The rise and influence of Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War 2 - Essay Example

The Rise and Influence of Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War 2 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, America's longest serving President, is one of the most important political figures of the twentieth century. He led the USA through twelve years of domestic and international disorder and war. It is a general perception among people that no American President is more concerned about how he is portrayed than Franklin Roosevelt. He shrouded himself in dozens of disguises, including Sphinx, Father, Doctor, and Captain of the Ship of State. One main theme was consistent. Franklin Roosevelt invariably represented himself and was portrayed by others, as hale, hearty, optimistic, and healthy, his most brilliant disguise. That image of vigor makes ironic the debate over the depiction of Roosevelt in his memorial statues in Washington, DC, and raises complex issues about the portrayal of the best known but most enigmatic president of the twentieth century. Historians have always ranked Roosevelt as one of the greatest presidents of the United States along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Franklin Roosevelt and World War II Between 1929 and 1945 the United States experienced a global depression and another world war. During this time of grave calamity almost everywhere, economic collapse called forth political instability and nationalist movements. In Europe and Asia the rise of Italian fascism, German Nazism, and Japanese militarism intensified economic competition over markets and scarce resources, resulting in conflict and war. In the countries of Latin America the Great Depression led to breakdowns and political difficulties, the consequences of which encouraged the United States to respond in distinctive ways by fashioning a Good Neighbor policy. The Great Depression, which set in after the historic Stock Market Crash of 1929, and World War II would bring substantial expansion of the practice and its concepts. President Franklin D Roosevelt, a consummate practitioner who had been tutored in public relations by Louis McHenry Howe since 1912, would lead the way. He was elected four times against the strong opposition of the majority of American newspapers by using his true strong leadership and taking his message to the people on the nation's front pages and on radios. The term "good neighbor", a kind of commonplace in diplomatic language, took on actual meaning during the presidencies of Herbert C. Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. For Latin Americans the term signified the end of an era of direct intervention by the United States in Latin American affairs. For the Roosevelt administration the Good Neighbor policy also functioned significantly in other ways: It served as an international counterpart of the New Deal by attacking the economic effects of the Great Depression and later as a means of mobilizing resistance among the nations of the New World against the Axis powers during the Second World War. As the historian Robert Freeman Smith explains, taken together the various components formed "a massive, although ill-defined government effort" under U.S direction to create "an integrated hemisphere system" characterized by high levels of "political, economic and military co-operation". FDR's success in winning public support spurred the efforts of the conservative forces, particularly Big Business, to develop programs to counter his appeals. To bring the United States out of the Depression, President Roosevelt initiated a number of actions agencies - the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Works Project Administration - that required extensively publicity in order to gain cooperation and acceptance. Thus, the public information system in the federal government was greatly enlarged in FDR's administration. In a sense and to oversimplify - the Second World War constituted two wars: the European war and the Pacific war. The United States alone played a major role in both, one of the bases for its subsequent claim to global preminence. Geography may have protected the American population, but the American commitment was colossal. During the First World War the American Army had only been fully engaged for the last six months; during the Second World War the United States entered at a low point for the Allies and was to carry the major part of the burden for nearly four years. From 1941 the Second World War became very much an American war, and no one had a greater saying its conduct than Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt was determined to play his constitutional role of Commander-in-Chief to the full, 'Dr. New Deal'. He told the press, was being replaced by 'Dr. Win-the-War'. The responsibility that rested on him, as the supreme authority in both civil and military spheres, was immense. Under his guidance, public opinion was to be successfully harnessed for the war effort, supportive majority maintained in Congress, Americas vast and vast and complex economy competently mobilized, and huge army and navy forces raised and deployed. At the same time Roosevelt adroitly 'managed' his war- time allies, personified particularly in the formidable figures of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Roosevelt's style was open to criticism, for he assigned overlapping duties to different aides, delegated task to a host of competing agencies, often issued confusing or contradictory instructions, and punctuated his habitual prevarication with seemingly capricious decisions. Roosevelt used a variety of individuals to provide him with aid in preparing speeches. Typically, Roosevelt drew upon subject matter experts, often cabinet members, and stylists, such as authors Robert Sherwood and John Steinbeck. His style also served to enhance his authority, for ultimately it was Roosevelt himself who had to strike a balance between the various military, political, economic and other considerations and resolve the conflicting pressures. The issue was decolonization of European empires, with Great Britain the primary target. And discussing that issue "with them at every opportunity" was precisely what Franklin Roosevelt did throughout the Second World War. Those discussions were an integral part of his unceasing public and private campaign aimed at eliminating European empires and setting the colonial world on the road toward independence. Roosevelt's anticolonialism has long fascinated historians, but their analyses have reached dramatically different conclusions. To comprehend Roosevelt's wartime policy toward colonialism, that policy must be studied as a whole. Breaking it up into regional and national pieces clouds the picture and often misses the broad, consistent thrust of his words and actions. Roosevelt's critique of colonial empire was consistent, at least while he was President, but not until the Second World War did he gain the opportunity to challenge that system. Whatever his personal distaste for colonialism on moral and humanitarian grounds, his fear that it would disrupt any peace settlement motivated his wartime actions. But the requirements of alliances politics restricted his freedom of action. It would do no good to decolonize Britain, if in the process, the wartime alliance collapsed, thus threatening either victory over the Axis or, equally important, post war co-operation. That balancing act sometimes required Roosevelt to back and fill, to make short-term adjustments and concessions. Looked at in isolation, those moves seems important. What appeared trivial to him may have become crucial in a later era. What were intended as temporary fall-back positions became, in some cases, permanent fixtures with his death. But this historical skeins break when stretched too far. Roosevelt and Presidency While Roosevelt was governor of New York, the Great Depression tightened its grip on the country. Roosevelt, seeking new ideas, enlisted a "brains trust of Columbia University professors to help him devise programs against hard times. These professors included Rexford Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and Adolf Berle, Jr. All became leading figures in the national administration in 1933. Acting on their suggestions, Roosevelt stressed the need to assist the "forgotten man. He added that "the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. Meanwhile, Farley and other supporters were lining up delegates for Roosevelt throughout the country. By the time the Democratic national convention opened in Chicago in June 1932, Roosevelt stood out as the most dynamic and imaginative contender for the presidential nomination. Despite these assets, FDR faced formidable opposition at the convention, from House Speaker John Nance Garner of Texas; former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker of Ohio, a potential compromise choice; and former Governor Smith, who still cherished ambitions of his own. For three ballots Roosevelt held a large lead, but lacked the two-thirds margin necessary for victory. Farley then promised Garner the vice- presidential nomination. The move succeeded. Garner reluctantly accepted the vice presidency, and FDR took the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot. Most party leaders applauded the Roosevelt-Garner ticket, which closed the heretofore fatal gulf between the urban-Eastern and rural-Southern-Western wings of the party. They responded especially to Roosevelt, who broke with precedent to fly to the convention and to tell the delegates, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. The 1932 Campaign During the fall campaign against President Hoover, Roosevelt suggested a few parts of this "new deal. He supported spending for relief and public works. He favored some plan, undefined, to curb the agricultural overproduction that was depressing farm prices. He spoke for conservation, public power, old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, repeal of prohibition, and regulation of the stock exchange. Otherwise, he was vague. He said little about his plans for industrial recovery or about labor legislation, and he was fuzzy about foreign policy and the tariff. On some occasions he promised to support increased expenditures for relief; on others he denounced the Hoover administration for extravagance. FDR's equivocations on these issues alienated some intellectuals and reformers, who turned to the Communist or Socialist party on election day. But for most Americans, including the majority of progressives, Roosevelt seemed the only viable alternative to Hoover, who many people blamed unfairly for the Depression. On election day Roosevelt captured 22,821,857 votes to Hoover's 15,761,841, and took the Electoral College 472 to 59. The voters sent large Democratic majorities to both houses of Congress. Franklin Roosevelt began his presidency by quieting the nation's alarm. His words in his first speech professed to an audience made anxious by the worst economic cataclysm since the rise of the industrial age. To many Roosevelt's statement and his later assertion of executive power during the New Deal marked a turning point in the stature of the presidency and in the transformation of the Constitution. Prior to Roosevelt, it is argued by scholars such as James Sterling Young, the presidency was weak and subordinate; except in times of military crisis, presidents were hardly more than errand boys for the law-making branch. The Constitution granted few actual powers to the chief executive. When a president had to act quickly and decisively without a congressional mandate, he did so solely on the strength of his personality. Roosevelt's years in office changed all that. His "extraordinary leadership in expanding the federal government to meet the demands of..the Great Depression and.the Second World War," created the "modern presidency". David Nichols insists that the modern presidency is a myth. According to Nichols, all of the elements of what is called the modern presidency were present at the creation of the office, including initiating and forwarding legislation in Congress, overseeing the administration of government, directing the nation in foreign relations, and acting as the people's representative - the so called rhetorical presidency. What changed under Roosevelt, Nichols maintains, was the responsibility of the national government. Both proponents and detractors of the modern presidency thesis agree that Roosevelt altered the role of the national government. He hardly understood himself to be an enemy of the Constitution. Quite the contrary, he believed that he was its savior. But the Constitution had to function within the economic environment created by free-market capitalism, and Roosevelt was dubious about the systems viability. One cannot fully understand the New Deal and the long - lasting transformation of government it brought about unless one comprehend what Roosevelt thought caused the Great Depression. Roosevelt is often cast as a moderate ho took a pragmatic approach to reform. For instance, during the 1932 campaign, the Democratic platform insisted on a balanced federal budget rather than the lavish government expenditures later adopted under the tutelage of John Mayard Keynes. As one commentator explains "Roosevelt's search for measures to bring about recovery from depression was not very successful. By the spring of 1932 he had not worked anything more than a few general ideas..One thing was certain, however: a workable recovery plan would have start with stimulation of consumptionwhile underlying his whole attitude was the willingness to experiment with any proposals that seemed sensible". However, while it is true that Roosevelt undertook "bold, persistent experimentation" because he was uncertain about how to cure the depression, it is also clear that Roosevelt had a well defined understanding of the causes f the collapse. He believed that the very strength of the free-market was the source of its malaise. Like some giant, cresting wave, capitalism had crashed under its own inner dynamic, and Roosevelt feared that it would sweep away freedom and democracy in its rushing undertow. References: Havers, Robin (2002): The Second World War (2) Europe, 1939 - 1943. Osprey Publishing Henig Ruth, Beatrice (2005): The Origins of the Second World War, 1933-1941 Routledge Publishers Kimball, Warren (1991): The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt As Wartime Statesman. Princeton University Press. Pederson, William (2002): Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Formation of the Modern World. M.E.Sharpe Publishers. Read More