The Impossible Presidency by Jeremi Suri

Author:Jeremi Suri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

THE JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR WAS NOT A TOTAL surprise to the president and his closest advisors, even if Roosevelt was horrified by the event itself. Like Lincoln in early 1861, Roosevelt anticipated an enemy act of war, especially from the Japanese, who were chafing under American sanctions. The president only underestimated the boldness of the Japanese, expecting them to attack the American bases in the Philippines, not the huge US naval installation in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii—more than 3500 miles from Japan.47

The destruction on 7 December 1941—four US battleships sunk, four damaged, 188 US aircraft destroyed, and 2,403 Americans killed—made war finally unavoidable. “Hostilities exist,” Roosevelt explained to Congress. “There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.” Although this was not how Roosevelt hoped to begin full American participation in the war, with such grave devastation to the US Navy, he was relieved that the limits on his war powers had been lifted, at last. He could now pursue vigorous anti-fascist efforts in the open, further expanding the power of the presidency at home and abroad. Like Lincoln after the attack on Fort Sumter, Roosevelt placed the resources of the country under his command to fight a total war aimed at the unconditional surrender of the enemy. Germany and Italy declared war against the United States on 11 December, followed by immediate reciprocal responses from Congress and the president.48

“We are now in this war,” Roosevelt told listeners over the radio. “We are all in it—all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories—the changing fortunes of war.” And Roosevelt began with an honest appraisal of the bad news: the destruction of Pearl Harbor, the American retreat from the Philippines, and the Japanese attacks on Guam, Wake, and Midway islands.

The president asked Americans to draw confidence from the preparations they had made under his leadership: “Precious months were gained by sending vast quantities of our war material to the Nations of the world still able to resist Axis aggression.… That policy has been justified. It has given us time, invaluable time, to build our American assembly lines of production. Assembly lines are now in operation. Others are being rushed to completion. A steady stream of tanks and planes, of guns and ships, and shells and equipment—that is what these eighteen months have given us.”

To achieve victory in what Roosevelt anticipated would be a “long war,” he needed to direct resources from the White House. He would exceed even Lincoln’s exercise of presidential power over domestic affairs. Roosevelt reached deeper into American society to fight a larger, more distant war than any of his predecessors imagined.49

The president’s strategy, based on the model of the New Deal, was to win the war by harnessing the enormous productive capacities of the United States to feed, clothe, and arm more people than anyone else.

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