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The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II
vBulletin Book Store > vBulletin books beginning with N
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The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II |
Author: Thomas Fleming
Published: 2002-06 |
List price: $24.95
Our price: $17.72
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As of: December 02nd, 2008 03:17:43 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 A great look at FDR and his regime.
This is a really strong analysis of FDR and what he really was. In many ways I feel we will see a strong resemblance to the current upcoming President and what the people of the 30's and 40's saw. Obviously, we as a people have not learned our history well.
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br /A great read. I'd suggest this book to anyone.
 The wartime conflict at home
Fleming throws wartime hagiography out the window and lifts the lid off the political and personality conflicts within FDR's wartime cabinet. The picture that emerges is of deep conflict between the Cabinet's right as represented by Byrnes and the left as represented by ("the best Secretary of Agriculture ever") Henry Wallace. FDR himself seems to have played both sides against the other convincing both that he was 'one of them'.
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br /In some ways this conflict is rather symbolic. The "right" of FDR's cabinet was close to both big business and the military. They sought victory and in many ways were the first generation of "the military-industrial complex". The "left" sought to use the war to not only complete the New Deal social reforms at home but to export their 'liberal' ideals to the world.
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br /The "New Deal left" demanded no compromise with the foreign 'right', for example the Vichy French rulers of North Africa. Even if it provided tactical advantage, and were willingly blind to the foreign 'left'. The obvious criminality of Stalin and even the evidence of Soviet role in the massacre of the Polish officer corps in the Katyn forests show these 'humanitarians' to be amazingly short of humanity, at least when it came to groups other than their preferred victim groups.
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br /These internal cabinet and personality feuds within the Roosevelt administration in some ways prefigure the political debates of our time. FDR himself has since been painted as belonging to each of these factions and fathering both their progeny. In the end he remains a somewhat inscrutable character, although I suspect Fleming gives us some clues to the 'real FDR' in his discussion of the largely unacknowledged influence of Teddy Roosevelt on FDR's thinking.
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br /Fleming starts with what must be one of the great unsolved issues of WW2. Who leaked the US Army's "Rainbow 5" plan in the weeks before Pearl Harbor and why? Fleming provides no definitive answers to the mystery, but whoever was behind it, FDR certainly managed to exploit the issue to accuse isolationists of disloyalty. Whoever leaked Rainbow 5, it seems to have played a role in Hitler's post-Pearl Harbor declaration of war on the US.
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br /The "Rainbow 5" story is little remembered today. Other surprises in Fleming's book include discussion of Poltava air field, an experimental USAAF air base on the Eastern front (where the degree of Soviet non-cooperation indicated that the Cold War may have begun earlier than most accounts maintain). Then there was Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov's demands that FDR purge his State Department of it's corps of "anti-Soviet" specialists (this team comprised most of the State Department's real expertise on the USSR, they were all, or had become, anti-communists) and FDR's effective compliance with Litvinov's demands. Also there are details of the Truman vice presidency. Closer in spirit to the 'right faction', and amongst other things wanting to 'bury the hatchet' with formerly "isolationist" inclined Democrats, many of whom split with FDR over the "Court stacking" issue, Truman effectively came into the White House blind.
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br /Another surprise to me was just how sick FDR was in his final months, I knew from most accounts he had 'deteriorated' but the degree and duration was worse than I had imagined. The replacement of Wallace with Truman as his Vice President was essentially a campaign conducted in FDR's absence. He was too ill, focusing as best he could on Yalta and just let it all happen without him. Frankly cabinet and Congress were remiss in not demanding his stepping down much earlier, it was after all a time of war. Young Americans were being asked to die for their country, surely a fit leader was not an unreasonable demand. Why didn't he resign? Fleming doesn't flag this, but his description of FDR's decline is quite thought provoking. This struck me as quite scandalous. To have a man this ill running a country of war would seem to me (although apparently no one else) as tantamount to a dereliction of duty.
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br /Although he doesn't touch the issue of FDR's later day fitness for office, Fleming does not shirk controversy. He sees FDR's failure to deal with the German resistance as a great failing. Here "teutonophobia", as common in Britain as the US, something FDR shared with his ancestor Teddy Roosevelt, blinded the allies to opportunities to end the war sooner and on more favourable terms to the west. One wonders if "islamophobia" today may be yielding similar deficits today. He also examines FDR's widely debated and criticised (see, for example, Hanson Baldwin) demand for "unconditional surrender" and provides an unusual probable source of it's origin. FDR's relative Teddy Roosevelt. TR insisted on 'unconditional surrender' in World War 1, perhaps FDR wanted to vindicate his predecessor's vision.
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br /Although Fleming is generally considered a right winger, he makes no criticism of FDR's domestic economic program. Indeed his few comments on the issue are positive. Similarly he praises Wallace for being 'ahead of his time' on issues of women's rights and civil rights for African Americans. Interestingly I get the impression Truman was, at least in the later case, closer to Wallace's position than was FDR himself.
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br /The book is well written and easy to read. Fleming's notes and referencing are thorough. Fleming has the knack of making well known history seem new and sometimes you can't wait to turn the page, even though you know how it all turns out in the end. It's inspired me to read Fleming's World War 1 volume.
bias?
Could Publisher's weekly at least try to hide their extreme liberal agenda and quit doing hack jobs on truthful books that do not go along with their globalist agenda?
Great!
I have just had the unique pleasure of reading Thomas Fleming's New Dealer' War and am singularly impressed with the work. Fleming essentially holds that FDR and his cabal of New Dealers sought war with Germany for years before its offical outbreak in 1941. In this, Fleming's thesis affirms that of Charles Tansill, author of "Back Door To War". In fact, Fleming also used the term "back door" to describe the administration's strategy of maneuvering the Japanese, allies of Germany, into firing the first shot, thereby justifying American entry of the European war.
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br /Within the pages of this excellent history, we are also treated to much insider information relative to the infighting and machinations of FDR's administrations. It is fascinating to note in this how he treated Secretary of State Hull as pretty much of a figure head, whilst relying on his friend of long standing, Sumner Welles, as Hull's nominal deputy. Equally interesting is FDR's reliance on men later revealed to be Soviet agents, Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White.
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br /The writing is excellent, and the overall thesis is brilliantly portrayed. There is an important aspect in which we differ strongly with Fleming's representations relative to one specific matter. But that is not relevant enough to the entire story nor damaging enough to the overall presentation to merit further comment. We recommend this excellent history highly to all who would know the background of our involvement in World War II and the operation of FDR's presidency.
 Scurrilous is not a strong enough adjective
I did get get through 50 pages of this pseudo-history before giving up. I had hoped to find new insights into an intriguing period of history but instead encountered a continuous re-hash of half truths and tired stories. The invective used by the writer would discourage any person who is trying to learn the truth. I did learn one new thing! Another species of ideologue was identified-an "interventionist". Please, no more of these inane labels. In any case it seems that the author had his opinions set before he wrote the book and then tried to justify his views with this unfortunate work.
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