The roosevelt reading festival continues now. Marc wortman discusses his book 1941 fighting the shadow war, a divided america in a world at war. Good afternoon. Welcome to the roosevelt librarys annual reading festival, glad to have you here today. President roosevelt would also be pleased, i am assuming he would be. Not that i am channeling him. He wanted to be a community organization. About his era, presidency and issues that he encountered during this period. We are glad you could be here as well. And especially pleased because it is our 75th anniversary and we invite you to get to these activities on june 30th. If you enjoy these types of programs and others, please become a member. We would like that. Go to our website, www. Fdrlibrary. Org. I will go over you probably if you have been here today you know the format. Marc wortman will speak for a half hour and we have 10 minutes of questions and afterwards he will go to the lobby where you can obtain the book from the new deal store and he will be happy to sign them. I will tell you a little bit about marc wortman. He is an independent historian and awardwinning freelance journalist. His book titled 1941 is an advertisement for the 75th anniversary and his own book. 1941, fighting the shadow war, he is the author of the fly boys who fought the great war and invented american airpower as well as the siege and burning of atlanta. He has written many magazines and other publications including smithsonian and town and country. He has spoken across country and on cnn, cspan and booktv, he is a graduate at princeton university. Please. [applause] it is wonderful to be here this afternoon. The archivists here, i came here and did a lot of research for this book here and they really make it possible to create books like these. So i want to thank president Franklin Delano roosevelt for putting the title of my book all around the place in 1941, 75 years ago. It wasnt an accident. At least not the founding of the library. I dont know what he intended by my title. His planning for this library. And he was thinking he was going to be retiring. And leaving the presidency, he thought there was no buddy else in development, and he was right. Action was what was called for in june 18, 1940, that was today 76 years ago. Lets think back to that day which was one of the lowest points in freedom and democracy among nations in the west. French forces had just capitulated to the germans. Nazi soldiers were marching down the Champs Elysees and bunking in paris. At this point hitler occupied or made vassal states of virtually all of scandinavia and western europe. That day was in many ways of turning point in pushing back the forces of tyranny. It is thanks to three speeches the took place this very day 75 years ago. Two to remain among the most celebrated in modern history and one is little known today. Speaking to the house of commons that they elevated Winston Churchill, warned that hitler would shortly turn his full fury on the British Isles which my wife made me promise that i would not do a Winston Churchill imitation. So what he growled was the battle of britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of christian civilization. He called for resistance for, he said, if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, he was making sure americans heard him including the United States, including all the we have known and cared for would sink into the abyss of a new dark age. He roused his people for war and despite disparately depleted forces after dunkirk, he braced them for the battle that would forever be known as there finest hour. Littleknown is in his conclusion to that speech, invoked the notion that should britain fall, in the face of the impending nazi onslaught, and to liberate the old world. Broadcasting that same evening in london. And relatively obscure french general charles they gaulle emphasized global character of the war, he said, talking with a french accent now, i think my wife would also kill me for that. For france is not alone in her darkest hour, he declared, launching free france, French National army in exile. He also looked across the atlantic for help. And the battle of france, this war is a worldwide war. A few hours after the gall and churchill spoke, another speech took place as the baton was taken up across the Atlantic Ocean. This one little remembered. It was a National Radio address broadcast from a house near the campus of Yale University which challenged americans to respond to the unfolding catastrophe in europe. The nation was addressed by Henry Stimson, a 72yearold private citizen, and elder statesman. Numerous federal posts since the Theodore Roosevelt administration while moving in and out of a successful career as a wall street banking attorney with a break as a 49yearold, an Army Artillery regiment in the western front in france. He was a progressive republican, served president William Howard taft as secretary of war and Herbert Hoover as secretary of state. He told his listeners the country faced, quote, probably the greatest crisis of its history. Probably based on law and justice instead of force. Seems like a quaint notion now. With china and Southeast Asia partially overrun by the japanese the world was now divided almost in two between fundamentally opposed camps, echoing abraham lincoln, he warned the world cannot permanently and or half slave and half free. The danger was clear. Should britain fall and germany, our men would soon be fighting for their own and our lives on american soil. The nation he declared faces emergency for which it was illprepared and still worse, prevented from facing neutrality laws expressly designed with the 1930s to keep the nation from being drawn into foreign conflict. The government could not arm bill insurance, even friendly belligerence. Goods sold by american manufacturers, paid for in full and in cash. American ships meanwhile were forbidden from carrying purchased weaponry ammunition to war zones and us citizens were prohibited from providing support to a nation at war. In effect in europe. And assistance to victims of aggression. And and open to their warships. He permitted congress to send weapons and aircraft, in their ships and under convoy. With the german navy attacking those convoys, that meant inevitably he was saying we should be prepared to go to war. Most significantly for his listeners. He called for the creation of the draft army. The United States in 164 years up to that point had never drafted an army in peace time. Not a single soldier had been conscripted except in time of war. He concluded june 18th talk by saying i believe should we find our people we should find our people ready to take the proper part in this threatened world and to carry through victory from freedom and reconstruction. That was a tall order with hitlers troops in paris and effectively having conquered almost all of europe. The next day, president roosevelt called stimson and asked him to become secretary of war. He told him i agree with everything in the radio address. Stimson, like many people, believed the president would soon move to the war. Fastforward another year, june 18, 1941. By this point germany consolidated further on europe. Conquering crete, yugoslavia and greece. Rommel was moving through north africa and threatened the vital suez canal. Hitler, in the Arctic Circle in the north to the Southern Shores of the mediterranean. And to the border of the soviet union. And this instance 75 years ago he was massing 3 million troops. And it would take place 6 days later. At that moment, switzerland. Polls in the spring of 1941 show 75 of americans, Great Britain serve as a serious danger to the United States. Almost 85 said that nonetheless, no americans should fight a foreign war. You cant get 85 of americans today to agree the sun rises in the east, but they were agreed no american troops in europe. Now, fdr in the heat of the 1940 president ial campaign, quite bravely instituted draft but he also promised, and Congress Said of those troops that not a single american boot would go and fight a foreign war unless we were attacked. As you know, he made the United States which congress passed, the arsenal of democracy and we began sending aid to the brits. But he agreed that none of that aid would go in an American Ship or under protection of the u. S. Navy. So effectively lots of those tanks and airplanes and bombs and guns and bullets and brain and oil and Aviation Fuel and scrap metal the british were dependent on to continue that fight went to the bottom of the ocean as the german uboats carried out their attacks. A year after the fall of europe, we were the arsenal of democracy. We are not the army of democracy. We were working hard to give the brits and the chinese weapons to save our skins. So why was the us so isolationist . Why werent we coming to the aid of the british, the chinese and the small nations of the world. And the horrors and atrocities against jews and polls and others in nazi germany and conquered lands, why did we remain the arsenal and not the army of democracy. The isolationists came from across the political spectrum, came from the communist party, to the nazi invasion, soviet union on june 22, 1941, when they did a uturn and said it is time for the us to come to the aid and defeat hitler but also active fascist sympathizers in the United States, quite a lot of them. Among them one who figures in my book is still johnson who would be the most influential architect in the world and was already a major tastemaker. He went into poland with the nazi army at the beginning of world war ii in september 1939 as a reporter for father Charles Conklin and his antisemitic pronazi social justice publication. He went along side by the german propaganda ministry, the cbs radio correspondent, and like scheier, he came back to the United States basically talking about what he had seen and what his view on it, johnsons case advocating isolation and sympathy for the nazis and scheier warning about the inevitability of war. Those are the elements americans were exposed to but there were other isolationists. This included Ted Roosevelt junior, the son of president Theodore Roosevelt, the rough rider, president Franklin Roosevelts fifth cousin. He was Ted Roosevelt junior, a hero from world war i, cofounder of the American Legion and later he would be a hero in world war ii at utah beach on dday. The oyster bay roosevelts hated the hyde park roosevelts and there was a family battle and a political battle and the oyster bay roosevelts were cited with the isolationists and Franklin Roosevelt was pushing toward intervention in the war. Others included former president Herbert Hoover and perennial socialist candidate norman thomas. College campuses were hotbeds of antiwar fervor almost as much as during the vietnam war. Thanks to orders from american weapons and goods, and for the First Time Since the great depression. You can understand from an Economic Perspective people didnt want to go to war. They wanted to enjoy they could finally purchase a refrigerator, finally had enough food to eat. There were other reasons. There were the enduring memories of the wiping out of a generation of young european men in the trenches of the western front in world war i. There were also these basic questions about rescuing the king of england and historys largest colonial empire. Through this all, fdr was not idle. Unlike president wilson whom he served during world war i who in the run up to world war i said we have to be neutral in thought and act, president roosevelt pursued what were recognized quite widely as nonneutral actions. Most significantly, he was sending the American Navy ever deeper into the Atlantic Ocean toward europe in what were called the neutrality patrols. The neutrality patrols involved American Ships finding foreign warships and announcing on Clear Channel in plain english their presence. Usually long enough for the british to come up and the American Ships would drop away. Was overseas along the basis for the destroyer deal. It was also in secret sending american flyers. We had American Naval airmen flying with the raf. It was an american who found bismarck and was almost blown out of the sky. What eventually resulted in the destruction of the bismarck. He was unafraid of using subterfuge and constitutionally dubious means to get aid to the chinese and british. The antiwar forces were organized, passionate and powerful and also had the majority of american money behind them. A group of yale students formed what became the committee for America First. Organizations platform called for no intervention, no arms for foreign nations. And soli American Home defense, founders and leaders and members of that group included at yale, brewster who would be president of yale during the vietnam war, and ambassador to london, a future Supreme Court justice, connor stewart, reminder of the peace corps, future president gerald ford, at harvard, the son of ambassador Joseph Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy junior the head of the chapter there. John kennedy send 100 donation in the American First Committee that what you are doing was so vital. In addition american newspapers were by and large opposed to intervention. The hearst newspaper chain in particular but also the Chicago Tribune which was a massive loudspeaker in the upper midwest. The new york daily news, deeply opposed to intervention, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh became America Firsts chief spokesman, the organizations membership boomed to 800,000 members, the largest antiwar organization in American History. With lindbergh speaking american first rallies drew tens of thousands. They often had what we are recently seen, a trump quality to them. They were raucous, a heavily antiimmigrant flavor to them. There was a lot of people who had highly reactionary and in many ways bigoted outlooks including pronazi views. Sometimes they turned violent with protests and clashes, supporters. I spent many hours going through limburgs diary that the university, elegant black books, leather bound, made particular notes about his thoughts and views. I made a number of studies of the man and was pretty shocked by how many antisemitic entries there are and his obsession with jews and their suppose it influence on the push for the us to support the british. These entries were largely expurgated from published version of the diary. And what he thought was the jews were the major force pushing the us into the war and he warned in his diary that pushing the nation too far would result in violent reaction and he said it would be worse here than it is in germany. He would say things like a ventilator broke down at a rally and jews sabotaged it. Jews were searching his image, above all he criticized what he saw as the hidden influence of jews in the media and advertisers. There is clear evidence that other than the New York Times and hollywood, jews had insignificant ownership of the media at the time. The New York Times supported fdrs opponent Wendell Wilkie in the 1940 election. From 1940 through 1941 the political scene became a duel between fdr and lindbergh for the hearts and minds of the American People. He 6j edgar hoover and the fbi on him. Digging into his past to find dirt on the man, called him in so many words a traitor. His cabinet members were far more vitriolic in their attacks on him. There was another shadow war going on at this time. A clandestine cloak and dagger war with foreign agents from Great Britain, germany and japan in the United States. They were engaged in trying to manipulate us public opinion, they were spying on each other, the british, to monitor german activities in south america and close them off, close off trade and there is the possibility that the british were even involved in the murder of a nazi sympathizer us senator in an airplane crash of unexplained causes. No intelligence force compared in size and activity the British Security coordination which was set up in Rockefeller Center in midtown manhattan called the british passport control office, they had 3000 agents there. Churchill sent william stevenson, swashbuckling operative among his agents with ian fleming who uses experience later on as his model for james bond and set up a school for spy operations over the border from new york state and canada. They sent protesters to break up America First meetings, identified german agents in the United States and tried to out them in sympathetic newspapers and other media and forged documents which tried to implicate germany, planning for an invasion of the western hemisphere. Fdr for instance got a map supposedly showing germanys Plan Organization of south america after its takeover, spoke about this in public, refused to share, to show it to anybody but apparently it was obvious that it was a forgery by j edgar hoover. I do an injustice to my book if i didnt talk about a man i consider the hero of the period and that is Harry Hopkins. Harry hopkins moved into the white house in may 1940 with the invasion of france. He was the guest who never left. He stayed until the end of the war and he and fdr became hand and glove. He was a man many people called the deputy president. Politics and the wheelchair kept fdr stuck in washington and hyde park, he sent Harry Hopkins as his emissary to meet with churchill to see if churchill was a man he could depend upon as an ally. Hopkins came back saying have to do what we can to keep the British Isles afloat. Hopkins was the administrator overseeing glenn lease out of his bedroom in the white house despite the fact he had no official position and no salary. The president sent him after the invasion of the soviet union to meet with joseph stalin. Stalin to Many Americans was no better than hitler, communism potentially worse than fascism and he and stalin created a relationship that enabled the us to extend lease to the soviets and make what many felt it would be a quick fall of the soviet union into ultimately the pathway to complete destruction of hitler. Now, what fdr did to keep the british and russians from losing was vital, but to win would require us entry into the war. Fdr was unwilling to buckley isolationists. He was a hamlet when the world needed henry v. He was unable to fire the first shot. He wanted to door hitler into firing the first shot until the American People would push him to war. Shockingly, as we know, those shots that finally brought the us into the war, out of the shadows, were not german. And of course, to tell you, spoiler alert, the climax, epilogue, end of my book, the us was attacked at pearl harbor. We went to war. We joined the grand alliance that defeated tierney around the world. With that, thank you. [applause] please, i welcome your questions. At the microphone, so listeners at home can here. A question about Charles Lindbergh and his legacy. How badly in this period in American History harmed his legacy do you think . Clearly his legacy is a very mixed one. His name is on streets and schools and a major us airport, so obviously he is honored in many ways. The spirit of st. Louis hangs in the air and space museum in washington. His legacy is a complex one and no question about it, philip ross wrote a terrific novel, plot against america. In America First, was actually planning in 1941 to turn political in 1942 and there were people in the audience at his rally who would say shout out lindbergh for president. There was no evidence i have seen that lindbergh had any intention of running for office. It is a very murky, ambivalent legacy that he has but no question about that. He was a complex man and a brilliant man and a brave one. But from the standpoint of what took place in world war ii during that period, i side with Henry Stimson who said when lindbergh came to washington after pearl harbor to ask for his commission back, Henry Stimson said anybody who spoke out against the interests of his country the way you did did not lead our fighting forces. Lindbergh never regained his military commission. And was forced against his will to work stateside in the development of aircraft and eventually he did on his own go to the pacific and fly fighting missions, but these were entirely is a free boot or. Retired from the university of pittsburgh. I have a question, there was not the influence behind the Peace Movement on College Campuses, interviewing one of the alumni, talks about the Peace Movement, there was a Huge Movement across College Campuses. Have you discovered any truth to that . Pacifism on College Campuses that spread so much during the 1930s . The question of how these organizations in the case of organized efforts, what support they received possibly from the German Embassy, the German Embassy and its consulates were actively supporting various organizations. I would say that in fact the communist party was far more influential on College Campuses and in the antiwar movement. I havent come across direct 1to1 evidence that says there were specific infiltrators from nazi germany. There was no question many of these organizations had support from the German Embassy. They had to be very careful. Although americans, we have to understand although americans were highly isolationist, they were also highly sympathetic to what was happening particularly to the british as the reports began to come back from thanks to Edward Morrow and shire in berlin. As their reports were coming back about the bombing of london and the horrors the nazis were visiting on people, there was always a danger that if they were discovered supporting any specific organization, that organization would then get trouble. On the other hand there were congressman. There is plenty of evidence for this. Congressman who had German Embassy personnel coming to congress writing out their speeches for them. There was that aspect that is quite clear. Confessions of a not the spy, that movie. There was evidence of certain activities but they had to be careful. They did not want to be discovered. Any number of times, everybody has, about how fdr with the best of intentions to aid the brits and russians and others violated the law, violated the neutrality act with other actions. What i dont recall reading and i would like you to respond is to what degree if at all there was any legal challenge mounted to the actions fdr took to block them . That is a good question. I am not aware of a direct court challenge. But i may simply not be aware. Fdr it was passed by congress. It was a law that was passed. As far as his other actions, as he began to actually send the navy further and further out we occupied iceland, a sovereign nation in july 1941. We had American Forces patrolling within a few hundred miles of Great Britain deep in the combat zone. Some of our ships were sunk of course and he actually got an opinion from his lawyers saying in fact he had the right, as president , to actually convoy ships even without congressional approval. Only very late did he actually begin to send convoys out. With that i think you. I will be in the hall to sign books and happy to talk with you further. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] and now the final program from this