Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040065
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In hindsight, each tells a useful tale of unintended consequence, or how our beginnings seldom know our endings.
Next to Washington and Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the most successful and significant political leader in American history. His understanding of the role of president in a time of grave national crisis probably was the most astute of any occupant of the office before or since. Yet, considering his aristocratic antecedents and partial paralysis, it was remarkable he held it at all, much less for three tumultuous terms and part of a fourth.
Like other successful leaders, Roosevelt understood the president couldn't do everything. He must save his energies to embody the nation's will to succeed. He confronted but did not solve the problems of the Great Depression, as witnessed by the Republican comeback in the congressional elections of 1938. That he was not universally beloved might be seen in the fact that his share of the major-party vote was reduced to 53 percent in 1944, when he sought a fourth term as the nation moved toward victory on all fronts.
While we can debate the long-term effect of the welfare state begun by Roosevelt, his contribution to a reasonably quick victory (less than four years from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) is indisputable. Deflecting a strong preference for neutrality in American domestic politics, even as Hitler consolidated his hold on Europe and marched to the gates of Moscow, FDR brilliantly maneuvered the country into an unofficial alliance with Britain. He also may have tempted a Japanese attack as the only way around the impasse.
Had Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany at any point prior to Pearl Harbor, he almost certainly wouldn't have got it. Even after Pearl Harbor, he might have had difficulty persuading the nation to go after Germany first, as he wanted. Fortunately, the silly Hitler solved the problem by declaring war on America.
Considering the forfeits that were paid in the early days of the war by reason of unpreparedness, it's remarkable that we took the offensive against both Germany and Japan before the first year was out, and never looked back. The true test of those occupying the highest positions of leadership lies in the choice of talented subordinates. In that respect, Roosevelt exceeded every president: His team was magnificent.
Hitler completed the ruination of German prosperity and reputation begun by Kaiser Wilhelm in the 1914-18 war. Ironically, German science and industry, already among the greatest in the world in 1914, could easily have won the wealth and influence that militarism sought in vain.
No warlord in history cast away with his own hands so many chances at victory as Hitler. He always said he wouldn't make the Kaiser's mistake of having to fight a war on two fronts. Yet, he struck Russia in 1941 without having settled with Great Britain first. And by foolishly declaring war on America after Pearl Harbor, he gave FDR a fair chance of getting his way in making the defeat of Germany our No. 1 priority.
Even then, the merest fraction of the vast resources Hitler threw away in Russia could have assured his control of North Africa and the Mediterranean. That would have prevented Britain and America from using them as a base of operations against Italy and Southern Europe. But after all his blunders, Hitler could have concentrated his forces on the defense of Germany itself. Instead, he tried to hold all the ground upon which he stood in his glory days and was nowhere supreme.
The Allied invasion of Europe in 1944 is now seen as a foregone success. But a proper disposition of German forces might easily have turned it back, as Winston Churchill always feared. Don't forget, the maximum forces that could be landed in Normandy consisted of only a handful of divisions. Many more stood behind, of course, but could be deployed only if the beachhead was won. The totality of German power even at that late date in the war consisted of more than 150 divisions!
But even if Hitler had been a better strategist, he would have been defeated by the atomic bomb, almost perfected when he died. Many have suggested we wouldn't have used it against a European race. But Hitler's crimes, so many of which gained him nothing, are ample warrant the bomb would have been used against Germany had the invasion of Europe failed. In another ironic twist, it was a great Jewish scientist driven from Germany by Hitlerism who persuaded Roosevelt to go all out in building the bomb.
The atomic bomb did not revolutionize warfare, as many predicted in 1945. But it did revolutionize diplomacy. It is foolish to say it shouldn't have been used. President Truman would have been impeached had he refused to use it. But by using it, America went a long way toward assuring it wouldn't be used on a larger scale in a future conflict. Its mere existence required the great powers to approach each other with extreme care, and only through proxy wars such as Vietnam.
Again, the irony is that communism collapsed not through war, where it had a pretty good record of success, but through the inherent inefficiencies of its economic system.
The age of conquerors, represented by Hitler and Ho Chi Minh, has passed into the age of consumers, represented by Coca-Cola and those famous purveyors of hamburgers. Of all the states of the modern world, only America thus far has proved itself a master of both.
Just as Hitler defeated his earliest foes in their minds before he beat them in battle, America lost in Vietnam. But the victorious North Vietnamese have now appeared as supplicants at our table. This country may not be elegant, but it is flexible and immensely practical. That was what made Roosevelt great, and the lack of that beat Hitler.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB