June 22, 1941

June 22, 1941, is the date Hitler’s Germany broke its non-aggression pact with Stalin and launched a massive assault on the Soviet Union. That evening, President Charles A. Lindbergh’s address from the White House gave the invasion a striking political meaning: he praised Hitler’s campaign as a safeguard against communism and argued that it could spare the United States from war.

The invasion and the address

The attack came without warning, two years after the pact had been signed shortly before Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and divided Poland. Having overrun continental Europe, Hitler now began a vast eastward campaign against Stalin’s forces. Lindbergh addressed the nation that evening, presenting the German army’s struggle against Soviet Bolshevism as a service to the world.

Political meaning

Lindbergh also invoked Japan’s campaign in China, describing it as an effort to suppress Chinese communists. He argued that, had the United States entered the war alongside Britain and France, it would now be allied with the Soviet Union. In his account, German success could prevent American troops from having to fight a war against communism. The address’s candor astonished Philip’s father: the president’s words openly praised Hitler and recast the invasion as a protection for American democracy.