Editing Alf Landon (section)

==Later life==
Following his defeat, Landon finished out his term as Governor of Kansas and returned to the oil industry. Landon did not seek elected office again.

In 1938, he spoke out in defense of the First Amendment rights of one his 1936 opponents, [[Norman Thomas]]. Mayor [[Frank Hague]], a close FDR ally, had forced Thomas to leave Jersey City after he attempted to speak at a rally for free speech. The two men struck up a lifetime friendship. Landon hoped that the incident would "draw together all those who have common ideals of freedom and tolerance" and pledged to stand "shoulder to shoulder with you in this fight for free speech." Landon's comments portrayed the New Deal and Hague, as closely aligned threats to free speech.<ref>{{cite book | last=Beito | first=David T. | title=The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance | edition=First | pages=64| location=Oakland | publisher=Independent Institute | year=2023 | isbn=978-1598133561}}</ref>

The Republicans' defeats in 1932 and 1936 plunged their party into a period of bitter intra-party strife. Landon played an important role in ending this internal bickering in 1938 by helping to prepare a new group of leaders for the presidential campaign of [[1940 United States presidential election|1940]], and in trying to bring about a compromise between the isolationist and internationalist viewpoints in foreign policy. Landon was in the American delegation led by Secretary of State [[Cordell Hull]] to the 1938 [[Pan-American Conference]] in Lima, Peru.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/11/14/archives/landon-a-delegate-to-parley-at-lima-hull-to-head-u-s-spokesmen-at.html | title=LANDON a DELEGATE TO PARLEY AT LIMA; Hull to Head U. S. Spokesmen at Pan-American Conference--Lewis's Daughter Named Lewis's Daughter Named Berie Sees Changed Relations LANDON a DELEGATE TO PARLEY AT LIMA PERSONNEL OF DELEGATION Landon Favors United Front UNITED STATES DELEGATES TO PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE | work=The New York Times | date=November 14, 1938 }}</ref> However, Landon declined a position in [[Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt's Cabinet]] because he made his acceptance contingent upon the President's renunciation of a third term.<ref>Mayer 1966</ref>

After [[World War II|war broke out in Europe]] in 1939, Landon fought against [[United States non-interventionism|isolationists]] such as [[America First Committee]] who supported the [[Neutrality Acts of 1930s|Neutrality Act]]; he feared it would mislead [[Nazi Germany]] into thinking the United States was unwilling to fight. In 1941, however, he joined isolationists in arguing against [[lend-lease]], although he did urge that United Kingdom be given $5&nbsp;billion outright instead.

After the war, he backed the [[Marshall Plan]], while opposing high domestic spending. After the [[Chinese Revolution (1949)|communist revolution in China]], he was one of the first to advocate recognition of [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[China|communist government]], and its admission to the [[United Nations]], when this was still a very unpopular position among the leadership and followers of both major parties.

In 1961, Landon urged the United States to join the [[European Community|European Common Market]].<ref name="nytimes.com" /> In November 1962, when he was asked to describe his political philosophy, Landon said: "I would say practical progressive, which means that the Republican party or any political party has got to recognize the problems of a growing and complex industrial civilization. And I don't think the Republican party is really wide awake to that."<ref name="nytimes.com" /> Later in the 1960s, Landon backed President [[Lyndon Johnson]] on [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] and other [[Great Society]] programs.

On December 13, 1966, Landon gave his first "[[Landon Lecture]]" at [[Kansas State University]] in [[Manhattan, Kansas]]. Landon's lecture, titled "New Challenges in International Relations" was the first in a series of public issues lectures that continues to this day {{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}and has featured numerous world leaders and political figures, including seven U.S. presidents ([[Richard Nixon]], [[Gerald Ford]], [[Jimmy Carter]], [[Ronald Reagan]], [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Bill Clinton]] and [[George W. Bush]]).

Landon addressed the [[1976 Republican National Convention|Republican National Convention in 1976 in Kansas City]].<ref name="Alf">[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-13-mn-13741-story.html "Alf Landon, Republicans' Beloved Loser, Dies at 100"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', October 13, 1987.</ref>