Yeah, It provided further credence to the notion that if FDR totally had his way, we'd be completely Socialist by now.
I read FDR's Folly last year, which pretty much lets the reader know the FDR legend is pure PR. His New Deal alphabet soup program was purely a vote getting machine. He rewarded states he needed for vote for reelection and ignored other states that were in the bag. The south he nearly completely ignored. They were in the bag. Funny when you read the book. States today that are totally blue such as Maryland and California were Republican states. However, the difference between Repubs and Dems were nearly indistinguishable as many Repubs during the time had socialist leanings. My opinion - FDR was one of the most dangerous and inept presidents we ever had. He happened to be President at the start of WW II but I give more credit to George C. Marshall Ernest King than to FDR. Marshall - though never holding a field command during wartime - kept a black book of individuals who impressed him during the 20's and 30's. When the war hit, he had a ready list of men to lead the military machine. FDR was a dimwit who thought he knew what he was talking about.
I heard a snippet of a - perhaps the - program on FDR that you're talking about. It didn't seem to me to be a fawning description; it pointed out that FDR couldn't have gotten elected to a third term without the issue of WWII and FDR's promise to keep us out of it.The book The New Dealers' War suggests, tho, that FDR used the "magic" crypo intelligence (predicting the Japanese would break off diplomatic negotiations on Dec 7 1941) as an occasion to leak a War Department plan for waging war on Germany and Japan. Which precipitated antiwar demonstations on December 7 - right when the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor.
I was also fascinated to learn that in point of fact Herbert Hoover set records for public works expenditures during his term, and that FDR couldn't have done more in 1929-1933 than Hoover himself did in that regard. The bottom line is that although FDR heaped scorn of Hoover for the Depression, FDR had no consistent economic program, and just floundered around and raised taxes. So it should really be thought of as the Hoover-Roosevelt Depression.
Certainly FDR's economic performance doesn't put you in mind of Reagan's turnaround of the Carter stagflation.
I've found the premise of the marketing for the show interesting. "FDR lied to us, but that was OK because he was doing what was best for us."
He killed both pilots, thus the idiot couldn't take off.
He killed himself about an officer fired a 357 Mag through the portal window in the door that hit the high-jacker.
His intention in 1974 was to fly the jet into the Whitehouse!
I did not know about this, did you?
The narrator devoted about ten words to that possibility --then dismissed it for having no "compelling" evidence.
Much attention was paid, however, to FDR's frustration over not being able to enter the war due to isolationism and anti-war sentiment...prior to Dec. 7, 1941.
I also noticed Alger Hiss, smiling broadly just behind FDR in the footage shot at the meeting with Stalin and Churchill in Teheran.
The narrator didn't note Hiss's presence.
I found Eleanor Roosevelt's account of FDR's reaction to the attack on Pearl Harborr verrrrry interesting !
Eleanor said that FDR didn't seem surprised or shocked at all.
She said that he was very serious, but not at all emotional. "Cold as an iceberg" was, I believe, the phrase she used, according to this program.
My Fathers family were road contractors in New Jersey during the Depression, they did very well because of their association with Frank Hague of Jersey City.
Hague detested RDR, and FDR considered Hague an Irish thug, but courted him to get his endorsement, the opinion of the Jersey City crowd was the same, "FDR is a goddamn communist,
he's going to ruin this Country with his programs", they also did not believe his song and dance about "keeping America out of war", my Granfather said "they only way out of the mess this idiot has made is war, Hitler must be stopped"
These were all Huson County Democrates, to them voting for a Republican was a mortal sin.
As usual, when liberals drool over their messiah, there is no mention of things which would really be interesting to know. For example, how much control did he have over his body functions? He had a black manservant who took "care" of him, and often wanted to quit, but he wouldn't let him leave. It would be fascinating to know how much he really had to take care of him because FDR called blacks the "n", which is documented but seldom discussed. Also, was he impotent? Such a ladies man!--or was that just another ego-boosting lie? He knew the concentration camps were a reality in Europe, but he didn't want the US to become a refuge of Jews, for whom he had little respect as a group. And didn't anyone think it was strange that all those people were living in the White House?
It didn't go far enough, especially in relation to the Depression, of which his actions extended for at least 3-4 years. Every one of FDR's programs needs to be exposed for what it is to a nationwide audience, including Social Security. Then perhaps we'll see a few conservatives emerge from the Republican Party to call for shutting these plans down instead of 'fixing' them as current leadership wants to do
FDR had his faults as a leader. Of all the ones discussed on this thread, perhaps the most damning fault of all hasn't been mentioned. FDR had to have known full well that not only would he not survive a fourth term, he probably wouldn't live to see the end of the war. The public knew this as well (which is why the election of 1944 was largely a presidential contest between Truman and Dewey). When faced with this obvious fact, any responsible leader of people would do all in his power to make sure that his legally designated successor would be ready to assume power when the time came. FDR, on the other hand, left Harry Truman out of everything. Truman didn't even know about the atomic bomb. Thanks to responsible men such as Marshall, Ike and King, Truman's transition went smoothly. It could, however, have been an absolute disaster for us and our allies.