When in January of 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office as the U.S.A.'s thirty fourth president, the country was in a condition of chaos and utter confusion. He himself had almost been assassinated. He was shaking hands with Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago at a public meeting in Miami, Florida when a man named Guiseppi Zangara fired a shot that fatally wounded Cermak.
The new president had chosen his cabinet well. Its members were dedicated people and with him, they went to work. There were immediate complaints from big business that the federal government was taking over too much and creating a welfare state but if the federal government didn't take action, who would? The new president and his allies persevered and slowly--very slowly--some order began to emerge out of chaos.
In Roosevelt's first term the watchwords were Relief, Recovery, and Reform. All were badly needed. In big eastern cities men, ashamed to panhandle were reduced to selling apples on the streets. "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" would become a popular song. Banks had failed and frantic people were taking their money out. The miserable survivors of the Dust Bowl tragedy were painfully trekking across the country to what they hoped would be the Promised Land, California. Organized crime, the result of Prohibition, was rife, especially in Chicago. Almost everyone knew the name Al Capone, who was ringleader of a major gang. All these problems had been addressed and had been at least partially solved by such New Deal programs as the Citizens' Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Volstead Act had been repealed. There were new regulations for banks and businesses. It was no wonder really, that Landon had been so soundly defeated. As the time for the presidential election of 1940 approached, there was naturally great concern about who would succeed FDR. Was there another Democrat who could take his place and if so, who? If a Republican were to be elected, would the successful New Deal programs be continued?
There was another problem. On the other side of the Atlantic, Nazi Germany under Hitler, was a growing and alarming menace. The much-touted Maginot Line had fallen and the proud nation of France was humiliated. Belgium and the Netherlands were also victims of the voracious Nazis. Here in the U.S. isolationists argued fiercely with interventionists. The latter feared that if Britain fell, we too would inevitably be drawn into war. The isolationists insisted that we would not and that we should remain neutral. At the Republican convention in June, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio was the champion of this group and looked like the strongest contender for his party's nomination. Then, almost out of nowhere, came Wendell Willkie, a successful industrialist who had never before run for public office. This charismatic, articulate former Democrat managed to convince the GOP that he had a better chance of defeating FDR than Taft or any other contender. They chose him as their nominee.
Roosevelt, when asked if he would consider a third term, had at first said no. Then came the Democratic convention in June. Vice president John Nance Garner, James Farley, FDR's campaign manager, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and Senator Millard Tydings were the possible nominees. There was no enthusiasm for any of them on the part of delegates to the convention. They (and soon FDR himself) felt that he alone could handle the international situation and could defeat Willkie. He was chosen by a solid majority as the party's candidate. They were less happy with FDR's choice of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace as his vice president. Wallace was an outspoken ultra liberal not approved at all by conservative minded Democrats. But Garner had no wish to be veep again. He had a low opinion of the office, once describing it a terms which my Victorian upbringing inhibits me from quoting.
Willkie was a good and aggressive campaigner who had some powerful backers in the business world. I had to admire his intrepidity in going into pro-FDR strongholds,
where he was sometimes pelted with rotten eggs. One of my uncles who had turned Republican, was all for him. He came to my mother and, with tears in his eyes, begged her to vote for Willkie. When she refused, he went away growling audibly that this was what came of giving women the vote.
Willkie accused Roosevelt of edging the U.S. into war with his aid to the U.K. Roosevelt responded that the U.S. was "the arsenal of democracy" and made a pledge which he later regretted, not to send Americans into an overseas war. In the election which followed, Willkie did far better than Landon but FDR broke tradition and won his third term. Actually, it was logical. To use a marine metaphor, he had piloted the ship of state through stormy waters and there seemed to be worse ones ahead. It was no time for an inexperienced new leader to take over the helm. In Europe conditions worsened day by day. That shady character, Josef Stalin had joined Hitler in the land grab. They had divided Poland between them and Russian troops had occupied Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. Mussolini ("Il Duce") and Spain's Franco controlled southern Europe. Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister, and FDR were in close contact.
In the Far East Japan was marching steadily and rapaciously through China. The U.S. was backing Chiang Kai Shek, that country's so-called leader. This created a touchy situation and one which Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomuru were attempting to keep under control.
Hull later said he believed Nomura was entirely sincere in his effort. The two men were discussing the matter in Washington the first days of December. There was absolutely no warning of the horrendous and world-shaking attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning of December seventh 1941.
My husband, an FBI agent, and I were idly drinking coffee when a voice over the radio suddenly said, "We interrupt this program to announce that there has been a dastardly
bomb attack on the Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii." While we were still gasping, the phone rang. It was a call from the office. My husband didn't stop to say goodbye and in a minute he was gone. I didn't see him for two days.
In five weeks it will be the seventieth anniversary of that "day of infamy." The lights went out all over the world. America went to war on the side of the allies against the Axis.