FDR - Jean Edward Smith [473]
Dear Caroline:
I think it may interest you to tell you in great confidence that two of our Embassies abroad tell us this afternoon that the action of the House last night has caused dismay in democratic peaceful circles. The anti-war nations believe that a definite stimulus has been given Hitler by the vote of the House, and that if war breaks out in Europe … an important part of the responsibility will rest with last night’s action.
FDR to Caroline O’Day, Item 1907, 10 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs.
72. FDR to George VI, September 17, 1938, Item 1282a, 7 Ibid. Roosevelt addressed the letter “My dear King George” and concluded it “Faithfully yours.” George VI posted his acceptance October 8, addressing FDR in longhand “My dear President Roosevelt” and concluding, also in longhand, “Believe me, yours very sincerely, George R.I.” Ibid, Item 1333.
73. John W. Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI: His Life and Reign 389 (London: Macmillan, 1958). Also see Will Swift, The Roosevelts and the Royals: Franklin and Eleanor, The King and Queen of England, and the Friendship That Changed History 135–137 (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2004).
74. For the text of the German-Soviet Pact and of the secret additional protocol signed in Moscow, August 23, 1939, see U.S. Department of State, 7 Documents on German Foreign Policy 245–247 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957).
75. The initial assault wave, supported by Stuka dive-bombers, was followed by sixteen reserve divisions and two SS divisions. Ultimately 1.3 million men would take part in the invasion. To meet the assault, Poland deployed thirty infantry divisions, eleven cavalry brigades, one mountain brigade, and only two armored brigades. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, then chief of staff of Southern Army Group (Rundstedt commanding) and one of the most reflective German officers, notes that the Poles massed their forces at or near the frontier, determined to defend every foot of Polish soil. That facilitated a German breakthrough. Manstein argued that the Poles would have been better served to withdraw, mass their forces, and stall for time, particularly since the German west wall, facing France, was held only by a light screening force and no armor whatever. Erich von Manstein, Lost Victories 34–63 (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1958).
76. Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner, American White Paper 1, 58–60 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940).
TWENTY | Stab in the Back
The epigraph is from FDR’s commencement speech at the University of Virginia, June 10, 1940. 9 Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt 259–264, Samuel I. Rosenman, ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1941).
1. 14 Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt 130–132 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972).
2. The record of Roosevelt’s remarks to the cabinet was made by acting Navy secretary Charles Edison, who then forwarded it to FDR. “My only reason for sending it is that somebody ought to make a record of how you felt after getting the phone call [from Bullitt] and this may serve as notes for—that somebody—.” Edison to FDR, September 2, 1939. 2 FDR: His Personal Letters, 1928–1945 915–916, Elliott Roosevelt, ed. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950). Edison’s emphasis.
3. Quoted in Donald Cameron Watt, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939 579 (New York: Pantheon, 1989). Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was ill in hospital.
4. Walter Crookshank, diary, quoted in Watt, ibid.
5. 8 Public Papers and Addresses 460–464. Roosevelt’s statement, made over Hull’s objections, provided a deliberate contrast to Woodrow Wilson’s 1914 admonition that Americans must be “neutral in fact as well as in name; impartial in thought as well as action.” Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914, Supplement 547