FDR and the American Crisis by Albert Marrin

Author:Albert Marrin [Marrin, Albert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-75361-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Winston Churchill and FDR at the Atlantic Conference, with Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. (left) and Elliott Roosevelt (far right). (August 9, 1941)

Credit 6.14

When Roosevelt returned to Washington, reporters asked if the meeting had brought America closer to war. “I should say no,” he replied firmly. It was not true.57

The American and British public only learned the full story of the meeting in 1972, with the release of Churchill’s secret War Cabinet papers. These reveal that he begged Roosevelt to declare war on Germany. FDR said he could not—under the Constitution, only Congress may declare war. Besides, polls showed that, while Americans favored aid to Britain, the vast majority opposed going to war for any reason other than a direct attack.

Back in London, Churchill held a top-secret meeting of his War Cabinet. The prime minister explained FDR’s position:

If he [Roosevelt] were to put the issue of peace and war to Congress, they would debate it for months. The President had said he would wage war but not declare it, and that he would become more and more provocative. If the Germans did not like it, they could attack American forces.… Everything was to be done to force an incident.… The President … made it clear that he would look for an incident to justify opening hostilities.58

Wage war but not declare it.

Become more and more provocative.

Force an incident.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.