This is the fourth and perhaps final posting of the review of Joseph E. Persico’s excellent book, “Roosevelt’s Secret War, FDR and World War II Espionage.” The author gives significant insights into FDR’s personality, especially his fascination with learning the secrets of others. One person observed, “Few leaders were better adapted temperamentally to espionage than Franklin Roosevelt.” In keeping with that observation, FDR authorized wire taps of people judged to be suspicious despite a Supreme Court ruling that banned wire taps and the advice of his Attorney General. He justified that authorization on the grounds of national security, but he took the liberty to go further.  He had J. Edgar Hoover investigate former President Herbert Hoover and opponent Wendell Wilkie. He also had Vice President Henry Wallace under surveillance. I’ve read in other accounts that he expanded far beyond political opponents and associates. It was said that he reveled in learning about skeletons in people’s closets gathered by Hoover. Perhaps he did some of this as a reflective action to an event early in his adulthood when he and a friend began consorting with two beautiful women. He was warned by a friend of his family that the two women were the “best known pair of international blackmailers in Europe,” and he and his friend were able to escape. The lesson in the value of suspicion may have stayed with him.

Roosevelt had a recording system installed inside a drawer of his desk in August 1940.  One recorded conversation was about Wendell Wilkie. FDR was recorded talking about Wilkie’s mistress, and how Wilkie’s wife had in effect, “…been hired to return to Wendell to smile and make his campaign with him.”  The recorder was removed almost immediately after FDR won reelection. 



There are a few insights into likes and dislikes of Roosevelt mentioned in the book that I particularly enjoyed. One was that Roosevelt enjoyed corned beef hash and a very large cup of coffee for breakfast. He also was said to enjoy slapstick comedies and “leggy” musicals. When he was asked whether he had read Kathleen Winsor’s racy best-seller, Forever Amber, he answered, “Only the dirty parts.” An insight into Roosevelt’s sense of humor is provided by a meeting with Joseph Kennedy, a rich and powerful man who had expressed an interest in being appointed Ambassador to Britain. FDR met with Kennedy, and directed him to drop his trousers with no explanation. Kennedy complied, and FDR laughed at his badly bowed legs.  He explained that the tradition was for the new ambassador to be inducted wearing knee britches and silk stockings. He told Kennedy neither of them would be able to face that humiliation. Kennedy asked whether FDR would appoint him if he convinced the English that he could wear a cutaway coat and striped pants. FDR agreed, Kennedy succeeded, and the appointment was made.

Returning to FDR’s more sinister side, he established difficulty in establishing historical accuracy of his Presidency because of his insistence that no notes could be taken while in meetings with him. He also often refused to put things in writing, allowing other people to “leave their fingerprints.” There are several discussions in the book that Roosevelt was a very difficult person to read. People often thought they were getting his silent agreement as he nodded to them, but he would later take actions that completely reversed what they thought was the understanding reached by the meeting. His aides and confidants were compartmentalized in non-connecting cubicles. They all thought they knew what their role and assignments were, but only Roosevelt could look down and understand everything. Roosevelt was characterized as presiding over bureaucratic anarchy. “If FDR’s leadership was chaotic, it was inspired chaos.”

It is logical to ask why, with all the negatives I’ve written, why I respected FDR more after reading this book than before. It is because a person identified only as “McCrea” said with admiration, “…the patience with which he bore his affliction… with never a reference to it.”  The man had an incredible will, and we should give him credit for that despite the mistakes he made.