“So, September 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland. This is where my book starts.”
Speaking recently at the University of Texas (Austin) was Paul M. Sparrow, former director of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library. His new book is about FDR, his conflict with Charles Lindbergh, and his interactions with Winston Churchill. It is also about Eleanor Roosevelt.
In his opening remarks, Sparrow related what happened in the multiple crises of the 1930s and 40s with the crisis facing the American system today.
“It is the belief which that Lincoln had, Teddy Roosevelt had, JFK had, Reagan had, FDR had: which is that we have to believe in the American system. Ultimately, we have to work to realize the American dream, which remains imperfect. And that even in the darkest days of the Great Depression and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Civil War, these great leaders, never lost faith in America, never lost faith in what they’re trying to do, even though we do it imperfectly.
“And to me that’s the message of his book, and we get to the end of the book, and it’s like FDR believed he never lost faith, despite everything that was going on. And we have to have that same belief. We have to work together.”
“One of the things that makes him so fascinating is that he had this ability to speak to the common man, to speak to people in the language that they understood through use of visual metaphors, through use of symbols, through very simple language.” His language in private was equally direct, although these private conversations have only come to light in more recent years. An example is his opinion of Lindbergh.
They engaged in a war of words, which started out primarily philosophical policy-based, but it became personal over time. In the late 1930s FDR was building up the Air Force. But in a radio broadcast to the nation, Lindbergh says, “Air strength depends more upon the establishment of intelligent and consistent policies than upon the sudden construction of huge number of airplanes.”
“In other words,” said Sparrow of Lindbergh’s attack, “this idiot in the White House doesn’t know what he’s doing. If we had better policies, we’d be safer than just building a bunch of planes.”
Shortly afterwards, FDR was having breakfast with his Treasury Secretary, Henry Morginthau, who was also a good friend of his. This is Henry’s diary: The middle of breakfast, after Roosevelt puts down his fork, he looks Morginthau right in the eye and says, “If I die tomorrow, I want you to know I think Lindbergh’s a Nazi.”
Sparrow noted that “even in the published versions of Lindbergh’s diary, he turns out things that are clearly pretty blatantly anti-Semitic, but the unpublished versions are even worse.” Lindbergh showed pleasure when given an award by Goering, at the command of Hitler himself.
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Now, I love Eleanor,” Sparrow said in his talk at UT. “There’s one regret I have about this book because I didn’t get to spend enough time talking about Eleanor because this is not a period where she is as important as she is during other periods on the presidency. In my opinion, she’s not only the most influential first lady in American history, but arguably one of the most important women in American history. and she was beloved in her party.”
During the Democratic convention when FDR was about to be made the nominee for the third time, Eleanor was at her home in Valkill, in Hyde Park, New York (it is now the only historic site dedicated to a First Lady). She wanted no part in the convention, but it was in a state of pandemonium over the selection of a Vice-presidential pick. FDR wanted Henry Wallace, but many thought he was too left-wing.
“So she flies in the middle of the night to Chicago. It’s chaos at the convention, it’s middle of July, it’s 10 o’clock at night, it’s hot, they’ve been fighting all day. And unannounced, Eleanor Roosevelt walks out on the stage before 20,000 people. And at first nobody senses what’s happening. And then they start to realize and they start to cheer.
“And this is really one of those moments that I think define, not only her, but sort of this political moment. So, she walks out there and she says, ‘This is no ordinary time. My husband is facing these unprecedented crises. You have to give him the tools you need. You have to support whoever he wants to be his vice president.’”
“Now, I’ve looked at her speech – she didn’t write the speech out. It’s half a page of notes. In which that line, ‘this is no ordinary time,’ does not appear. She improvised that line in front of 20,000 people with the most vulnerable moment of her husband’s career. It may sound familiar because it’s the title of Doris Goodwin’s Pulitzer winning book on the Roosevelts, No Ordinary Time. And, you know, in less than 15 minutes, she completely converts this convention. She leaves the stage, people are cheering and screaming and clapping and they nominate Henry Wallace to be FDR’s vice president. She literally single-handedly saves this convention and puts FDR on a track to run for president, for an unprecedented third term.”
Lend-Lease Agreement
On December 17, 1940, FDR had a press conference in the Oval Office and he says, “I don’t have much news report today guys, but there’s one thing, you know,” and he starts telling the story about if your neighbor’s house is on fire and he comes over and asks to borrow your garden hose.
Paraphrasing FDR in his talk (the exact quote is on page 129-130 of the book), Sparrow said “You’re not going to charge him for the garden hose. You got to lend him the garden hose and he puts out the fire. He’ll give you the garden hose back. And if the garden hose is damaged, he will replace it.”
“Simple, persuasive, generous. ‘Raise your hand if you wouldn’t lend your neighbor a garden hose to put out the fire.’ Everybody gets it. So, he’s laying the groundwork of this idea of being a good neighbor and lending things to a neighbor.
“And he does a fireside chat on December 29, which is really rather extraordinary. When he talks about the idea of America being a great arsenal of democracy, there can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. ‘There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We must be the great arsenal of democracy,’ FDR said.
“And again, this visual metaphor – reasoning with a bomb – that’s not a random statement, because every single day, American public are reading about the Germans dropping incendiary bombs on London and killing men, women and children. This is happening to our closest ally, England.
“And then just a week later, he gives his eighth state of the union address, which I think is probably one of the most important 10 unions in American history.
“He lays out his Lend-Lease plan, the idea that we’re going to lend equipment to England, making the point that our weapons are more valuable in England than in our warehouses, and that is better for us to use our industrial might on the front line. So we’re protecting our soldiers, our most precious possession. Then at the end of this speech, he just turns the corner in a really extraordinary way: he starts talking about these four essential freedoms.
“The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person, the worship done in his own way, everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, and the fourth is freedom from fear, anywhere in the world.
“He’s saying, here’s the four freedoms that we all believe in, that are the foundation of the American dream, the American experiment.”
Pearl Harbor: Lindbergh and Churchill
“A day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh essentially shuts down America First, his organization that supported appeasement of Hitler [it is the same name DT uses in his appeasement of 21st century dictators]. He’s burned so many bridges in Washington that he can’t get a job. So, he goes to work for Henry Ford. Ford had built a half mile long factory to build B-24 bombers and it had not been going well there – way behind schedule. Lindbergh comes in and actually does a lot of good to help with it.
“There’s a somewhat shocking ending to the Lindbergh story, which you have to buy my book to get! (this was greeted with laughter by the audience at UT) Anyway, towards the end of World War II, Lindbergh actually went to Pacific and worked with the US Marine pilots there to help fix their planes and make them more efficient, more range, more renewable. And then as a private citizen, without any sort of official sanctioning, flew 50 combat missions.
“So Churchill immediately jumps on a boat after Pearl Harbor, comes in the United States, moves into the Lincoln bedroom right down the hall from FDR’s bedroom. And the two of them start negotiating with the military about how they’re going to move forward with this. Now, what’s kind of funny is that they would stay up late, they would smoke, they would drink, they would growl, they would drive everybody crazy.
“Their main effort was to put together this international coalition of countries that were good countries that were going to pledge to fight fascism around the world while their military leaders are sort of coming up with strategy. And it was going to be called the Associated Powers. FDR really didn’t like it, but the announcement was going to be on January 1st. They were typing up the final documents for signing, and then FDR had a thought. He says, “We’ll call it the United Nations.””
I have just highlighted three sections here, but this is a comprehensive look at how Roosevelt managed America in a very isolationist era. A very fine book indeed, and one that should be read by everyone before they cast a vote in the 2024 election.
There is a typo in the book: on pg 15, pinister should be minister.
Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR’s War of Words with Charles Lindbergh – and the Battle to Save Democracy is by Pegasus Books. It lists for $29.95.
Photo: Sparrow (with Churchill in background) holding his book. Photo by C. Cunningham