Difference between revisions of "Franklin D. Roosevelt"

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States of America, 1933-45, leading the U.S. from the darkest days of the Great Depression to victory over Germany and Japan; he built the New Deal Coalition of voters and interest groups which dominated American politics into the 1960s, and is still fondly remembered by liberals. His New Deal was a very large, complex interlocking set of programs designed to produce relief (which meant jobs for the unemployed), recovery (of the GDP), and reform (by which he meant regulation of Wall Street and the economy), as well as reelection (in 1936, 1940 and 1944) and realignment of the political system. Conservatives strongly opposed many, but not all, of the New Deal programs. Conservatives abolished most of the relief programs when unemployment practically ended in the 1940s. Most of the regulations on business were ended about 1975-85, except for the regulation of Wall Street by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which still exists. The major surviving program is Social Security, which Roosevelt passed in 1935.

Conservatives at the time denounced his bids for presidential power, including building a national political machine through the WPA (it lasted from 1935 to 1943), attempting to take control of the Supreme Court by adding new liberal judges (an attempt which failed, 1937), and trying to purge the Democratic party of conservative congressman (an attempt which failed in 1938). The failures of those attempts can be attributed to the Conservative Coalition.

After 1938 FDR turned his attention to World War II. he was a strong advocate of support for China against Japan; most conservatives agreed. He also was a strong supporter of military aid to Britain. Conservatives split on that, with the "isolationists" opposed, and others like [Henry Stimson]] in favor. Once Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war, conservatives strongly supported the war effort and generally approved his military leadership, although highly critical of his close cooperation with Stalin and the Soviet Union.

He was the first and only President to be elected four times, breaking the traditional two-term-limit precedent established by George Washington.^[1]

Roosevelt's health failed rapidly in 1944-45, even as he ran for reelection. He died On April 12, 1945. Despite polio which crippled him starting in the early 1920s, he exuded a sense of confidence and hope for the future that made for a charismatic personality.

Conservative scholars have argued that some relief efforts actually helped to prolong the Great Depression. However, government spending and prosperity combined after World War II, the most costly war in American history.^[2] The amount spent on the New Deal was less than the $21 billion borrowed by the government over two years during World War I.^[3]

Early life

Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University where he failed to graduate. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first woman ever appointed to a cabinet post and knew FDR from his early manhood up to his death, says he was not a student, that he knew nothing of economics and that he admitted he had never read a book on the subject. ^[4]

Election of 1932

With the economy continuing a downward spiral despite Hoover's efforts, a Democratic victory seemed certain. Roosevelt needed two-thirds of the delegates too get the nomination. He easily beat out Al Smith, his former close ally. FDR won the nomination with the aid of powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst (still a liberal at the time), and the Texas delegation led by House Speaker John Nance Garner. Garner was given the vice presidency. Smith in 1932, Hearst in 1934, and Garner in 1937 all broke with FDR, becoming bitter enemies.

The election was a rout, with Democrats winning sweeping majorities in Congress and control of state governments in all parts of the country. Hoover tried to coordinate national policy with FDR during the long interregnum between the November election and the March 4 inauguration, but Roosevelt refused to cooperate.

First Term

New Deal

For Main Article see New Deal.

FDR is most famous for his New Deal, a set of programs designed to produce recovery from the Depression, reform so it would never happen again, and relief for the tens of millions suffering severe hardships.

FDR's favorite program--and the nation's favorite as well, was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which took 2.5 million young men to work camps for 6-month stints. There were no uniforms or military drills. Of all the New Deal innovations, perhaps the most generally applauded was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was strongly approved at the time by conservatives and liberals alike, including most religious and business leaders as a way to save the boys who were perpectually unemployed and drifting into gangs. The CCC was ended in 1943 when the need had vanished.

Social Security

An Old Age Social Security Bill was passed during his first term which provided for workers who reach the age of 65 a pension of $8 a week at most. The plan had to be pushed through against his procrastination until finally in the 1934 congressional elections the Republicans denounced him for his tardiness. When he did finally consent to a bill, it contained a plan for building a huge reserve fund that would extract billions from the workers' payrolls without any adequate return. Over the protest of the President, the Congress finally took that provision proposed by Roosevelt out of the law. ^[5]

Taxation

FDR, in a letter to journalist Roy W. Howard, wrote,

"What is known as consumer taxes, namely the invisible taxes paid by people in every walk of life, fall relatively much more heavily upon the poor man than on the rich man." ^[6]

Robert H. Jackson, then serving as Internal Revenue Service General Counsel, observed in Congressional testimony that prior to FDR’s election, "we find those taxes bearing most heavily on the well-to-do contributed 68% per cent of the government's total internal revenue and customs receipts, while miscellaneous taxes and customs receipts, bearing most heavily upon the consumer contributed only 31.8%” By 1935 the situation was reversed with “taxes based on ability to pay contributed 38.7% . . . there has been an increase in the proportion of revenues contributed by taxes on consumption to 61.3%."^[7]

Economic growth

New capital made available for investment amounted to $348,000,000 in 1935. This was less than 1/10th of the amount available in 1929. By contrast, the British economy had nearly recovered to its 1929 levels by 1935, and the amount available for investment was almost twice as much as the United States.

Third Term

Early in 1939 FDR made up his mind to seek a third election in the presidential election of 1940. FDR realized the political difficulties involved in a third nomination so he wanted to make it appear as a "draft Roosevelt" movement. He discussed other candidates with his aides, among the names were Democratic National Committee Chairman James Farley, whom FDR rejected because he was Roman Catholic.

Administrative Assistants to Roosevelt included James Forrestal, Lauchlin Currie and David K. Niles. Their function was to get information and to condense and summarize it for [Roosevelt's] use.

Public opinion on entering the war became polarized in very complicated ways. Conservatives divided into pro-war ("interventionist") and anti-war ("isolationist) blocs, as did liberals. Republicans split and Democrats split. FDR was the leader of the interventionist liberal Democrats, but he was opposed by old allies like John L. Lewis and Joe Kennedy, and supported by old foes like Henry Stimson.

In general the dispute was entirely focused on Europe. Virtually every group was hostile to Japan and supported a strong pro-China policy, which FDR pushed vigorously. The threat was Japan had to end its invasion of China or the U.S. would--and did--cut off Japan's oil supplies. Japan responsed with a decision for war. Once Pearl Harbor was attacked (Dec. 7, 1941), all the prior divisions vanished overnight, and all groups supported the war effort.

see American Homefront, World War II

Commander in Chief

Roosevelt in 1941 formed an alliance of convenience with Stalin to defeat Hitler.

In August 1939 Stalin made an alliance with Hitler that allowed Hitler to invade Poland; the two divided Poland and eastern Europe between them, as Germany turned toward France and Britain. With Roosevelt strongly supporting France and Britain, the American Communist Party began attacking Roosevelt in the wildest terms and did so for the next twenty-two months. In the 1940 election, pro-Moscow elements in the CIO forced John L. Lewis to turn against Roosevelt and support the liberal Republican Wendell Willkie. Roosevelt meanwhile moved right, and brought into top jobs the GOP vice presidential nominee from 1936, Frank Knox (a conservative who became Secretary of the Navy) and conservative Republican lawyer Henry Stimson, who took over the War Department. Rejecting advice from the far left, 90% of CIO members voted for Roosevelt, who was easily elected to a third term.

Roosevelt was determined to help Britain and at one point after Pearl Harbor Winston Churchill even moved into the White House to coordinate war strategy.

The policy makers in Washington--including those at the newly constructed Pentagon--wanted to focus on defeating the main enemy, Germany. Public opinion (and the Navy) insisted on defeating Japan first. Given the military situation, there was little in 1942-43 the U.S. could do to defeat Germany except send military supplies to Britain and Russia, which was done. The war in 1942-43 of necessity focused on Japan, and it was a very hard-fought war fought primarily with naval aviation. The great American victory at the Battle of Midway ended the Japanese blitzkrieg and evened out the forces. Japan was unprepared for a long war, and already by early 1942 the U.S. had far more warships and warplanes under construction than Japan did. Before the material edge became decisive, American forces defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Guadalcanal. By 1943 the "island hopping" campaign under Admiral Chester Nimitz in the central Pacific, and under General Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific was inexorably pushing American forces toward the Japanese home islands, with the goal of invading them and capturing Tokyo.

American and British troops invaded North Africa in 1942, and Sicily and Italy in 1943. In retrospective these were not major strategic goals, but they did provide the Army with the combat experience needed to prepare for the real invasion of France in June 1944. By then the German Luftwaffe had been destroyed by the U.S. Air Force, and the vast advantage in war material made the German military position hopeless. With the huge Russian armies pressing in from the east, and the smaller but more powerful Allied armies coming in from the west, the Nazi war machine was crushed in 1944-45.

FDR worked very closely with his military advisors, and followed their strategic advice. His main role was fostering diplomatic relations with Britain, Russia and China, helping themn with Lend Lease supplies of food and munitions.

Big Three conferences

See also Teheran conference

At the Teheran conference it was secretly agreed to let the Soviet Union have not only eastern Poland but also part of Finland, the Baltic States and parts of Romania. It was secretly agreed to support the Yugoslav Communist, Joseph Broz Tito, and desert the pro-Western, anti-totalitarian friend, General Mihailovich. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress upon his return to the United States that no secret arrangements had been made.

See also Yalta conference

At the Yalta conference a reparations commission was set up. The Soviet Union wanted the amount to be 20 billion dollars of which the USSR would take half. It was agreed that labor might be taken as a possible source of reparations. This was a way of authorizing the seizure of human beings to work as slaves and is the basis of the crime perpetrated after hostilities ceased to which Franklin Roosevelt agreed. ^[10]

Roosevelt also agreed at Yalta to have all fugitive Soviet nationals or citizens of satellite nations and tens of thousands of POW's who elected to stay this side of the Iron Curtain, returned to the Soviet Union. This was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. The Saturday Evening Post commented:

Roosevelt not only made agreements secret from the American people but secret from his closest advisers in the government. He made agreements with Stalin hostile to the objectives of Churchill and kept secret from Churchill. He made secret agreements with Chiang Kai-shek secret from both Churchill and Stalin. He made secret agreements in derogation of Chiang Kai-shek's interests without Chiang Kai-shek's knowledge. And he made many secret agreements which no one in the U.S. State Department knew about until after his death and then learned about only at embarrassing moments from Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. ^[12]

Fourth Term

In February 1944 Congress rejected Roosevelt's demand for a $10,500,000,000 tax increase and cut it to $2,300,000,000. Roosevelt vetoed it saying this was a "bill not for relief of the needy but of the greedy." Senator Alben Barkley, Democratic leader, rose on the floor of the Senate to say the veto was "a calculated and deliberate assault upon the legislative integrity of every member of Congress." The entire Senate united in a roar of applause. Barkley declared that after seven years of carrying the New Deal banner for Roosevelt, he would resign his post as Democratic majority leader and he called on every member of the Congress to preserve its self respect and override the veto. The Senate overrode it 72 to 14 and the House 299 to 95.

By 1944 all Democrats supported FDR's decision for a fourth term, including Strom Thurmond who referred to Roosevelt as having been the world’s greatest leader. ^[13]

Reflections on Christianity

FDR said this about the Bible in an address on October 6, 1935:

"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."

"Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."^[14]

FDR became famous for delivering "fireside chats" over the new medium of radio, and on March 9, 1937 he declared:

"I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

While running for his third time in a Brooklyn speech, Roosevelt said,

"I am certain that the rank and file of patriotic Republicans do not realize the nature of this threat. They should remember, and we must remember, what the collaborative understanding between Communism and Nazism has done to the processes of democracy abroad...

"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Their objective is to prevent democracy from becoming strong. ^[15]

As World War II broke out in Europe, FDR warned:

"Those forces hate Democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization."

The following year, on May 27, 1941, FDR stated in one of his radio addresses:

The Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in the denial of God.

"In his second inaugural address, FDR pledged to do his utmost by 'seeking Divine guidance.' He took that mission further on January 25, 1941, when he wrote a personal prologue to a special edition of the New Testament, which was distributed to millions of U.S. soldiers. 'As Commander-in-Chief,' Roosevelt wrote, 'I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.' He believed that all American soldiers should have the opportunity to read the words of Christ in preparing for battle. Once, when joining those soldiers aboard a warship with Winston Churchill, FDR asked the crew and prime minister to join him in singing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' In his final inaugural address, FDR affirmed, "So we pray to Him for the vision to see our way clearly ... to achievement of His will.' "^[16]

When American soldiers were landing on the beaches of Normandy, Roosevelt led the nation in prayer during a radio broadcast. ^[17]

Legacy

Statue of the president at The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C.

Roosevelt is an admired but still hotly debated president. Many credit Roosevelt with helping the United States survive the Great Depression and with providing solid leadership during World War II. Others, especially conservatives, assert that he uselessly expanded the welfare state, abused executive powers, and badly botched diplomacy before and during World War II.

Roosevelt's image now appears on the Dime.

See also

• New Ordeal
• Michael Whitney Straight

Further reading

• H.W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (2008)
• Smith, Jean Edward. FDR (2007) excerpt and text search

References

External Links

* "The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal," by Robert Higgs