Before World War II turned them into the Greatest Generation, Gerald Ford and other Yale students including Sargent Shriver opposed America's entry into the war, historians say. Ford joined Defend America First, a group started by Yale law students in 1940 that later grew into an influential national organization called America First. The national group was later stigmatized as dangerously isolationist and even accused of having Nazi sympathizers. Ford and many of the other students served in the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Though their earlier opposition, once a mainstream sentiment, became a minority position, the Yalies rose to powerful positions as CEOs, ambassadors, Supreme Court justices and even president. "It didn't hurt them partly because nobody knew it. Or maybe nobody cared," said Wayne Cole, author of "America First: The Battle Against Intervention." "After the war, isolationism became almost a dead issue." Sargent Shriver was the Founding director of the Peace Corps.
Gerald Ford and Sargent Shriver helped establish the "America First Committee" while students at Yale Law School in 1940
Ford was involved with isolationist group at Yale
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Associated Press Writer
December 29, 2006, 1:06 AM EST
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Before World War II turned them into the Greatest Generation, Gerald Ford and other Yale students with promising futures opposed America's entry into the war, historians say.
Ford joined Defend America First, a group started by Yale law students in 1940 that later grew into an influential national organization called America First. The national group was later stigmatized as dangerously isolationist and even accused of having Nazi sympathizers.
Ford and many of the other students served in the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Though their earlier opposition, once a mainstream sentiment, became a minority position, the Yalies rose to powerful positions as CEOs, ambassadors, Supreme Court justices and even president.
"It didn't hurt them partly because nobody knew it. Or maybe nobody cared," said Wayne Cole, author of "America First: The Battle Against Intervention." "After the war, isolationism became almost a dead issue."
Ford in fact won his first election after the war by defeating an isolationist congressmen.
Defend America First was a natural outlet for a student like Ford from the Midwest, said John Robert Greene, a Ford biographer and history professor.
"Ford was a bit player in this organization," Greene said. "It does show him to be part of this milieu, this midwestern isolationist mind-set. There was nothing dark and sinister about being an isolationist in 1938."
James Cannon, another Ford biographer, described Ford as a founding member of the student group.
R. Douglas Stuart, Ford's classmate at Yale who was the driving force behind Defend America First, said Ford was not heavily involved.
"We became concerned that it would be far better for us to defend the Western Hemisphere and not get involved in a European war," said Stuart, who lives in a suburb of Chicago. "He was one of those who agreed with our point of view. We were not pacifists. We were strong on defense."
Ford was among the first to resign from Defend America First because he was worried that his role could jeopardize his position as an assistant football coach at Yale, according to Justus Doenecke, a retired history professor who wrote a book on the movement.
Doenecke cited an undated letter he said Ford wrote in which he expresses concerns that the university might not approve of his name appearing on a petition.
"As a result I'm asking you to erase my name from the list in the future," Ford wrote, according to Doenecke. "This however will not in the least impede my work for the organization. As a matter of fact I shall probably spend more time as a bit of spite."
In another letter to a classmate, Ford writes, "How are funds holding out? The Ford bankroll is rather small at this stage of the game but in times of stress and strain perhaps something could be squeezed out."
Those letters sound like Ford, Cannon said, noting that the Depression hit Ford's family hard.
"He needed that job desperately," Cannon said. "Yale was a great opportunity for Ford, one of the greatest breaks of his life."
Stuart, who went on to become chief executive of Quaker Oats and ambassador to Norway, said he did not recall Ford resigning from the group.
After service in the Navy during World War II, Ford returned to Michigan. Now a fresh young internationalist, he defeated the area's isolationist congressman.
Others in America First included Potter Stewart, a future Supreme Court Justice, and R. Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy in-law and unsuccessful vice presidential candidate in 1972.
Doenecke said some of the criticism of the movement was unfair.
"It was a patriotic movement that had an alternative strategy for American survival," Doenecke said.
The movement became so influential that it caused President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to proceed cautiously as the United States became increasingly drawn into the war, Doenecke said.
To Cannon, Ford's transformation from isolationist to internationalist was part of a lifelong capacity to grow and change.
"He didn't hesitate to change as he received new information," Cannon said. "That's a pattern of his life."
While Ford's role with the group was not well known, Ford did not shy away from talking about it, Cannon said.
"He never felt any embarrassment about it," Cannon said.
Stuart's leading role in the campaign did not come up in his hearing to become ambassador, Doenecke said. Nor did the classmates discuss it when they gathered for a reunion at the White House when Ford became president, Stuart said.
"It's not something they wanted to boast about," Cole said.
