Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Lindbergh touched down at 10:22 PM Paris time. He was worried about customs and brought letters of introduction, and he only expected a handful of reporters. Instead, it is estimated that between 20,000 and 100,000 people flooded Le Bourget to watch Lindbergh land. It was a mob scene; people took Lindbergh and held him aloft, and The Spirit of St. Louis was being vandalized so that people could take home souvenirs. The French police eventually restored order.

After a ten-hour sleep, Lindbergh formally greeted a crowd at the American Embassy, alongside the U.S. ambassador. Lindbergh then reluctantly agreed to accept President Coolidge's invitation to return to the U.S. aboard the cruiser USS Memphis; he had intended to fly through Russia and back around the entire world. Lindbergh was given a hero's welcome back in Washington D.C., and an amazing thirty million...