I’ve read several books about FDR, and this book written by Joseph E. Persico is, in my opinion, the best one. My parents were avid supporters of FDR, and I have been skeptical about why they felt that way. This book made me reflect that there were positive aspects of the man and his leadership that I hadn’t considered previously. There is so much information in the book that I intend to break the review into several parts. This part will describe how FDR prepared the country for war, and how he reacted to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Isolationists, such as Charles Lindberg, had a majority of popular support to avoid another war with the memories of the dead and maimed from World War I fresh in minds of Americans. Roosevelt agreed with Churchill’s priority of finding a way to get the U.S. into the war before the Germans overran Britain, but he had to deal with the political reality that the country was not convinced that was necessary and the practical reality of the state of preparedness. In 1940 the U.S. army ranked eighteenth in the world behind Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Roosevelt strived to find ways to support the British while telling the American people that his intention was to remain neutral. The depth of Roosevelt’s deception is illustrated by the “Tyler Kent” affair. Kent was a code clerk attached to the U.S. embassy in London who was frustrated that his intellect wasn’t being used in his mundane job of decoding messages. He was an anti-Communist Isolationist, and was reading exchanges between FDR and Churchill that clearly proved FDR was lying about how he was working to keep America out of the war. Unfortunately for Kent and fortunately for FDR, Kent told some people he intended to provide documents he was copying to the press. The British intelligence agency MI5 raided his apartment in May 1940 and found 1,929 documents. The content of the documents would likely have cost Roosevelt reelection if they had been revealed to the American public. Roosevelt and Ambassador Kennedy denied Kent the diplomatic immunity to which he was entitled, and he was tried, convicted, and jailed.
France left the English as the only combatant against the Germans when they surrendered in June 1940. There was an example of the strange sense of humor of the British in a newspaper headline announcing this development. It read, “French Sign Peace Treaty: We’re in the Finals,” as if it were announcing progression of tennis matches at Wimbledon. Roosevelt knew he had to support the English to keep the Germans on the Continent, but he had to convince the American public he was remaining neutral. His actions reflected a different policy. He signed the Selective Service Act into law (September 1940) announced the Arsenal of Democracy (December 1940), Lend Lease to provide support to the British (March 1941), and the Atlantic Charter (August 1941, even though it was never formally signed). He also approved providing American warships to escort British convoys.
FDR also was positioning for war with the Japanese, and history clearly shows FDR wanted to force the Japanese into “firing the first shot.” He considered giving the Chinese long-range bombers to firebomb Tokyo, and approved the 100 U.S pilots called the “Flying Tigers” under the command of Claire Chennault to fight the Japanese with the Nationalist Chinese. He also placed embargoes on oil and iron to begin economic strangulation of Japan. He knew the pressure was working, because he received a decoded Japanese message that they needed “…to arm ourselves to the teeth for all-out war.” Japan also sent a message to the U.S. demanding that they demilitarize Wake, Midway, and Hawaii.
Many have questioned whether Roosevelt knew the Japanese intended to attack Pearl Harbor. There is no doubt he knew of the possibility, because he was warned by Ambassador Joseph Grew eleven months before the attack that the Japanese planned a surprise attack there “…in the case of trouble between Japan and the United States.” Intelligence sources reported that the Japanese were gathering information about the British attacks on the Italian navy with torpedo planes and that the Germans were actively gathering information about Pearl Harbor. There is no doubt that Roosevelt knew an attack by the Japanese somewhere was imminent. He told his War Council the Japanese would attack as soon as December 1st. Secretary of War Stimson recorded after the meeting that Roosevelt had said, “…we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.” Frank Knox informed Roosevelt of the attack, and Roosevelt commented to Churchill, “We’re all in the same boat now.” Hitler made the biggest mistake of the war by declaring war on the U.S. on December 11th, 1941. It is likely that the U.S. would have focused on the Japanese and not immediately gone to war with Germany without that declaration.
Some people around Roosevelt observed evasiveness in his behavior when he was told about Pearl Harbor, which has led some historians to believe he had expected the Japanese to attack there. The author does not believe those claims or the claims that Churchill knew of the impending attack but failed to tell FDR. The author concludes that “Pearl Harbor was a catastrophe, not a conspiracy.”