Pathfinding mission, postwar food and humanitarian aid. It is used by George Marshall in formulating the marshall plan. And so hoover, under truman, i think gets rehabilitated. He is brought back into service. And in fairness, the only person who had really dealt with feeding millions of people and dealing with that kind of relief effort was hoover. Plus, he also still had a Network Within the leadership of europe that remembered him from world war i and especially in germany, really the only american they trusted after world war ii was hoover. Because at a time when the allies did not want food to go into post world war i germany, hoover fought to get it in. I feel it is one of roosevelts great feelings that he did not brief hoover on anything, not on the bomb, strategies, so truman had to take over with very little understanding of what was going on. So hoover was the only surviving expresident and the only person who really understood what the job was. I will let you wrap this up because i think it is one of hoovers great quotes, he lived until the mid1960s and saw a lot of his philosophy essentially lay the groundwork for the conservative republicans that went for decades. Near the time of his death, he was asked about overcoming his critics. Do you want to talk about that . I think you are referring to his quote that he outlived the bleep , which allowed him to put the last word. There are two kind of quotes that sum up hoovers understanding of what happened. The first, where he said a foolish individuals only hurt themselves, whereas a foolish government hurts both the wise and the foolish. And the other is blessed are the children, for they shall inherit the national debt. You do a fantastic job of preserving those legacy and records. We may have president s by different political philosophies but we all support each other in our efforts. So thank you for joining us today, tom. Thank you, paul. You are watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan three, explore our nations past. Cspan3 greeted by americas table Cable Company and brought you today by your television provider. Recognizes month we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan three. Tonight, a look at programs from the kansas city public library. In kansas missouri we begin with a talk about the life of hollywood artist milicent patrick. Author and filmmaker of Mallory Omeara discusses her book the lady from the black lagoon. Hollywood monsters in the loss legacy of milicent patrick. Watch tonight beginning at 8 pm eastern. Enjoy merica and history tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspan Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. The part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Hello, welcome to another edition of at home with the roosevelts. I am paul sparrow, the director of the Franklin D Roosevelt president ial library series, American History during the 20 century. The roosevelts and the kennedys. To assist me in this conversation i am joined by the director of the jfk library. Paul, it is good to be with you. Alam price here. Thank you for joining me today, alan. This is one of the most interesting and complicated relationships multi generational relationships. To family that are really dynasties in the way they impacted american political life. There is a component of this that a lot of people dont really understand. Not only was their between Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Kennedy but there is an incredible relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and john f. Kennedy. We will start with the beginning which is the relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and joe kennedy. Joseph kennedy made most of his money in the twenties in the stock market and juan Franklin Roosevelt became president , one of the things he did, was appointed Joseph Kennedy of the head of the Security Exchange commission, which was putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. This created a relationship between the two of them in which joe kennedy really became a very close confident of fdr and he became the ambassador of st. James. Yes. You want to talk about how we manage that posting in london right before the war . Well it is an interesting time. I almost want to go back a tiny bit before that. As you can imagine, when young people are in the age where they are graduating from high school, whoever is the president in that moment, has a profound impact on them. And shapes their view of the presidency. Fdr is the president as jfk comes of age. And through his young adulthood. Much of his vision of what is the nation is informed by fdr. I think that is a big part of it clearly through his father and the courting of st. James he has direct connection to what service might look like. When the german uboat sank the first u. K. Ship, and jfk is asked by his father to look after the surviving u. S. Passengers and their families in that transition. He gets a little bit of responsibility in that moment. It informs his notion of Public Service. Ultimately he goes and signs up to go to war. Ultimately, finally being accepted into the navy with his fathers help a little bit and i think to go to war, under president , the only president you have been conscious of, as an adult, cannot help but impact your sense of what is leadership in the future. Because john f. Kennedy was in england in this period immediately prior to war as his father as the ambassador, he wrote a book about that. You want to talk about that book . Sure. In addition to being in england and from their touring through different parts of europe, he observes ultimately the lead up to world war ii and some of that was intentional in terms of his research for his thesis at harvard and he ultimately turns that thesis into a book, why england swept. I dont know if it pays all that much attention to his fathers role in that but he looks at what is the buildup to later, i think, informs his view of the cold war and how do you respond. So its an interesting time. Interestingly that book that john f. Kennedy gave a copy of the book to franklin de roosevelt and jfk signed in Franklin Roosevelt signed it. We have fdr collected where books and that is one of our most precious books. The possession is the book had the signatures in it. You may not know the story, it is one of my favorite antidote. In 1941 the kennedy came back to europe, he came to visit the fdr library which was under construction at the time, it didnt open until 1941 but it was under construction. He left a gift for fdr. Really . We have the note a copy of the thank you note that fdr wrote to jfk and its sort of a scramble no so its a little hard to read but it appears to say, thank you for the machine gun and goggles. laughs really . Everyone was like, can you imagine john f. Kennedy dropping off a machine gun in the president ial library . Actually what it said was marine gun. It was a spear gun for fishing because he knew fdr love to go fishing and love to be in water and the goggles were, you know, like swimming goggles. We have never been able to find what happened to the spear gun or the goggles but it does sort of go to the relationship that the two families had, which was they were close. They were. There was a lot of intersections through the years, no question in obviously the continuing conversation between jfk and eleanor is also significant in jfks rise. Yeah. The period when right before the United States gets into the war one Joseph Kennedy is the ambassador, he starts really siding with germany and he is telling roosevelt that anybody will listen that he doesnt think england would survive and americans need to get peace with germany. This creates a real friction between him and the president and also i believe a little friction between him and his sons. Yes, i think it is a good bit of friction and as you can imagine, inside the Kennedy Family to go against your father would have been a tough road to go. Joseph kennedy almost ran against fdr 1940. It wasnt clear that fdr was going to run because it was an unprecedented term and at that point kennedy felt, you know, that he had something to offer, not to mention significant funds to support his candidacy but fdr kept him in england just long enough to prevent him from running and brought him back and they parted ways. It eventually became quite nasty between the two of them. Fdr did serve long enough that a lot of people at least thought about running against him laughs . Very true. When war broke out john f. Kennedy joined the navy. Talk a little bit about that, how that experience influenced his presidency and influenced his view of fdr as a commanderinchief . A lot of people recognize today the exceptional circumstances of him joining the navy. He overcame a lot of physical disabilities who disqualified due to lower back injuries which had gone back a long time. He had a number of other maladies. His father joked about him that if a mosquito but jfk, the mosquito would die, that he seemed to be sick all the time with different melodies. He did want to join the navy. Even though he was initially rejected or disqualified, he appealed to his father to intervene on his behalf and in conversation with a lead naval person, officer of Naval Operations i believe a was. He was initially assigned to a desk job. President kennedy did not want to dust drop. You want to go to the front and given a command of peachy boats in the pacific theater. Certainly all those operations very much informed his sense of Public Service and deepened his appreciation for democracy i knew that democracy was under assault from the world that did not believe in that kind of freedom. He said even in his debates with candidate nixon in the famous civilized debate. His address to the issue at that point was, you know, can america live can the world live half free and half slave . He actually refused referred to lincoln in that speech although lincoln was talking about a liberal slavery domestically and kennedy was referring to democracy and communism but its an interesting take on the world. I think, in large part, that is grounded by his service in world war ii. There was another incident during world war ii that i think had a enormous influence on john f. Kennedy which was a death of his older brother, joseph. Yes. Joseph was quite the hero. Yes. According to the Family Dynamics of the time his older brother was to be the one who wanted to politics. Jfk was to play a supporting role. Unfortunately, you know, in a bombing ron in which the bombs went off prematurely before they were discharged from the plane. His father, joseph, turn to him as it was now his turn to lead the family into politics which was an interesting identity shift for him. I think much of his younger life he gets away with being friendly and well liked but not all that serious a student and not all that serious a player in the world. Its only through seeing the war develop and then, you know, his last couple of years at harvard really focusing in on his studies and just becomes a much more serious person in understanding how the world works. So when world war ii and, fdr has died, he dies in april and the world changes. We enter into a new phase in the relationships between the kennedys and the roosevelts because now the primary relationship becomes between Eleanor Roosevelt, who was arguably the most powerful woman in america, certainly one of the most famous women in the world and a major force within the democratic party. They political careers start to intersect and it really happens when kennedy becomes a senator and eleanor has very different political views than he does. You want to talk about how that evolved . Sure. I think, and you correct me if i am off on this, i think a large bit of the early schism revolves around senator mccarthy and senator mccarthys relationship with the kennedys and even when the senate votes to censor mccarthy and kennedy had a speech already to support that sensor. He was in the hospital and unable to deliver that speech and i think because he was not able to publicly distanced cell from mccarthy, one others are, i think eleanor in for us from that and the ongoing family relations between the mccarthys and the kennedys that he may not be as strong a candidate, it may not share the same values that she shares. I believe engages in some public criticism of kennedy as maybe not being the right candidate. Kennedy, i think, wisely does not engage in a public battle with Eleanor Roosevelt. I think he would not win that battle but just very privately writes her and asks her to consider the facts and be open to meeting with him. It is only in the inperson conversations that his genuine curiosity his willingness to learn and his patriotism come through to her in a way that she can support him. I can appreciate given what she knew at the time and her greater familiarity with adelaide stevenson, why was difficult for her to wrap her mind around kennedy. I think Bobby Kennedys role as one of the councils to the Senate Committee that mccarthy was leading certainly tarnished jfk in her eyes as well. Guilt by association there. Right. But there is no question that she was supporter. She was very strong on civil rights, she did not feel the counties were Strong Enough to support civil rights even in the senate. I think she really held a grudge, to be honest, i love Eleanor Roosevelt but she can hold a grudge against her his father joe. She still held on to the fact that he criticize fdr during the war and supported germany over england. I think she never fully level that acts that she liked to grind. Right. I do think i do think theres a wonderful moment in the relationship. If you come and visit eleanors home. They have pictures up on the wall. After the convention when kennedy gets the democratic nomination, he knows he has to win her over and he goes to visit her up in val kill. We have some of those photos in our library as well. Yes, he has to go in person to val killed to meet her. Again she is enamored and a big supporter of at allied stevenson as being a very bright and capable candidate. Shes worried not only about kennedys relationship with mccarthy but his overall age and experience. She doesnt think she has a Strong Enough record to run on and it is only in person that he is able to convince her. I think that is true to who kennedy was throughout his life. There is so much evidence of once people mad, he was the one voted most likely to succeed. He want people over. He had a smile that was completely disarming and charming. I think that there is no amount of correspondence that is going to convey that. It has to be done in person. Although Eleanor Roosevelt had some objections to jack kennedy, she hated richard nixon. laughs when it came down to picking one of those, that was an easy choice for her. One of my favorite letters that she has ever written was a letter she wrote to jfk the day after the first televised debate between nixon and jfk. It is classic Eleanor Roosevelt in its passive aggressive complement criticism. The sort of tone of the letter is, you know, i was watching the debate last night with some friends and although i thought you did very well, i thought i would share some of their comments with you. Interesting side note here, one of the people she was debating with was lloyd benson. Really . We remember many years later in a famous referenced during a Vice President ial debate. I knew jon kennedy. One of the things she says is he came across as too confident and that he needed to include the audience more in his answers. I think you might agree with me if. Its a classic letter. Eleanors credit, she campaigned for him quite vigorously and she did, you know, what she felt needed to be done for the democrats to win because again, at that point, she felt it was vitally important. She had repeated runins with eisenhower, completely disagreed with his policies and really felt it was important for our democrats and she hoped obviously to resurrect some of the new deal policies that she had supported so strongly when her husband was president. But then you get into once kennedy gets elected, the first thing he does is he points out the roosevelts. Yes. Yes, its fascinating. Not just for that campaign but for president ial campaigns at large, it is always an interesting challenge particularly when kennedy is trying to frame himself as standing up for new generation. We have new ideas and a new energy and you are trying to be new, new, new at the same time he knows full well that if he doesnt win over the establishment, he is going nowhere. He has to get eleanor support while at the same time creating this image of religious trying to get out young voters. I think that is fascinating. He has a really good sense of history but some new ideas and some new energy. I think one of the things he gets from fdr is the importance of i would just call it innovation in leadership. Fdr did some really innovative things when i think about, you know, im just going to go often retreat and not talk to anybody and im going to come back with this lease idea. I mean that is just, you know, it just turns the war. I think president kennedy knew that he needed to take time to think about the Bigger Picture and he needed to commit resources behind an idea or wont go anywhere. It is not just money, it is Political Capital and you have to build up that Political Capital first and so he pays very close attention to those relationships including i was intrigued to learn on our day of infamy, november 22nd, 1963 on the assassination of president kennedy, earlier that morning, he called to express birthday wishes to jon garner, fdrs first vp who i believe is turning 93 or 95, something in that range. A real student of history and a rio a person who really pays attention to relationships does those personal touches throughout. In addition to being a large retail scale politician, those personal touches made a huge difference throughout his career and im sure eleanor had no affection for jon carter. You know, she was not a huge fan. Despite all the work that Eleanor Roosevelt had done with the united nations, with the declaration of human rights and her years of work with the united nations, jfk puts her in charge of will protect her on the commission of the status of women understanding that at this moment in time, you know, this idea of equality for women and including women more into the political establishment, to stop some of the discrimination that was being levelling all women in the industry. I think it is very interesting that he will appoint her in that role because i think it went to some of her passions, which was she fought for gender equality her, you know, her whole adult life. I i think its a brilliant picture and i think eleanor did a good job with it. I think the subject came up repeatedly in his press conferences. He may not have appointed as many women to Senior Leadership roles as we would expect to see today, but the level to which he did involve women in his administration was somewhat of a breakthrough for his time and certainly the appearance of women journalists in the press pools that he interacted with and many of them called him to account for what is what are you going to do to continue your Campaign Pledge of equal rights for women and equal pay for women and equal roles and all that . I think, you know, i think by today standards we would say, could a, should a, wouldve done more but for those times he did some amazing things. So Eleanor Roosevelt dies in november 1962 and jfk comes back up to high park along with harry truman and every Major Political figure in america to pay his respects at her funeral. I think there is a true sincerity at that moment to the passage of this great women and acknowledgment of her role in the creation and establishment of the democratic party. I also think its a honor that he felt that she had earned. I can not find words that accurately capture eleanors significance to the democratic party, to the nation and to president kennedys ascension to the presidency. She paves the way and influences so many people. Obviously you cannot have fdr support that point, fdr is long gone. Eleanor is able to bridge that gap. We will end with the thought about the fact that both of these men, jfk and fdr, essentially gave their lives in duty to the country. I think in both cases their death in office created a residence with the American People that have stayed with us all these years. I think that there is a something missing in todays politics in that both of these people truly believed in Public Service. They had been raised with the sense that they had a duty and responsibility to serve the American People and they both did in very, very extraordinary ways and, you know, i think john f. Kennedys inaugural address remains one of the greatest speeches of alltime s. I have to agree and i have to say, fdr and the events of his time as president , shaped the nation, shaped that generation in profound ways. President candidly, even nixon was only three years older than kennedy and later president bush, Herbert Walker bush is only six years older than kennedy and world war ii shapes them. So many other kennedy siblings serve in the war either in the military or in civilian roles and i think president kennedy would encourage us, were he alive today, to always value Public Service and consider Public Service in its many forms as a way to strengthen the nation and make the world better for the people around us. Allen, its a great place to end todays conversation. Thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate it. You are doing a great job there at jfk and i hope you have a great year. Paul, always great to talk, look forward to visiting high park against. Thank you and thats it for today. Hope to see you again in the future. Youre watching American History tv every weekend on cspan three explore our nations past. Cspan 3, created by American NationalCable Services as a Public Service, and brought to you today by your televisioni÷bo provider. Hollywood artist, Millicent Patrick began her career as a animator for disney in the 1930s. 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