THRESHOLD OF WAR
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Entry
into World War II
Waldo Heinrichs
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988
279 pp., $21.95
ROOSEVELT AND DE GAULLE
Raoul Aglion
New York: Free Press, 1988
237 pp., $22.50
ROOSEVELT AND STALIN
Robert Nisbet
Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1989
115 pp., $14.95
The giant figure of Franklin D. Roosevelt sprawls across the history of the 1930s and 1940s and no less than three of the greatest crises that the United States and the Western world have ever faced: the Great Depression, World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War. Whether people love Roosevelt or hate him--remarkably few people, even from generations that never knew him, have managed to be neutral about him--Roosevelt is likely to remain a towering figure. In part, of course, this is because many of his successors, and especially those who have occupied the office of president since 1960, have not been very impressive, to put it kindly. It is probably too early to assess Ronald Reagan's administration, but it may be argued that Roosevelt's reputation will not suffer by comparison. His historiographical standing remains impressive, although it has undoubtedly declined since 1945. Scholarly critics have raised serious questions about Roosevelt's leadership in foreign policy, a trend typified by Robert Divine's brief survey, Roosevelt and World War II.
Since one of the chief impulses of our era is to "mutilate the images of gods and heroes," it is at first sight surprising that Roosevelt's reputation has not suffered more. Probably this is due to the fact that it would be hard, or at least tedious, to mount a full-blown demolition job on the career of a man who was president for twelve event-filled years and dealt with remarkably different problems. Even conservatives have failed to produce anything since Edgar E. Robinson's unimpressive (although surprisingly objective) 1955 study, The Roosevelt Leadership.
Evaluations of Roosevelt's leadership and his era turn on three issues: the New Deal and its consequences, Roosevelt's management of the war effort against the Axis, and his dealings with the Allies during the war--principally with the Soviets and the French. The New Deal has gradually ceased to be a burning issue, but the war remains an emotional matter. Yet, until the recent publication of Eric Larrabee's Commander in Chief, a remarkably small amount of attention has been paid to Roosevelt's leadership after Pearl Harbor, although Richard Leighton, among others, pointed out many years ago that Roosevelt's role was considerably greater than was generally realized. Historians have concentrated on the period of the undeclared war before Pearl Harbor, and their recent judgments have not been especially favorable to FDR. It has been popular to maintain that Roosevelt was indecisive and overcautious, sluggish in going to the aid of Britain after the fall of France, and perhaps even trailing behind
...
Read Full Article
|
