I | INTRODUCTION |
Franklin D.
Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd president of the United States (1933-1945).
Roosevelt served longer than any other president. His unprecedented election to
four terms in office will probably never be repeated; the 22nd Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, passed after his death, denies the right of
any person to be elected president more than twice.
Roosevelt held office during two of the
greatest crises ever faced by the United States: the Great Depression of the
1930s, followed by World War II (1939-1945). His domestic program, known as the
New Deal, introduced far-reaching reforms within the free enterprise system and
prepared the way for what is often called the welfare state. His leadership of
the Democratic Party transformed it into a political vehicle for American
liberalism. Both in peacetime and in war his impact on the office of president
was enormous. Although there had been strong presidents before him, they were
the exception. In Roosevelt’s 12 years in office strong executive leadership
became a basic part of United States government. He made the office of president
the center of diplomatic initiative and the focus of domestic reform.
II | EARLY LIFE |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January
30, 1882, at his family’s estate at Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, New York. He
was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano Roosevelt. James Roosevelt
was a moderately successful businessman, with a variety of investments and a
special interest in coal. He was also a conservative Democrat who was interested
in politics. His home overlooking the Hudson River was comfortable without being
ostentatious, and the family occupied a prominent position among the social
elite of the area. Sara Delano, 26 years younger than her previously widowed
husband, brought to the marriage a fortune considerably larger than that of
James Roosevelt. The Delano family had prospered trading with China, and Sara
herself had spent some time with her parents in Hong Kong. Thus, Franklin was
born into a pleasant and sociable home, with loving parents and congenial,
rather aristocratic companions.
A | Education |
Roosevelt spent his early years at Hyde
Park. During the summers he was often taken on European trips, and he also spent
much time at a vacation home that James Roosevelt purchased on Campobello
Island, on the Bay of Fundy, in New Brunswick, Canada. It was a pleasant life
for the young Roosevelt, who was fond of the outdoors. He soon developed a
passionate interest in natural history and became an ardent bird watcher. He
grew to love outdoor sports and became an expert swimmer and a fine sailor.
His mother supervised his education until he
was 14. French-speaking and German-speaking tutors did most of the actual
instruction and helped him develop an early talent for those languages. Young
Roosevelt was a voracious reader. He was particularly fond of adventure tales,
especially those that touched on the sea. He also developed an absorbing
interest in stamp collecting, a hobby that taught him both history and geography
and that was to afford him pleasure and relaxation during all of his adult
life.
Roosevelt’s parents sent him off in 1896 for
further education. They selected Groton School in Massachusetts, which had a
reputation as one of the finest of the exclusive private schools that prepared
boys for the Ivy League colleges. Young Roosevelt was a good student, popular
with his fellow students as well as with his teachers.
From Groton Roosevelt went on to Harvard
College. He entered in 1899, the year before his father died, and remained until
1904. He took his bachelor’s degree in 1903 but returned to Harvard in the fall
to serve as editor of the student newspaper, The Crimson. He was an
above-average student at Harvard, but he devoted a great deal of time to
extracurricular activities, and his grades suffered as a consequence. He was
particularly interested in history and political economy and took courses in
those subjects with outstanding professors. Although he was a competent
journalist, his editorials in The Crimson were chiefly concerned with
school spirit in athletics and show no sign of growing social consciousness or
political awareness. However, he joined a Republican club in 1900, out of boyish
enthusiasm for the vice-presidential candidacy of his distant cousin Theodore
Roosevelt. In 1904 he cast his first vote in a presidential election for his
cousin, who had become president after the assassination of President William
McKinley in 1901. Afterward, however, Franklin joined his father’s political
party, and he probably never again voted for a Republican.
Roosevelt then moved to New York City, where
he entered the Columbia University Law School in 1904. Although he attended
classes until 1907, he failed to stay on for his law degree after passing the
state examinations allowing him to practice law. For the next three years he was
a clerk in a prominent law firm in New York City, but the evidence is clear that
he had little interest in law and little enthusiasm to be a lawyer.
B | Marriage |
Well before he finished his work at
Columbia, young Franklin Roosevelt had married his distant cousin Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt. They had been in love for some time and were determined to marry in
spite of the opposition of Franklin’s mother. The bride’s uncle, President
Theodore Roosevelt, was present at the ceremony in New York City on March 17,
1905. Five of their six children grew to maturity: Anna, James, Elliott,
Franklin, Jr., and John. The chief problem faced by the young couple during the
early years of their marriage was Sara Roosevelt’s possessive attitude toward
her son. Eleanor’s forbearance mitigated this situation, but the problem
remained for many years.
III | ENTRY INTO POLITICS |
A | State Senator |
Roosevelt formally entered politics in
1910, when he became a candidate for the New York State Senate in a district
composed of three upstate farming counties. Democratic leaders had approached
young Roosevelt because of his name and local prominence—and because he might be
expected to pay his own election expenses. The 28-year-old Roosevelt campaigned
hard, stressing his deep personal interest in conservation and other issues of
concern in an agricultural area and also his strong support of honest and
efficient government. In the first good year for Democrats since the early 1890s
he was narrowly elected. He was only the second Democrat to represent his
district after the emergence of the Republican Party in 1856.
In the state capitol at Albany, Roosevelt
gained statewide publicity as the leader of a small group of upstate Democrats
who refused to follow the leadership of Tammany Hall, also known as the Tammany
Society, the Democratic Party organization of New York City. In particular, they
refused to vote for the rich politician William F. “Blue-Eyed Bill” Sheehan for
U.S. senator. Roosevelt’s group succeeded in blocking the election of Sheehan,
which infuriated Tammany Hall. The dramatic struggle drew the attention of New
York voters to the tall vigorous new state senator with the magic name of
Roosevelt. He soon became a dedicated social and economic reformer, and a
political independent. He was reelected in 1912, in spite of a case of typhoid
fever that kept him from campaigning.
Roosevelt entrusted his campaign
management to the journalist Louis McHenry Howe. Howe, a genius at politics,
performed brilliantly. Henceforth, Roosevelt and Howe were to be almost
inseparable, and Howe, a wizened and colorful little man, guided the political
fortunes of the Hyde Park aristocrat.
B | Assistant Secretary of the Navy |
Even before his reelection to the New York
legislature, Roosevelt had entered the national political arena by taking part
in the campaign of Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey for the Democratic
nomination for president. Once again the young state senator was a member of a
minority group among New York Democrats. When Wilson won at both the convention
and the polls in 1912, his early supporters were rewarded, and Roosevelt became
assistant secretary of the United States Navy. Roosevelt resigned his state
senate seat and moved to Washington, D.C., to take over the position once
occupied by his cousin Theodore Roosevelt.
Franklin Roosevelt’s years as assistant
secretary, from 1913 to 1920, taught him both how to get things accomplished
and, just as important for an executive, how to avoid unnecessary trouble. He
had the devoted assistance of Louis Howe, who came along to the nation’s capital
as Roosevelt’s assistant. Roosevelt’s superior was Secretary of the Navy
Josephus Daniels, a North Carolina editor. Daniels was a close friend and
devoted follower of Nebraska editor and former Representative William Jennings
Bryan, three times the Democratic candidate for president and Wilson’s secretary
of state. Like Bryan, Daniels was concerned about agrarian issues and was a
progressive reformer. He was also an isolationist (someone who believed that the
United States should avoid alliances with other nations), who hated the idea of
war. Young Roosevelt, an energetic supporter of a bigger navy and soon a warm
friend of most of the leading admirals, inevitably had many disagreements with
his chief, especially during Wilson’s first term. Daniels had the confidence
both of the president and of the most influential Democrats in the Congress of
the United States; Roosevelt had neither of these. However, in time the two men
came to have genuine respect for one another’s different talents, and they
remained good friends.
The Daniels-Roosevelt administration of
the Navy Department was highly effective. American entry into World War I in
1917 found the navy in relatively good shape. Roosevelt, as the second in
command, was particularly concerned with the civilian employees of the
department. With the help of the energetic Howe, he made excellent contacts with
labor leaders in the course of smoothing relations between the navy and its
workers. Roosevelt was also involved in the enormous build-up of the naval
forces and with the general administration of the department. Frequent public
speeches brought him to the attention of the public, and he soon had a
reputation as a young man of great promise. He turned down an opportunity to win
the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 1918 in order to go on a
three-month tour of duty in Europe, during which he visited the western front in
France. Although he wanted to go on active duty as a naval officer, both Wilson
and Daniels insisted that he stay on as assistant secretary of the navy. He
remained at that post until August 1920, when he resigned to campaign as the
Democratic candidate for vice president.
C | Vice-Presidential Candidate |
The Democratic National Convention of 1920
nominated as its candidate for president the governor of Ohio, James M. Cox. It
was natural for the convention to turn to Roosevelt for the second position on
the ticket. He was a member of the Wilson administration, closely identified
with the League of Nations, an international association of countries that
would, according to Wilson, prevent future wars. Roosevelt was young, handsome,
energetic, and had a reputation as a fine administrator. He also came from an
important state. Nevertheless the Cox-Roosevelt campaign was hopeless, for the
American people had had enough of Democratic leadership and quickly responded to
the pledge of the Republican candidate, Warren G. Harding, for a return to
“normalcy.” Roosevelt campaigned vigorously for a losing cause, making friends
among Democratic leaders from coast to coast. After November 1920 he was a
widely known public figure, even if he no longer held public office. Roosevelt,
still under 40, could afford to wait.
D | Illness |
Roosevelt resumed his law career on a
part-time basis, and became vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company
of Maryland. In this position he was in charge of the New York office of one of
the most important companies handling bonds for public officials. Roosevelt’s
wide contacts and administrative talents provided an excellent background for
this situation. Roosevelt also dabbled in a series of speculative ventures, none
of which turned out very well.
Personal tragedy struck Roosevelt in
August 1921, when he contracted what was diagnosed, after an unfortunate delay,
as poliomyelitis. He had been plagued by illness of various sorts during the
previous decade, and he had overexerted himself swimming and hiking at
Campobello. In great agony and completely unable to walk, Roosevelt seemed to
have reached the end of his active public career. Indeed, his mother wanted him
to return to Hyde Park for the peace and quiet of the life of a country
gentleman. However, backed by the determination of his wife and Louis Howe,
Roosevelt decided to return to his work as soon as possible. In spite of the
efforts of numerous specialists and of his strenuous exercises, particularly
swimming at his “second home” in Warm Springs, Georgia, he was never again able
to walk unaided. He spent most of his working hours in a wheelchair, and he
walked with leg braces and canes, usually with help. Through the worst years of
his paralysis, Roosevelt was amazingly cheerful. Eleanor Roosevelt often acted
as her husband’s eyes and ears, bringing him information and conferring with
people he was no longer readily able to meet. Howe remained close by Roosevelt,
assisting him in many ways and planning for his return to public life.
E | Governor of New York |
Roosevelt continued to busy himself with
Democratic politics after his illness. In 1922 he aided Alfred E. Smith, who in
that year made a successful political comeback and became governor of New York
for the second time. In 1924 Roosevelt made a rousing nominating speech for
Smith at the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden, in New
York City, calling the governor the “Happy Warrior.” Although Smith was unable
to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1924, he was reelected governor
that year and again in 1926. In 1928 Roosevelt again nominated Smith for
president at the national convention. This time, Smith was chosen, becoming the
first Roman Catholic nominated by a major U.S. party as its candidate for
president.
At Smith’s urging, and against the advice
of Louis Howe, Roosevelt agreed to run for governor. Smith, well aware that his
own religion, his identification with urban issues, and his opposition to the
prohibition of liquor would hurt him in rural Protestant areas, needed the help
of Roosevelt in New York state. Ironically, Roosevelt was elected governor by
the narrow margin of 25,000 out of 4.5 million votes cast, while Smith lost New
York, and the presidency, to Herbert Hoover. Smith felt that his defeat was
solely the result of religious prejudice, but it is unlikely that any Democrat
could have defeated the Republicans in 1928.
Roosevelt thus succeeded Smith as
governor in January 1929. He soon made it clear that he was going to have his
own administration by replacing key Smith associates, and before long there was
coolness between the two former political allies. Like Smith, Roosevelt had to
cope with a Republican legislature. Since Smith had been responsible for a
series of important social and administrative reforms, Roosevelt faced a
difficult task in working out a distinctive program of his own. His first
successes were in the fields of conservation and tax relief for farmers, areas
in which he shared a common interest with his Republican legislators. In time he
developed a skill as a political manager and a superb style of speaking on the
radio. He was also careful to develop support among different groups for his
plans.
F | Stock Market Crash |
In October 1929 the economic prosperity
that the United States had enjoyed for most of the 1920s came to an abrupt end.
During this period many people had put their savings and earnings in risky
investments, particularly the buying of stocks on margin. In these cases, the
buyer put up as little as 3 percent of a stock’s price in cash and borrowed the
remainder from the broker. The growing demand for stocks and the prosperous
state of the nation as a whole caused stock prices to rise, which in turn
encouraged more stock purchases.
Stock prices reached their height in the
so-called “Hoover bull market” during the first six months of the Hoover
administration. People invested billions of dollars in the stock market,
obtaining money by borrowing from banks, mortgaging their homes, and selling
lower-risk government securities, such as Liberty Bonds.
Buying stock on margin was a risky bet
that the price of that stock would continue to increase. In August 1929
approximately 300 million shares of stock had been purchased on margin. During
normal business periods a share of stock had been purchased mostly for the
dividend it paid, but during the Hoover bull market stocks were purchased
increasingly to sell at a higher price. Unfortunately, industry sales had begun
to slow down, indicating that stock prices were likely to fall because
industries would pay smaller dividends. In September 1929 some investors began
selling stocks, believing prices had reached their highest level and would fall
in the near future. Other investors began selling, too, and as they sold the
price to buy those stocks began to fall more quickly. The decline in prices
especially threatened those who had purchased on margin, because they owed their
broker the amount of the original price of the stock—even if that stock was now
worth only half as much.
As a result, by October 1929 the feverish
buying had stopped and had given way to desperate selling. Prices dropped
rapidly, and thousands of people lost all they had invested. Many were
completely ruined financially. On October 29 the New York Stock Exchange, the
largest in the world, had its worst day of panic selling. By the end of the day
stock values had declined by $10 billion to $15 billion.
Following the stock market crash of
October 1929 Roosevelt found himself a depression governor, with new problems to
face. In 1930 he was reelected by the unprecedented number of 725,000
votes.
IV | ROAD TO THE PRESIDENCY |
As an energetic governor and a leading
progressive reformer who was also head of the nation’s most populous state,
Roosevelt was automatically a leading contender for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1932.His inability to walk unaided had proved to be no political
problem; indeed, many New Yorkers were unaware that their governor used a
wheelchair. Roosevelt and Howe planned the campaign carefully. As the
front-runner, Roosevelt was in some danger of becoming the man against whom the
other candidates might combine. This could be fatal to his chances, since at
that time it was necessary that a candidate secure two-thirds of the convention
vote in order to win the nomination. Due to the growing unpopularity of the
depression-ridden Hoover administration, 1932 looked like a Democratic year, and
thus the Democratic nomination was pursued more aggressively than it had been
for years.
New York Democratic chairman James Aloysius
Farley traveled across the country in the summer of 1931 and made friends for
Roosevelt and himself in each state he visited. He reported on his return that
prospects were excellent for Roosevelt in all of these states except California,
where newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst had great power and where the
Democratic Party was a shambles. Hearst’s newspapers, bitter in their attacks on
Hoover, gave their support to Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas,
whose isolationist views were more congenial to Hearst than were the views of a
man still identified with former President Wilson’s campaign for the League of
Nations. Roosevelt, in an effort to ensure that Hearst would not lead a fight
against him, announced that he no longer favored U.S. entry into the League of
Nations. This position angered many supporters of Wilson, who felt that
Roosevelt had turned his back on Wilson’s memory.
A | Democratic National Convention |
Fortunately for Roosevelt his opponents
for the nomination, including the now-embittered Al Smith, were never able to
organize against him and keep him from getting the necessary two-thirds vote.
The strongest opposition to Roosevelt came from city leaders in the Northeast.
His chief strength came from the South and West. He was nominated on the fourth
ballot, after Garner agreed to accept the vice-presidential nomination. In part
to demonstrate his physical capability and in part to show that he was ready to
break with tradition, Roosevelt flew to Chicago, Illinois, to accept the
nomination in person rather than wait weeks to reply to a formal notice of his
nomination. In a dramatic speech to the convention, Roosevelt pledged a New Deal
for the American people. The term New Deal came to describe Roosevelt’s
domestic policies, under which the government became much more directly involved
in national social and economic affairs than ever before.
B | 1932 Presidential Election |
Roosevelt had more difficulty in winning
the Democratic nomination in 1932 than he had in defeating President Hoover. In
spite of Hoover’s unprecedented efforts to use the power of the federal
government to overcome the Great Depression, he was completely identified with
the policies of former U.S. presidents Warren Harding (1921-1923) and of Calvin
Coolidge (1923-1929), since he had served as secretary of commerce in both
administrations. Roosevelt’s task was essentially a simple one: to convince the
American people that because the Republicans had claimed full credit for the
prosperity of the 1920s, they should receive full blame for the depression.
Roosevelt was spectacularly successful. He had an exuberance as a campaigner, a
glowing confidence, and a warmth that was transmitted to his listeners. He
toured widely by train, making brief appearances to cheering crowds and
delivering carefully prepared speeches nearly every night. He promised to a
despondent people a New Deal in manner and in spirit. Roosevelt won a resounding
victory, losing only six states out of a total of 48. Of the six, four were in
traditionally Republican New England.
V | PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES |
When Roosevelt became president, on March 4,
1933, the Great Depression was at its worst. Sixteen million or more people were
unemployed, and many had been out of work for a year or even longer. The
American banking system had collapsed. Many states had declared so-called bank
holidays, or enforced closings to prevent banks from being ruined when
depositors withdrew all their money. Although the American depression had been
touched off by the stock market crash in New York City in October 1929, it had
since become part of a worldwide economic collapse. Whether Americans would be
satisfied with the new leadership depended on Roosevelt’s success in bringing
aid to those in distress and in achieving some measure of economic
improvement.
Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, with its
pledge to make war upon the depression and its ringing phrase, “the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself,” brought a new style to the U.S. presidency.
Roosevelt was confident, both in himself as a leader and in the American people.
His liking for people came through to them over the radio and in the press. Out
of his general bewilderment with the failure of the U.S. economy came few
specific promises, but Americans probably felt more comfortable under the
leadership of a man pledged to experiment than they had under Hoover’s
leadership, which had seemed inflexible. At least the prospect of change offered
hope to the millions of people trapped in the depression.
A | Domestic Programs 1933-1941 |
A1 | First Appointments |
At this time, Roosevelt was 51. He was
vigorous and hard-working but capable of relaxation and in excellent health and
spirits. His brief legislative experience and his public administrative careers
had given him a wide acquaintance among political leaders. He was an irregular
Democrat because he had asked for and obtained the support of progressive
Republicans in his campaign and had rewarded several of them with high positions
in his government. As president he sought to be “president of all the people.”
He stressed that the conquest of the depression was “above politics,” one of
Roosevelt’s favorite terms but one not popular with professional Democrats who
wanted Roosevelt to give them government jobs. It is noteworthy that Roosevelt
frequently turned for help to people not previously identified with Democratic
Party politics, such as what was called the Brain Trust, which was made up of
faculty members from Columbia University (Raymond Moley, Adolf Berle, and
Rexford Tugwell) and from Harvard (Thomas Corcoran and Benjamin Cohen).
Roosevelt liked to learn through listening to and questioning experts, thus
becoming familiar with different points of view. He was not usually
communicative in return, and preferred to make up his mind in private. Indeed,
he was “a private person,” as Tugwell put it, in spite of his warm public
personality. He had a genius for simple, clear speaking, and he projected a
sense of dedication with a rousing style. He was at his best in press
conferences, generally held twice a week. He knew how to handle questions
easily, and had a quick sense of humor and an enormous fund of detailed
information. The reporters usually liked him, and he received good press
throughout his presidency, even when most newspaper publishers had turned
against him and his policies.
“Deserving Democrats” also got attention
in Roosevelt’s administration, thanks particularly to James A. Farley, both
postmaster general and Democratic national chairman. However, much of the most
important work went to men and women who had never engaged in any sort of
politics. Louis Howe, now secretary to the president, continued to help his old
chief but did not play an important role in creating policy. The Cabinet was
generally undistinguished, but it did contain the first female Cabinet member,
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.
A2 | The Hundred Days |
Roosevelt immediately called a special
session of Congress to deal with the depression rather than wait for the regular
session in December. The legislation passed by Congress and signed by Roosevelt
in the spring of 1933 was remarkable, both in number of bills passed and in
their scope. Contemporaries called it the Hundred Days, a term that historians
continue to use. No session of Congress had ever produced so much important
legislation. Not until 1965 did another president or Congress accomplish as
much.
Roosevelt had called the special session
to deal with the banking crisis, economy in government, and changes to the
liquor law. Congress quickly responded to the first and third. The Emergency
Banking Act, introduced, passed, and signed by the president during a single
day, gave the federal government sweeping power to deal with the banking crisis.
The Beer Act raised the percentage of alcohol considered nonintoxicating from
.05 percent to 3.2 percent. This made it possible to sell three-two, or low
alcohol, beer, which had been illegal under the 18th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution (see Prohibition). The Economy Act, reducing government
salaries and pensions to meet a Roosevelt campaign pledge, was bitterly opposed
by many Democratic representatives and passed only because of intense pressure
from Roosevelt and support by most Republicans in Congress.
While Congress was acting on these
matters, Roosevelt aggressively pushed other legislation. Bills were frequently
written by the executive branch, a procedure that made the legislative process
faster and ensured that measures emerging from Congress would have the approval
of the president. Congress worked quickly on most measures, but there was
opposition from some members, especially those who felt that Roosevelt was not
going far enough, fast enough. Roosevelt’s success in getting Congress to do so
much of what he wanted was in part a result of a widespread desperation and in
part a result of strong leadership.
A3 | The New Deal |
The basic New Deal legislation was passed
in slightly more than five years, from 1933 to 1938. Historians have frequently
discussed these laws under the headings of the three Rs: relief,
recovery, and reform.
A3a | Relief Legislation |
The most pressing problem facing
Roosevelt, once the banking crisis had passed, was that of providing relief for
the unemployed and their families. Private charities had long since run out of
money, and few states could still provide any assistance. Under President Hoover
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation had made loans to states to finance
relief payments, although Hoover had long tried to avoid this step. However,
under Roosevelt’s Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the first of
his major relief operations, large amounts of money were given to the states.
Harry L. Hopkins, a tough-minded professional social worker who had administered
state relief under Governor Roosevelt, was the head of FERA. He saw to it that
available funds were spent quickly to provide help to as many as possible.
The president and Hopkins, like
President Hoover before them, believed in work relief, or payment for work
performed, rather than the dole, a simple payment without any work requirement.
Although they felt that work relief would help to maintain the morale of the
recipients, work projects took time to plan and were far more costly to
administer than the simple dole. FERA did have a subdivision, the Civil Works
Administration (CWA), which provided work relief for a large number of men
during the winter of 1933 and 1934. However, due to the necessity of making the
available money go as far as possible, the FERA essentially dispensed money
through the state governments.
Unemployment persisted in the early
years of Roosevelt’s presidency, in spite of some economic recovery. At the end
of 1934 about one-sixth of the entire country was still on relief. In 1935 a new
semipermanent organization, the Works Progress Administration (WPA, later
renamed the Work Projects Administration), was set up by executive order and
placed under Hopkins, and the FERA was abolished. The WPA provided work relief
only, and due to lack of money many people on relief had to depend on the
hard-pressed states for a dole.
The WPA projects were better planned
than those of the CWA, and many of them were of lasting benefit to their
communities. Roads and streets were built or improved. Schools, libraries, and
other public buildings were constructed or repaired. Artists, musicians, and
writers performed for the benefit of the public. Administrative costs were
higher than those of the FERA, but the projects carried out were more complex
and useful.
Two other relief operations were
designed especially for young people. Both were of great interest to the
president and his wife. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided work for
unemployed and unmarried young men. They received food and shelter and were paid
$30 per month, of which $25 had to be given to relatives or dependents. More
than a quarter of a million men, many of them from city slums, worked in the
corps, living together in camps under the management of army officers. They
benefited from the healthy outdoor work, their families benefited from the
money, and the country benefited from the many worthy projects they completed.
The National Youth Administration (NYA) provided needy high school and college
students with part-time jobs at their schools. The NYA also gave useful
part-time employment to needy young people who were no longer in school. NYA
workers normally earned from $5 to $15 per month. Although these sums were
small, they proved valuable for the support of the recipients and their families
during this period of great economic distress.
A3b | Recovery Legislation |
When he took office, Roosevelt must
have felt that his basic problem was how to bring about economic recovery. His
predecessor, in spite of his philosophy of rugged individualism, had reluctantly
accepted some government responsibility for improving the economy. The
Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), established under Hoover, provided
loans to financial institutions, railways, and public agencies. Roosevelt
reappointed the head of that organization, and with congressional approval, he
made RFC loans easier to get and the RFC became a major recovery agency of the
New Deal.
Another Hoover policy, direct spending
on major public works, was taken over and greatly expanded by Roosevelt. He set
up a Public Works Administration (PWA) and put it under the jurisdiction of
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, a Republican reformer from Chicago.
Ickes proceeded slowly with PWA projects, for he had an obsessive and probably
well-founded idea that if he did not watch closely, the PWA would provide
politicians with opportunities for corruption. As a result of this slowness,
Ickes’s PWA did not play a very important role in the early New Deal, and an
increasingly larger share of money was given to the less tidy but more energetic
relief operations of Ickes’s rival, Harry Hopkins. However, the PWA came into
its own after the recession of 1937, when carefully prepared plans were ready to
be implemented almost at once. Huge public buildings, great dams, and irrigation
and flood-control projects are part of PWA’s legacy.
The most spectacular agency designed to
promote general economic improvement was the National Recovery Administration
(NRA), an organization set up (along with the PWA) by the National Industrial
Recovery Act (NIRA), which was passed by Congress in June 1933. The NRA was
designed to help business help itself. Unfair competition was supposed to be
eliminated through the establishment of codes of fair competition; in effect,
laws against combinations of large businesses were to be suspended in exchange
for guarantees to workers. These guarantees specifically included minimum wages,
maximum hours, and the right to bargain as a group.
Unfortunately, the NRA did not work as
its supporters had hoped. The administrator, the colorful former army officer
Hugh S. Johnson, let the code-making get out of hand. Eventually there were
hundreds of codes for different industrial groups. Johnson’s patriotic speeches,
with which he sought to sell the NRA to the American people, began to wear thin
after a while. Johnson resigned in 1934, and the NRA was unanimously declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1935.
A special recovery agency for one major
segment of the economy was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), set
up in the Department of Agriculture and supervised by Secretary Henry A.
Wallace, a farm editor, scientist, and son of a former Republican secretary of
agriculture. The AAA sought to eliminate overproduction of basic crops and thus
to bring prices back to the average prices of the period from 1909 to 1914, a
time of agricultural prosperity. The AAA had authority to buy surplus crops and
to make payments to producers to restrict production. It concentrated at first
on cotton, wheat, corn, and hogs, the most important products of the Midwest and
the South. The plans of the AAA to restrict production and to raise prices were
aided by a series of droughts and windstorms on the Great Plains, and farm
prices rose steadily during Roosevelt’s first term. The AAA was declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936, but a so-called voluntary system
was established by Congress in 1936 for the same purposes as the AAA. In 1938
the second AAA was created by Congress. This AAA was more complex and did not
rely on a special tax, and it survived.
A3c | Reform Legislation |
The laws that later generations tended
to think of as the New Deal were mainly reform laws. Franklin Roosevelt had been
a reformer, a believer in progress and in government-sponsored social and
economic change, from the time he first took public office in 1911. The reform
impulse in America had been frustrated since the 1918 election victories by
conservative politicians, who believed that government should not be involved in
social reform. Now that impulse was revived in the Great Depression by President
Roosevelt, often under pressure from congressional liberals, who were concerned
with the development of personal freedom and social progress, and from reform
movements outside the government. Between 1933 and 1938, major legislation
passed by Congress constituted the most sweeping reform program since the
progressive period of 1901 to 1907. In general, these reforms increased the
existing regulatory activities of the federal government. After Roosevelt’s
administrations the government was involved in regulating many more areas of
economic activity.
Banking and currency were in obvious
need of attention, since the banking system had virtually collapsed by March
1933 and the drain of gold had placed a great strain on the dollar. Banking
legislation passed in the first Roosevelt term created insurance for small
savings depositors, separated commercial and investment banking, and greatly
increased the authority of the Federal Reserve Board, the government agency that
oversees banking activity. In order to protect the currency, Roosevelt secured
authority from Congress to take the United States off the gold standard and to
devalue the dollar. However, once he discovered that devaluing the dollar did
not in itself help to bring about economic recovery, he was unenthusiastic about
tinkering with the currency. Related to these reforms was the establishment of
the Securities and Exchange Commission, an independent agency empowered to
regulate the sale of stocks and bonds. The first chairman of the commission was
Joseph P. Kennedy, an early Roosevelt supporter who was himself a wealthy
speculator.
In the campaign of 1932 Roosevelt had
strongly criticized the tariff, or import tax, policies of the Harding,
Coolidge, and Hoover administrations, blaming the decline of world trade on
those Republican presidents. He appointed Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee as
secretary of state. A fervent free trader, Hull felt that his main duty should
be to eliminate trade barriers by lowering import tariffs. Some of the early New
Dealers did not share Hull’s enthusiasm. For more than a year they were able to
block his program, while Roosevelt concerned himself with purely domestic
efforts. However, Hull stubbornly persisted in his course, eventually winning
the president’s support and the passage of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act,
one of the most ingenious of the New Deal measures. This act did not attempt to
alter existing import taxes by law. Hull and others knew very well how difficult
it was to achieve tariff reform this way. Instead, the act authorized the
president to negotiate agreements with other nations for a mutual lowering of
import taxes. Such agreements did not have to be ratified by the Senate, and
they could cut existing tariffs by 50 percent. The most-favored-nation clause
promised that the United States would offer the same tariff rates to all
countries with which it had signed a commercial treaty. If the United States
lowered tariffs further in a treaty with another nation, it would have to lower
tariffs for all nations with most-favored-nation status. By this method benefits
from these agreements were slowly extended uniformly to all nations with whom
such agreements had been made. Although Hull did not secure free trade, he did
significantly lower tariff barriers. At the same time, he provided a method for
taking tariff making out of the hands of Congress.
The federal government also became
involved with housing. In the depths of the depression many people lost their
homes because they were unable to make payments on their housing loans, called
mortgages. Lending institutions then seized these homes but were often unable to
resell them or even rent them. Two of the most popular of the early New Deal
agencies were the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which helped individuals by
refinancing their home loans so that banks did not seize the homes, and the
Federal Housing Administration, which helped banks by taking most of the risk
out of home loans by insuring loans up to 80 percent of the value of the
property. In his second term, President Roosevelt secured the passage of
legislation that allowed him to set up the U.S. Housing Authority. This agency
helped to rebuild slums and encouraged low-cost housing construction, of major
importance because it was the first direct involvement of the federal government
in building houses.
One of the most sweeping and
imaginative New Deal reforms was the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an
independent federal corporation set up to improve conditions in a depressed area
of 103,600 sq km (40,000 sq mi) in seven states. Chiefly responsible for this
scheme was Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska, a progressive Republican who
had almost single-handedly blocked the sale of government-owned power sites on
the Tennessee River during the 1920s and who was a firm believer in government
ownership and operation of public utilities such as power and water companies.
Roosevelt was a widely known advocate of publicly owned power, which he saw as a
yardstick with which to measure the real costs of private power companies. He
was greatly attracted to the TVA because of its possibilities for the
conservation of natural and human resources.
The TVA built a series of dams for
power production, flood control, and navigation improvement. It distributed its
own water-generated, or hydroelectric, power to many who never before had
enjoyed the benefits of electricity. The TVA also produced cheap fertilizers. As
a result, the standard of living of the people in its area steadily improved.
The TVA was seen as a direct threat to the country’s private-power companies,
and it was not imitated elsewhere, although the Roosevelt administration did
build dams and power plants in the West.
The most far-reaching of the New Deal
reform measures was the Social Security Act of 1935. During the first two years
of Roosevelt’s presidency a commission studied the problems caused by
unemployment, old age, and physical disability and sought to determine the part
that should be played by the federal government in alleviating these problems.
Unemployment insurance, financed by a federal payroll tax paid in equal parts by
employers and employees, was established as a joint federal-state program. An
old-age pension system was set up to be administered by the federal government
and financed by taxes on both employers and employees. Other provisions of the
Social Security Act provided federal money to encourage the states to care for
dependent children and the blind. The Social Security Act did not include health
insurance because the commission and the president considered that its inclusion
would jeopardize the passage of the act (see Social Security).
After the National Industrial Recovery
Act was declared unconstitutional, Congress passed the National Labor Relations
Act, which guaranteed to workers the right to organize and bargain collectively,
free from interference by employers. The act set up the National Labor Relations
Board as an independent agency. The board was a major force assisting the rapid
growth of trade unions in the New Deal era. By statute it was required to be in
favor of labor, and it played its role with enthusiasm. The Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938 was the last important act of the New Deal. This measure set a
minimum wage and a limit to the hours worked. It was moderate in its provisions,
gradual in its application, and limited in its scope, but it established an
important precedent.
A4 | New Deal Politics |
The New Deal programs were closely
associated with the personality of President Roosevelt, about whom the politics
of the 1930s revolved. His skill at clarifying problems and in explaining the
solutions he and his associates had devised made him almost an intimate friend
of the American people. For almost six years his popularity with the majority of
the people grew. In 1934 the already huge Democratic majorities in Congress were
increased, a rare thing for a party in power in non-presidential, or off-year,
elections. In 1936 these majorities were raised even higher. The number of
Republicans left in the House was less than 100; only 17 Republicans remained in
the Senate, and about half of them supported the New Deal. Not until the
off-year election of 1938 did the Republican Party show any signs of renewed
vigor.
Roosevelt did have opponents during these
years. During his first year in office his most vigorous enemies were on the
political left. Leftists felt that he was missing a priceless opportunity to
move toward socialism, or the direct involvement of government in the economy.
From 1935 on, however, his principal opposition came from conservatives,
especially the reviving business community. These elements had been so stunned
by the depression and so grateful at first to Roosevelt for his efforts to
promote recovery within the framework of the capitalist system that they
scarcely opposed him. However, beginning in 1935, the economy began to recover
and the labor movement, encouraged by New Deal legislation, began to be
effective. In addition the Supreme Court began to declare New Deal legislation
unconstitutional. These developments encouraged conservatives to oppose the
administration.
A4a | The 1936 Election |
In 1936 Roosevelt won his greatest
victory when he received more than 60 percent of the popular vote and won every
state except Maine and Vermont. The Republican candidate, Governor Alfred M.
Landon of Kansas, was a progressive himself and accepted much of the New Deal
program while deploring how it was being administered. However, Landon was a
dull campaigner. His advisers pushed him to the right during the campaign, and
he ended with very little support. Careful students of politics saw in the 1936
election a considerable amount of voting by social or economic class, with
workers and those who lived in the cities voting overwhelmingly for the
Democratic Party.
A4b | Decline in Popularity |
Middle-class support for the New Deal
began to slip away in 1937 and 1938, and the Democratic Party became more than
ever the party of urban labor. Three major events seem to have contributed to
this change. First was a series of sit-down strikes, in which the militant new
unions of the Committee for Industrial Organization, later known as the Congress
of Industrial Organizations (CIO), kept their men inside plants during strikes.
This technique, used by the new unions in the automobile industry, violated
property rights. Many middle-class Americans were antagonized by this, as they
were by the labor war between the CIO and the more traditional American
Federation of Labor (AFL).
The second event was Roosevelt’s
so-called court-packing plan, a scheme to enlarge the Supreme Court that he
suddenly presented to Congress in 1937. Roosevelt argued that the court was
behind in its work, partly due to the advanced age of many members. However, it
was clear that what really irritated him was a series of decisions that had
declared much of his program unconstitutional. A group of Democratic senators,
including several former New Deal supporters, deserted the administration on
this issue, and the president suffered his first major defeat in Congress.
However, the court reversed the trend of its decisions after the court plan, and
most New Deal legislation was allowed to stand.
The third event was probably the most
damaging of all. It was the so-called Roosevelt recession that began in the fall
of 1937 with another stock market crash. The recession lasted until after the
resumption of large-scale government spending the following spring. This
recession had been preceded by more efficiency in government and a balanced
budget, courses promoted by conservative secretary of the treasury, Henry
Morgenthau, Jr. The effect of the Roosevelt recession was to convince many
people that the administration did not have any magic formula for prosperity and
that the earlier recovery had been based on the government spending more money
than it collected.
A4c | The 1940 Election |
In the elections of 1938 the
Republicans made a comeback in several key industrial states and substantially
increased their congressional representation. It was freely predicted that the
Republicans would regain the presidency in 1940. Many felt that Roosevelt would
not run for president again, thanks to the tradition that no candidate ran for
more than two terms. However, by the time the Democratic National Convention met
in the summer of 1940, a grave international crisis was at its height, and
Roosevelt was given his third nomination for president. Roosevelt defeated the
Republican candidate, the lawyer and businessman Wendell L. Willkie, but he won
by a much narrower margin than he had in 1936. Whether Roosevelt would have been
renominated, and whether he would have accepted if nominated, in the absence of
the world crisis will never be known. However, it is clear that his experience
in foreign affairs had much to do with his winning an unprecedented third
term.
B | Foreign Policy (1933-1941) |
B1 | The Stimson Doctrine |
Although in 1932, Roosevelt denied that
he believed the United States should become a member of the League of Nations,
he seems never to have given up the faith in collective security he had
developed under Wilson. He was disappointed in the accomplishments of the
league, but like many of the league’s supporters he blamed many of its troubles
on the failure of the United States to join. After his election in 1932, but
before his inauguration, he conferred with Hoover’s secretary of state, Henry L.
Stimson, and accepted the so-called Stimson Doctrine of refusing to recognize
the recent conquest of Manchuria by Japan. Thus, before he had become president,
one of the cardinal principles of Roosevelt’s foreign policy, opposition to
Japanese efforts to dominate East Asia, had been established.
B2 | Good Neighbor Policy |
Another basic Roosevelt foreign policy
was the Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America. The phrase “good neighbor,”
used by the president in his first inaugural address, meant in practice that the
United States would no longer intervene in Latin America to protect private
American property interests. American support for the savage Cuban dictatorship
of Gerardo Machado was withdrawn, and a revolution soon turned him out. The
removal of the last U.S. Marines from Haiti in 1934 ended direct financial
control by the United States. Secretary of State Hull’s reciprocal trade
program, which resulted in several agreements with Latin American republics,
lowered trade barriers on some goods and was thus popular in many Central and
South American nations.
Hull went to the Pan American Conference
at Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933 to give full support to the important principle
that “no state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of
another.” The administration acted in accordance with this principle when Mexico
seized foreign-owned oil properties. Unlike Great Britain, the United States did
not break off diplomatic relations with Mexico. Eventually the American
companies worked out their own settlement with the Mexican government. The
ambassador to Mexico, Josephus Daniels, was Roosevelt’s old chief in the Navy
Department. The actions of these two men did more than anything else to convince
most of the Latin American governments that the United States could be a good
neighbor.
B3 | Growth of U.S. Isolationism |
Toward Europe, President Roosevelt’s
policies seemed at first to be almost isolationist, in spite of his background.
He did agree to go ahead with U.S. participation in the World Economic
Conference, scheduled to take place in London in the summer of 1933. President
Hoover had promised U.S. attendance. However, Roosevelt did not have much faith
in the ability of the conference to agree on measures to stabilize the value of
the dollar. Except for Hull, most of the U.S. delegates were of minor
importance. Roosevelt eventually undercut the conference by saying that he had
little interest in currency stabilization and by announcing that he would work
for economic recovery in other ways. He was strongly influenced by advisers, who
had no faith in European central bankers and felt that there was nothing to be
gained by tying the U.S. economy to a hazardous international agreement.
Unquestionably, Roosevelt’s action was
made easy by the prevailing isolationism in the United States. Some said the
distress of these years was because of disillusionment caused by U.S.
participation in World War I. Encouraged by congressional investigations and the
works of a number of writers and politicians, many Americans felt that the
United States should have stayed out of that conflict. This feeling was so
strong that Congress passed a number of neutrality acts, which among other
things forbade private American loans to nations that weren’t paying their debts
to the United States. Other acts required the president to place an embargo on
the shipment of arms to nations at war, authorized him to keep U.S. citizens
from sailing on the ships of those nations, and forbade the carrying by American
ships of guns or ammunition to countries at war. Roosevelt sought but was denied
the right to discriminate between aggressors and their victims. A majority in
Congress believed that trading arms with countries that were at war was a
dangerous activity. Some belligerent country, isolationists argued, would
inevitably attack some of the shipments and draw the United States into another
European war.
However, the balance of power in Europe
was already shifting, and President Roosevelt was unable to pursue his domestic
program without paying some attention to the international situation. During his
first term, Italy, led by the dictator Benito Mussolini, conquered the eastern
African empire of Ethiopia, in spite of mild economic punishment imposed on
Italy as an aggressor by the League of Nations. Soon afterward, Germany, headed
by the dictator Adolf Hitler, placed troops and weapons in the Rhineland in
violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which had been signed at the end of World
War I. In the summer of 1936, Italy and Germany gave vital assistance to the
military forces leading a revolution against the Spanish republic. Not only did
Britain and France do nothing, but the United States put its own unofficial
embargo on the shipment of weapons to Spain, a course legalized by Congress when
it convened in 1937. The U.S. policy toward Spain was isolationism carried as
far as it could be carried, since under international law the government of
Spain had the right to carry on trade, and the rebels were without legal
status.
B4 | Quarantine of Aggressors |
One of the most significant evidences of
Roosevelt’s growing concern with the precarious state of world peace came soon
after his reelection in 1936. He journeyed by sea to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to
attend a special Inter-American Conference for Peace, where he warned that
non-American nations proposing “to commit acts of aggression against us will
find a hemisphere wholly prepared to consult together for our mutual safety and
our mutual good.” Less than a year later, following the renewal of Japanese
attacks on China, Roosevelt in a dramatic speech in Chicago proposed that a
quarantine be placed on aggressor nations. Chiefly because of the lack of
enthusiasm of Secretary Hull and the British, nothing came directly out of this
proposal. However, it was a significant speech because it displayed Roosevelt’s
long-held belief in a system of collective security. Soon afterward, the
president requested a billion-dollar appropriation for naval expansion, and then
almost at once he asked for even more. Congress obliged, and the defense
build-up was under way.
B5 | Start of World War II |
The amount of money spent on defense grew
enormously. The United States under Roosevelt was quickly preparing for a new
war, which seemed close at hand. In March 1938 Germany annexed Austria and in
1939, it took over the remainder of Czechoslovakia. Large parts of
Czechoslovakia had already been lost when Britain and France agreed to allow
Germany to absorb German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia under the Munich Pact
in 1938. At the end of August 1939 the Germans concluded a nonaggression pact
with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which ensured that, if
Germany went to war with France and Britain on one front, the Germans would not
have to face the USSR on a second front. When the Germans invaded Poland on
September 1, 1939, the Poles appealed to France and Britain for help. There was
little that the Western powers could do to prevent the rapid occupation of
Poland by the Germans, and, in the east, by the Soviets, except to declare war
on Germany, which they did on September 3, 1939.
B5a | Defense Buildup |
Roosevelt at once convened a special
session of Congress and asked it to lift the embargo on the sale of munitions
(weapons), a provision that chiefly hurt the Western countries opposed to Hitler
and Germany, known as the Allies. After a sharp debate, Congress complied with
the request. It passed the so-called cash-and-carry act, which permitted
Americans to sell munitions to nations able to pay for them in cash and able to
carry them away in ships registered abroad. Congress did not change any other
provision of the neutrality acts, however (see World War II).
Unlike President Wilson in 1914,
Roosevelt made no secret of his partiality for Britain and France. He loathed
Hitler and his National Socialism, or Nazi, Party and considered them a threat
to U.S. security. When the Germans quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, the
Netherlands, Belgium, and France in the spring of 1940, Roosevelt came quickly
to the aid of the British, now carrying on alone against Germany. Not only did
he ask Congress for more defense money, but he took steps to establish a kind of
coalition government. He brought into the two key military posts in the U.S.
Cabinet distinguished Republicans who shared his alarm at the Nazi threat. Henry
L. Stimson became Roosevelt’s secretary of war, and Frank Knox, a Chicago
newspaper publisher and Republican candidate for vice president in 1936, was
made secretary of the navy. Roosevelt also appointed leaders of the business
community to a defense advisory commission.
In September 1940 Roosevelt secured the
passage of the United States’ first peacetime conscription measure, the
Selective Training and Service Act (see Selective Service). Under it, men
between 21 and 35 were required to register for a year of military training.
Roosevelt was also impressed with the great danger to the survival of Britain
caused by German planes and submarines. Thus, in September he also transferred
50 U.S. destroyers to Britain in exchange for eight naval bases in the western
hemisphere. Fortunately for the success of the destroyers-bases arrangement, the
1940 Republican candidate for president, Wendell Willkie, endorsed it.
Isolationists and others who disliked Roosevelt’s policy of aid to Britain thus
had no major party alternative in the election.
B5b | Lend-Lease |
Following his reelection in 1940,
President Roosevelt moved ahead with the dual policy of building up U.S.
defenses while giving assistance to those countries resisting the aggression of
Germany, Italy, and Japan. The major legislation was the Lend-Lease Act of March
1941, passed over the bitter opposition of the isolationists in Congress and
their national organization, the America First Committee. The Lend-Lease Act
authorized the president to transfer to victims of aggression such military
equipment (a term interpreted to include food and clothing) as could be produced
in the United States and acquired by the government. This act, which was
destined to be extended for the length of World War II, began with an
appropriation of $7 billion. It was an emphatic announcement of support for the
hard-pressed British. When Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941 and British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill welcomed the Soviets as allies, Roosevelt
extended the privileges of lend-lease to the USSR. Thus, the United States was
virtually at war in the spring and summer of 1941, sending aid to Britain and
the USSR and even patrolling the Atlantic Ocean with the U.S. Navy.
C | Wartime Leadership (1941-1945) |
C1 | Pearl Harbor |
Roosevelt officially became wartime
president after Japan attacked the United States on December 7, 1941. Although
he had opposed Japanese expansion in Asia from the time he took office,
Roosevelt was kept from assisting China to any extent by the difficulties of
geographical distance and by American isolationism. When the Japanese attacked
China again in 1937 without a declaration of war, terming the hostilities a mere
incident, Roosevelt refused to recognize the existence of a state of war and
thus avoided the application of the neutrality laws. Such enforcement would have
discriminated against the Chinese, and Roosevelt was as openly pro-Chinese in
Asia as he was openly pro-British in Europe. In 1940 the administration notified
Japan that the existing commercial treaty between the two countries would be
ended. The administration increased U.S. aid to China and placed an embargo on
the export of iron and steel scrap, an important part of U.S. trade with Japan.
In Japan, militarists took complete control of the government in 1941 and
prepared for a showdown.
The carrier-based airplane attack upon
the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, caught the U.S. garrison by
surprise and resulted in the sinking or damaging of a large number of ships. The
Japanese did not succeed in destroying any aircraft carriers, however, and they
were unable or unwilling to follow through with an invasion of Hawaii. At the
request of Roosevelt, who called December 7 “a date which will live in infamy,”
Congress declared war on Japan. When Germany and Italy came to the assistance of
their Japanese allies by declaring war on the United States, Roosevelt and
Congress reciprocated by declaring war on them.
C2 | Atlantic Charter |
Roosevelt threw himself into the role of
wartime leader with determination and enthusiasm. He was convinced that the
security of the United States depended on the defeat of Germany, Italy, and
Japan. He was also certain that the greatest threat came from Germany. Even
before Pearl Harbor he had spoken with Prime Minister Churchill in a naval
vessel off Newfoundland, Canada, and had joined in issuing the Atlantic Charter
on August 14, 1941. This declaration denied any desire for any territorial
changes not desired by the peoples concerned. It also stressed the goals of
improved economic conditions, “freedom from fear,” and the disarmament of
aggressors. The charter reflected many of Woodrow Wilson’s ideas that had so
strongly influenced Roosevelt, but it is significant that it is much more
general than Wilson’s Fourteen Points, a program to establish a basis for
lasting peace following World War I; it included a proposal for the League of
Nations. Roosevelt was determined not to repeat what he considered Wilson’s
mistakes: the announcement of specific objectives, the refusal to bring
Republicans into the Cabinet, and the failure to involve Republicans in
diplomatic negotiations in preparation for peace.
C3 | War Plans |
Roosevelt’s leadership included a number
of activities. He had to decide, in consultation with Churchill and the Soviets,
upon basic military strategy. He had to promote defense production without
creating inflation, and he had to determine the allocation of the goods among
the several theaters of war and the various Allied powers. In these activities
he had the tireless assistance of his former relief administrator, Harry
Hopkins, who became his principal diplomat. The president also had to oversee
the buildup of an enormous army and navy. By the end of the war more than 15
million people had served in the armed forces of the United States. Finally,
Roosevelt had to explain war developments to the American people to maintain
their support, which was essential to victory.
C4 | Wartime Conferences |
In retrospect 1942 was the year when the
tide turned toward the United Nations, the term then used to signify the United
States and its allies in the war. In that year four major events took place: the
defeat of the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway in the mid-Pacific; the
containment of the Japanese southern thrust at Guadalcanal, in the Solomon
Islands; the successful Allied invasion of French North Africa; and the Battle
of Stalingrad, the beginning of the end for the Germans in the USSR (see
Volgograd). In January 1943 Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca,
Morocco, to make further plans and to confer with French leaders. At Casablanca
Roosevelt announced the policy of insisting upon unconditional surrender by the
enemy. In November 1943 the president met with Churchill and the Chinese leader,
Chiang Kai-shek, at Cairo, Egypt. There a number of plans for the war against
Japan were worked out.
Roosevelt also conferred twice with
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Following the Cairo conference, he and Churchill
journeyed to Tehrān, Iran, to meet Stalin. The Chinese were not invited, since
the USSR was not at war with Japan. At Tehrān the leaders agreed upon an
invasion of France by U.S. and British forces in the spring of 1944, to take
some of the pressure off the Soviets. Finally, the Big Three, as they were
called, conferred again in February 1945 at Yalta, in Crimea. The Yalta
Conference, occurring as the European war seemed about to end, resulted in
several agreements, including: the nature of the postwar international
organization (later called the United Nations); the military occupation and free
elections in eastern Europe; the postwar division and occupation of Germany; and
the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan following the end of the
European war (see Cold War).
D | Death |
Roosevelt did not live to see the end of
World War II. During the war years he had not appeared often in public, but
during his campaign for a fourth term in 1944 many who saw him said that he
looked pale, thin, and old. The election, which resulted in his victory over New
York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, was a strain on the president, as was the long
trip to Yalta. In the early spring of 1945 he went to Warm Springs, Georgia, in
an effort to recapture his flagging energy. There he died of a massive cerebral
hemorrhage on April 12, 1945. Harry Truman took the oath of office to become
president the same day.
In spite of rumors about Roosevelt’s poor
health, the nation was terribly shocked by the death of the man who had been
president of the United States longer than any other. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
died knowing that his plans for victory were coming to a successful conclusion,
but he was aware that the Soviet Union was already breaking the agreements about
free elections in eastern Europe. He was laid to rest in the rose garden in the
family estate at Hyde Park.
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