Posted on 05/27/2003 1:48:25 PM PDT by arual
President Bush draws regular criticism for his reliance on his brilliant aides and advisors. But he’s hardly the first chief executive to depend on powerful, largely unseen assistants. In his award-winning book, "The Shadow Presidents," Michael Medved exposed for the first time the secret history of the White House, providing fascinating, often shocking accounts of the little-known individuals who stood behind the Presidents of the United States and helped determine the success or failure of their administrations. Published in 1979 by New York Times Books, universally acclaimed by critics and historians, "The Shadow Presidents" has been out of print for more than 15 years and unavailable in any form until now. In this series of history broadcasts, Medved updates and dramatizes his ground-breaking research, telling the amazing and riveting story of the odd assortment of public servants who toiled in the White House Shadows. PART ONE: RAISING THE CURTAIN, LINCOLN’S SHADOW AND ORVILLE THE INCREDIBLE This section includes an overview of the White House staff and how it developed. Before 1857 Congress stubbornly refused to pay for any assistant to the President not even a secretary to help him with letters! Early White House assistants received their pay from the President’s own pocket, like Tobias Lear, faithful secretary to George Washington, who sat with the great man at his death bed, and then measured his body after his demise, so posterity would know his true dimensions. Part I of this exciting new series of First Person History broadcasts details the history of the White House staff from its beginnings, through the Grant administration. The main characters include the two brilliant, dedicated, but immature young men (both in their twenties!) who lived in the White House and served Lincoln during the War Between the States, and the charismatic, handsome and dashing scoundrel who almost single-handedly destroyed the Grant administration. You’ll hear the amazing story of how a young White House aide, with no authorization at all, negotiated for the US to take over an independent, sovereign foreign nation and how he almost succeeded in making the land grab stick! Intimate, nostalgic, inspiring and hugely informative, this first installment of the new Shadow Presidents series will delight anyone who has previously enjoyed the history broadcasts of the Michael Medved show.
A little viscious arent we? By historical standards he was way to the right of most Democrats today. Some have even referred to FDR as the Saviour of Capitalism. His programs co-opted the Socialists and Communists and prevented them from making inroads or actually taking over during the Depression.
A few of his advisors were tainted to be nice about it. I believe one of his Vice PResidents eventually left Democrat party and ran for PResident against FDR as Socialist. However, he wasnt a Communist any more than Eisenhower was.
You are probably thinking of Henry Wallace, FDR's second vice president (1941-1945), who ran against Truman as a "Progressive" in 1948.
The argument that FDR was the "savior" of capitalism was popular in the 1970's, but I don't buy it. It seems to me, rather, that FDR was the architect of the all-powerful federal government that we have today.
In my opinion, FDR's greatest accomplishment as president was pulling off the Manhattan Project.
I agree that FDR was not a communist. But he was almost held hostage in the White House by communists. His wife was a Red:
"Smearing good people like Alger Hiss and Lauchlin Currie is, I think, unforgivable...Anyone knowing either Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."--Eleanor Roosevelt. August 16, 1948
Alger Hiss, who traveled with FDR to Yalta where Eastern Europe was handed over to the Soviets was an officer in the KGB.
Laughlin Currie, special advisor to Roosevelt, who helped Mao gain power, lived in the White House down the hall from FDR's quarters. Currie fled the country in 1948 rather than testify before Congress.
Harry Hopkins, who also lived in the White House, was--at best--a deep shade of pink.
Assistant Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White, who cut off money to the Nationalists allowing Mao to gain power and whose supported turning Germany into a pasture after WWII so the Red Army could roll to the English channel, was a KGB agent.
FDR's mistress Lucy Mercer was as left wing as Eleanor.
Owen Lattimore,Roosevelt's key advisor on China, followed the Soviet line on virtually every foreign policy issue. During the Moscow show trials, Lattimore declared they "sounded like democracy to me." After the war, he advocated the withdrawal of American troops from Japan and Korea.
Henry Wallace, FDR's VP, toured Soviet concentration camps with Lattimore and said nothing when Lattimore compared the gulags to the American TVA.
And this is good..why? Also re-read post 10
Actually I think whoever would have been President during World War II would have been perceived the same way in that the times called for and made people willing to accept a large powerful federal government. The further we have moved from that period, the less has been the appeal of Big government.
Agree with you on the Manhattan Project. Other achievement was to have helped prepare the nation for war and helping keep the Brits alive above water until we joined the war.
It's a fascinating story. If I recall, she kept things going for a year or more after his stroke despite some grumbling from various politicos. I don't think the general public knew about it at the time.
This might interest you:
Frankfurter was one of those "dunderheads". He wrote an article for Atlantic monthly after his wife was conned by a NKVD agent. The Soviets were so pleased with his work, they reprinted and used his article for propaganda around the world.
I'll check out Dunn's book. Not familiar with it. After the lies I was told and the writers which were hidden from me in college, I can't get enough of this subject.
I think it was FDRs pre-war strictly domestic actions, such as the creation of a host of "alphabit" agencies, WPA, CCC, NRA (no not that one!), etc, that the earlier poster was referring to. None of it did much good, and in fact did much long term harm and probably helped to prolong the depression. His actions legitimised the raping of the Consitution under the fig leaf of the Interstate Commerce clause, effectively making anything the federal government's business. In doing this he killed federalism.
WW-II is what really ended the great depression. Without it FDR probably wouldn't have been elected that 4th time, and without the ramp up of production, and thus jobs, supplying the allies before our entry into the war, he likely wouldn't have gotten the 3rd term. At least he had enough sense to "work around" the neutrality act and get that production to the UK and other allies, including the Soviets once the Germans attacked them.
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