Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945: With a New Afterword (Oxford Paperbacks)

684 Pages·1995·46.39 MB·English

by  Robert Dallek

Franklin D. Roosevelt
and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945

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Franklin D. Roosevelt
and American Foreign Policy,
1932-1945
With a New Afterword
ROBERT DALLEK
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York Oxford
1995
FOR MATTHEW AND REBECCA
Oxford University Press
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1995, 1979 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
First published in 1979 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1981;
with an Afterword, 1995
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dallek, Robert.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign
Policy, 1932-1945
Bibliography: p. Includes index.
i. United States—Foreign relations—1932-1945
2. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, Pres. U.S., 1882-1945
I. Title.
E806.D33 327.73 78-7910
ISBN 0-19-502457-5 ISBN 0-19-509732-7 pbk.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
PREFACE
THIS BOOK HAS two general purposes: to meet the need for a compre-
hensive one-volume study of Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy, and
to wrestle anew with the many intriguing questions about that subject.
The nineteen seventies have been a good time to reconsider FDR's
direction of foreign affairs. The appearance of a large and generally ex-
cellent specialized literature and the availability of almost the entire
American and British record on foreign relations in the thirties and the
forties allowed me to reappraise and revise significant parts of the
Roosevelt story, particularly on the war years. The London Economic
Conference of 1933, the Spanish Civil War, the Quarantine Address,
Munich, the Welles Mission of 1940, the Atlantic Conference of 1941,
American participation in the war, wartime policy toward Russia and
China, the origins of the Unconditional Surrender doctrine, Trusteeships,
the Morgenthau Plan, and the Atomic Bomb are some of the principal
subjects on which I think Roosevelt's intentions have not been fully
understood.
Roosevelt's actions, as many others have observed, are not easy to ex-
plain. Rexford G. Tugwell, one of his advisers and biographers, has writ-
ten, "[He] deliberately concealed the processes of his mind. He would
rather have posterity believe that for him everything was always plain and
easy . . . than ever to admit to any agony of indecision . . . any mis-
giving about mistakes." ". . . You are one of the most difficult men to
work with that I have ever known," Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes
once told FDR. "Because I get too hard at times?" the President asked.
"No," Ickes answered, because ". . . you won't talk frankly even with
people who are loyal to you. . . . You keep your cards close up against
your belly. You never put them on the table."
I make no claim to some special technique for deciphering Roosevelt's
motives. My method has been to reconstruct as fully as possible the con-
text in which he acted. Following Roosevelt in this way gives one the feel-
ing of peering into a kaleidoscope in which a shifting array of pressures
moved him from one position to another: his own ideas, domestic con-
siderations, and foreign events, either individually or in various combina-
tions, determined Roosevelt's behavior in foreign affairs. The challenge
viii PREFACE
in explaining FDR is to determine which of these forces influenced him
at any given time. Some of my answers will undoubtedly stir debate. That
would be all to the good. Roosevelt's presidency is among the most im-
portant in American history and deserves continuing scrutiny. It will re-
main a continuing source of interest and instruction to the nation.
A number of people and institutions have aided me in my work on this
book. Professor Lawrence W. Levine of the University of California,
Berkeley, provided me with a detailed and challenging critique of the full
manuscript. I am particularly indebted to him for persuading me to re-
think several important points in my explanation of Roosevelt's actions.
Professor Richard Weiss, my old friend and colleague at UCLA, also
read the entire manuscript and offered penetrating suggestions for im-
provement. As important, he generously listened to my ideas as I wrote
and raised a number of useful points which I have incorporated into the
book. Professor Warren Kimball of Rutgers University, who is preparing
a definitive edition of the Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence, eased my
way through these extensive materials by providing me with descriptions
of the content and location of each exchange. He also read the manu-
script for the period 1939-45 and raised a number of valuable questions
about interpretation and made useful suggestions for additions. Professor
Robert Jervis of the Political Science Department at UCLA and Professor
Christopher Thorne of the University of Sussex, England, also helped
clarify some of my ideas in conversations about my work. Professor
William E. Leuchtenburg of Columbia University called materials in
the Robert W. Bingham and James Farley papers to my attention and
helped me win fellowships for released time from teaching. Professors
Richard W. Leopold of Northwestern University, Ernest R. May of
Harvard University and Fritz Stern of Columbia University also gener-
ously supported these requests for fellowships.
My thanks to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and
to the National Endowment for the Humanities for providing me with
fellowships which allowed me to devote two full years to research and
writing. The Eleanor Roosevelt Institute of the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Library aided me with a generous grant for travel and reproduction of
materials during one year. The UCLA Academic Senate supported me
with a series of grants for such work during several other years.
I am also indebted to the staff of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
for helping me work through the Library's rich holdings. To this, I wish
to add a special note of thanks to Dr. William R. Emerson, the Library's
Director, and to William J. Stewart, the Library's former Associate
Director. They helped make my journeys to Hyde Park more valuable
and interesting than they may have realized. I also wish to thank the staffs
PREFACE IX
of the Manuscript Divisions of the Columbia University, Harvard Uni-
versity, Hoover Institution, University of California, Berkeley, University
of Virginia, and Yale University Libraries and of the Library of Congress,
the National Archives, and the British Public Record Office.
A word of appreciation to the excellent people at the Oxford University
Press, New York, is also in order. Sheldon Meyer, the Vice President,
worked with me on this book from its inception and provided me with
valuable encouragement and suggestions throughout the long period of
research and writing. Leona Capeless, the Managing Editor, and Annabel
Tyrrell, the copy editor on the book, saved me from numerous errors,
for which I warmly thank them.
Finally, my wife, Geradine R. Dallek, helped sustain me in this work
with patience, understanding, and a thoughtful critique which has both
improved the book and made it more understandable to the general
reader.
R.D.
Los Angeles, California
June 1978