Friday, May 9, 1941
DAILY NEBRASKAN
a Raysor flays Lindbergh 9s stand
By Donald E. Bower.
"The tragedy of the United
States... is that it is faced by
a desperate need for quick deci
sions on military grounds, that its
chief advisor on the issues in
question is Charles A. Lindbergh,
is totally without military knowl
edge or experience," stated Dr.
T. M. Raysor, of the English de
partment, in a recent article.
Continuing to attack Lindbergh
and defend our aid-to-Britain pro
gram, Raysor refutes the "two
fundamental arguments with
which he (Lindbergh) deceives
both himself and the American
people." These problems, the pro
fessor continues, are: "first, that
England cannot hope to win the
war; and second, that the United
States ts secure if it does not dis
sipate its military power on aid to
England, but builds up Its air force
for Its own defense.
"Both arguments," he main
tains, "are completely misleading."
Lindbergh's first statement la
misleading, "because, however true
it may prove to be, it by no means
establishes evidence that Germany
can win the war." Raysor sug
gests the possibility of a stalmate,
which, he says, is not only possible
logically, but practically as well.
Dealing with the possibility that
Cermany might extend its power
over most of Africa and the whole
near east, ha says that even if
this does occur the naris might
"still be completely unable to sub
due the British fleet."
"However desperate the position
of England, the position of Ger
many will be almost equally des
perate if it does not succeed in
breaking the power of the British
fleet in the present year in 1941,"
the professor goes on.
Ravsor discounts the plausibility
of invasion because it "would b
very difficult unless the blockade
had previously seriously dimin
ished British power of resistance,
and in any cast must be postponed
as long as Germany continues
great campaigns in the Mediter
ranean regions."
With the actual military aid of
the United States, the difficulties
of invasion would be still further
increased, he maintains.
Turning to a discussion of the
popular notion that Americans be-
J1
: .. -V- . I Jf.
iVlr "
Lincoln Journal.
DR. T. M. RAYSOR
. . . hits at Lindbergh.
lieve Churchill is trying to draw
us into war, Raysor says that if
this is the reason that he is "con
stantly emphasizing the danger of
England in the 'Battle of the At
lantic,' he is running deliberately
the risk of destroying the courage
of American sympathisers and
furnishing arguments to defeat
ists like Lindbergh.
"No, this is not propaganda, so
far as the fact of terrific danger
to England is concerned."
The professor admits that Lind
bergh and Goebbels are probably
right that England cannot resist
the blockade with the help of the
American fleet, the situation
would be entirely changed."
He writes confidently, saying
that "we can still remember...
the almost complete and absolute
success of the convoy system In
the last war and believe that it
has a considerable chance to re
peat that success sufficiently to
save England."
"This brings us to Lindbergh's
second argument, that the United
States is secure, if it builds up its
air force and ceases to dissipate
its armaments by help to Britain."
Pointing out Major De Sever
sky's article in the Mercury, in
whirh De Severskv "controverts
Lindbergh's thesis that the United
States is protected by distance
from serious attack by bombers,"
the states that "De Seversky is
one of the most famous designers
of military planes in the whole
world, while Lindbergh is merely
a civilian pilot, whose reputation
is based solely on a heroic feat of
athletic endurance, and whose
technical training is that of the
self-educated man."
Raysor maintains that Lind
bergh's "series of assumptions
about military strategy are so
. fantastic that their errors must
often be obvious to persons who
are entirely unacquainted with
warfare."
Attacking the isolationist policy
advocated by Lindbergh, he states
that the aviator is wrong when
he says: (Quotation from Lind
bergh's article in Colliers): "We
have neglected the wisdom and
experiences of our forefathers we
have not followed Washington's
advice." What Washington ac
tually said, in his farewell aaaress,
was that "We may safely trust to
temporary alliances for extraordi
nary emergencies."
Raysor then turns to a refuta
tion of Lindbergh's believe that
the air force, if sufficiently en
larged at once, is the chief means
of our defense. The navy cannot
be disregarded, for the only rea
son that we are secure now "be
cause we have a two-ocean navy,
the British fleet in the Atlantic
and the American in the Pacific."
"But if England goes down,
what will become of the British
navy?" he asks. "If England dies,
we have little claim to benefit
from the will."
:
;' , 1 -J in
Lincoln Journal.
CHARLES A. LINDBERGH.
. . . demands non-intervention.
better to let the British navy go
than to risk war ourselves," the
professor states that "the Japa
nese navy alone will surpass oifrs
in 1942 because the Japanese be
gan their building program before
we had begun to listen to the 'hys
tericai chatter of calamity and in
vasion' of which Lindbergh spoke
so condescmdingly."
Reminding Americans that Sec
retary of the Navy Knox himself
has informed us that the axis
navies will overwhelmingly sur
pass ours in strength in case of a
British defeat, he says: "Do we
trust the statistical tables of the
navy department of the United
States, or do we trust men like
Lindbergh and Wheeler?"
Raysor says that the fact that
we are building a two-ocean navy
is not very comforting, because it
will not be ready before 1946. "Be
fore that time, we shall be over
matched by the fleets already in
existence. And after that time,
we shall be overmatched too... If
the British go down, we are
doomed to hopeless naval inferi
ority as far as the human mind
can see into the future."
Lindbergh does not consider the
importance of navies, arguing
"that no air-invasion of Brazil or
other South American countries
(Sec STAND, page 6)
Remarking that "a supporter
of Lindbergh will say that it is
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