Franklin D. Roosevelt

Article Outline

Introduction; Early Life; Entry Into Politics; Road to the Presidency; President of the United States

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.

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.

Wartime Leadership (1941-1945)

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.

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.

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.