Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency Franklin D. Roosevelt 20240711

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. It was 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. Lets examine roosevelts presidency beginning with a brief look at the conditions in the country that led to his election in 1932. The economic collapse of 1920 9 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 schoolteacher who suggested to 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 and hitler intaly germany. There is a senator who said if this country ever needed a mussolini, it needs one now. There were some persons who 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 political 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. There were a lot of 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. In any case, the story is hoover turned to the secretary of treasury, and asked him for a nickel to make a call. He replied, here, take this dime. Call all of your friends. In light of the widespread feeling such as that, it was obvious whomever 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 had lost hoover. He thought this might be his year. Smith was not the nominee of the 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 like i voted for your father or you look just like your old man. In any case, this association, not particularly liked by Theodore Roosevelts wing of the family, but 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. Like him, 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. Franklin roosevelt lost the Vice President ial race in 1920. When the democratic ticket lost to warren harding. In any case, the two roosevelts had some similarity but were also quite different in their personalities. Tr was a fiery, pugnacious tort. Sort. Always ready for a fight, either physical or political. Franklin was more sophisticated. 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, witty, sophisticated. His most glaring fault people sometimes felt was he was a bit overbearing, pompous, conceited, we might say. Some thought him to be plain arrogant. After 1921, that changed dramatically. That was the year that roosevelt was stricken with polio, infantile paralysis. Childs disease generally. Infantile paralysis. The disease 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. One observer said roosevelt had undergone a spiritual transformation. Another one on seeing him after his recovery found him to be a different person from that charming and at times irresponsible young man of the old wilson days. The two year fight against polio had given him new moral and physical strength. One of his biographers said that , the suffering had purged him of frivolity 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. This 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 . Said he, if you had spent two years in bed just trying to wiggle your big toe, after that, anything would seem easy. The recovery he made and in this photograph, you can see this vibrant, jaunty appearance he usually exhibited. He made a remarkable recovery. 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 warm and his manner so buoyant that some americans 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 showed him in situations that show him weak or incapacitated that might embarrass him. All of this together with his beautiful and powerful speaking voice and his smile proved so convincing that some americans did not realize he was virtually an invalid. The campaign of was a foregone 1932 conclusion. The nation had enough of herbert hoover. Songe roosevelt theme could be heard to the land. When people heard the cheerful here of happy days are again, they believed it or at least wanted to believe it. I will not sing it for you all. I will spare you that punishment. The verses were, and if you are old enough, you can remember. This became a theme song for the democratic party. It still may be. For many many years, happy days are here again. The skies above are clear again. Lets all sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again. In chicago, where he accepted the democratic nomination, he made a statement that led to the phrase we 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 quote, the country needs and the country demands bold, experimentation. Above all, try something. Now, we think of roosevelt as supremely confident for reasons you will see if you do not already know about his inaugural speech. In any case, privately, it appears roosevelt was not totally confident he could successfully do his job. The story is that on the night 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. To whom he said, all my life i have been afraid of one thing. At this point in my classes i always stopped and asked the students, what do you think that one thing was he had been afraid of . What they would say is fear because of the inaugural speech. I said, no, im not talking about that. 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. He said i have only been afraid of one thing, fire. But tonight, i am afraid i just fire, butraid of tonight, i just might be afraid i am not 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. The impact was dramatic. 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 roosevelt came up with, the fabled fireside chats. Using the radio which by then was standard in american homes. He made direct contact with the American People. At the end of his first week in 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 in warm and understanding and reassuring tones, it is hard to imagine how unusual this was to have a personal contact with the president. This 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 he had implemented 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 and socalled brain trust, from where he got many of his ideas. Roosevelt by all accounts was not a brilliant man. He did not claim to be an intellectual. What he did have one historians said was his key characteristic that made him successful was he had, a firstclass temperament. He could listen to other people, glean ideas from different sources. Weigh them and try different things. 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. But 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. A lot 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 mention the change was such that one leading historian said , order was dead beyond one recall. In other words, it produced all produced the new america, the america all of us have grown up in. Creating the kind of democracy we have to this day. Generally speaking, roosevelt had three objectives. The socalled three rs. They were relief, recovery and reform. That was essentially the order in which he approached them. Relief find some help for the first. 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. That involved first of all, the 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 is a safety net somewhere. There was not a safety net then. There was nobody to turn to. Roosevelt addressed this by first declaring a bank holiday. Closing all the banks and keeping them closed until the system could be strengthened and 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. They did not have to fear about losing their savings. One of the key elements of that was the creation of the federal deposit insurance corporation. Which still exists. At the time, insured deposits would be up to 5,000. Thats a lot of money in those days. I do not know what it is now, but it is more than that. People began to regain confidence in the banks. That is the key to the economic 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 m all 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. Reforestation, swamp drainage. In other words, mainly different kinds of conservation work, when i talks me about this, one time i was in some store and the clerk an older gentleman who clearly was not or did not sound like a virginian to me. I said, where are you from . I think he said he was from brooklyn. Originally. I said how did you find your way to virginia . He said, back in the new deal in the 1930s, i was hired by the ccc and i worked in the camp. Fredericksburg. I forgot where that camp was. Im sure could be found today. 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 . You should have heard of. 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 , in 1933, 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, 1934. Thousands of people with jobs, such as leaf raking or other tasks, that appeared to some opponents as makework. Atlanta the charge of it being an organization engaging in then what was called boondoggling. Makework jobs. The cwa Something Like, would hire one group of men 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. Point is, it put people to work. It had an additional effect in pump priming, 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 creation of the nra, the bill that was passed. Some would call it the National Recovery administration. Roosevelt caused this roosevelt called this the most important and farreaching legislation ever enacted by the american congress. That is because it attempted to 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. It was visionary. It had the prospect of we organizing, reordering the economy of reorganizing and reordering the economy. The short of it is after some initial success, the nra was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 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. It was to provide for industrial recovery as well as unemployment relief. It undertook large projects. Think of public works. Big things. 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. Dams, highways, public buildings and so on. The other organization with similar acronym was the wpa, the Works Progress administration. That was very different, but 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, musicians, actors, and so on. Again, its critics said these people were engaged in worthless projects and disparaged many of them. They did some important work particularly in preserving historical artifacts and so on. One of the things they did was to 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 clearer , a view of slave life. Over eight years, the wpa provided jobs for almost 9 million persons. One of the major new deal agencies. Let me insert something here kind of interesting i think. This immediate and extensive reform drew attention across the world. One upandcoming world leader had this to say. Quote, i have severed with president roosevelt because he marches straight to his objective over congress, lobbies, and stubborn bureaucracy. 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. The prevailing belief was the government should always maintain a balanced budget. If that were to be done in these times, taxes would have to be enormous to balance the budget 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. I am not an economist but i 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. The debate was and is, is that wise to have an unbalanced budget . Does not sound like it, that i does not sound like it, but 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 for various farm products. Parity was an amount of money 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. When farm prices were such that farmers were making a reasonable the period was 1909 to 1940. 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 there produce. Their 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 sense. How could they make more money if they did not make as much . Some crops had already been planted that year. 1933. Not sure when it was. Anyway, when the bill passed, the crops had already been planted. If they were over the quota that was allotted for cotton or whatever it was, it had to be plowed under. To artificially induced demand, you had to cut down supply. Even more offensive to some people was livestock, most particular to pigs and how they had to be destroyed, to cut down pork supply, and it results in the slaughter of Something Like 4 million pigs. That did not sound like a good idea to people who were already hungry. In any case, that was how it was approached. It was criticized then, it is criticized still, but that was the one way it was addressed. One other thing that certainly helped the farmers or the rural people was the creation of the Rural Electrification administration. The rea, established in 1935. Back then, nine out of 10 farms had no electricity. One historian said this. Farmers, without the benefit of electrical machinery toiled in a 19thcentury world and city women with washing machines, vacuum cleaners, performed their backbreaking chores like women in a preindustrial age like peasant women of a preindustrial age. That brings me to the mention of the largest, most controversial , which has aal deal with the farmers. That was the creation of the Tennessee Valley authority, which, in essence, created a 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. So it had multi purposes, as did many of the new deal agencies. This one because the government owned it. It was trading electrical power and selling it. It made the conservatives were leery because they said this is creeping socialism. You have the government owning the means of production. Roosevelts critics charged him that this was overly socialistic. Nonetheless, it was an enormous benefit to the Tennessee Valley region. Now, another new deal and evasion 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. What is it . It is the Social Security card. Because 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, and the nascent nation had 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 start 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 in 1933, so prohibition, the noble 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 there were several, but i will talk to you about three of them farreaching alternatives to roosevelt by his opponents. The first one was a plan developed by a california doctor by the name of frances townsend. The story goes that he was led to come up with some programs to help with the impoverished. He was looking out his window and had seen a woman rummaging through the garbage cans for something to eat. However motivated, he came up with a plan, simplistic in its design. The townsend 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 idea being the forced introduction of this amount of money every month. The question that it satisfactorily answered was, where is the money coming from . In any case, it was a plan that appealed to certain people. Another opponent of roosevelt was father charles conklin, who was canadian born, but he was operating out of detroit. He had a radio program. Known as a radio priest. More about hisk political issues. He started out supporting roosevelt and then believing the new deal. When that 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 radical proposals, reaching millions of speakers and listeners on the radio. He presented a serious challenge to roosevelt on the far left. The best known and most serious of opposition came from the louisiana king fish, as he called himself, huey long. Huey 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 virginia, in that state. He wanted to bring he became a u. S. Senator. A flamboyant and foulmouthed advocate of liberal programs. His plan he said would make every man a king. It was called to share in wealth society. It would give every man a home in 5,000. Plus an annual income of 2500. Again, substantial. A radical plan, but it had its appeal. He appealed to some people and turned others off because of his flamboyant manner. But roosevelt was concerned about him. He called long one of the two most dangerous men in the country. Who the other one was. You would probably not guess 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. Indeed, 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 aimed 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 him by alienating the masses of people who were far from wealthy. In 1936, roosevelts popularity was put to the test when it came to the president ial election of that year. Republicans chose the governor of kansas by the name of alfred m. Langdon. Theres no particular distinct and distinction. Some people call the Landon Langdon the kansas coolidge. He was 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 in 1936, the election. Seldom had an incumbent been so popular with the American People as was roosevelt in 1936. Indeed, roosevelt defeated him by the greatest margin in history the second greatest margin in the history of the american presidency. Landon managed to carry a grand total of two states, maine and vermont. Well saying was so maine goes, so goes the nation. There was a famous literary digest bowl, and polling was in its infantry. Infancy. The literary digest took a president ial preference poll, nationwide, and it produced the result that 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. Even sophisticated ones. But this one was not sophisticated. Why was it so wrong, i asked my students. One thing is they usually say they only pulled republicans. That is not right. That would be skewed, right . The question 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 . Peoples names and the phone books. Those days you had phone books. The problem was the issue that made it not exactly unbiased was only rich people had telephones. Generally. The wealthier people were the ones with the phones, so this was a random poll of wealthy people. It turned out, not surprisingly, they favored landon. In any case, they were wrong, and roosevelt won, overwhelmingly. One of the main obstacles in the path of the new deal, as it proceeded in roosevelts mind, and he had some justification, was the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court, up until that the conservative body continued to be, through the , the supremeal court was destroying roosevelt about his new deal and in nine major cases involving new deal legislation, the court ruled against new deal in several of those nine cases. Roosevelt was infuriated by this. True thatd it was members of the court were quite conservative, and also quite old. Six of the nine members were 70 or older. Roosevelt what could he do about it . They are lifetime appointments. In less you kill them, you could not 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, what would happen as 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 of the court was 15 because there were six over 17. 70. He gave as his reason for this he could not say i want to do this so they will approve my legislation, so what he said was when they are old and cannot keep up with their work, they needed youngblood. The judges resented that. The charges were untrue. The court was really not behind its work. It became apparent roosevelt was eyes of moste people, to pack the court with people that would uphold his policies. It brought the strongest criticism he had received, up to that point, claiming many any of his pundits claiming he was trying to bring down the system of checks and balances, trying to establish a dictatorship. He went too far 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. It turned out, they did lose a battle but it appears they won the war. He did not get his immediate objective. He couldnt pack the court with additional justices, but the court said it was under pressure, under attack, and bring this decision more in line with the prevailing attitudes of the country. 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 older and more conservative justices died and were replaced by more progressive justices. 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, then, was beginning to be in the vanguard of progressive movements, rather than opposing liberal innovations. Indeed, the court began, by the 1950s, was perhaps with the brown decision, the other decision, the court became one of the more progressive of wings of federal government. As it turned out, the most significant new deal legislation had already been enacted by the time of the court. Court find. The most important it is lotion subsequent was the fair labor which was passed result, which sought to in maximum hours and minimum wages. The maximum hours was 40 hours a week. Still is. The minimum wage has grown a bit. It originally was . 25 an hour. It also outlawed child labor. It might be noted, at this point, in the area of civil rights, which was soon to become a Major National concern, roosevelt and the new deal produced little tangible assistance to black americans. At least not specifically. They benefited by some of the new deal programs, like other americans. The greatest boon to black americans came through the tireless work of first lady eleanor roosevelt, who was frequently active on their behalf, and because of it, remains the most revered president ial wife in American History. Similarly, the new deal afforded little significant support for womens rights. Although fdr did appoint the first female cabinet member when he named Frances Perkins as his secretary of labor. In any case, by the end of 1938, the new deal was almost at a standstill. Many reasons for this. The main one was 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 ideology of democracy in the system. Even more important to bringing the new deal to an end was an event that even roosevelt had no control over, the rise of adolf hitler and the nazi terror in europe. The outbreak of war in europe in september of 1939 with germanys invasion of poland, the primary attention of the nation was focused on the events in europe. 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 United States was quickly overcome by spirit of isolationism. Particularly after the appearance of historians work that did claim exactly that, that germany was not to be blamed solely for world war i and that we should not have involved in it. Many americans adopted that belief. What developed was a strong and pervasive attitude of isolationism around the 1920s and 1930s. 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 resolve this isolationism, and a series of neutrality acts to illuminate those things that caused american involvement in world war i. Loans to belligerent nations, thinking of ships, and so on. This was the environment in which roosevelt had to respond to developments in europe. In the face of hitlers rapid advance in europe the europe and america did allow the sale to armaments of the allies on the socalled cash and carry basis. That is that all materials purchased by the allies had to be paid for in cash and transported in their unshipped. More controversial was roosevelts destroyers for baser 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. The controversy arose mainly because roosevelt conducted this as an executive agreement. He did not go through congress to get it. Thereby, once again, some of his critics charged him with wanting dictatorial powers. It was actions such as these that led to the rise of the most powerful antiintervention group, the America First organization, whose main proponent and whose prominent most prominent figure was charles lindbergh. In the midst of this crisis came in 1940 president ial election, in which roosevelt sought an unprecedented third term, prompting credits once again to cite this 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. In this case, the stream being the war in europe. In any event, roosevelt handily defeated his republican opponent. A man name window wilkie. Wendell wilkie. It was ironic in his own words during the campaign that eventually caused him embarrassment. Speaking in boston, acknowledging the isolation sentiment of that area declared emphatically, i have said this before but i shall send this say this 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. As something of an aside what an aside, but 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 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 was loved this 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. Them. As soon as he learned the republican fiction writers in congress had concocted a story i had left them behind on an island and sent a destroyer back to find him that had cost the taxpayers 20 million, his scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am 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. [laughter] apparently, the American Public was quite amused by that story. By the way, the dog, and i have to say i havent in the Roosevelt Memorial in washington, but i believe i know it shows roosevelt sifted in the 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. Right after the election of 1940, roosevelt announced a plan known as lend lease. According to this proposal, the United States would lend or lease equipment to the allies and they would have to return the equipment after the war. Roosevelt was describing this and said, suppose my neighbors home catches fire and i have a garden hose 400 to 500 feet away, if he can take my garden hose and connect it to the hydrant, he can put out the fire. I do not say to him before that operation, you have to pay me 15 for because the garden hose cost no, i do not want the 15. 15. I want the garden hose after the fire is over. There was still strong isolationist opposition. One senator 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 senator, referring to the aaa program about crops and so forth, said the lend lease bill was the new deals aaa Foreign Policy that would plow under every fourth american. They called it the rottenest 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 threatening its neighbor, china, for many years. For many years, and in the 1930s, invaded a chinese province. The United States tried to front find ways to force them out. Roosevelt took the unusual step of appealing directly to the japanese emperor to demand japanese withdrawal from china. On december 6 of 1941, roosevelt took the step to appeal to that emperor. He received his answer the next day. The American Public received the answer from japan the next day. Roosevelt announced it this way on the radio address. Yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy, the United States was suddenly and deliberately the empires of japan. That sneak attack on the u. S. Naval base in pearl harbor resulted in the destruction of virtually the entire american battleship fleet in the pacific. Plus nearly 200 airplanes and the loss of some 2400 men. In the immediate wake of pearl harbor, most americans believed quite simply that the u. S. Had been treacherously attacked and we should get down to the business of war without any further questions. If you made attempts to analyze the issue further. However, not long after, 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 that 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 economic problems and that could only be achieved 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 isolationism in the country. He figured they would not vote for war unless we were actually attacked. So the theory is that he deliberately provoked the japanese to attack, providing in the words of a revisionist, a backdoor to war. Such a theory was given greater credibility by the stature of some of the historians who proposed it. Notably, one who is a historian that was arguably one of the most prominent historians of that day. Perhaps it could be expected. The revisionist writers did at did have pertinent points. There were signs that pearl harbor could have been anticipated better. Thats beyond the time today, but suffice it to say, most historians reject the revisionist charge. Fundamentally, they dont believe that roosevelt was a traitor, which he would have been had he done that. I think the failure for americans to anticipate pearl harbor 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. Hes talking about how revisionists should have seen this, should have seen that, 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. Ive said this to my class sometimes, if you think about what happened to pearl harbor, why didnt you see the signals signal . Its like when you are reading a mystery and you read the conclusion so you know who done it. What you dont know yet, because you have not read the conclusion. All of those ahas dont lead anywhere when you dont how it comes out. In any event, the one thing certain about the pearl harbor attack is that it immediately destroyed the spirit of isolationism that had prevailed for the previous decades from 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. With the coming of the war, roosevelts attention had to focus on that issue rather than domestic concerns. In his wartime leadership, brought participation in crucial conferences with other allied leaders, including british Prime Minister winston churchill, and later joined by soviet dictator joseph stalin. Briefly, those meetings first was the atlantic conference, that picture at the top. It took place august of 1941 in a warship off newfoundland. They discussed various problems in common, but they also drew up the socalled atlantic charter. It was designed to provide guidelines for the post world war, including the call for a system of collective security, similar to wilsons proposal for the league of nations. Another highly important meeting took place at casa blanco, morocco in january of 1943. 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 this might prolong the war because the countries would be encouraged to fight to the last ditch. If they had to surrender unconditionally, that could mean anything. Destruction of the country, whatever. So it might encourage them to fight longer. Historians have generally come to the conclusion that it is impossible to well the reason was not aworld war i conditional surrender. It was 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. Most historians have concluded you probably cant say whether they did or not. In any case, another meeting, this one held in tehran, where they were joined by stalin. It was decided that the allies would launch a second front in the invasion of france, which took place the following year, june 6, 1944, dday, which after which a successful operation, dday, but 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 of 1945. Roosevelts main goal at yalta was to secure soviet pledge and eventually engaged to pan engage japan. The soviets pledge to go to war with japan. They were not at war with japan. Stalin eventually agreed to do it, though they did not do it wasl the first atomic dropped on hiroshima, but that is a different lecture on diplomatic history. In exchange for the pledge of russian support, russia was essentially given i dont want to say a free hand but pretty much allowed to control Eastern Europe and essentially contributed to created the cold war. Critics claim roosevelt made these concessions because he was ill and not to the task of confronting the soviets. In retrospect, roosevelt was indeed ill, but the question of whether he could have done much to prevent the soviet expansion , because by the end of the war, soviet forces essentially had control of those areas. In any case, roosevelt did not live to see those results because only 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 their impact on the times, and their overall significance on American History . One of the frequently made charges against roosevelt is the cure thedid not depression. 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 is truth in that 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 accused him of instituting dictatorial rule by suppressing the other branches of government. 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 busiest criticism of all was the wealthy Business Class hated roosevelt as the agent of socialism, they believed. They thought, given his aristocratic background, that he was a traitor to his class. These were the Liberty League people and so on. They subjected roosevelt to the most attacks of any president in u. S. History, save maybe abraham lincoln, claiming he was subverting the system. Among the milder terms to criticize roosevelt were terms such as communist, fascist, dictator, revolutionist, crackpot opportunist, unprincipled, charlatan, swollen headed, simple, nitwit. The cruelest of all referring to him as that cripple. An anonymous poem at the time, although humorous, summed up the feeling of many such people. It indicated, in a lighthearted manner, what they felt of that man, they didnt want to say his name, but roosevelt. The poem went like this a stranger stood at the gates of hell, the devil himself had answered the bell, and he said , my friend, what have you done in life to entitle you to come within . Franklin d. Said as he gave the devil a winning smile, i promised this and promised that and calmed them down with a fireside chat. I put padlocks on the banks and called congress a bunch of cranks. I killed their pigs and burn their crops, i raised wages because of shops. I brought back here and what do you think, taxes so they could not drink. I pay them to let their farms lie steel, imported food stocks from brazil. Them with all of them shouting fret with all of these units i got their goats and crammed it down their throats. I ruin jobs and ruined health and put the screws on the richest mans wealth. Then i placed the blame on nine old men. Franklin talked long and loud, the devil stood, his head was bowed, and at last he said, lets make this clear, you have to look elsewhere, you cant come here, for once you mingle with this mob, i will have to hunt myself a job. There are those who felt roosevelt was worse than the devil himself, but in comparison to his admirers, they were few in number. Perhaps no president in American History has inspired the wealth of affection and warmth of affection that 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 sometimes called. One mill worker in North Carolina expressed this fast when he said roosevelt was the 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, 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. There aint no other nation in the world would have sense enough to think of wpa and all them other as. 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, 1945, 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 in its history was suddenly gone. An indescribable sense of shock spread through the country. A generation, if you think about those four terms, a generation of americans had grown almost to 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 any shame. In retrospect, it seems difficult to deny to roosevelt the mantle of greatness. The crisis he faced when he took office in january march of 1933 was so desperate that had roosevelt harbored imperial ambitions, he probably could have obtained dictatorial powers from congress. Had even a socialist, he could have set the country on the road to extreme collectivism. Awever, he was neither fascist or communist, simply oldfashioned american with traditional views on the benefits of the system of private enterprise and ownership of property. He believed the capitalist system was worth saving, in 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 deliberately sought a middle way. The new deal, he said, is really 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 bravely 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 pretty conservative, generally republican. I didnt know what his answer would be, but some reason they came to me as i was reading a book about roosevelt, something. I said to him, not knowing what the response would be, i said what did you think of franklin , roosevelt . And he said, 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 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. So perhaps, we should give him the last word. Of 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. God, how he could take it for us all. Thank you. This is American History tv, covering history, cspan style, with lectures, interviews, and discussions with authors, historians, and teachers. 48 hours, all weekend, every weekend, only on cspan3. Tonight on lectures in history, university of utah Political Science Professor James curry teaches a class about the creation of the Electoral College and explains how to works as part of the president ial election process. Heres a preview. States havewo selected their electorates as a winner take all, the candidate that receives the most aggregate boats in the state gets 100 of their electorates from that state appointed to the Electoral College. There are two exactions, maine and nebraska. Areaine and nebraska, there first two electors handed out to the statewide winner, and then one elector and upper winner in the congressional districts. Andtimes, you see maine nebraska split their electoral votes, and then you will have, for instance in 2016, you have three of maines boats go to Hillary Clinton in one go to donald trump. In 2008, you had four of nebraskas votes go to john mccain and one to barack obama. From the district of nebraska. Allie has her hand raised. Do you have a question . I was wondering, is there reason inversions happen where a president can lose the popular vote but when the Electoral College, due to the fact most states are winner take all, or is it because of the state electors . It is never because of faithless electors. That has never caused a person to lose the Electoral College when they won the popular vote. Ofetimes, it is because specifically winner take all. Though there are other times where the president popular ife in that lineup, whereas you would have every state where maine and nebraska does, they would lose the Electoral College. One a simple as 1976 where jimmy carter won the Electoral College would have narrowly done it with maine and nebraska approaching every state. The main reason they dont lineup often is because the Electoral College is not directly proportional to the votes in each state for a variety of reasons, that we will talk about next time. The big one being every state gets a base of two electoral votes and is proportional only after. Also, as we will talk about next time, the number of electoral votes is not sensitive to the turnout in the state. Some states have high turnout, some states have low turnout, but they dont gain or lose electoral votes based on the number of people who shop and vote. It heavily skews the relationship between total votes coming out of the state and electoral votes coming out of the state. Learn more about the Electoral College tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, 5 00 p. M. Pacific on American History tv. In a televised address on november 3, 19 69, president Richard Nixon delivered what is often called his silent majority speech, contrasting the majority of americans with what he argued was a vocal majority of antiwar protesters. He requested support for his plans and vietnam war. President nation reached his highest job Approval Rating of 67 in november of that year. Good evening, my fellow americans. Tonight, i want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all americans and many people in all parts of the world, the war in vietnam. I believe one of theea