Roosevelt: Bold and Cunning Politics - Essay Example

Fascism and Benito Mussolini arose in Italy, and Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party took over Germany. Civil war broke out in Spain, and militarists gained control of Japan. The futile League of Nations stood by as nationalism and aggression grew. For Franklin Roosevelt, these international conflicts, as well as economic problems at home, would prove to be serious obstacles as he tried to implement his foreign policy.

In 1928, the US joined 62 other nations in signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact. This agreement declared the war could not be used "as an instrument of national policy." It did not have any way to punish countries that broke their promise. Americans were greatly alarmed by the international conflicts of Roosevelt's presidency. However, they generally believed that the United States should stay isolated from those conflicts. Isolationism in America grew steadily throughout the 1930s with many books offering claims that the US had been dragged into World War I by arms manufacturers and bankers at home, who wanted the chance to make a profit. A committee led by North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye found that banks and manufacturers had made large profits during the war, and public furor grew. After the horrible losses of World War I, Americans became staunchly determined to avoid going to war.

Moreover, America had serious problems at home with which to contend. Roosevelt's New Deal policies were keeping the American economy offload, but they would not repair the economy in full. Only World War II would do that. In the meantime, many Americans expected their president to be focusing on domestic issues.

This growing isolationism had a huge impact on Roosevelt's foreign policy. Early in his presidency, he demonstrated his diplomatic ability by reaching out to the Soviet Union and continuing a policy of non-intervention in Latin America. He encouraged Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act in 1934, lowering trade barriers and giving the president the power to make trade agreements with other nations.

Beginning in 1935, in response to fighting in Spain and elsewhere, Congress created the Neutrality Acts, designed to outlaw arms sales or loans to countries at war. Although Congress worked hard to maintain neutrality, it soon became impossible to avoid the conflicts across the ocean. Roosevelt found creative ways to implement his foreign policy despite the wishes of Congress. In 1937, Japan launched a new attack on China. Roosevelt declared that, since Japan had not formally declared war against China, there was no need to enforce the Neutrality Acts. This allowed the US to support China by sending arms and supplies.

Later that year, Roosevelt spoke in Chicago. In one of his best-known speeches, he called on nations of the world to quarantine or isolate aggressive nations like Japan and Germany to stop the spread of war. The quarantine speech declared that 10% of the nations of the world were threatening international chaos. He called for the remaining peace-loving nations to stand against them "to preserve peace."

It looked like this speech would be the beginning of Roosevelt's stand against aggression. But isolationist newspapers lambasted him, causing him to retreat. Roosevelt, a shrewd politician, knew that any risky foreign policy decisions would jeopardize badly needed support for his domestic programs.
Roosevelt bided his time. By September 1939, he was able to persuade Congress to authorize a cash-and-carry provision that let warring nations purchase US arms as long as they paid for them in cash and picked them up in their ships. Roosevelt continued to implement his foreign policy by urging Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act in March of 1941. This plan allowed the loan of arms and other supplies to a country whose defense was seen as important to the welfare of the United States.

The president extended his support for the Allies by meeting with Churchill and establishing a joint declaration of war aims. The Atlantic Charter, reminiscent of Wilson's Fourteen Points, stopped short of an American military commitment to Great Britain but did call for world security, a reduction in arms, national autonomy, economic freedom, and freedom of the seas.

Roosevelt implemented his foreign policy as best as he could under trying circumstances. While many of his domestic reforms were sudden and sweeping (the results of The First Hundred Days, for example), his foreign policy was tempered by caution and isolationism in the public, and a recognition of the need to balance domestic needs with foreign policy needs. Roosevelt had vigorous foes against many of his domestic programs, but he was able to address them in a more direct, effective way and sustained enough positive change to keep critical support.

The two other great presidents of the first half of the twentieth century, Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt (TR), had somewhat parallel experiences. TR and FDR both accomplished awesome domestic reform, but TR saw much less resistance. TR's success in the Spanish-American War and his public persona allowed him to assume a tough-guy stance during his presidency, a time of relative quiet on the international front. Wilson, too, eyed ambitious domestic reform, and accomplished much. Like FDR, he would eventually have to shift his attention from pressing problems at home to war across the ocean. Read More