Posted on 01/08/2022 8:55:03 AM PST by Rummyfan
Recently in The American Spectator, I wrote a somewhat controversial article claiming that Franklin Roosevelt was a failure as president. One of the areas of failure, I argued, was FDR’s decision-making during the Second World War, which resulted in the replacement of the Nazi threat with an even greater Soviet threat. Some critics have retorted, What else could FDR have done? The postwar world was largely shaped by where the Anglo-American and Soviet armies ended up when the fighting stopped. But consider the case of William Bullitt’s warning to the president.
On January 29, 1943, William Bullitt, then a close adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, wrote a memo to the president that Bullitt characterized as “as serious a document as any I have ever sent you.” In that memo (which he followed up with related memos and letters in June and August of that year), Bullitt attempted to persuade FDR to approach U.S. relations with Moscow more realistically and to wage World War II with a view towards the postwar balance of power.
* * * * * * * *
But it was all to no avail. FDR thought he could use his personal charm and political skills to persuade Stalin to join the democracies in establishing a just and stable postwar world. It was a view based on personal naïveté, ignorance about communism, and advice FDR received from the likes of Harry Hopkins, Henry Wallace, Sumner Welles, and other Soviet accommodationists within the administration.
Those who argue that FDR’s options were limited by the positioning of the armies at the end of the fighting are correct. But had the president listened to Bullitt’s advice and waged war so that the Anglo-American armies met their Soviet allies, in Churchill’s words “as far to the east as possible,” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
And he had a number of Soviet moles as his top aides and administration appointees who helped steer him into making the “right” decisions.
Ridiculous title and concept!
FDR (our 2nd Marxist president) was a HUGE success, otherwise we would not have become the full-fledged communist tyranny that we now are...
In addition, the American and British publics were not ready to support a war against the USSR after Germany's defeat. And another military task was yet before us: the invasion and subjugation of Japan, which was expected to require the commitment of most of the US combat troops in Europe. Japan's surrender after the two atom bomb attacks could not be relied on.
And Wilson was the first?
A man elected President four times was “naive?” The term “unconditional surrender” just popped into his head at Casablanca. FDR’s policies were formulated in Moscow. “Unconditional surrender” was created by a government committee composed of Communists. Harry Dexter White, a Communist agent, authored the Morgenthau Plan which almost drove all of Europe into Communist hands. It also prolonged the war in the Pacific. The Japanese saw what was in store for them (slavery and starvation). White is the father of the modern global economic system. He created the IMF and World Bank.
Not possible.
Throughout WWII any ground invasion could travel about 700 road miles from their supply depot before running out of fuel. This would have gotten the third army to about the Vistula River (Warsaw, Poland). The army would then be effectively stalled until a new depot was established and filled near the front line, expect the enemy to interfere with the process of building up the new depot.
While I believe it equally applied to the Soviet troops, the general opinion of most of the US and British troops could be summed up as "War is over, we won, now when do I go home?"
More revisionist history from the point of view of decades later.
Read Nigel Hamilton’s 3 volume books on FDR as CIC, I don’t think anyone could have a better job under the circumstances.
I doubt it, by that time the Soviet Armies were much more battle hardened that the Allied Armies and had fought in conditions that defied anything ever seen. The Soviets would have beaten us and would have totally committed themselves . You need to read more of what the eastern war as and how it was fought.
You need to read the history on that.
He wasn’t in a jeep.
Ping save. Great!
No..war criminal. There were high ranking German generals who tried to negotiate a separate peace so that Germany could devote all it’s might to the Eastern Front.
Read: FDR’s Folly - How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression.
FDR’s legacy was one of failure, but it mostly had to do with the 9 years prior to the war.
They were totally committed to Mancuria. Bomb the rail lines and they couldn’t return. That was the only possibility though except for Nukes.
If I’m ever asked what vile, evil monster assumed power in 1933 and died in April 1945, my first answer is Franklin Roosevelt.
Yes...
TR came close to making it a "first 3" threesome...
So the holocaust would have happened anyway? Those generals you refer to were still Nazis. Their only disagreement with Hitler was over military strategy.
Not really. The scumbags were SS. Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe brass were by and large mostly of the old school Prussian military and aristocratic stock and traditions. Honorable career soldiers. A separate peace would have put an end to the camps as part of the deal.
Oh so there were good Nazis? Who knew?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.