| Roosevelt was nearing the end of his second term as president.
War clouds were looming on the horizon. His ambassador in London, Joe Kennedy
(an Irishman) kept sending notes back, saying that the English would never
be able to stand up to the Nazis. France seemed to be the only
hope. When France fell the White house must have been a dismal place.
Should England fall there would be nothing standing in the way of the Axis
powers in Europe. Russia, the only real threat to Germany, had a
treaty with the Germans. German submarines were already starting to sink
merchant ships at an alarming rate.
On the other side of the world, the Philippines stuck
out like a sore thumb. Japan had already attacked China and showed every
reason, whit her "Greater Eastern Co- Prosperity Sphere" to have her eye
on even more territory. One by one, the democracies were falling
to the dictatorships. Yet America was pledged not to fight.
This left Roosevelt only words. At almost every opportunity he spoke
for the support of the British. Yet his man in London, Joe Kennedy, never
let a chance pass to speak against the English. Almost monthly, FDR
found himself freezing the American assets of some small country, to keep
then from falling into the hands of the Axis powers. Now even France
had to be dealt with. During the Great war Germany had been stopped
in France. But now it seemed that the last war had just taken a twenty
year breather. France, indeed almost all of Continent Europe... gone.
And German spies and activists all over Latin and South America.
Soon America would be forced to deal with Germany, one way or another.
Hitler and Roosevelt were both the products of the
great depression. Both took power the same year. Both brought
hope to their nation. Both were spellbinding speakers. Beyond that
there were many differences. Hitler came to power because of the
failure of democracy, and ending it, created a dictatorship. Roosevelt
came to power because of the triumph of democracy and saved us from the
possibility of slipping into a dictatorship. (see It Can't Happen Here
) Hitler told his people to blame everyone but themselves. Roosevelt
told his people that they were the answer. America looked inward.
Germany looked outward. America declared itself neutral to combatants
and refused to join in a new arms race. Germany declared itself a
victim, who's rights it was about to re- assert and started to Re-Arm.
All of this Roosevelt saw. Yet he could do nothing.
The year America became Neutral, Italy invaded Ethiopia, Japan invaded
China. FDR watched as, with larger and larger bites, the dictators
swallowed more land, more people, more capital and production capacity.
He couldn't even speak against the nations themselves. It was politically
unwise when so many Americans were of German or Italian decent. He
could only attack the Parties; Nazi and Fascist. He increased the
Neutrality Patrol, in the Atlantic. He lent England 50 four stack
destroyers. He twisted the Neutrality law every way he could, but
he couldn't make America want to fight. He'd gone so far as to have
Mussolini remark that, "America is already in the war." He couldn't
be sure that she'd enter the war on the right side.
But there were the Japanese. They were causing trouble
half way around the world. We'd opened the Orient to our merchants,
through the threat of force. Yet the benefits to the Japanese had
been many. Japan could now boast a navy that was second to
none in the world. She had defeated a major European sea power (Russia)
in 1904. She had more carriers then any other nation. She was
soon to have the two largest Battle Ships ever built. She was expanding
her boarders. America had a plan for dealing with trouble in that
part of the world. The furthers outpost, the Philippines, Had come
to us after the Spanish American War. We had, as they said, 'stole
it fair and square.' And we had a Plan.... |
