"Either he was too friendly with Stalin or he didn't correctly percieve how evil he was. This mistake is a large black mark against him and pulls him down off the "greatest list.""
You are onto something here; but I would go farther.
FDR was pink through and through, and had a dozen or more Communist sympathizers as advisers. He admired and supported Stalin, and instituted aid to the USSR (equipment, advisors) before we were at war, and in variance with the desires of the American people (and his promises to them, to keep the USA out of the war) and against America's neutrality law/position.
His choice for VP in his final Presidential run was a Communist sympathizer by the name of Harry Wallace (I am struggling to remember the name, something like that?). The Democratic Senators balked at that, and went to FDR and basically said "No Way" -- that is how Truman got on the ticket; and Thank God for that!
His call for the Unconditional Surrender of Germany is inexplicable, leading to millions of more deaths, and the handing over of Eastern Europe to Stalin. Eisenhower and Dulles advised FDR to accept Rommel's behind the scenes negotiations to surrender the entire Western front! FDR refused. His plan for Germany was the Morgenthau plan, under which Germany would be turned into a pastoral country with no industry, much less arms. THE MORGENTHAU PLAN IS ONE REASON THE GERMAN PEOPLE AND ORDINARY FORCES FOUGHT AS LONG AS THEY DID. And FDR left them NO out except unconditonal surrender and hence, acceptance of the Morgenthau plan.
He refused to work with the brave German resistance, which, according to Wm. Casey's book (recall, Casey was Reagan's CIA director) could have ended the war BEFORE the bloody Normandy invasion.
Frankly I am SICK of conservatives calling FDR a great president! Hannity, Rush, too. Read some history, guys! Don't swallow the conventional liberal propaganda about FDR! Enough time has passed for a critical historical assessment- and there are books out there which do. Geesh! Should I go on? ;)
Interesting. Please do. Can you say a few words about how, when, and why our monetary system was converted from cash to credit (debt)? Thanks.
What would you say about his foresight to build hydroelectric dams like the Hoover Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam to generate enough electricity to make aluminum to build aircraft? The Hoover Dam project was perhaps started before his administration but wasn't he a big supporter of cheap electricity for this purpose?
Patton lemented in his memories that he had to slow down to let the Russians gain more ground first. Roosevelt didn't have to allow such a large "Soviet" sphere of influence.
Henry Wallace, a former IA Republican (his father was Harding's agriculture secretary), was FDR's first agriculture secretary (1933-41) and second vice president from 1941-45. The delegates replaced him with HST at the 1944 convention. I am still unsure if FDR wanted Wallace purged, or if the delegates did that on their own. Prior to WWII, convention delegates often selected v.p. candidates regardless of the preferences of the presidential candidate. McKinley's people for instance did not want TR as the v.p. choice. Coolidge did not get along at all with Charles Gates Dawes. Harding did not select Coolidge either: the delegates did. Surely Garfield had little to do with the selection of Chester Alan (pronounced EH LON) Arthur.