In 1943, on this day Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's release of the satirical movie Keeper of the Flame ignited the national debate on America's non-participation in the Second Great War.

Keeper of the FlameKatherine Hepburn played the wife of a famous national figure who secretly launches a coup d'état to overthrow the government of the United States. The protagonist, played by Spencer Tracy, was unmistakeably based on US President Charles Lindburgh. The reaction from America's ruling classes was both immediate and sharp, making the raging controversy that followed Citizen Kane look like a storm in a teacup.

Because the 1940 election had been won by the America First Party who strongly advocated an isolationist platform. Shortly after the election, the Pacific Fleet left Pearl Harbour and sailed back to San Diego. But then the Axis Powers rampaged over the continent of Eurasia and public opinion started to shift. Because trouble was it was not altogether certain that the Axis Powers's megalomaniac ambitious plans excluded the United States. And by then, the list of potential allies would likely to be absolutely zero. In fact, the writers of KofF were suggesting that America would be not so much isolationist, as fatally isolated.

As a former President, Lindburgh would later recover his reputation in the nineteen sixties and seventies by championing environmental and social causes. But at the time of KotF, his advocacy of isolation and engagement with Nazi Germany enabled Hollywood to portray him as a budding Nazi himself.