History probably considered the top three greatest american president s along with washington and lincoln. It is an assessment based on the fact he steered the nation through the two greatest crises. One internally, the Great Depression and one externally, world war ii. There has been a long and ongoing debate among historians as to whether history is influenced more by individuals or larger social, cultural and economic forces. I think it is of course both of those. Certainly it seems to me that Franklin D Roosevelt is a prime example of the significant of an individuals impact on history. Broader social and Economic Conditions that allowed fdr to become a great leader, but in his case i believe it was force of personality that was a paramount element as i think we will see as we go along. Rooseveltse presidency beginning with a brief look at the conditions in the country that led to his election in 1932. The economic collapse of 1920 nine had brought the worst conditions the country had experienced since the civil war. Herbert hoover seemed incapable of leading the way out of it despite some moderate attempts to do so. The suffering was widespread with approximately one quarter of the workforce unemployed and others having to take substantial pay cuts. The cold statistics do not completely reveal the suffering. Soup kitchens, bread lines in the cities were opened to help the least fortunate. You have probably seen pictures of those children. There are many stories to illustrate this, but one of the most poignant involved a tooolteacher who suggested one of her Young Students that the child go home because the child appeared to be hungry. The teacher said perhaps you should go home and get something to eat. To which the child replied, i cannot. This is my sisters day to eat. No doubt, hundreds of thousands of stories along that line. In the midst of conditions such as these, the nation was ripe for change. Indeed, radical change might have occurred had not the American People maintained their faith in the democratic capitalistic system. For purposes of comparison, it might be noted it was conditions such as these that brought about the rise of totalitarian dictators in europe. Notably hitlers in germany and miscellany in italy hit where in germany and mussolini in italy. There is a senator who said if this country ever needed a mussolini, it needs one now. Whoe were some persons believed such measures as radical as fascism around the other extreme, communism, might there were others who held out hope that recovery might made through additional channels. The 1932 election brought with it the potential for securing new leadership, a chance to remove hoover in favor of someone who might be better equipped to deal with the ordeal of a depression. The republicans renominated hoover. He had no chance to be reelected. Whether or not they were justified in doing it, the American People basically blamed hoover for the present. Jokes and anecdotes to illustrate his unpopularity. One of the most common of those was the story he was walking down a street in washington with the secretary of the treasury. That was the days when you had payphones if any of you remember payphones. Case, the story is hoover asked an active and him for a nickel to make a call. He replied quote, take this dime. Call all of your friends. In light of the widespread feeling such as that, it was obvious however the democrats nominated was going to be elected. The question was, who was that going to be . One who was considered was alan smith. Alan smith had run previously in 1928. He thought this might be his year. Of theas not the nominee democrats that year as you know because the democrats chose Franklin D Roosevelt. The roosevelt name was of course wellknown to every american of that generation. Franklin was a distant cousin of teddy roosevelt. He became accustomed in the campaign to hearing comments from crowds length i voted for your father or you look just like your old man. Case, this association, not particularly liked by theodore roosevelt, certainly did not hurt roosevelts political career even though he was of course a democrat. Like theodore roosevelt, franklin had been born into a wealthy new york family. He had attended harvard. He had been elected the new york state legislature. He had served as governor of new york. He had even served as assistant secretary of the navy in the wilson the administration. Also like teddy roosevelt, franklin had been nominated for Vice President earlier in 1920. A lot of people did not know that. I did not know that for many years myself. Tr of course had been elected Vice President in 1900 and became president. Lost the vicevelt president to race in 1920. Democratic ticket lost to warren harding. In any case, the two roosevelt had someo roosevelts similarity but were also quite different in their personalities. Tr was a fiery, pugnacious tort. Always ready for a fight, either physical or political. Sophisticated. Re always eager to solve problems medically and amicably. As a young man, fdr seemed to have everything. Wealth, social position and prestige. He was charming, handsome, sophisticated. His most glaring fault people sometimes felt was he was a bit overbearing, pompous, conceited, we might say. Some found him to be plain arrogant. After 1921, that changed dramatically. Roosevelthe year that was stricken with polio, infantile paralysis. Childs disease generally. Roosevelts disease was misdiagnosed for a long time. One reason being the doctors could not imagine a grown man, and apparently healthy, strong, young adult could have polio. But indeed, that is what he had. The terrible fight he went through to recover from that disease gave him a compassion, tolerance and the strength of will he had never exhibited before. Many persons noted this changed. An observer noted, roosevelt had undergone a spiritual transformation. Another one on seeing him after his recovery found them to be quote, a different person from that charming and at times irresponsible young man of the old wells and days. Polioo year fight against had given him new moral and physical strength. Said that biographers quote, the suffering had purged him of for volunteer and arrogance, enlarging his compassion and deepening his understanding. Roosevelt himself acknowledged on at least one occasion the profound influence that illness had had on his personality. Was during the depression when things were so bad. Roosevelt always seemed cheerful, upbeat. We will see a few instances of that. People how could he be so happy and carefree . He, if you had spent two years in bed just trying to wiggle your big to, your big toe, after that, anything would seem easy. In thisvery he made and photograph, you can see this jaunty appearance he usually exhibited. Recovery. Remarkable it did not dampen his spirits but did leave him crippled and unable to walk unassisted for the rest of his life. And yet, his personality was so brilliantis manner so. Some did not realize how handicapped he was. Photographers at that time helped to perpetuate an image of a healthy roosevelt by a voluntary agreement among them not to publish pictures that situations that show him weak or incapacitated that might embarrass him. All of this together with his you to full and powerful speaking voice and his smile proved so convincing that some americans did not realize he was virtually an invalid. The campaign of 1932 was a fork on conclusion. The nation had was a foregone conclusion. The nation had enough of herbert hoover. When people heard the cheerful sound of happy days are here again, they believed it or at least wanted to believe it. I will not sing it for you all. The verses were, and if you are old enough, you can remember. This became a theme song for the democratic party. Happymany years, days are here again. The skies above are clear again. Lets all sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again. He accepted the democratic nomination, he made a statement that led to the phrase still use in which he said i pledge to you and i pledge to myself a new deal for the American People. He later said, and this is a needs and thentry country demands bold, persistent experimentation. Now, we think of roosevelt as supremely confident for reasons you will see if you do not already know. Roosevelt it appears was not totally confident he could successfully do his job. Nightory is that on the before he was to be inaugurated, he was going to bed or being helped into bed as he had to be by one of his sons. Life i he said, all my have been afraid of one thing. My classes i in always stopped and asked the students, what do you think that one thing he was he had been afraid of . Fearthey would say is because of the inaugural speech. Something tangible that he was afraid of. They rarely ever got it. It took so long i had to finally tell them. Consider that he was paralyzed. He could not move without his braces and then with great difficulty. What would you be afraid of if you could not move . Some would say fire. That is right. I have only been afraid of one thing, fire. But tonight, i am afraid i just might be able to do this job. His public announcements never betrayed any doubt. On his inauguration day, march 4, 1933, he spoke boldly and reassuringly in what was to become his most famous line in all president ial inaugural speeches when he proclaimed, this great nation will endure as it has endured. Will revive and prosper. First of all, let me assert my firm belief the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Dramatic. Was americans believed in him. They wanted to believe in him. More importantly, to believe in themselves. This renewed confidence was aided by an innovation that with, thecame up fabled fireside chats. Using the radio which by then was standard in american homes. He made direct contact with the American People. Week innd of his first office, march 12, he delivered the first of his socalled chats. It was very lowkey. It was simply and honestly speaking to the American People. He said, i want to speak with the people of the United States. He went on to discuss the problems of the nation and warned in understanding and reassuring tones it is hard to imagine how unusual this was to have a personal contact with the president. Does was the days before tv and dare i say it, tweets. The people listened and immediately the mood of the nation began to change from one of hopelessness and despair to one of faith and optimism. That faith was well rewarded by roosevelts aggressive action against the depression. Not many of the ideas he him moment and were his own but were developed by advisors. There was a group of advisers who held some minor positions in the government. The main thing is they were roosevelts advisors from home he got many of his ideas from home he got many of his ideas. Roosevelt by all accounts was not a brilliant man. Historians have one said was his key characteristic was quote, a firstclass temperament. He could listen to other people, glean ideas from different sources. The one thing the new deal was above all i do not have time today to go into detail about all the specific new deal agencies and programs. That is beyond the purview of this lecture. What you would see if i did that, you would see it was above all pragmatic. It was not a clearly thought out and welldefined program from the outset but it was to try different approaches to solve different problems. If it did not work, try something else. In any case, that was what was behind it. All these things were put into effect. Of them, during the first three months, the great 100 days of the roosevelt presidency. In that time because these programs some of which i will suchon the sand was that one leading historian said beyondone order was dead recall. Allther words, it produced of us produce the america all abuzz have grown up in. Creating the kind of democracy we have to this day. Generally speaking, roosevelt had three objectives. They were relief, recovery and reform. That was essentially the order in which he approached them. Find some help for the unemployed and to help the people who were in desperate need. Try to bring about recovery for the economy and ultimately to reform the american system, which maybe was a bit of a reach as it turned out. In any case, he first turned his attention to reform to relief. All, thelved first of reform of the banking system. One of the great causes of the depression was the collapse of the banks, taking with them peoples life savings. We are not terrified so much of that today. There was not a safety net then. To there was nobody to turn to. This byt addressed first declaring a bank holiday. Closing all the banks and keeping them closed until the andem could be strengthened put on a sound basis before they could be allowed to open. He gave a fireside chat telling people their money would be safe in banks. Itd not have to fear about losing their savings. One of the key elements of that was the creation of the federal deposit insurance corporation. At the time, insured deposits would be up to 5,000. I do not know what it is now, but it is more than that. People began to regain confidence in the banks. The economicey to system, public confidence. That began to return. Once he had taken that initial step or those steps to improve the banking system, roosevelt turned his attention to matters of unemployment, an enormous problem at the time. Various agencies attempted to deal with this, socalled alphabet agencies were created. One of the most popular of the mall was one of the first. It was the civilian conservation corps. That really was a popular organization. So many unemployed young people and this was designed to take young people, eventually totaled 3 million, and put them in uniform and put them to work doing some kind of work. We for station, swamp drainage. Mainly reforestation, swamp drainage. One times me of i was in some store and the clerk an older gentleman who notrly was not he did sound like a virginian to me. I said, where are you from . I think he said he was from brooklyn. Your wayw did you find to virginia . He said, back in the new deal in the 1930s, i was hired either hired by the ccc and i worked in the camp. I am embarrassed to say i did not know exactly where it was. It is close to fredericksburg. He said while he worked at the camp, he met a local woman and they got married and he moved here. I said, what was the ccc like . He thought it was the greatest experience of his life. It put him to work. He was unemployed. In his case, it resulted in a wife as well. That was a bonus i guess. Ccc was very popular. Then there was something called the civil works administration. It was designed to provide temporary employment to solve an immediate crisis in unemployment. It put people to work during 1933 or 1934. Thousands of people with the such as leaf raking or other tasks that appeared to some opponents as makework. An the charge organization engaging in then what was called boondoggleing. Men would hire one group of to dig a hole in the ground and then move onto something else. Then comes a crew to fill in the hole and fill in the next. That is probably an exaggeration. Not only did it put people to work. It had an additional effect in that it put money back into the economy. That was a secondary but very important aspect of many of these new deal agencies. The biggest and most complex and potentially most farreaching of the new deal efforts was the , the billf the nra that was passed. The National Recovery administration. This t caused roosevelt called this the most important legislation enacted by the american congress. Tot is because it attempted create what was called a planned economy. Too complicated to get into now but it involved a great deal of voluntary selfdenial on the part of both labor and management. Was visionary. Of we the prospect organizing, reordering the economy of reorganizing and reordering the economy. After some initial success, the nra was struck down by the Supreme Court in decision rendered in 1935. This was one of several Supreme Court decisions that struck at various new deal agencies and attempts. We are getting back to that in a few minutes. It also established something called the Public Works Administration. Industrialrovide for recovery as well as unemployment relief. It undertook large projects. Buildings. Some i believe on this campus constructed with funds from that organization and or from another i will get to in a moment. The Public Works Administration undertook Major Construction projects. Buildingsways, public and so long. And other Public Organization was the wpa, the Works Progress administration. It had the same goal in that it attempted to provide jobs. Mainly for whitecollar workers. The pwa was more bluecollar. The wpa was designed to help people like writers, artists, these visions, actors and so on. Critics said these people were engaged in worthless projects and disparaged many of them. Workdid some important particularly in preserving historical artifacts and so on. One of the things they did was record slave narratives. The testimony, the accounts of former slaves still living. By that time, all of them are obviously quite old but those accounts have been very helpful to historians in trying to develop a better view, a clearview of slave a clearer view of slave life. Over eight years, the wpa provided jobs for almost 9 million persons. One of the major new deal agencies. Herehe insert something kind of interesting i think. This immediate and extensive reform drew attention across the world. Leaderandcoming world had this to say. Have severed with president roosevelt because he marches straight to his bureaucracy. R this admirer was none other than adolf hitler, who knew something about marching to objectives. All of these projects i have been talking about involved a fundamental change in governmental in financial structure. Economic policy, i should say. It is because they involve a tremendous amount of federal expenditures. Theprevailing belief was government should always maintain a balanced budget. If that were to be done in these times, taxes would have to be budgets to balance the in light of these expenditures. There was a theory at that time promoted by a british economist by the name of john maynard keynes. We refer to it as keynesian economics. Iam not an economist but think the essence of it is in theory that to combat a depression or to help a struggling economy, the government should not be concerned about balancing the budget. You cannot do that and succeed so you have to run a deficit in that you cannot raise taxes so much as to offset the expenditure. Keynesian economics resulted in the creation of an unbalanced budget, which we still have. Which prevailed for many years thereafter. , is thate was and is wise to have an unbalanced budget . Does not sound like it, that i am not an economist so i did not want to venture too far down that road. That was the beginning of the federal experience in deficit spending. Now, there were other problems. One of the major ones was the form problem. The most significant new deal policy to address that was the aaa. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration established in 1933. What it did was to establish what it called a parity price. Or various Farm Products money was an amount of that would provide purchasing power equal to what it had been in earlier days. I forgot exactly what the years were that it was based on. It was earlier in the 20th century. Farm prices were such that farmers were making a reasonable the period was 1919 was 1909 to 1940. It was to make prices to 1914. How are you going to do it . The only way to do it or the way they tried to do it and did do it and still do it is by establishing quotas for Farm Products. Farmers can only produce or only sell a certain amount of the produce. In other words, agricultural surpluses had to be reduced to bring the supply and demand more into line. This meant that farmers had to cut down on production. To farmers, this did not make. Any sense how could they make more money if they did not make as much . Some crops had already been planted that year. Anyway, when the bill passed, the crops had already been planted. If they were over the quota that or allotted for cotton whatever it was, it had to be plowed under. Demand,icially induced you had to cut down supply. More offensive to some people was livestock. Pigs and how they had to be destroyed to cut down on the pork supply. That results in the slaughter of Something Like 4 million pigs. That did not sound like a good idea to people who were already hungry. That was how it was approached. It was criticized then. It is criticized still. One other thing that certainly helped the farmers or the rural of thewas the creation Rural Electric folk the Rural Electrification administration. Nine out of 10 farms had no electricity. One historian said this. Quote, farmers without the benefit of electrical machinery toiled in a 19th century world. Pictures in the saturday evening post perform their backbreaking chores like peasant women of a preindustrial age. The rhelped improve in ea improved those conditions. That brings me to the greatest, largest, most controversial part of the new deal. Of thes the creation Tennessee Valley authority, aich in essence created system of dams across the Tennessee River and its tributaries. These dams were able to generate electrical power that helped to improve conditions in those areas. It also provided unemployment relief. Put a lot of people to work building these things, as did many of the new deal agencies. This one because the government owned it, it was trading electrical power and selling it. The conservatives were leery because they said this is creeping socialism. You have the government owning the means of production. Himevelts critics charged that this was being overly socialistic. It was an enormous benefit to the Tennessee Valley region. And evasiondeal that needs no explanation to you today i asked my class sometimes, the new deal did one thing that touched everybody in this room. Something that you may not realize but you have something as a reminder of the new deal. Card. The Social Security that was when Social Security system was established and is with us yet as we very well know. By the time of the 1936 election, the nation had come through the worst of the depression. Happy days might not have been here again but the days were better than they had been four years earlier and a star had been made led by the cheerful president in the white house for which americans were grateful. Incidentally, even if things were not better, at least people could drink because the 21st amendment had been passed to repeal the 18th. That noblehibition, experiment as it was called, prohibition came to an end. This is not to say that all americans were enamored of fdr. They were not. In fact, he had been attacked already by opponents on the left and the right. By both liberals and conservatives. Perhaps the most farreaching farreaching alternatives to roosevelt by his opponents first was a plan developed by a california doctor by the name of frances townsend. The story goes that he was led to gum up with a program to help the impoverished. He was looking out his window and had seen a woman rummaging through garbage cans for 70. He came up for something to eat. He came up with a plan simplistic in its design. The plan would provide every person over 60 years of age a pension of 200 per month with the requirement they had to spend it all in one month. The forced introduction by this amount of money into the economy. Wheres the money coming from . In any case, it was a plan that appealed to certain people. Another opponent of roosevelt conklin, whoarles was canadian born, but he was operating out of detroit. He had a radio program. Known as a radio priest. Talked more about political issues. He started out supporting roosevelt and then believing the new deal had gone too far to the left, he proposed his own plan that called for the nationalization of the banks and Natural Resources and other reachingroposals, millions of speakers and listeners on the radio. He presented a serious challenge to roosevelt on the far left. Serious known and more of opposition came from the louisiana king fish as he called himself. Long is worthy of an entire lecture himself. A colorful individual he was. Virtually a dictator in louisiana. He did create or bring about some significant change in that state. He wanted to bring he became a u. S. Senator. Flamboyant and found mouth advocate of and found mouth advocate of liberal programs. His plan he said would make every man a king. It was called to share in wealth society. A homed give every man in 5,000 pleasant annual income of 2500. Again, substantial. It was a very radical plan. People and to some turned others off because of his flamboyant manner. Roosevelt was concerned about him. He called long one of the two most dangerous men in the country. You would probably not guest who the other one was. It was general douglas macarthur. It is impossible to know how far along he might have gone on the National Stage because in 1935 in the capital of louisiana he was assassinated. It is questionable how much these people individually accomplished. They did perhaps have an impact in driving roosevelt somewhat leftward in his political thinking. When we think about opposition to the new deal today, most people do not think of the left. They think of the right. They think of the conservative attacks on him. They were vicious. The most organized conservative group against roosevelt was the Liberty League, composed of wealthy republicans mostly who conducted a hate roosevelt campaign. Going so far as to claim that roosevelt and to overthrow the constitution and establish a dictatorship. Some of the claims were so farfetched and vicious they probably helped roosevelt. He once said speaking of the Liberty League, i welcome their hatred. It probably did help them the him by alienating masses of people who were far from wealthy. Roosevelts popularity was put to the test when it came to the president ial election of that year. Chose the governor of kansas by the name of alfred m langdon. Some people called him the kansas coolidge. In a difficult spot. He opposed roosevelt but at the same time had to accept many of the new deal programs because they were clearly popular. Roosevelt had no chance of winning i mean, Alfred Langdon had no chance of winning. Seldom had an incumbent been so popular with the American People. Defeated himvelt by the greatest margin in history the second greatest margin in the history of the american presidency. Managed to carry a grand total of two states, maine and vermont. One of the most interesting things about this election i know some of you have heard of this was the famous literary digest poll. Polling was in its infancy. The literary digest took it president ial preference poll nationwide and it produced the landon would win overwhelmingly and carry two states. How could they have been so wrong . As we have seen in more recent times, polls are wrong sometimes. This was not sophisticated. Why was it so wrong, i asked my students. They usually say is they only pulled republicans. That is not right. That would be skewed, right . Was, where did they get the names of the people to poll . This sometimes leads my students down the right path. The answer is they got it from the phone books. So what, you say. That is random, isnt it . The problem was the issue that made it not exactly unbiased was only rich people had telephones. The wealthier people or the ones who had the phones. This was a random pole of wealthy people. It turned out not surprisingly they favored landon. Wrong ande, they were roosevelt won overwhelmingly. One of the main obstacles in the path of the new deal as it mind,ded in roosevelts it was the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court up until that time, a notably conservative body, continued to be through theearly new deal and Supreme Court was destroying roosevelt throughout his new deal. Indeed, in nine major cases that reached the Supreme Court involving new deal legislation, the court ruled against the new deal in seven of those nine cases. Roosevelt was infuriated by this. He believed it was true that the members of the court were quite conservative and they were also quite old. Six of the nine members were 70 or older. Roosevelt what could he do about it . They are lifetime appointments. Unless you killed him, you could do anything about it. Roosevelt would not have done that. He was a strong leader but he was not going to do that, so he was stuck. He had to wait for these socalled nine old men to die off. Roosevelt was not the type to wait so he came up with a plan that was known as the Court Packing plan. The plan was this. If congress were to pass this act, the president would be empowered to appoint an additional member of the Supreme Court for every member who was 70 or over who would not retire. At that time, that would have meant the potential membership was 15. He gave as his reason for this want to do not say i this so they will approve my legislation so what he said was when they are old and cannot keep up with their work, they need youngblood. The judges resented that. Really not behind its work. It became apparent roosevelt was trying to pack the court with people who would uphold his policies. It brought the strongest criticism he had received up to t point, claiming many claiming he was trying to bring down the system of checks and balances and he was trying to establish a dictatorship. At least the congress felt and for the the time, congress rejected a roosevelt initiative. It was the most controversial action on the domestic front he had encountered. It seemed he lost on this. He did lose the battle, but it appears he won the war. He did not get hi his immediate objective. What happened was the court seemed to sense it was under pressure, it was under attack and perhaps better get more in prevailinghe attitudes of the country. Andy in other words and, in other words, it perhaps better uphold new legislation, which it did. As time went on, the court became more liberal as some of the more conservative justices died. While he was in office, roosevelt was able to make no fewer than nine appointments and in so doing, gave a more liberal complexion to the court than it had ever before. The court was beginning to be in the vanguard of progressive movements rather than opposing liberal innovations. Court began by the 1950s was perhaps with the brown decision and the other decision, the court became one of the more progressive of wings of federal government. Out, the most significant new deal legislation had already been enacted by the time of the court. The most important it is lotion subsequent was the fair labor standards act. Hoursesulted in maximum and minimum wages. The maximum hours was 40 hours a week. The minimum wage has grown a bit. It originally was . 25 an hour. It also outlawed child labor. In the area of civil rights, which was soon to become a Major National concern, roosevelt and the new deal produce little tangible assistance to black americans. Greatest boon to black americans came through the tireless work of first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who was frequently active on their behalf. It remains she remains the most revered president ial wife in American History. Similarly, the new deal afforded little support for womens rights although fdr did appoint the first female cabinet member when he named Frances Perkins as his secretary of labor. 1938, case, by the end of the new deal was almost added is almost at a standstill. Roosevelt by that time had already achieved virtually all he could achieve in the way of traditional reform without going beyond the limits of his own and americas own etiology of ideology. Own eti event that even roosevelt had no control, the rise of adolf hitler and the nazi terror in europe. In outbreak of war in Europe September of 1939, the primary attention of the nation. Roosevelt became focused on the events unfolding in europe. To understand roosevelts approach to the crisis, it is necessary to consider the attitude of the American People toward foreign involvement. Immediately following world war i, the nine states was quickly overcome by a spirit of isolationism the United States was quickly overcome by spirit of isolationism. Particularly after the appearance of historians work that claimed that germany was not to be blamed solely for world war i and that we should not have gotten involved. Many americans adopted that belief. What developed was a strong and pervasive attitude of isolationism. The most egregious example of how strong this feeling was could be seen in the proposal in Congress Almost enacted known as the ludlow amendment, which if passed, would have prohibited american involvement in war unless approved by national referendum. Have to have a vote on whether or not to go to war. It failed. It almost passed and shows the extent of isolationist feeling. It did result in isolationism and a series of neutrality acts to illuminate those things that caused american involvement in world war i. This was the environment in which roosevelt had to respond to developments in europe. Hitlers rapid amended erica [indiscernible] that is that all materials purchased by the allies had to be faithful in cash and transported in their unshipped. More controversial was roosevelts destroyers deal with the borders whereby the u. S. Gave to the british 50 old american destroyers left over from world war i in exchange for american leases on British Naval bases. Arose mainlysy because roosevelt conducted this as an executive agreement. He did not go through congress to get it. Once again, some of his critics charged him with wanting. Ictatorial powers it was action such as these that led to the rise of the most powerful antiintervention group, the America First organization, whose main proponent and whose prominent figure was charles lindbergh. In the midst of this crisis came the 1940 as eventual election in which roosevelt sought an unprecedented third term, to cite thistics as further evidence he wanted to become a dictator. The public was not swayed by such fears but was more concerned about the old adage of not changing horses in the middle of the stream. The stream being the war in europe. Handily defeated his republican opponent. His own wordsin during the campaign that eventually caused him embarrassment. Acknowledging the isolation sentiment of that area declared emphatically, i have said this before. I shall say it again and again. Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars. Those words would soon come back to haunt him as you can imagine. Aside what anf an amusing when i think, you have probably heard the story but i like it so much i want to tell you again. It is the story of roosevelts pet dog, a scottish terrier. This is an example of roosevelts good humor. I want to read you when he said. Republicans had been claiming that on a trip to alaska, roosevelt had left the dog and had sent a naval vessel back to get the dog. In one campaign speech, this is what roosevelt said. I always love the speech. He said, these Republican Leaders have not been content with attacks on me or my wife or my sons. No, not content with that. They are now including my little dog. Of course, i do not resent attacks. My family does not resent attacks, but my dog does resent them. Learned thee republican fiction writers in congress had concocted a story i had left him behind and had sent a destroyer back to find him at taxpayers, his scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. Accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself, but i think i have a right to resent and object to lawless statements about my dog. It was classic. Apparently, the American Public was quite amused by that story. I have seen the Roosevelt Memorial in washington, i know it shows roosevelt seated in a wheelchair although the wheelchair is not prominent. It was being debated about whether he should be in a wheelchair or not. He is, but it is mostly covered. The dog is there with him. After the election of 1940, roosevelt announced a plan known as leslies. According to the known as lend lease. Roosevelt was at his political best. Describing this, suppose my neighbors home catches fire and i have a garden hose 500 feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connected to the hydrant, he can put out the fire. Before that to him operation, you have to pay me 15 for it. No, i do not want the 15. Gardengarden i was hose after the fire is over. There was still strong isolationist opposition. Quote,ator commented lending war equipment is a good deal like lending chewing gum. You do not want it back. Another isolationist senator referring to the program about crops and so forth said quote, the lend lease bill was the new deals aaa foreign policy. Roosevelt was incensed at that. He called it the most rottenness thing coated the rotten nest thing said it contribute greatly to supporting the allied war effort. It is surprising that after all this emphasis on the war in europe, when we did go to war, it came not from europe but from the far east by invitation of japan. That country had been neighbor, china for many years and in the 1930s invaded a chinese province. The United States tried to front ways to force them out. Try different ways to force them out. Roosevelt took the unusual step of appealing directly to the japanese emperor to demand japanese withdrawal from china. He received his answer the next day. Received thepublic answer the next day. Roosevelt announced it this way on the radio address. Yesterday, a date will live in anthony, live in infamy that sneak attack on the u. S. Naval base in pearl harbor. In the destruction of virtually the entire american battleship fleet in the pacific. The loss of some 2400 men. In the immediate wake of pearl harbor, most americans believed simply that the u. S. Had been treacherously attacked and we should get down to the business of war. Not long after that, some historians began to examine the events of pearl harbor and to suggest there may be more to it than met the eye. These revisionists charged roosevelt secretly wanted the u. S. To be involved in the war. Why would that be . Because they said he had come to believe the new deal programs were not going to resolve the nations through american involvement in the war. You say if that is what he wanted, why didnt he go to congress and ask for a declaration of war . The answer lies in the strength of isil is asian strength of isil is asian isolation in the country. And so he deliberately provoked the japanese to attack, providing in the words of a revisionist, a backdoor to war. This was given credibility by the stature of some of the historians who proposed it. Prominently and one of the most, historians of the day. Writers did at pertinent points that there were could anticipated better. Suffice it to say that most historians reject the revisionist charge. Fundamentally they dont believe that roosevelt was a trader, which he would have been traitor, which he would have been had he done that. I think the failure for americans to anticipate pearl ,arbor can be chalked up essentially, to human error. I particularly like the explanation of the historian who discredited the conspiracy theories which he wrote as follows. Talking about how revisionists say this happened and they should have known, they should have seen it. She says it is much easier after the event to sort relevant from irrelevant signals. After the event, a signal is crystal clear. We can now see what disaster it was signaling since the disaster has occurred. Before the event is obscured, filled with conflicting meanings, we failed to anticipate pearl harbor not for lack of relevant material but an excess of irrelevant ones. If you think about what happened to pearl harbor, why didnt you likehe signals its when you are reading a mystery and you read the conclusion so you know who done it. Ahas dont lead anywhere when you dont how it comes out. The pearl harbor attack destroyed the spirit of isolationism of the previous decades. Now every american boy had a new attitude and he said now the only thing to do is to beat the hell out of them. Attention had to focus on that issue rather than domestic concerns. Broughtime leadership participation in conferences with other allied leaders, including british Prime Minister winston churchill, and later joined by soviet dictator joseph stalin. Firstthose meetings was the atlantic conference, that picture at the top, it took place august of 1941 in newfoundland. They discussed various problems in common but they also drew up the socalled atlantic charter. Provideesigned to violence for the post war world, including collective security, including roosevelts proposal for the league of nations. Another meeting took place in morocco in january of 1943, and the most important decision made there was the socalled Unconditional Surrender decision. That is the allies let it be known the only basis for ending the war would be Unconditional Surrender of the adversary. Critics said that might prolong the war because the countries would be encouraged to fight to the last man. Could mean anything, the destruction of the country, whatever. So it might encourage them to fight longer. Historians have generally come to the conclusion that it is itossible the reason for world war i was not an Unconditional Surrender. The thinking was this time we will make sure the enemy is defeated because germany thought they were not defeated in world war i. They will surrender unconditionally paired most historians have concluded you probably cant say whether they did or not. Tehran,meeting in joined by stalin, and it was agreed that the allies would france, second front in which took place the following dday,n 1944, the day a successful operation, after which the war moved to an allied victory the following year. But not before another toplevel conference and a controversial one was held in yalta in february 1945. Yaltaelts main goal at was to secure soviet pledge and eventually to pam. Soviet pledge the to go to war with japan. They were not at war with japan. They did not do it until after the first atomic almost dropped, but that is a different lecture on diplomatic history. Exchange for the pledge of , russia wasort essentially given i dont want to say a free hand, but pretty much allowed to control eastern creatednd essentially the cold war. Critics claim he made these concessions, roosevelt made these concessions because he was ill and not to the task of confronting the soviets. Roosevelt was indeed ill but the question of whether he could have done much to prevent the soviet expansion remains to be seen. By the end of the worker must of the war, soviets had control of those areas. Roosevelt and not live to see those results because weeks after the yalta conference, he suffered a massive stroke at his georgia retreat and passed away. Finally, what can be said by way of a summary or analysis of roosevelt and his presidency . What can we say about the impact of the times and the significance on American History . One of the frequently made charges against roosevelt is the new deal does not bring the depression to an end and it did not happen until he and of the war. One historian said the new deal did not cure, it merely administered a sedative. There was largescale unemployment even up to the entry into the war, but had it not been for those compliments of the new deal in supplying relief, it is questionable whether the nation could have survived up to the time of entry into the war. Roosevelt was severely criticized personally by some opponents for his aggressive leadership, pointing in particular to his efforts to pack the court, the harshest critics accusing him of dictatorial rule. What these critics failed to realize is the extreme danger of those times made it necessary to have a president who exercised extraordinary leadership, it was no time for a passive or weak executive and the times called for vigorous leadership that roosevelt provided. The wealthy Business Class hated roosevelt as the agent of socialism, they believed. They thought he was a traitor to his class, these were the liberally Liberty League people and so on. They subjected roosevelt to the most attacks of any president in u. S. History save maybe abraham lincoln, and among the milder terms to criticize roosevelt were terms such as communist, fascist, dictator, crackpot, opportunist, unprincipled, charlatan, simple, nitwit. The cruelest of all referring to him as that cripple. Timenonymous poem at the summed up the feeling of many such people, it indicated in a lighthearted manner what they felt of roosevelt. Ae poem went like this stranger stood at the gates of hell, the devil himself had answered the bell, and he said what have you done to entitle you to come within . Gave thed said as he ivil a winning smile, promised this and promised that and calmed them down with a fireside chat, i put padlocks on the banks and called congress ised wagesra because shops. I brought back here and what do you think, texas of the couldnt drink. Taxes so they could not drink. With all of these units i got their goats and crammed it down their throats. I put the screws on the richest mans wealth. Then i placed the blame on nine old men. Loud,in talked long and the devil stood, his head was bowed, and at last he said lets make this clear, you have to look elsewhere, you cant come for i would have to hunt myself a job. There are those who felt roosevelt was worse than the but in comparison to his admirers, they were few in number. Perhaps no president in American History has inspired the wealth and warmth of affection which roosevelt inspired from the masses of the American People. Even though he was an aristocrat, the Common People of the country looked on him with a sense of devotion that bordered on worship. He was the hero of the forgotten man, as he was called. Him the worker called only man we ever had in the white house who would understand my boss is a son of a bitch. The American People sincerely believed, the average American People, believed that roosevelt saves them from poverty and hunger. To them, the new deal was a godsend. I am proud of our United States, said one person on government relief, no other nation in the world would have sense enough to think of wpa. People had a sense of personal attachment to the man which is hard to describe. One of them said, referring to fireside chats, how can we ever forget that he came into our homes, calling us his friends . In georgia on april 12, 19 45, Franklin D Roosevelt died. The man who had guided the nation through the worst internal troubles since the civil war and the worst foreign war and its history, was suddenly gone. An indescribable sense of shock spread through the country. And his four terms, a generation of americans had grown almost two maturity without knowing another president. When they heard the news, many people wondered what will happen now . They could not conceive of any other leader. Men and women everywhere broke down and wept openly without shame. Retrospect, it seems rooseveltto deny to the mantle of greatness. The crisis he faced when he took office in january march of hadwas so desperate that roosevelt harbored imperial ambitions, he probably could have obtained powers from congress, had he been a socialist, he could have set the country on the road to extreme collectivism. But he was simply an oldfashioned american with traditional views on the benefits of the system of private enterprise and ownership of property. He believed the capitalist system worked, and the manner he accomplished is objective revealed to the character of the new deal. Subsequently, some radicals criticized roosevelt for not having taken the nation further down the road of socialism and conservatives criticized him for taking it too far down the road. The truth seems to be that roosevelt himself consciously and liberally sought a middle way. Really deal he said is an old deal, as old as the earliest aspirations of humanity for liberty, justice and a good life. These were the things roosevelt had worked so hard and briefly to deliver in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems. People never ceased to be grateful to him for that. A personal comment here at the end. I remember one time visiting my parents, my father had lived through the depression. Since that time, this little vignette occurred, and he was ready conservative. It came to me as i was reading a book about roosevelt, i said to him, not knowing what the said whatould be, i did you think of Franklin Roosevelt . Just like that, he said i will never forget what he did for me. What he did for me. Well, that sense of personal identification was expressed at the same time, expressed earlier at the time of roosevelts death by a betterknown person. The person destined to carry on Roosevelt Legacy of reform during his administration several decades later, that was lyndon johnson. Perhaps we should give him the last word. At that time at roosevelts death, johnson was a young congressman from texas who often said fdr was like a daddy to me. Upon hearing of roosevelts death, speaking from the steps of the capitol building, johnson emotionally expressed his feelings of loss and in so doing, summed up that of his generation of grateful americans. He was the only person i ever knew anywhere, said johnson, who was never afraid. He could take it for us all. Thank you. Youre watching American History tv, covering history cspan style, with event coverage, eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures in College Classrooms and visits to museums and historic places. All weekend, every weekend on cspan3. [ambient sounds] youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Americasreated by Cable Television companies as a Public Service and it brought to you today by your television provider. You are watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. The first tv president ial campaign ads aired during the 1952 contest between Dwight D Eisenhower and adlai stevenson. Ads have been essential to every president ial campaign sense. Sinces a look campaign. Here is a look. It is time for an honest look at the problem of order in the United States. Necessary a ingredient of change but in a system of government that provides for peaceful change, there is no cause that justifies resort to violence. Let us recognize that the first civil right of every american is to be free from domestic violence. I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States. [laughter] [continued raucous laughter] if you like politics, you can our plenty of videos on website, cspan. Org. In a Televised Oval Office address on november 3, 1969, president nixon delivered what is often called his silent majority speech, contrasting the majority of americans with what he argued was a vocal minority of antiwar protesters. President nixon requested support for his plan to end to the vietnam war. Highest jobhis Approval Rating of 67 in that year. Pres. Nixon good evening, my fellow americans. Tonight, i want to talk to you