is 00:21:04.589 --> 00:21:07.410 just palpable. The man who symbolized the reckless 00:21:07.410 --> 00:21:11.210 acceleration of technological risk in 1927 also 00:21:11.210 --> 00:21:13.609 invented a core piece of life. saving medical 00:21:13.609 --> 00:21:16.470 technology. He literally shifted his focus from 00:21:16.470 --> 00:21:18.650 the mechanics of flight to the mechanics of life. 00:21:18.769 --> 00:21:21.460 And it wasn't just medicine. No. In another vein 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:24.220 of innovation, he was a critical early advocate 00:21:24.220 --> 00:21:27.099 for rocketry. This was an era when rocketry was 00:21:27.099 --> 00:21:30.240 often dismissed as just fantasy. But in 1929, 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:32.680 he became deeply interested in the work of Robert 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:35.259 H. Goddard, the American rocket pioneer. Goddard 00:21:35.259 --> 00:21:37.339 was struggling for funding and acceptance. And 00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:39.759 Lindbergh used his immense influence to help 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.160 Goddard secure a crucial endowment from Daniel 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:45.740 Guggenheim in 1930. That financing enabled Goddard 00:21:45.740 --> 00:21:47.819 to significantly expand his research, moving 00:21:47.819 --> 00:21:49.990 his work forward years faster. than he could 00:21:49.990 --> 00:21:53.210 have otherwise so his impact truly spanned aviation 00:21:53.210 --> 00:21:56.910 rocketry and medicine in this really compressed 00:21:56.910 --> 00:22:00.369 period it did but this scientific focus was soon 00:22:00.369 --> 00:22:02.390 overshadowed by his return to the world stage 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:04.970 and this time unfortunately in a political royal 00:22:04.970 --> 00:22:07.769 and now we entered the most controversial and 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.319 damaging chapter of his life, moving to Europe 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:14.299 in 1935 for privacy, inadvertently placed him 00:22:14.299 --> 00:22:16.319 right at the heart of the developing European 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:20.480 crisis. So between 1936 and 1938, he makes several 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:22.680 visits to Germany. This is at the request of 00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.859 the U .S. military establishment. Right. He was 00:22:24.859 --> 00:22:27.980 operating essentially as a crucial, if unofficial, 00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:30.900 intelligence asset. OK, let's unpack that. He 00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.059 was flying for the Nazis Air Force. He was the 00:22:33.059 --> 00:22:35.299 first American allowed to pilot their most advanced 00:22:35.299 --> 00:22:38.619 fighter, the Messerschmitt Brief 109. a state 00:22:38.619 --> 00:22:40.880 -of -the -art war machine. He also examined the 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:43.799 new Junkers Ju 88 bomber. And what the U .S. 00:22:43.859 --> 00:22:46.299 military was getting out of this was unparalleled 00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:48.559 access. So what were his reports like? He came 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.579 back highly impressed, maybe even exaggerating 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:53.539 the German air strength slightly in his reports 00:22:53.539 --> 00:22:56.579 to American and British officials. However, General 00:22:56.579 --> 00:22:58.940 H .H. Arnold, who would later lead the U .S. 00:22:58.940 --> 00:23:01.799 Army Air Corps, credited Lindbergh with providing 00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:05.259 crucial firsthand information about Hitler's 00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:07.759 air force that was otherwise unavailable. And 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:10.259 his reports influenced the belief, especially 00:23:10.259 --> 00:23:12.829 in Britain and France, that Germany's air power 00:23:12.829 --> 00:23:15.410 was so dominant that confrontation should be 00:23:15.410 --> 00:23:18.369 avoided. They did. And here we come to the ethically 00:23:18.369 --> 00:23:21.109 fraught moment that permanently cemented his 00:23:21.109 --> 00:23:24.009 reputation as a controversial figure. October 00:23:24.009 --> 00:23:27.960 1938. at a dinner hosted by the American ambassador 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:30.460 in Berlin. Hermann Goering presents Lindbergh 00:23:30.460 --> 00:23:32.000 with the Commander Cross of the Order of the 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:34.359 German Eagle on behalf of Adolf Hitler. And the 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:37.259 timing, as the sources clearly document, just 00:23:37.259 --> 00:23:39.059 could not have been worse. The acceptance was 00:23:39.059 --> 00:23:41.579 immediately and highly controversial. Especially 00:23:41.579 --> 00:23:44.240 because Kristallnacht, the nationwide anti -Jewish 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.460 pogrom, happened just weeks later. Exactly. Critics 00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:50.059 immediately demanded he return the medal. Lindbergh 00:23:50.059 --> 00:23:52.599 refused. What was his reasoning? He argued that 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:55.200 it was given in a time of peace as a diplomatic 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.380 gesture and that returning it would be an unnecessary 00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:01.059 insult to the German people and that it might 00:24:01.059 --> 00:24:03.559 damage his standing as an intelligence source. 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:06.119 But that refusal was widely interpreted in the 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:08.940 U .S. as a sign of deep sympathy for the Nazi 00:24:08.940 --> 00:24:12.059 regime. It was. And his diary entries from the 00:24:12.059 --> 00:24:14.599 time revealed the disturbing nature of his perspective. 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:18.579 Regarding Kristallnacht, he wrote he didn't fully 00:24:18.579 --> 00:24:21.579 understand the riots, finding them contrary to 00:24:21.579 --> 00:24:23.839 their sense of order and intelligence. But he 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:26.880 also said that Germany undoubtedly had a difficult 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:30.279 Jewish problem. Yes, which suggests his deeply 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:33.859 ingrained, racially focused worldview was already 00:24:33.859 --> 00:24:36.519 overriding his moral judgment about the atrocities. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:39.079 And that worldview was central to his isolationist 00:24:39.079 --> 00:24:41.599 stance. He returns to the U .S. and becomes the 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:43.740 lead spokesman for the powerful America First 00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:47.079 Committee in late 1940. This was a movement dedicated 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:49.380 to keeping America out of World War II, and it 00:24:49.380 --> 00:24:51.660 had millions of supporters. His influence in 00:24:51.660 --> 00:24:53.940 this role was enormous. What was the core rationale 00:24:53.940 --> 00:24:56.869 of the platform? beyond just avoiding war. Lindbergh 00:24:56.869 --> 00:24:59.970 central argument was rooted in geo strategy and 00:24:59.970 --> 00:25:02.730 racial ideology. He believed America should be 00:25:02.730 --> 00:25:05.829 an impenetrable fortress focusing only on its 00:25:05.829 --> 00:25:08.910 own defense. He was vehemently opposed to intervening 00:25:08.910 --> 00:25:10.930 because he believed that Hitler's destruction 00:25:10.930 --> 00:25:14.650 would primarily benefit Soviet Russia. He argued 00:25:14.650 --> 00:25:17.829 this would leave the West open to the rape, loot, 00:25:18.009 --> 00:25:21.089 and barbarism of Soviet Russia's forces and potentially 00:25:21.089 --> 00:25:23.609 lead to the fatal wounding of Western civilization. 00:25:24.029 --> 00:25:26.490 His primary concern was the preservation of what 00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:29.670 he called the European race. He explicitly articulated 00:25:29.670 --> 00:25:32.769 these racial views in his public speeches. The 00:25:32.769 --> 00:25:35.349 sources quote him stating, racial strength is 00:25:35.349 --> 00:25:38.589 vital, politics a luxury. He believed that white 00:25:38.589 --> 00:25:41.450 civilization depended on guarding against what 00:25:41.450 --> 00:25:44.079 he called dilution by foreign races. Right. He 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:46.480 openly admired the different geniuses of Europe. 00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:49.180 He saw the German genius for science and organization, 00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:51.819 the English genius for government and the French 00:25:51.819 --> 00:25:54.160 genius for living. And he felt these traits could 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.819 be blended in America, but only if they maintain 00:25:56.819 --> 00:25:59.589 their inheritance of European blood. This perspective 00:25:59.589 --> 00:26:02.890 was a direct echo of the eugenic thinking popular 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:06.410 at the time. This ideology underpinned his fear 00:26:06.410 --> 00:26:09.130 of involvement and his selective admiration for 00:26:09.130 --> 00:26:11.789 certain powerful European nations. And this all 00:26:11.789 --> 00:26:14.430 culminated in that highly toxic speech in Des 00:26:14.430 --> 00:26:18.369 Moines, September 1941, which really shattered 00:26:18.369 --> 00:26:21.369 his standing in America. That speech was undeniable 00:26:21.369 --> 00:26:24.710 in its reliance on antisemitic troops. He explicitly 00:26:24.710 --> 00:26:27.890 accused three groups of Pressing this country 00:26:27.890 --> 00:26:31.130 toward war. The British, the Jewish, and the 00:26:31.130 --> 00:26:33.849 Roosevelt administration. And he insinuated that 00:26:33.849 --> 00:26:36.470 Jewish Americans held outsized control over the 00:26:36.470 --> 00:26:38.930 media and government. The fallout was immediate. 00:26:39.190 --> 00:26:41.670 President Roosevelt, who was already deeply opposed 00:26:41.670 --> 00:26:44.430 to America First, responded directly. He publicly 00:26:44.430 --> 00:26:47.029 rebuked Lindbergh as a defeatist and appeaser. 00:26:47.109 --> 00:26:49.490 He even compared him to a Civil War era copperhead 00:26:49.490 --> 00:26:52.109 who opposed the Union war effort. The humiliation 00:26:52.109 --> 00:26:55.069 was total. The next day, Lindbergh resigned his 00:26:55.069 --> 00:26:56.890 colonel's commission in the U .S. Army Air Corps 00:26:56.890 --> 00:26:59.410 Reserve. He said he saw no honorable alternative. 00:26:59.670 --> 00:27:02.690 It was a massive public break. The hero was in 00:27:02.690 --> 00:27:04.690 disgrace. But despite all that, following Pearl 00:27:04.690 --> 00:27:08.000 Harbor, his tune changed entirely. It did. He 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:09.980 may have believed intervention was wrong beforehand, 00:27:10.220 --> 00:27:12.599 but once America was attacked, he avidly supported 00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:15.779 the war effort, even though FDR refused to restore 00:27:15.779 --> 00:27:18.359 his commission. So he served as a civilian consultant 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:21.940 in the Pacific Theater in 1944. He worked with 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:24.480 United Aircraft and the U .S. Marine Corps, risking 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:27.079 his life daily by flying 50 combat missions. 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:29.900 And the sources highlight that he developed and 00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:33.140 introduced a critical technical innovation. Advanced 00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:35.559 engine -leaning techniques for the P -38 Lightning 00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:38.630 Fighter. Exactly. Engine leaning involves adjusting 00:27:38.630 --> 00:27:41.130 the fuel to air mixture. For cruising over the 00:27:41.130 --> 00:27:43.470 vast distances of the Pacific, running the engine 00:27:43.470 --> 00:27:47.190 leanless fuel, more air was vital. And his techniques 00:27:47.190 --> 00:27:49.809 allowed P -38 pilots to use significantly less 00:27:49.809 --> 00:27:52.829 fuel without compromising engine integrity. It 00:27:52.829 --> 00:27:55.329 greatly improved the aircraft's range. This innovation 00:27:55.329 --> 00:27:57.950 was transformative, dramatically extending the 00:27:57.950 --> 00:28:01.000 combat radius of the P -38. It earned high praise 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:03.279 from command, including General Douglas MacArthur. 00:28:03.420 --> 00:28:05.940 It was a technical contribution that saved lives. 00:28:06.259 --> 00:28:09.420 And he saw combat unofficially. The sources credit 00:28:09.420 --> 00:28:11.240 him with shooting down a Japanese observation 00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:14.799 plane on July 28th, 1944. The man who had been 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:17.460 called a Nazi sympathizer by the president was 00:28:17.460 --> 00:28:19.960 a civilian flying combat missions against the 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:24.279 Japanese. That dichotomy. That capacity for ideological 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:27.619 toxicity and profound immediate patriotic service, 00:28:27.740 --> 00:28:31.039 it's just staggering. Post -war, Lindbergh's 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:33.539 journey becomes one of intense moral confrontation 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:36.720 and reflection. He toured Germany. He saw the 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:39.380 tunnels of Nordhausen and the horrific Dora concentration 00:28:39.380 --> 00:28:41.799 camp. And the experience was shattering for him. 00:28:41.940 --> 00:28:44.380 He wrote about lamenting how it seemed impossible 00:28:44.380 --> 00:28:46.960 that men's civilized men could degenerate to 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:49.720 such a level, yet they had. Did he ever publicly 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:53.000 or privately recant his pre -war speech? or apologize 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:55.279 for that Des Moines speech? He remained convinced 00:28:55.279 --> 00:28:57.500 that his non -interventionism was strategically 00:28:57.500 --> 00:28:59.900 correct to avoid Russian domination of Europe. 00:29:00.119 --> 00:29:02.519 However, his view of the moral dimensions of 00:29:02.519 --> 00:29:04.740 the conflict, that shifted dramatically. He supported 00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:08.359 the Nuremberg trials. He did. He recognized America's 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:11.160 moral duty post -war to support Europe, and he 00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:13.380 was dismayed that the war had failed to establish 00:29:13.380 --> 00:29:16.660 peace or liberty. He also wrote about lamenting 00:29:16.660 --> 00:29:18.720 the widespread mistreatment of Japanese people 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:21.900 by Americans, comparing those moral failures 00:29:21.900 --> 00:29:24.759 directly to what he witnessed in Germany. So 00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:27.180 he slowly worked his way back into public esteem. 00:29:27.549 --> 00:29:30.269 President Eisenhower clearly disagreed with Roosevelt. 00:29:30.529 --> 00:29:33.690 Yes. In 1954, Eisenhower restored Lindbergh's 00:29:33.690 --> 00:29:36.230 commission and promoted him to brigadier general 00:29:36.230 --> 00:29:38.809 in the Air Force Reserve. And the same year, 00:29:38.829 --> 00:29:40.829 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir, The 00:29:40.829 --> 00:29:43.769 Spirit of St. Louis. But this era marks a profound 00:29:43.769 --> 00:29:46.779 ideological shift for him. away from technology 00:29:46.779 --> 00:29:49.680 as the singular source of human progress. A huge 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:53.119 shift. In 1948, he published A Flight in Life, 00:29:53.299 --> 00:29:55.799 an impassioned warning against scientific materialism. 00:29:55.920 --> 00:29:58.579 He declared his conversion from a worshiper of 00:29:58.579 --> 00:30:00.799 science to a worshiper of the eternal truths 00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:03.380 of God. And this was more than just a spiritual 00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:05.819 shift. It was a philosophical rejection of the 00:30:05.819 --> 00:30:07.940 very forces he had spent his youth accelerating. 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:12.380 Exactly. And that philosophical rejection culminated 00:30:12.380 --> 00:30:15.539 in his pivot to environmentalism. He became deeply 00:30:15.539 --> 00:30:18.259 concerned with the negative impact of the technological 00:30:18.259 --> 00:30:21.460 advances he himself had helped pioneer. He saw 00:30:21.460 --> 00:30:24.440 them now as a threat to human survival. His famous 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:27.920 shift is documented during a 1964 trip to Kenya. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:30.799 The story goes he was lying under an acacia tree, 00:30:30.980 --> 00:30:33.460 struck by the biological complexity of the natural 00:30:33.460 --> 00:30:35.980 world. He contrasted the man -made complexity 00:30:35.980 --> 00:30:38.079 of an airplane with the evolutionary achievement 00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:41.059 of a bird. And he realized with clarity, as he 00:30:41.059 --> 00:30:43.740 wrote later, that if I had to choose, I would 00:30:43.740 --> 00:30:46.400 rather have birds than airplanes. This wasn't 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:48.640 just an aesthetic preference. It was a foundational 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:51.039 realization that led him to campaign actively 00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:54.319 for conservation and ecology. And he wasn't just 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.579 an armchair environmentalist. He became a serious 00:30:56.579 --> 00:30:59.279 hands -on activist, using his fame to leverage 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:01.160 global attention. He campaigned internationally 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:04.420 to protect endangered species humpback and blue 00:31:04.420 --> 00:31:07.299 whales, the Philippine eagle, the tamaraw. He 00:31:07.299 --> 00:31:09.559 also championed the preservation of tribal peoples 00:31:09.559 --> 00:31:11.660 like the Tasade and Agda in the Philippines. 00:31:11.980 --> 00:31:14.440 And he worked tirelessly behind the scenes with 00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:17.099 political groups. He was instrumental in establishing 00:31:17.099 --> 00:31:20.359 two U .S. national parks, Halikala in Hawaii 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:23.359 and Voyagers in Minnesota. His efforts in the 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:25.579 Philippines were so significant that he received 00:31:25.579 --> 00:31:28.240 their Order of the Golden Heart in 1971 for his 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:30.559 conservation work. He remained active in conservation 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.380 right up until his final years, often traveling 00:31:33.380 --> 00:31:36.559 to remote, dangerous locations. Our sources detail 00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:39.819 a 1972 expedition to Mindanao. He was there to 00:31:39.819 --> 00:31:42.700 investigate reports of the lost tribe, the Tassaday, 00:31:42.819 --> 00:31:45.420 and the support helicopter broke down, stranding 00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:48.299 Lindbergh's party on a 3 ,000 -foot jungle ridge, 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:50.660 running low on food and supplies. And here we 00:31:50.660 --> 00:31:53.559 have one of those perfect, poetic twists of fate 00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:56.000 that only Lindbergh's life could provide. The 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.200 man who ushered in the modern age of long -range 00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:00.559 flight had to be rescued by the very technology 00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:03.740 he helped inspire. the U .S. Air Force flew a 00:32:03.740 --> 00:32:07.339 Sikorsky HH -3E Jolly Green Giant over 600 miles 00:32:07.339 --> 00:32:09.980 to extract them. That's quite a rescue. An extraordinary 00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:13.119 one. The pilot, Major Bruce Ware, had to perform 00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:15.940 this incredible hover, placing the massive helicopter 00:32:15.940 --> 00:32:18.299 with its nose wheel on one side of the ridge 00:32:18.299 --> 00:32:20.920 and the main wheels on the other to safely winch 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:23.200 them out. So Lindbergh, who helped develop in 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:25.720 -flight refueling to extend air power, actually 00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:28.180 got to witness the receiving end of a long -range 00:32:28.180 --> 00:32:30.859 modern air rescue. On his own final expedition, 00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:33.619 you... couldn't write it. Now we arrive at the 00:32:33.619 --> 00:32:36.319 final astonishing paradox that was kept hidden 00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:39.640 for decades, his double life. This reveals a 00:32:39.640 --> 00:32:42.539 staggering level of deception and compartmentalization. 00:32:42.940 --> 00:32:45.160 This is perhaps the most shocking revelation 00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:48.960 confirmed by DNA tests in 2003, almost 30 years 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:52.259 after his death. Starting in 1957, while married 00:32:52.259 --> 00:32:54.420 to Anne Morrow, Lindbergh maintained lengthy 00:32:54.420 --> 00:32:57.099 sexual relationships with three separate European 00:32:57.099 --> 00:33:00.359 women. Three women? Seven children, all born 00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:03.319 between 1958 and 1967. Let's break that down. 00:33:03.480 --> 00:33:05.279 He had three children with a hat maker named 00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:07.180 Brigitte Heschheimer in Bavaria. Two with her 00:33:07.180 --> 00:33:08.859 sister, Mariette, who was a painter. And two 00:33:08.859 --> 00:33:10.880 more with his private secretary, Valeska, who 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:13.200 lived in Baden -Baden. The logistics of maintaining 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:16.759 this secret for two decades is just mind -boggling. 00:33:16.859 --> 00:33:19.660 He managed it by visiting them under the alias 00:33:19.660 --> 00:33:22.420 Caru Ket, seeing them only once or twice a year. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:25.910 The women never married. None of the seven children 00:33:25.910 --> 00:33:28.410 knew the true identity of their biological father 00:33:28.410 --> 00:33:30.789 during his lifetime. The same discipline he applied 00:33:30.789 --> 00:33:33.250 to flying was applied to this immense deception. 00:33:33.630 --> 00:33:36.450 And he actively policed the secret, even on his 00:33:36.450 --> 00:33:39.509 deathbed. Just 10 days before he died in 1974, 00:33:40.069 --> 00:33:42.950 he wrote to each mistress, imploring them to 00:33:42.950 --> 00:33:45.910 maintain the utmost secrecy. He ensured they 00:33:45.910 --> 00:33:48.690 had financial support, but he demanded silence. 00:33:49.069 --> 00:33:51.730 That is an unbelievable level of calculated control. 00:33:52.410 --> 00:33:55.809 The secret remained unbroken until 2003. The 00:33:55.809 --> 00:33:58.150 truth only emerged when one of Brigitte's daughters, 00:33:58.269 --> 00:34:00.509 searching for her family history, read a magazine 00:34:00.509 --> 00:34:02.690 article about Lindbergh and deduced the connection. 00:34:03.009 --> 00:34:05.329 She eventually found photographs and over 150 00:34:05.329 --> 00:34:08.750 love letters from him signed CAO. His daughter, 00:34:08.869 --> 00:34:10.949 with Anne Reeve Lindbergh, when she learned the 00:34:10.949 --> 00:34:12.909 truth, she wrote in her journal that the story 00:34:12.909 --> 00:34:16.070 reflected absolutely Byzantine layers of deception 00:34:16.070 --> 00:34:18.369 on her father's part. It just rewrote the entire 00:34:18.369 --> 00:34:21.070 family legacy. Lindbergh died of lymphoma on 00:34:21.070 --> 00:34:26.150 Maui, Hawaii, August 26, 1974, at age 72. He 00:34:26.150 --> 00:34:28.170 had returned to Kīpahulu after realizing his 00:34:28.170 --> 00:34:30.530 treatment wouldn't save him. And he helped design 00:34:30.530 --> 00:34:33.010 his own grave, opting for the traditional Hawaiian 00:34:33.010 --> 00:34:36.530 style at Palo Palo Homo Church, surrounded by 00:34:36.530 --> 00:34:38.389 the nature he had come to cherish and protect. 00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:41.880 A quiet, humble ending for a man who started 00:34:41.880 --> 00:34:45.440 with an unparalleled roar of global fame. So 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:47.599 let's try and synthesize this man, because the 00:34:47.599 --> 00:34:50.500 picture we've drawn is one of just colossal contrasts. 00:34:50.500 --> 00:34:53.940 Charles Lindbergh, the solo flyer who revolutionized 00:34:53.940 --> 00:34:56.190 global travel. The technical innovator whose 00:34:56.190 --> 00:34:58.849 perfusion pump paved the way for organ transplants. 00:34:59.010 --> 00:35:01.289 The accused anti -Semite and leader of the America 00:35:01.289 --> 00:35:03.710 First movement. The military consultant who saved 00:35:03.710 --> 00:35:06.130 pilots fuel in the Pacific. The champion of whales 00:35:06.130 --> 00:35:07.909 and eagles. And the patriarch who maintained 00:35:07.909 --> 00:35:10.349 seven hidden children across Europe under an 00:35:10.349 --> 00:35:13.090 alias. His life is just a monumental case study 00:35:13.090 --> 00:35:15.530 in contradiction. He personified the American 00:35:15.530 --> 00:35:18.170 ideal of rugged individualism and technological 00:35:18.170 --> 00:35:21.389 prowess. Yet he became deeply disillusioned with 00:35:21.389 --> 00:35:24.289 the very scientific materialism he championed. 00:35:24.460 --> 00:35:27.579 He turned into this profound environmental philosopher 00:35:27.579 --> 00:35:30.199 who believed humanity needed to pivot towards 00:35:30.199 --> 00:35:33.500 contemplation and simplicity. He sought what 00:35:33.500 --> 00:35:35.900 one biographer called a middle ground between 00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:39.210 technology and human values. But his life really 00:35:39.210 --> 00:35:42.590 demonstrated humanity's capacity for both towering 00:35:42.590 --> 00:35:45.389 technical achievement, the sheer brilliance of 00:35:45.389 --> 00:35:48.309 that flight, and a profound moral confusion. 00:35:48.670 --> 00:35:50.949 Whether that was expressed through toxic ideologies 00:35:50.949 --> 00:35:54.070 about race and politics or through immense multi 00:35:54.070 --> 00:35:56.449 -decade personal deception. And this brings us 00:35:56.449 --> 00:35:58.889 back to the central Lindbergh question, one we 00:35:58.889 --> 00:36:01.449 want to leave you. the learner with, as you reflect 00:36:01.449 --> 00:36:03.610 on this deep dive. Lindbergh himself came to 00:36:03.610 --> 00:36:05.849 believe that, and I'm quoting, all the achievements 00:36:05.849 --> 00:36:08.289 of mankind have value only to the extent that 00:36:08.289 --> 00:36:10.269 they preserve and improve the quality of life. 00:36:10.489 --> 00:36:13.590 So given the immense global impact of his 1927 00:36:13.590 --> 00:36:16.329 flight, that technological acceleration that 00:36:16.329 --> 00:36:18.570 inspired the Lindbergh boom, and the fact that 00:36:18.570 --> 00:36:20.210 he spent his later years trying to safeguard 00:36:20.210 --> 00:36:22.750 the planet from that same relentless advance 00:36:22.750 --> 00:36:25.289 of technology. Where does his ultimate legacy 00:36:25.289 --> 00:36:28.860 truly lie? Is it in the acceleration he championed 00:36:28.860 --> 00:36:31.599 or the break he later tried to apply? An immense 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:34.280 question about a deeply complicated figure. Something 00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:36.880 to mull over as you see the complex interweaving 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.380 of progress, morality, and individual choice. 00:36:39.539 --> 00:36:40.960 Thank you for diving deep with us today.