“Three presidents dominate American history: George Washington, who founded the country; Abraham Lincoln, who preserved it; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who rescued it from economic collapse and then led it to victory in the greatest war of all time” (Jean Edward Smith, p. xi).
Fortunately (or unfortunately if you don’t like musical theater), the picture of FDR that my mind conjures is the jolly, yet careworn polio-victim portrayed in Annie. When he busts out with the second chorus of ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow,’ something about it makes me smile and by the time FDR chides Daddy Warbucks to lighten up, I’m singing along too. I can’t help it. Besides, Annie’s been stuck in my head since Hoover.
I decided that since FDR was a Big Deal (after all, he was elected 4 times!) I would have to get a bigger than normal bio on him. But after trolling through the mountains of informational books on this man, I realized that it would be a very hard task narrowing it down to just one book. In the end, I went for a relatively large (an 845-pager) and relatively new (2007) book. Not to mention, the author, Jean Edward Smith, had written tons of scholarly tomes devoted to WWII and the people of that time. I felt safe and comfortable to have Mr. Roosevelt in his hands. So I happily embarked on FDR by Jean Edward Smith (New York: Random House, 2007).
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born to Sarah Delano and James Roosevelt on January 30, 1882 in New York. Although he and Teddy were from separate sides of the family and both would take wildly divergent paths to the White House, they both grew up in affluence. “FDR grew up in a privileged, carefree environment of comfort and security” (p. 19). He spent much of his childhood traveling and being instructed by tutors. “Learning at home deprived FDR of the rough-and-tumble of public schools but it saved him from inept or mediocre teaching” (p. 20). Each summer the family vacationed at Campobello (off the coast of Maine) and little Franklin spent time collecting stamps and engaging in ornithology.
In 1896, FDR was educated for several years in Germany at the school, Bad Nauheim. This form of public education was to get him ready for entrance to Groton, a glorified, prestigious high school for boys in New England. He enjoyed himself hugely in the academic environment of Groton, excelling in the classic education provided and participating in the various sports on campus. “In his final year Roosevelt won a school letter as equipment manager of the baseball team. He also won the Latin and Punctuality Prizes and was a dormitory prefect and a member of the school choir and the debating society” (p. 28). By 1900, he was enrolled at Harvard where he studied economics, government, and history. He was also president of the famous Harvard newspaper, the Harvard Crimson. FDR did well at Harvard; the only blight during this time was the death of his much-loved father.
Franklin met Eleanor in 1902. Even though they were cousins, so to speak, they had never met before. On March 17, 1905, they were married. (Since Eleanor’s father had died, Teddy agreed to give his niece away.) FDR was now a very busy man. Not only was he a married man but the year before, in 1904, he was accepted to Columbia Law School, where he struggled. He was not very fond of the law but in 1907 he passed the bar and simultaneously dropped out of Columbia.
He tried practicing law briefly but he was never very happy with it and so his interest switched to politics. Cousin Teddy was in the White House and had so taken some of the stigma away blue-bloods from engaging in politics. In 1910, FDR ran for the state senate in which he traversed the state using a car. He was elected and went headfirst into party politics. While in the state senate, he voted on the 17th amendment and dealt with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire debacle.
With the 1912 presidential election on its way, FDR campaigned heavily for Wilson. Thus when Wilson won the election, he promoted FDR to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy (the very same position that Teddy had occupied!) “FDR cut a splendid figure as assistant secretary: tall, athletic, well spoken, enthusiastic” (p. 104). It was during his tenure as assistant secretary that FDR learned some very valuable political lessons, including how to handle Congress. “FDR learned that informal favors granted graciously often counted for more on Capitol Hill than cogent arguments and party loyalty” (p. 114). FDR even tried to run for the Senate, during this time, but lost.
Then WWI hit and FDR couldn’t go anywhere; Wilson needed him at his post. FDR devised a plan for a Council of National Defense and aided the country by promoting a Naval Reserve. “His most notable wartime achievement was the laying of a North Sea antisubmarine mine barrage—a chain of underwater high-explosive charges stretching 240 miles from the Orkney Islands to the coast of Norway” (p. 143). It was during the war that Franklin began a long-running affair with the wife of a friend, Lucy Mercer. This affair would last almost to Franklin’s time as President of the United States.
After the war, things weren’t going well on the domestic front, especially in New York. There were race riots, bombings and the Palmer Raids, which became a Communist witch hunt. FDR was rather uncertain as to where his political future was headed, since Wilson had suffered a stroke and it was uncertain whether he would live or not. It was then that the Democratic National Convention called upon FDR to run on the 1920 Democratic ticket as the vice presidential candidate, along with James Cox as president. Although FDR felt it was a hopeless cause (the Republicans had all the momentum), he still campaigned vigorously. “In the next three months he would crisscross the country twice, delivering nearly one thousand speeches and countless impromptu addresses—the most extensive campaign ever conducted by a candidate for national office” (p. 181). Even with a loss to Warren Harding, FDR’s political stock was higher than ever.
Unfortunately, at this point, FDR had no job in sight. Thankfully he was able to work on Wall Street for a while. “And the opportunity came when Van Lear Black, a wealthy Democratic contributor who owned the Baltimore Sun, asked FDR to become vice president of his Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, the fourth largest surety bonding company in the United States. Roosevelt’s responsibilities would be to oversee the firm’s operations in New York and New England and to serve as rainmaker, bringing in new clients through his connections in government, labor, and industry” (p. 184). Basically they purchased his name. FDR also spent his time doing speaking engagements, heading foundations, and spearheading philanthropic activities. It was as chairman of the Boy Scouts of America that FDR was invited to the annual Boy Scout Jamboree on Thursday, July 28, 1921.
It was at the Boys Scouts Jamboree that FDR contracted polio. FDR became seriously ill in August at Campobello where he could not move anything below his neck. Eventually movement returned to his hands and torso but he would have trouble with his legs for the rest of his life. Due to this enforced confinement, Eleanor took over the political duties by giving speeches and attending events on behalf of her husband. FDR’s health slowly returned—through prolonged sailing and the use of special waters at Warm Springs, GA (he purchased Warm Springs in 1926 to specifically aid polio victims)—and by 1924, he was able to walk up to a podium to give the nominating speech for Al Smith for president.
1928 was the year that saw FDR back in the political spotlight. He was nominated for governor of the state of New York and won! FDR faced many problems as governor, such as electric power controversies and agriculture reform, but he enjoyed a good fight and powered through. He was reelected through a major campaign in 1930 and he took that as a sign that his New York constituents agreed with his policies, especially his newest idea of ‘social duty.’ “But the idea that government had the definite responsibility—a ‘social duty’—to use the resources of the state to prevent distress and to promote the general welfare was first suggested at that time” (p. 251).
To promote his case for president in 1932, FDR collected a group of professors from various colleges to become his ‘brain trust’ and tackled the Republican Party for the mess they had made of the Great Depression. “FDR’s administrative style was a legendary mixture of straightforward delegation, flowchart responsibility, Machiavellian cunning, and crafty deception” (p. xii). While he was campaigning in Miami, there was an assassination attempt at his life; the bullet barely missed him and hit Mayor Cermak instead. FDR would go on to win the presidential election in a huge sweep.
Term One: The New Deal (1932-36)
During his first term and especially during his first one hundred days, Roosevelt and a very amenable Congress pushed through tons of New Deal legislation. First there was a major banking bill that helped stabilize banks after the Great Depression. Next FDR turned to economize the national budget, while he then had Prohibition repealed and amended an agriculture bill for those in need. There was a newly instituted Public Works Associatio, while FERA aided those who were unemployed and the TVA and the CCC put people to work. FDR passed bills to regulate railroads and the securities markets. And once and for all, he took the US off the gold standard. “In retrospect it seems incredible, but in less than a month, and aside from rescuing the banking system, FDR had taken on and defeated three of the most powerful special interests in the nation: veterans (with the economy bill), temperance (with the beer bill), and organized labor (with the CCC)” (p. 321).
But FDR was not done yet. Next came the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), the FDIC bill, the FCA, a Railroad Coordination Act, the Glass-Stegall Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. He also recognized Russia (which the US had failed to do since 1917) and passed the Social Security Act of 1935. What he failed to do was to tackle any sort of civil rights issues. “During the twelve years FDR was president not one piece of civil rights legislation became law” (p. 401.)
Term Two: Political Errors (1936-1940)
On such a tide of legislative initiative and sheer gumption, FDR was the clear favorite for the 1936 campaign against Republican, Alfred Landon. In fact, he seemed unstoppable as the FDR and the Democrats won yet again in a landslide victory.
Unfortunately, FDR made a major mistake here. He assumed that the economy was doing so much better that in 1937 he drastically cut government spending. The fragile US economy plummeted again in what would be called the Roosevelt Recession. Another mistake that he made was his court-packing scheme which would severly backfire on him. The final bill, called the Bill to Reorganize the Judicial Branch of Government, basically stated that FDR could add additional federal judges to the payroll for every current judge over 70 years of age, Supreme Court included. Six of the nine judges were currently over 70 and in a masterly display of legal defense, Charles Evans Hughes, the chief justice, demolished the bill with one lengthy statement. Domestically FDR’s political ground was shaky.
In the foreign policy arena, FDR had done very little so far. “Until 1939 Roosevelt’s involvement in foreign affairs had been sporadic” (p. 416). But this attitude seemed to dovetail with the isolationist tendencies of the general public. With war erupting around the globe, FDR did not think that Americans would countenance the US being included. Thus he tried to steer a middle course between the belligerents. “Roosevelt moved to meet the crisis on two fronts: revision of the Neutrality Act to permit the sale of war materiel to Britain and France in case of war and a long overdue change of command in the Army” (p. 432). FDR replaced General Craig with General Marshall as chief of staff.
Term Three: Global Outlook (1940-1944)
As the campaign for the election of 1940 got swinging, FDR threw his hat in the ring with a Selective Service bill. With a lower margin of victory than before, FDR was reelected over Wendell Wilkie, the Republican representative.
Unfortunately, Great Britain was slowly going broke paying hard cash for war materiel that was sold from the US. Therefore, FDR came up with a new plan: the Lend-Lease idea. Essentially the plan was that Great Britain should be lent the war materiel, instead of letting it sit around gathering dust, and then Britain would repay them in another form of materials. Here’s how FDR described the deal: “Suppose my neighbor’s home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire. Now what do I do? I don’t say to him, ‘Neighbor, my garden hose cost me fifteen dollars; you have to pay me fifteen dollars for it.’ No! I don’t want fifteen dollars. I want my garden hose back after the fire is over…What I’m trying to do is eliminate the dollar sign” (p. 485).
The United States joined the fray, however, on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. After that, the US fought the Battle of Midway, breaking the arm of the Japanese in the Pacific, and they also were engaged in North Africa. During this time, FDR and Winston Churchill held at least four meetings in various places to decide on war strategy. In November 1943, they even met with Joseph Stalin in Teheran to look ahead to the post-war era and later on, FDR and Churchill met with de Gaulle in Quebec in order to decide on France’s fate as well.
Term Four: Death (1944-45)
FDR’s health was seriously declining at this point. He had heart issues but since he would never ask his doctors what the prognosis was, the press was never able to find out how bad his health had gotten. In pictures of this time, you can see that he looks terrible but he went ahead anyway and decided to run for another term. In a last-minute decision, the Republican National Convention decided to scotch Henry Wallace as the incumbent vice president and replaced him with Senator Harry Truman. The decision rested on the fact that many people felt that FDR would not live out another term and so they did not want the radical Wallace inadvertently becoming president. The fourth term was a seemingly forgone conclusion; FDR and Truman beat Thomas Dewey handily.
FDR’s fourth term was mainly characterized by the Yalta Conference attended by Stalin and Churchill in February, 1945. This conference is where FDR got Stalin’s agreement to enter the war against Japan after Germany was defeated. Of course, FDR then had to turn a blind eye to Poland’s sovereignty at the hands of Russia. After returning to the US, FDR, looking ahead to war’s end, asked for a GI Bill of Rights; the US needed some way to provide for its veterans. FDR died on April 11, 1945 at Warm Springs, GA of sever hypertension and heart failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment