The History Book Club discussion

All, this is the Glossary for Eisenhower in War and Peace.

I was using the Second World War's glossary but frankly there are too many events that have nothing to do with the war that I want to add.

So this is the glossary we will be using moving forward.

by Jean Edward Smith

C-Span Video - First Ladies: (it is quite priceless and a view into that time period as well as early photos of Mamie, her family and Gettysburg) - It is also interesting to hear her speak - she had an interesting cadence to her voice and there are some very close up views of their ultimate Gettysburg home. To me she looked like she was a very strong woman unlike some of the impressions that we are reading about. I bet she had a formidable side. She put up with a heck of a lot. One thing was interesting is that Mamie had been diagnosed with a heart condition as a child - she herself had suffered from rheumatic fever. Supposedly she was told to stay in bed three days a week while growing up - but she compromised and stayed in bed until Noon. (According to the Eisenhower Library). She only visited the Oval Office - four times when Ike was President.

http://firstladies.c-span.org/FirstLa...

Some of this does not jive with Smith's accounting but other things were interesting.

Source: C-Span

Born - November 14, 1896 in Boone, Iowa

Parents - John Sheldon Doud & Elivera Carlson Doud

Married - July 1, 1916 to Dwight D. Eisenhower

Children:

Dwight Doud (1917 – 1920),

John Sheldon (1922 – present)

Firsts - 1st First Lady to appear in a televised presidential campaign ad

Post White House residence - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Died - November 1, 1979 in Washington, D.C.

Click here to see full bio of Mamie Eisen

- See more at: http://firstladies.c-span.org/FirstLa...

From Ann:

The information about Patton in this chapter was interesting. I knew he was an unusual individual, but I didn't realize quite how extreme he was. Smith writes "Patton was a loner: highly opinionated, ultraconservative, bigoted, and racist." p. 54

This is probably old news, but it was shocking to me. Recently I read in the New York Times about the bad treatment concentration camp victims received under Patton's command. He was harshly criticized by an official named Harrison whom Truman sent to investigate. In his journal, Patton wrote: “Harrison and his ilk believe that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals...”

See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/sun...

Topics for Discussion:

a) What did you think about the 1919 Motor Convoy and Ike joining it for a lark?

b) Did anybody wonder what Mamie was doing by herself?

c) It appeared to be quite a public relations event and stimulated road development and improvement efforts. Was there anything that surprised you about this event?

d) “The old convoy had started me thinking about good two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land.” - Dwight David Eisenhower - Who would have thought that this convoy would result in the Interstate Highway Act 37 years later?



Link to the US Army Transportation Museum: http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/mu...

Link to the National Archives:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyew...

Topics for Discussion:

Any thoughts on this quote:

"From the beginning, Eisenhower and Patton were a mismatched pair. Patton was monumentally egotistical, flamboyant, and unpredictable. Eisenhower was self-effacing and steady. Yet they formed an enduring friendship that lasted until shortly before Patton’s death in 1945."

Senior American commanders of World War II.



Seated are (from left to right)

Gens. William H. Simpson, George S. Patton, Carl A. Spaatz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Courtney H. Hodges, and Leonard T. Gerow;

Standing are (from left to right):

Gens. Ralph F. Stearley, Hoyt Vandenberg, Walter Bedell Smith, Otto P. Weyland, and Richard E. Nugent.

Original caption: “"This is the brass that did it.

The author wrote: "Ikey’s death left a permanent scar. Eisenhower, for the rest of his life, sent Mamie a bouquet of yellow roses every year on Ikey’s birthday. Yellow had been Ikey’s favorite color. But the marriage was no longer the same. The youthful romance was gone. Instead of drawing closer together, each retreated into a private world of sorrow. Eisenhower threw himself into his work and was rarely home. Mamie tried not to think about the child. Ike blamed himself for hiring the maid; Mamie initially blamed herself. Privately they blamed each other. “Half a century later,” wrote Julie Nixon Eisenhower, “Mamie was still unwilling to say much about how Ikey’s death changed her relationship with Ike. The pain is too deep. But there is no doubt that the loss of their beloved son closed a chapter in the marriage. It could never again be unblemished first love. "

Topics for Discussion:

1. Obviously now Ike reaped what he had sown - the days of no accountability for his indifference to his family had come to screeching halt. Now he had to pay the piper. Mamie had already distanced herself from Ike and saw the man that he was and would continue to be - but somehow ended up trying to live with the man who she really had been estranged from. Poor Ikey seemed to be just a casualty of the indifference and carelessness with which Ike cherished and doted on his family. For Ike it was all about him. What are your thoughts on this tragic time period? Who was at fault for this unfortunate situation? Could this have been avoided?

2. Is anybody else surprised that this marriage continued under these circumstances and dark cloud?



Note: Some references state that the boy was called Icky not Ikey.

Mamie when she married Ike was only 19 years old!

This is a recipe for Mamie's Million Dollar Fudge - let me know how it tastes if you make it:

Mamie’s Million Dollar Fudge

4 1/2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tall can evaporated milk
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate bits
12 ounces German-sweet chocolate
1 pint marshmallow cream
2 cups nutmeats

Boil the sugar, salt, butter, evaporated milk together for six minutes.

Put chocolate bits and German chocolate, marshmallow cream and nutmeats in a bowl. Pour the boiling syrup over the ingredients. Beat until chocolate is all melted, then pour in pan. Let stand a few hours before cutting.

Remember it is better the second day. Store in tin box.

Some additional info on Mamie:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....

Source: Find a Grave

First Ladies Preview: Mamie Eisenhower

Short Video: http://youtu.be/rnH3IUcDhAA

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower's 1950s Birthday Parties with Rare Recording of Her Voice

The birthday music at the beginning is annoying but once you get to the great footage - things look up - Gettysburg footage too.

Video as well: http://youtu.be/4uHQtYckJxY

MAMIE EISENHOWER

Mamie Eisenhower's bangs and sparkling blue eyes were as much trademarks of an administration as the president's famous grin. Her outgoing manner, love of pretty clothes and jewelry, and obvious pride in husband and home made her a very popular first lady.

Born in 1896 in Boone, Iowa, Mamie Geneva Doud moved with her family to Denver Colorado when she was seven. During winters the family made long visits to relatives in the milder climate of San Antonio, Texas. There, in 1915, Mamie met Dwight D. Eisenhower, a young second lieutenant. On Valentine's Day in 1916 he gave her a miniature of his West Point class ring to seal a formal engagement; they were married at the Doud home in Denver on July 1.

Mamie's new life followed the pattern of other army wives: a succession of posts in the United States, the Panama Canal Zone, France, and the Philippines. She once estimated that in 37 Years she had unpacked her household at least 27 times. Each move meant another step up the career ladder for her husband, with increasing responsibilities for her. Their first son Doud Dwight or "Icky," born in 1917, died of scarlet fever in 1921. A second, John, was born in 1922 in Denver. Like his father he had a career in the army. Later he became an author and served as ambassador to Belgium.

During World War II, while fame came to "Ike," Mamie lived in Washington. In 1948, the Eisenhowers purchased a farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first home they had ever owned. When her husband campaigned for president, Mamie cheerfully shared his travels. When he was inaugurated in 1953, the American people warmly welcomed her as first lady. Diplomacy - and air travel - in the postwar world brought changes in their official hospitality. The Eisenhowers entertained an unprecedented number of heads of state and leaders of foreign governments, and Mamie's evident enjoyment of her role endeared her to her guests and to the public.

When their Gettysburg dream home was finally completed in 1955, the Eisenhowers celebrated with a housewarming picnic for the White House staff. In 1961, they retired there for eight contented years together. After her husband's death in 1969, Mamie continued to live on the farm, devoting more of her time to her family and friends. Mamie Eisenhower died on November 1, 1979. She is buried beside her husband in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas.

Source: The White House

People say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

What does this photo convey to you about each of the family member's - the children and the parents?



Dwight D. Eisenhower (far left) was 10 years old when this picture was taken in 1902. This family portrait was among his most treasured possessions. Brothers are (left to right): Edgar, Earl, Arthur and Roy. His parents and brother Milton (with long curls) are in the front row

Folks, remember to take a look at all three glossaries - these glossaries are housed in the Liberation Trilogy folder and account for the time line of this book as well as the Liberation trilogy so we will be using these three glossaries for both.

Please make sure to sift through all three glossary threads - you will be amazed at the amount of material found within.

I will add appropriate people, events, articles etc as they come up or are relevant.

Glossary

Remember there is a glossary thread where ancillary information is placed by the moderator. This is also a thread where additional information can be placed by the group members regarding the subject matter being discussed. Since we are discussing the same time period and the same people will be discussed in this book as in the Liberation Trilogy - please utilize those three glossary parts. They will be very helpful to you and will provide a wealth of knowledge.

Glossary - Part One - http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

Glossary - Part Two - http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Glossary - Part Three - http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

It is always fun to see the human side of a President by seeing his pets.

"During the time the President and Mrs. Eisenhower were in the White House they had only two pets in residence there. One was a parakeet. The other was the Weimaraner named Heidi, who, for a time, lived in the house and roamed the White House grounds at will. She was and is a wonderful dog and was a great favorite of the many tourists to the White House. Heidi is now on the farm here in Gettysburg and recently had two adorable puppies."

Ann Whitman, Personal Secretary to Dwight D. Eisenhower
Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Jack Lee, June 21, 1961



Heidi

Dwight Eisenhower’s dog, Heidi, has the dubious distinction of being possibly the only presidential dog banned from the White House.

(We will set aside, for now, the fact that Jimmy Carter’s daughter’s dog Grits and Harry Truman’s dog Feller — both unsolicited gifts — were rehomed.)
The story goes that Heidi, a beautiful female Weimaraner born May 9, 1955, had an accident on an expensive rug in the diplomatic reception room.
And when we say expensive, we don’t just mean by late-1950s standards. The rug was worth $20,000 at the time! (With inflation, that’s something like $160K in 2013 dollars.)

Heidi’s weak bladder had gotten her into trouble before with the World War II general and his wife, so after the rug incident, the Eisenhowers decided to send the dog permanently to their farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Note: The Reagan dog Lucky was also sent to their ranch in California so Heidi was not the only one (sad).

Wary of Photographers

True to her breed, Heidi was protective of her owners.

She was especially wary of White House photographers and would often try to prevent Mamie Eisenhower from having her picture taken by jumping between the First Lady and the camera. Or Heidi would just jump up on people!

Although the breed has since become more recognized through the whimsical photographs of William Wegman, the Weimaraner was relatively unknown to Americans when Ike and Mamie moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1953.
In fact, until the late 19th century, German breeders required that any Weimaraners sold for a trip to America be sterilized so that the breed standards would not be compromised.

Known for its hunting abilities, the Weimaraner is an excellent family dog and serves well as both a loyal guard dog and a lively playmate. (Read Pets Adviser’s Weimaraner breed profile here.)



Mamie Eisenhower, right, tires to restrain Heidi as the dog jumps up on the director of the Tailwaggers Club of Washington, center. At left is Charles Hamilton of the Animal Rescue League. May 7, 1958, photo by AP wire service.

Source for article: The Presidential Pet Museum
http://presidentialpetmuseum.com/pets...

More on Heidi

She Tends Toward Stubbornness”

The Eisenhower Library website quotes a 1958 letter from the president to Arthur Summerfield, who served as postmaster general for Eisenhower and gave him Heidi in 1955:

“Heidi is definitely an asset to life in the White House. She cavorts on the South Lawn at a great rate, with such important projects as chasing squirrels and investigating what might be under bushes. She is beautiful and well-behaved (occasionally she tends toward stubbornness but is then immediately apologetic about it). And she is extremely affectionate and seemingly happy. I am constantly indebted to you [and your son Bud] both for giving her to me.”

Heidi reportedly enjoyed life on the farm (where there were not as many photographers!) and had at least four puppies after she left Washington.



Quick Facts About Eisenhower’s Dog Heidi

For nearly a year, much of the press didn’t realize the president had the dog — even though Heidi had been “running all over” the White House lawn, according to Eisenhower’s press secretary.

At first Mamie Eisenhower didn’t like the idea of having a dog. But the two were said to become great friends.

On at least one occasion, Heidi had the presidential limo all to herself, with just the driver and a valet sitting up front during a drive from the White House to the Gettysburg farm.

The Associated Press described Heidi as “mole-colored.” The Boston Globe preferred to call her “taupe-gray.” Yet another newspaper pegged the color as “ginger.”

One day Heidi startled one of Eisenhower’s secretaries by pushing the buzzer underneath the president’s desk. The secretary came bounding in, notepad in hand, ready to follow orders.

Back then, as today, reporters tended to go gaga over presidential pets. One newspaper claimed Heidi was fed a breakfast of two poached eggs on toast and two strips of bacon every day — which the White House laughed off and called “ridiculous.” However, one of her two meals a day was cooked ground beef mixed with dry dog food.

Heidi slept in a comfy basket on the third floor, and had full run of the White House and grounds. During the day, she often napped in the president’s private office, where he gave her head scratches and belly rubs.

For at least three years, Heidi still wore a tag that said “To President Eisenhower,” which came with the dog when she was gifted to the president by Bud Summerfield.

Source for all of the above: The Presidential Pet Museum - link in above post

Heidi and Mamie:



Heidi looks like he is very enthusiastic about the Easter Roll.

It appears that Ike had a dog growing up:



Ike also had two Scottish Terriers in Algeria:

Interview with Gen. John S. D. Eisenhower

Dwight's Son

Interview conducted May 24, 1995, with the son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. John S. D. Eisenhower.

http://youtu.be/VHYx9RRIaRw

John graduated one year early and he was very busy at West Point.

Very good interview and some interesting stories. Especially like his discussion of Montgomery and the relationship between Ike and Monty (complex).

Monty also came to visit the White House with Ike became President and looked around at the ceiling and always true Monty said in 1957 during that visit:

He looks around and said "you know my regiment burned this thing down back in 1814". (smile)

Tact was not what Monty worked on the hardest. And then he put out his memoirs and said that the war would have been over six months earlier had it not been for Ike. And that ended the complicated friendship between Ike and Montgomery forever.

Ike's son credits Major General Freddie de Guingand as saving things when Ike was ready to throw in the towel because of Montgomery.

John Eisenhower's Obituary:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu...

C-Span Interview in 1999 with John Eisenhower: (great interview)

http://www.c-span.org/video/?153242-1...

Other interesting tidbits:

1. John stated that Ike's parents were very well educated for that time period and had been at college and knew and read Greek and had studied it - they were also very religious and would have discussions about the Bible and go to the Greek source to verify their religious discussions.

2.He agreed that Ike had a tremendous temper which he worked on controlling but also joked about.

3. All of the children had a driving force not to be poor.

4. John said that he admired Ike's parents - his grandparents very much and he knew them. He was 20 when his grandfather died and he was 24 when his grandmother died. He used to go in the summers for a week or so to stay and visit with his grandparents in Abilene. He said that it was the high point in the summer for him. He thought it was great - he was allowed to go around in his undershirt which no city boy was allowed to do. And he said that his grandmother before preparing dinner would go outside and whack the head off a chicken and then clean it up and then prepare it for dinner. He loved being able to go around in his undershirt which he was not allowed to do back home.

5. Abilene was an historic but a very small town. It was sleepy but had educated people there and it was historic because it was at the end of the long drive in the Civil War. Guess it could be a wild area with cattle drives and they had to send for "Wild Bill" Hickok to straighten everybody out. This was not so long before Ike was there himself but a lot had changed - it had three railroads. Ike was born in 1890 and Hickok was killed in Deadwood in 1876 - just 14 years before Ike was born.

6. His grandparents passed on a love for learning but his grandmother was very much a passivist. He said that his grandmother was born in 1862 near Warrenton, Virginia. They were Germans and her name was Stoever. They had come from Pennsylvania. So they were Yankee sympathizers. So she had the experience at a very young age of Confederate troops coming through their house and searching for her brothers who they wanted to enlist at best. And that scared her so she was dead set against Ike going to West Point.

7. Susan Swain made an interesting comment on how short the US history really is - that John's grandmother experienced the Civil War and John's father (Ike) took us all of the way up to the Cold War which included the World Wars in between. John said that he was born 57 years after the Civil War himself.

8. John Eisenhower said that even though Ike had a great faith - he was not formally religious like his parents. He had great faith in what is right but not in organized religion. His grandmother (Ike’s mother) religious background - John described as unusual.

9. They called themselves River Brethren - they were not talking about the Jordan River but the Susquehanna (Pennsylvania) - they were Mennonites. But his father did not spend much time on that.

10. He said that Ike was a serious reader - when the pressure was bad when he was overseas he would read Westerns like John said that he would do crossword puzzles to take his mind off of the stress. But normally he liked biographies.

11. Ike and his brother were determined not to be poor so they cooked up this scheme where Ike would work all year and summer doing his part time jobs and help save money so that Ed could go to school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When Ike’s friend brought up the fact that you could go to one of the military academies and get free education and that they would even pay you for it - that is why Ike grabbed for it because it got him an opportunity that he otherwise might not have had.

12. He was one year too old to go to the Naval Academy and ended up at West Point. He passed his exams based upon his high school exams and it was much easier to get into West Point and the Naval Academy in those days than it is today.

More:

13. Ike was assigned to the 19th Infantry at Sam Houston Texas and the Doud's split time between Colorado (summers) and San Antonio (winters). The Doud family happened to be in San Antonio at the time and Ike met Mamie completely by chance. A civilian introduced them when he was on guard duty one night and John said it must have been a pretty relaxed atmosphere because he invited her to walk with him when he was on his post. The courtship was not long. And Ike's mother did not think that is followed proper protocol for a certain length of time but they got married anyway.

14. John said that compared to his father - his mother was frail. But he said that she was very efficient. His father and Mamie had to move a lot because of Ike's career and John said that Mamie was a master at moving and rules the movers with an iron hand. She thought that being the wife of a general was very much like being in the White House - basically the same duties for her.

15. Mamie considered Manila to be far too sinful a city for a 15 year old boy to accompany his father. So they sent John to school in the mountains to a school called the Brett school in Baguio. It was an Episcopalian boarding school. He said that he met General MacArthur and said that he was very nice to him and even remembered all of the jobs he had while there and John said MacArthur had an unbelievable photographic memory.

Here is an article:
https://maxrialto.wordpress.com/tag/j...

16. John said that his father had great admiration for MacArthur's talents, accomplishments, bravery, intellect, He had thought that MacArthur could be more effective if he was less concerned with his own career. There was a falling out but John thinks it was greatly exaggerated and they did correspond after they left the Phillippines.

17. Regarding Truman - he said that the relationship between Truman and Ike was very good most of the time. He said that his father was never as impressed with Truman as he was with General MacArthur but he said the Truman had no other choice.

18. Truman was very fond of both Marshall and his father Ike by the end of the war.
Politics then became involved and Ike that Truman was cutting to far back on military expenditures. In 1948 the Democrats were trying to get Ike to run as a Democrat when they were disillusioned a bit with Truman. In 1950 when Truman called Ike to lead NATO and they stayed on good terms. When Ike was finally running - you have to run against the administration and Truman got very very angry. The final blow was when his father Ike had promised to go to Korea if elected - Truman said that the plane was available if he still wanted to go and that sort of started an eruption. But John said that Ike and Truman still had a relationship and he thinks any issues were exaggerated.

19. John graduated from West Point exactly on D-Day.

20. John Eisenhower attributed the health problems that his father had were due to his smoking three packs of cigarettes a day until he was 58 or 59 and not to any stress of World War II. - John Eisenhower said that his father suffered from Ileitis and nobody knew what it was. But he would have sporadic attacks.

21. John Eisenhower said that his father would have a ritual - He had a ritual where he would drink 4 ounces of scotch whiskey a day but no more. He has his first one 20 minutes before dinner and then he would have the rest at dinner. He never drank any more than that.

22. John Eisenhower said that his father was always athletic but took up golf in earnest in 1948.

23. Another interesting tidbit was that Ike's pilot during World War II when I guess he was the Allied Commander was Paul Tibbetts chosen because he was the best. Tibbetts was also chosen for the bombing of Hiroshima in order to end the war.

24. John Eisenhower did not see much of the war since he had been at West Point but he did spend a few months in Czechoslovakia while his father was at Versailles.

25. He said that Ike really liked Winston Churchill. And he stated that there was real affection between them. During the war, Ike had to negotiate with Churchill and sometimes that was tough because Churchill wanted to get his way and there were sometimes problems but the mutual respect was always very very high. Churchill had tremendous stamina. Even flying from London to Casablanca aboard these planes that were not comfortable at all - everybody else was bedraggled for the Conference but not Churchill who was as bouncy as he could be. The last time that John Eisenhower saw Churchill visiting his father was at the White House in 1959 - 5 years before he died. He had had a bunch of strokes and he wasn't himself anymore.

26. John Eisenhower stated that his father praised President Roosevelt very highly. His relationships with Roosevelt were meager because George Marshall was always the intermediary between the two of them. And George Marshall had to defend Ike to Roosevelt a couple of times. In 1943 they toured in a jeep around Tunisia but relationship with Roosevelt was not as deep and affectionate as the relationship that Ike had with Churchill for example.

27. John Eisenhower said that DeGaulle was one of his favorites and that the relationship between his father Ike and DeGaulle had been very badly interpreted. People want to assume that there was great animosity between the two. But in actuality the animosity was between DeGaulle and Roosevelt. Roosevelt could not abide by DeGaulle. Churchill brought him out of France in 1940 and he nothing. But he still had the attitude that - he was France. Ike had to have DeGaulle on his side because all of the supply lines were going through DeGaulle's country. In 1960 when the U2 situation came up - DeGaulle was the staunchest ally that Ike had.

28. John Eisenhower stated that Ike never had any direct dealings with Stalin.

29. He said that his father relayed a discussion around the time of the Potsdam Conference when John Eisenhower was one of his father's aides - that he had had a conversation with Secretary Stimson that they had developed a bomb that was so big - that it was nothing like anything that was visualized before and that it could wipe out a city. Ike said to John - what would have happened if the Germans had had something like that. What would that have done to D-Day. And he was very depressed that they had developed this thing. And he must have said something that mildly offended Stimson who had built this thing. Stimson was apparently a little irritated by Ike by what he said because he had had so much investment in it. John Eisenhower felt that Ike wished that this bomb had never been invented.

30. And he never said anything to John about dropping the bomb but John felt that he supported Truman in his decision and felt that he was given no choice.

31. John Eisenhower was with his father in Moscow on VJ Day - September 2, 1945,

32. Ike had been his nickname forever - all of the brothers had nicknames and this nickname was in the West Point yearbook.

33. Ike had been wooed by both parties and John Eisenhower was not surprised that Ike ran as a Republican - the Douds were Republican and Ike himself had marched in a parade with he was six for McKinley in Abilene. But having said that -John said hat his father was very much for FDR's policies during the war and when Ike went to NATO in 1950 it was the Republicans whose views he opposed. And Senator Robert Taft was giving President Truman a horrible time on military force matters.

Taft's Foreign Policy - http://ashbrook.org/publications/dial...

Ike had a meeting with Taft and tried to talk him out of his position by Taft would not budge. So Ike withdrew a letter he was going to write and stood by Truman.

34. John Eisenhower said that Ike was a very strict father and even as a grandfather always looked at their report cards and told them to stand up straight. But he was mellow with his grandchildren. He was very devoted.

35. Ike was very proud of his press relations. Arthur Krock was his favorite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_K...
But he did not have the rapport with the press that Roosevelt had. Roosevelt made friends with them. He respected their positions but was aloof.

36. Ike kept being called for one fund raiser after another even through Nixon was the candidate.

36. Ike had had heart failure and was having problems for a year at the end of his life. Nixon was a very good vice president to Ike.

37. The family seems to like the Ambrose books on Ike.

by Stephen E. Ambrose

by Stephen E. Ambrose

by Stephen E. Ambrose

John Eisenhower and James Hagerty visit Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon takes...HD Stock Footage

http://youtu.be/pih-N-89-AU

This is a complete list of the various residences of Dwight David Eisenhower from the time of his birth to his death:

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/al...

Source: The Eisenhower Archives

The Wyoming:



History
The Beaux-Arts luxury apartment building was designed by B. Stanley Simmons, for Lester A. Barr. The building has two wings: The first was built in 1905, and the second wing was constructed in 1911 In 1982, Barr's grandson sold the building for $6.3 million to developers, who converted it to condominiums.

The building is composed of 106 apartments, 76 in the South Wing and 30 in the North Wing. Betty Friedan, George Stephanopoulos, Christopher Hitchens and Dwight D. Eisenhower lived there.[4]

The Wyoming is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a contributing property to the Washington Heights Historic District.

https://whyroaming.wordpress.com

1956 Campaign Ad for Ike

This one was called Eisenhower Answers America - I have to say these were very funny.

http://youtu.be/lEINBjHHvHE

The Dancing Ike Campaign Ad

1956 - I like Ike for President

http://youtu.be/DF9PsMDjc8g

1956 Eisenhower Campaign Ad

A cartoon everyman wants some answers about who to vote for and a very serious man replies. Then, we see some regular Americans who explain why they are voting for President Eisenhower. This is an awesome slice of American history.

http://youtu.be/GHSQzCElKuQ

1956 Eisenhower Campaign Ad Aimed at Women

Check out the guy in the chair reading the newspaper and doing nothing. (smile)

Here's a great example of a campaign ad geared toward female voters in the 1950s. A female commentator tells women what their concerns are, while people dramatize the scenarios. It's a fantastic slice of American history and a great glimpse at 1950s women, pre women's liberation.

http://youtu.be/jomJtpp9L9Y

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Football/Peace - Citizens for Eisenhower

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

Transcript:

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Football/Peace," Eisenhower, 1956

CROWD: Go! Go! Go!

(Cheering and Music)

MALE NARRATOR #1: It's football time! And every Saturday afternoon in stadiums all over the country, you'll see young men like this one, watching the games and enjoying themselves.

(Minor music, explosions)

But four years ago, it was a different story. Four years ago, many of our young men were on Heartbreak Ridge in Korea. And that was no game: A vicious, grinding war that went on and on, as if forever.

Of course, today it's all over and the young men are trying to forget. But for one day this year, they'll remember. And that one day is Election Day, November 6th, when not only these young men, but Americans of all ages will be thinking long and hard about how to vote for the surest road to peace during the next four years. What are some of their thoughts?

COLLEGE STUDENT: I'm engaged this time, and I'm planning to get married, and I don't want to look forward to military service in war. I want my children to grow up in a country that's in peace. I think that Ike is the man who can do this for us.

MOTHER #1: I will vote for President Eisenhower because I am a mother of three children. And I feel, with President Eisenhower in command of our country, I can raise my children with great security.

FATHER: I'm going to vote for Ike because of his outstanding record in the past four years, and because I believe, through a Republican administration, we will have peace and prosperity for my children to grow up in for at least the next 20 years.

VETERAN: I served four and a half years in the United States Army Air Forces, and am a great admirer of President Eisenhower in what he did during the war in leading us to victory and what he is now doing to lead us to peace and to hold the peace in this world.

MOTHER #2: I have an 18-year-old son, and I am so grateful to Eisenhower for giving him an uninterrupted education. So many of the boys--his friends--were sent to Korea in a war that had no successful conclusion.

MALE NARRATOR #1: All over the country, young men and their parents are asking: Can we gamble when the stakes are so high? Can we dismiss the man who has kept us at peace, and take a chance on a man untried and inexperienced in international negotiations and world problems? What do you say? Are you willing to bet everything you love and hold dear that Stevenson can also keep us out of war? Are you that sure of it?

Remember: this peace we've grown so used to didn't come to us as a gift. Four years ago, you did something about it. You registered and you voted Ike Eisenhower into office. Now, let's keep him there. Ask yourself: is this the time to change, with war simmering all around the world? During the past four years, President Eisenhower has kept this black headline off the front pages of our newspapers.

[TEXT: UNITED STATES AT WAR!]

MALE NARRATOR #1: Because he knows firsthand the terror and misery of war. As he has said:

EISENHOWER: We witness today in the power of nuclear weapons a new and deadly dimension to the ancient horror of war. Humanity has now achieved, for the first time in its history, the power to end its history. This truth must guide our every deed. It makes world disarmament a necessity of world life. For I repeat again this simple declaration: the only way to win World War III is to prevent it.

MALE NARRATOR #2: The National Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon have presented this message to all thinking voters, regardless of party affiliation.

Source: "Football/Peace," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

Summary from The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012

1956 Campaign

For President Eisenhower, the only true emergency of his first term was the heart attack he suffered in September 1955. After his doctor pronounced him fully recovered in February 1956, Eisenhower announced his decision to run for re-election. The Democrats set up a replay of the 1952 contest by nominating Adlai Stevenson. The result was an even greater Republican landslide. Eisenhower was a popular incumbent president who had ended the Korean War. Two world crises helped cement his lead in the final days of the campaign: the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, and Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to take over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower kept the United States out of both conflicts. As is traditional during a military crisis, American voters rallied behind their president. The events also undermined two of Stevenson’s key positions: the suspension of hydrogen-bomb testing and the elimination of the military draft.

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

"Housewife," Eisenhower, 1956 Campaign Ad

All of the women are shown as housewives who look like maids and are always with their Hoovers or doing shopping, etc.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Housewife," Eisenhower, 1956

HOUSEWIFE: To be happy, it's important to like your neighbors and for them to like you. So think how really important it is for the whole world to like and respect the President of the United States. No American has ever won greater respect for our country than President Eisenhower — and that could mean the difference between war and peace. That's why I'm voting for Ike.

CREDITS
"Housewife," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Taxi Driver and Dog - another Eisenhower ad with spooky music (smile)

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

The dog's name is Prince (lol) - And the White House looks very close to the street. Obviously that has changed to protect the Presidents. Times have changed.

He describes Ike as a "Big Man who is used to handling Big Problems".

TRANSCRIPT

Museum fo the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Taxi Driver and Dog," Eisenhower, 1956

TAXI DRIVER: Come on, Prince. Oh yeah boy, you little mutt. Come on.

(Background music starts)

TAXI DRIVER (voiceover): I've been driving a taxi here in Washington for quite a few years. Every day I pass this corner a dozen times and never even notice it. But every night when Prince takes me out for my evening walk, I always stop when I reach this particular spot and look over there at that house, where you see the lighted windows.

A neighbor of mine lives there. Yep, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man with the most important job in the world today. What do you suppose he's thinking about over there? Right now, at this very minute? Maybe things thousands of miles away from here, anywhere in the world, wherever some crisis is starting to threaten everybody's future. Egypt, Formosa, East Berlin - there's a dozen places where real trouble can break out. And that's why we all depend on Ike so much. He can stand up to Khrushchev and those fellows. He's a big man who is used to handling big problems.

Or maybe he's thinking about the folks who work every day at factories and offices, or drive taxis. Of course, mine isn't one of the big jobs in the world, but it's important to me. And I get a feeling it's important to him. I think he knows all about people like me who work for a living. After all, he was born in a small town. His family was no richer than mine. He never had any money given to him and every thing he's got he had to work for. He's a family man, too. He knows the problems of raising a family and trying to give them the things they need.

Yeah. He might be thinking about a lot of things. Children maybe, and how we can help them all have their own desk in a good school with a good teacher, to help them grow up strong and healthy with all the advantages and opportunities our kids ought to have. Or the people on the farms, how to save their land and help them grow crops and have some cash in their pockets at the end of every year. Real hard questions that need his impartial thinking if they're going to be solved fairly. So the farmer is sure of getting a steady, increasing income himself.

Or how we can stay strong. The way I see it, there's a problem that absolutely calls for a man with Ike's background as a military leader and statesman. He knows what it takes to give us the strength we must have to stay free.

Yes, behind those lighted windows is the kind of man history only favors a nation with once in a long, long time, a man dedicated as few men ever are, to high principles and human good, a man whose whole life has been given to his country's service. That's why tonight, while I'm thinking of him, I got a feeling he's thinking of me, and my future, and my family's future.

TAXI DRIVER (to camera): In times like these, so full of perils and problems, I'll be honest with you, I need him. Don't you? Come on, Prince. Come on, boy. Time we were getting home.

MALE NARRATOR: The national Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon have presented this dramatization for all thinking voters regardless of party affiliation.

CREDITS
"Taxi Driver and Dog," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Maker: Young and Rubicam

Video courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

The Mother Ad - 1956

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Mother," Eisenhower, 1956

MOTHER: We have two sons, both of draft age. We believe in a strong America. I also believe that President Eisenhower, because of his experience, knows better than anyone else how to keep our country at peace. So there's no question in our minds. We're voting for Ike - again.

CREDITS
"Mother," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

"Lena Washington," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

This ad looks like Ike was going after the African American voter and also targeting women yet again.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Lena Washington," Eisenhower, 1956

LENA WASHINGTON: I'm Lena Washington, a mother. I'm voting for Ike because I think he can give us lasting peace. He stopped Communist aggression in Indochina, Iran and right here in America. And Guatemala. Ike ended the Korean war too. That's why I like Ike, and he'll get my vote.

CREDITS
"Lena Washington," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

College Girl - again targeting women and also the first time or young voter - 1956

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"College Girl," Eisenhower, 1956

COLLEGE GIRL: I'm Irene Walpole, a college girl voting for the first time. I can't see how Mr. Stevenson has any experience in dealing with foreign countries. But both our allies and our enemies respect the greatness of President Eisenhower. In order to keep the peace, we need a president that other countries will listen to. In my book, that's President Eisenhower.

CREDITS
"College Girl," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Union Worker - targeting blue collar union workers

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Union Member," Eisenhower, 1952

HOWARD GENSLER: I'm Howard Gensler, union member. I see Mr. Stevenson says the average man isn't making out so good under Eisenhower. Yeah? How does he explain pay raises? Average hourly wages are up sixteen dollars a week, and more people are working. Also, Ike's get the peace. I'm voting for President Eisenhower again.

CREDITS
"Union Member," Citizens for Eisenhower, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

REPUBLICAN: (1956 Campaign)

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER FOR PRESIDENT
RICHARD NIXON FOR VICE PRESIDENT

"Peace, Prosperity, and Progress"

Although Eisenhower was the incumbent president, his 1956 ads continued to portray him as an ordinary American. Capitalizing on his enormous popularity, they emphasized Ike’s personality even more than his accomplishments.

To counter Stevenson’s claim that the Democratic party was the party of the average American and the Republican "the party of the few," Eisenhower’s ads offered the testimony of ordinary citizens, whether in the dramatized ad "Taxi Driver and Dog" or the documentary-style "Women Voters." The latter ad was also an acknowledgment that women were crucial to Eisenhower’s 1952 landslide, supporting him by a greater margin than men.

The Eisenhower ads closed with an appeal to "all thinking voters" because a Republican victory was only possible with the support of Democrats and independents, who outnumbered Republicans in the general population. Conversely, Stevenson’s ads urged voters to uphold party loyalty, a common plea by Democratic candidates trailing in the polls.

DEMOCRAT
ADLAI STEVENSON FOR PRESIDENT
ESTES KEFAUVER FOR VICE PRESIDENT

"Vote Democratic, the Party for You, and Not Just a Few"

In 1956, Adlai Stevenson was still publicly railing against the expanding role of television in politics. Yet Stevenson knew that he couldn’t compete without television, and the Democratic National Committee tried to hire one of the leading Madison Avenue agencies to handle the campaign.

The account was turned down by all of the large firms, who feared offending their big-business Republican clients, and was finally accepted by Norman, Craig and Kummel, an agency with little political experience that ranked 25th in billings.

The main innovation in the commercials of the 1956 campaign was the five-minute spot. Stevenson appeared in a series of such spots, titled "The Man From Libertyville," which were filmed at his home in Libertyville, Illinois.

The informal and folksy ads were designed to combat Stevenson’s image as an aloof "egghead."

In an attempt to portray the divorced Stevenson as a family man, some of the ads featured his son and daughter-in-law.

Meanwhile, the Eisenhower campaign made frequent use of the president's Mamie and large extended family. Emanating from America’s heartland, Stevenson's Libertyville spots were designed to re-establish the Democratic party as the true voice of the American people.

The five-minute spot (actually four minutes and twenty seconds) resulted from cooperation between the networks and the candidates. Hoping to avoid the pre-emption of programs by half-hour speeches, the networks agreed to trim their shows to accommodate five-minute ads. To the candidates’ advantage, the spots were less expensive than half-hour broadcasts, and, as they could be sandwiched between popular programs, were likely to reach more viewers.

ELECTION RESULTS IN 1956

http://www.270towin.com/1956_Election/

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Adlai Stevenson Ad

The Man from Libertyville

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

Adlai Stevenson appears in this ad talking to the American people

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Man from Libertyville," Stevenson, 1956

MALE NARRATOR: The Democratic National Committee presents another visit with the man from Libertyville. Here at the end of this lane, on a farm about four miles from Libertyville, lives Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois. This is Governor Stevenson's living room, considerably cluttered up right now. A film crew has arrived to take pictures for television.

MAN: Scene Four, Five and Six. Take One. Track 43.

MALE NARRATOR: Now, here's the Governor.

STEVENSON: Yes, and I wish you could see what else is in this room beside the camera. Lights over here. There are cables all over the floor and even some of my friends standing around here. But you know, it's amazing how many things there are in television that you don't see. But I confess, I, I rather like it. It's wonderful. How sitting right here in my own library, thanks to television, I can talk to millions of people that I couldn't reach any other way.

But I'm not going to let this spoil me. I'm not going to stop traveling in this campaign. I can talk to you, yes. But I can't listen to you. I can't hear about your problems, about your hopes and your fears. To do that I've got to go out and see you in person, and that's what I've been doing. For the past several years I have traveled all over this country, hundreds of thousands of miles. I've been in every state, many of them more than once. And I've met thousands of you and millions of you have seen me. And out in the great Northwest - out here in Oregon and Washington and Idaho and Montana and all this great, beautiful, wonderful Western region - I've seen our magnificent natural resources, these priceless possessions that we have cherished so long, which the Eisenhower Administration has been giving away.

And the school problem is not a regional problem. All over the United States - from coast to coast, from Canada to Mexico - where I have traveled I have talked to people like you, parents, about their children, about the crisis in our schools. And I've talked with small businessmen all over the country, who get smaller and smaller and poorer and poorer while big business gets bigger and bigger.

And I've heard many people worry about the greatest anxiety of all in this age of the hydrogen bomb - about the state of our defenses, about the national security, about America's influence in the world under a Republican Administration that puts dollars ahead of national security. Yes, and I've seen the hurt in people's eyes, children and older people, too, who because of the color of their skin are treated somehow differently from their fellows in this land of equality and of freedom.

All of this and much more I have experienced - I have seen and heard and felt - as I have traveled across this broad land of ours, back and forth by train and plane and bus. And so, easy as it is to appear before you on television, I shall continue to travel and to listen throughout this campaign, as well as talk. And if you should elect me your president next November, I shall be the better for having done it, I'm sure, because I know that the strength and the wisdom that I need must be drawn from you, the people. So finally, I hope that the next time we meet it will be person to person and face to face.

MALE NARRATOR: Cast your vote on November 6th for the new America, for Adlai Stevenson for president and Estes Kefauver for vice president. Vote Democratic, the party for you, not just a few.

CREDITS
"The Man from Libertyville: TV Campaigning," Democratic National Committee, 1956

Maker: Charles Guggenheim

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Adlai Stevenson Ad

"How's That Again, General?

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"How's That Again, General?" Stevenson, 1956.

[TEXT: HOW'S THAT AGAIN, GENERAL?]

MALE NARRATOR #1: How's that again, General? In the 1952 campaign the General complained about the cost of living. He promised his televison audience:

EISENHOWER [clip]: If people can afford less butter, less fruit, less bread, less milk...Yes, it's time for a change.

MALE NARRATOR #1: How's that again, General?

EISENHOWER [clip]: Yes, it's time for a change.

ESTES KEFAUVER: This is Estes Kefauver. The General's promise to bring down prices was another broken promise. Since the Republicans took office the cost of living has reached its highest point in history. Today the consumer can buy less food, less housing, less clothing, less medical care than he could in nineteen hundred and fifty-two for the same money. The General promised a change for the better, and we got shortchanged for the worse. Think it through.

[TEXT: Vote For STEVENSON, KEFAUVER, WAGNER. Vote Row "B" Nov. 6.]

MALE NARRATOR #2: Vote for Stevenson, Kefauver, Wagner and your local Democratic candidates. Vote Row "B."

CREDITS
"How's That Again, General?," Stevenson-Kefauver Campaign Committee, 1956

Maker: Norman, Craig, and Kummel

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

1956 EISENHOWER VS. STEVENSON

Adlai Stevenson Ad

Quail Hunting - "How's That Again, General?

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/co...

TRANSCRIPT
Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Quail Hunting," Stevenson, 1956

[TEXT: HOW'S THAT AGAIN, GENERAL?]

MALE NARRATOR: How's that again, General? At a press conference and talking about his responsibilities as President, Mr: Eisenhower declared:

EISENHOWER: No President can delegate his constitutional duties. How can he do it? He has to sign the papers. He has to sign them, and he's responsible for them. I'm the responsible head of the executive part of this government.

MALE NARRATOR: How's that again, General?

EISENHOWER: I'm the responsible head of the executive part of this government.

KEFAUVER: This is Estes Kefauver. The words you have just heard turned out to be hollow words, indeed. At the height of the Dien Bien Phu Crisis, the President went quail hunting. When John Foster Dulles's "Brink of War" article confused the free world, the General ducked the responsibility: said he hadn't even read the article. And so it goes. The list of such actions or lack of actions is endless. The Presidency requires leadership, not buck-passing. Let's think it through.

MALE NARRATOR: Vote for Stevenson and Kefauver! Vote Democratic!

[TEXT: Vote for ADLAI STEVENSON and ESTES KEFAUVER]

CREDITS
"Quail Hunting," Stevenson, 1956

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercia... (accessed February 22, 2015).

There are two pictures here of the "historic marker" for the 1st Officer's Camp in Leon Springs, TX where Eisenhower was deployed for a short time while being stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Sadly, it does not mention Eisenhower being here. A bank now stands in it's place. The last picture is of the Max Aue Cabin that was a stagecoach inn across the road from where the officer's camp was. This is a building that I thought was an old army barracks, but was wrong.

If you read the marker - this 1st Officer's Training Camp was established on May 8, 1917 which is about the time Eisenhower went to Leon Springs. So I am guessing he was part of that first group. It also mentions Camp Funston and our book talks about Fighting Fred Funston being assigned here by President Wilson. Very cool to connect this bit of information while reading the book.







(Source: My own pictures)

Thank you Teri very much.

General Douglas MacArthur



Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was an American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific in World War II (1939-1945), oversaw the successful Allied occupation of postwar Japan and led United Nations forces in the Korean War (1950-1953). A larger-than-life, controversial figure, MacArthur was talented, outspoken and, in the eyes of many, egotistical. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1903 and helped lead the 42nd Division in France during World War I (1914-1918). He went on to serve as superintendent of West Point, chief of staff of the Army and field marshal of the Philippines, where he helped organize a military. During World War II, he famously returned to liberate the Philippines in 1944 after it had fallen to the Japanese. MacArthur led United Nations forces during the start of the Korean War, but later clashed with President Harry Truman over war policy and was removed from command.

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S EARLY YEARS

Douglas MacArthur was born on January 26, 1880, at the Little Rock Barracks in Arkansas. MacArthur’s early childhood was spent on western frontier outposts where his Army officer father, Arthur MacArthur (1845-1912), was stationed. The younger MacArthur later said of the experience, “It was here I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write–indeed, almost before I could walk or talk.”

In 1903, MacArthur graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a junior officer in the years leading up to World War I, he was stationed in the Philippines and around the United States, served as an aide to his father in the Far East and participated in the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, MacArthur helped lead the 42nd “Rainbow” Division in France and was promoted to brigadier general.

BETWEEN BATTLES

From 1919 to 1922 Douglas MacArthur served as the superintendent of West Point and instituted a variety of reforms intended to modernize the school. In 1922 he wed socialite Louise Cromwell Brooks (c. 1890-1965). The two divorced in 1929, and in 1937 MacArthur married Jean Faircloth (1898-2000), with whom he had one child, Arthur MacArthur IV, the following year.

In 1930 President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) named MacArthur chief of staff of the Army, with the rank of general. In this role, MacArthur sent Army troops to remove the so-called Bonus Army of unemployed World War I veterans from Washington, D.C., in 1932. The incident was a public relations disaster for MacArthur and the military.

In 1935, after finishing his term as chief of staff, MacArthur was tasked with creating an armed force for the Philippines, which became a commonwealth of the United States that year (and gained independence in 1946). In 1937, upon learning he was scheduled to return for duty in the United States, MacArthur resigned from the military, stating that his mission wasn’t finished. He remained in the Philippines, where he served as a civilian advisor to President Manuel Quezon (1878-1944), who had appointed him field marshal of the Philippines.

WORLD WAR II

In 1941, with expansionist Japan posing an increasing threat, Douglas MacArthur was recalled to active duty and named commander of U.S. Army forces in the Far East. On December 8, 1941, his air force was destroyed in a surprise attack by the Japanese, who soon invaded the Philippines. MacArthur’s forces retreated to the Bataan peninsula, where they struggled to survive. In March 1942, on orders from President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945), MacArthur, his family and members of his staff fled Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia. Shortly afterward, MacArthur promised, “I shall return.” U.S.-Philippine forces fell to Japan in May 1942.

In April 1942, MacArthur was appointed supreme commander of Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific and awarded the Medal of Honor for his defense of the Philippines. He spent the next two and a half years commanding an island-hopping campaign in the Pacific before famously returning to liberate the Philippines in October 1944. Wading ashore at Leyte, he announced, “I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil.” In December 1944, he was promoted to the rank of general of the Army and soon given command of all Army forces in the Pacific.

On September 2, 1945, MacArthur officially accepted Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. From 1945 to 1951, as Allied commander of the Japanese occupation, MacArthur oversaw the successful demobilization of Japan’s military forces as well as the restoration of the economy, the drafting of a new constitution and numerous other reforms.

KOREAN WAR

In June 1950, Communist forces from North Korea invaded the western-aligned Republic of South Korea, launching the Korean War. Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the American-led coalition of United Nations troops. That fall, his troops repelled the North Koreans and eventually drove them back toward the Chinese border. MacArthur met with President Truman, who worried that the communist government of the People’s Republic of China might view the invasion as a hostile act and intervene in the conflict. The general assured him the chances of a Chinese intervention were slim. Then, in November and December 1950, a massive force of Chinese troops crossed into North Korea and flung themselves against the American lines, driving the U.S. troops back into South Korea. MacArthur asked for permission to bomb communist China and use Nationalist Chinese forces from Taiwan against the People’s Republic of China. Truman flatly refused these requests, and a public dispute broke out between the two men.

On April 11, 1951, Truman removed MacArthur from his command for insubordination. In an address to Americans that day, the president stated, “I believe that we must try to limit the war to Korea for these vital reasons: To make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free world is not needlessly jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war.” MacArthur had been fired, he said, “so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy.”

MacArthur’s dismissal set off a brief uproar among the American public, but Truman remained committed to keeping the conflict in Korea a “limited war.” Eventually, the American people began to understand that MacArthur’s policies and recommendations might have led to a massively expanded war in Asia.

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S LATER YEARS

In April 1951, Douglas MacArthur returned to the United States, where he was welcomed as a hero and honored with parades in various cities. On April 19, he gave a dramatic televised address before a joint session of Congress in which he criticized Truman’s Korean policy. The general ended with a quote from an old army song: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

MacArthur and his wife took up residence in a suite at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In 1952, there were calls for MacArthur to run for president as a Republican; however, the party ultimately chose Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969), who went on to win the general election. That same year, MacArthur became chairman of Remington Rand, a maker of electrical equipment and business machines.

MacArthur died at age 84 on April 5, 1964, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was buried at the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia.
(Source: History)

More:
General Douglas MacArthur at Biography
PBS' American Experience: General Douglas MacArthur
The General Douglas MacArthur Foundation
Valor awards for Douglas MacArthur - Military Times
Douglas MacArthur | World War II Database
by Jean Darby (no photo)
by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson (no photo)
by Theodore Kinni (no photo)
by Douglas MacArthur
by Douglas MacArthur
by Douglas MacArthur

General John J. Pershing



U.S. Army general John J. Pershing (1860-1948) commanded the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe during World War I. The president and first captain of the West Point class of 1886, he served in the Spanish- and Philippine-American Wars and was tasked to lead a punitive raid against the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson selected Pershing to command the American troops being sent to Europe. Although Pershing aimed to maintain the independence of the AEF, his willingness to integrate into Allied operations helped bring about the armistice with Germany. After the war, Pershing served as army chief of staff from 1921 to 1924.

A mediocre student but a natural leader, John Joseph Pershing was president and first captain of the West Point class of 1886. Returning to the military academy as a tactical officer in 1897, he was nicknamed “Nigger Jack,” or “Black Jack,” by cadets who resented his iron discipline. The second of these nicknames, derived from his frontier service with the African-American Tenth Cavalry, stuck. In 1898, he went up San Juan Hill with his Black troopers, proving himself “as cool as a bowl of cracked ice” under fire from Spanish sharpshooters who killed or wounded 50 percent of the regiment’s officers. Next came three tours in the Philippines, mostly in Mindanao, where Pershing displayed an ability to combine force and diplomacy to disarm the island’s fierce Moro warriors.

In 1905 Pershing married Helen Frances Warren, daughter of the chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. Pershing’s friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt combined with this marital connection to vault him from captain to brigadier general in 1905, over the heads of 862 more senior officers. Eleven years later, his Philippines experience made him a natural choice to command the Punitive Expedition that President Woodrow Wilson dispatched to Mexico in 1916 to pursue Pancho Villa and his marauding army after they attacked American border towns along the Rio Grande. Although Pershing never caught Villa, he thoroughly disrupted his operations. Thus he became the president’s choice to command the American Expeditionary Force when Wilson’s neutrality policy collapsed in the face of German intransigence and America entered World War I in April 1917.

In France, Pershing rejected French and British demands to amalgamate his troops into their depleted armies. He insisted on forming an independent American army before committing any U.S. troops to battle and stuck to this position in spite of enormous diplomatic pressure from Allied politicians and generals–and awesome gains made by the German army in the spring of 1918. In June and July, however, he permitted his divisions to fight under French generals to stop the Germans on the Marne. But on August 10, Pershing opened First Army headquarters, and on September 12, 500,000 Americans attacked the St.-Mihiel salient and quickly erased this bulge in the French lines, which the Germans had already planned to abandon.

The Meuse-Argonne offensive of September 26 was a very different battle. There, Pershing’s doctrine of “open warfare,” which was supposed to break the Western Front’s stalemate with the American rifleman’s superior marksmanship and rapid movements, collided with the machine gun, a weapon Pershing badly underestimated. The battle became a bloody stalemate, compounded by massive traffic jams in the rear areas as green American staffs floundered. On October 16, Pershing tacitly admitted failure and handed over the First Army to Hunter Liggett, who revamped its tactics and organization. Renewing the offensive on November 1, the Americans joined the advancing British and French armies in forcing the Germans to accept an armistice on November 11. Pershing was the only Allied commander who opposed the armistice, urging continued pressure until the Germans surrendered unconditionally.

In France, Pershing remained a disciple of iron discipline and constantly tried to shape the American Expeditionary Force to West Point standards. He ruthlessly relieved division officers who faltered under pressure. In a toast on armistice night, he paid honest tribute to how he had emerged from the cauldron of the Argonne a victorious general. “To the men,” he said. “They were willing to pay the price.”

Pershing served as army chief of staff from 1921 to 1924. He assisted in making his prot[eacute]g[eacute], George C. Marshall, chief of staff in 1940. “If he was not a great man,” wrote one journalist who knew Pershing well, “there were few stronger.”
(Source: History)

More:
PBS' American Experience: General John J. Pershing
John J. Pershing - Historic Missourians - The State Historical Society of Missouri
Arlington National Cemetery: John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing
Worldwar1 Doughboy Center: John J. Pershing
National Parks Service: John Pershing - The Early Years
John Joseph Pershing - University of Colorado Boulder
by Jesse Russell (no photo)
by Frank E. Vandiver (no photo)
by John J. Pershing (no photo)
by Gene Smith (no photo)
by John J. Pershing (no photo)

American Battle Monuments Commission




Recognizing the need for a federal agency to be responsible for honoring American armed forces where they have served, and for controlling the construction of military monuments and markers on foreign soil by others, Congress enacted legislation in 1923 establishing ABMC.

In performing its functions, ABMC administers, operates and maintains on foreign soil 25 permanent American burial grounds, and 26 separate memorials, monuments and markers, including three memorials in the United States. Presently there are 124,905 American war dead interred in these cemeteries, of which 30,922 are from World War I, 93,233 are from World War II and 750 are from the Mexican War. Additionally 14,907 American veterans and others are interred in the Mexico City National Cemetery, Corozal American Cemetery and Clark Veterans Cemetery. Commemorated individually by name on stone tablets are more than 94,000 American servicemen and women who were missing in action, or lost or buried at sea in their regions during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Final disposition of World War I and World War II remains was carried out under the provisions of Public Law 389, 66th Congress and Public Law 368, 80th Congress, respectively. These laws entitled the next of kin to select permanent interment of a family member’s remains on foreign soil in an American military cemetery designed, constructed and maintained specifically to honor in perpetuity the dead of those wars, or to repatriate the remains to the United States for interment in a national or private cemetery.

The final disposition of remains was carried out by the War Department's American Graves Registration Service under the quartermaster general. From time to time, requests are received from relatives asking that the instructions of the next of kin at the time of interment be disregarded. Those making such requests are informed that the decision made by the next of kin at the time of interment is final. Often, on seeing the beauty and immaculate care of ABMC cemeteries, these same individuals tell us later that they are now pleased that the remains have been interred in these overseas shrines.

World War I Commemorative Program

ABMC’s World War I commemorative program consisted of four major engineering programs:

Erecting a nonsectarian chapel in each of the eight burial grounds on foreign soil that were established by the War Department for the dead of that war;
Landscaping each of the cemeteries;
Erecting 11 separate monuments and two tablets elsewhere in Europe; and
Constructing the Allied Expeditionary Forces World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.
In 1934 a Presidential Executive Order transferred the eight World War I cemeteries to ABMC and made it responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of future permanent American military burial grounds located in foreign countries.

World War II

By the end of World War II, several hundred temporary burial grounds had been established by the U.S. Army on battlefields around the world. In 1947 14 sites in foreign countries were selected to become permanent burial sites by the Secretary of the Army and ABMC. The location of these sites corresponds closely with the course of military operations. These permanent sites were turned over to ABMC after the interments had been made by the American Graves Registration Service in the configuration proposed by the cemetery architect and approved by ABMC. After the war all temporary cemeteries were disestablished by the War Department and the remains were permanently interred in accordance with the directions of the next of kin. In a few instances the next of kin directed that isolated burials be left undisturbed. When doing so, the next of kin assumed complete responsibility for the care of the grave.

Like World War I cemeteries, the use of the World War II sites as permanent military burial grounds was granted in perpetuity by each host country free of charge or taxation. Except in the Philippines, burial in these cemeteries is limited by agreements with the host country to members of the U.S. armed forces who died overseas during the war. American civilian technicians, Red Cross workers and entertainers serving the military were treated as members of the armed forces in determining burial entitlement. The agreement with the Republic of the Philippines permitted members of the Philippine Scouts and the Philippine Army units that fought with the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines to be interred in the Manila American Cemetery. All of ABMC’s World War I and World War II cemeteries are closed to burials except for remains of American war dead still found from time to time in the battle areas. This policy is dictated by agreements with the host countries concerned.

World War II Commemorative Program

ABMC’s World War II commemorative program consisted of:

Constructing 14 permanent American military cemeteries on foreign soil;
Constructing several monuments on foreign soil; and
Constructing four memorials in the United States
In addition to their landscaped graves area and nonsectarian chapels, the World War II cemeteries contain sculpture(s), an area with battle maps and narratives depicting the course of the war in the region, and a visitor reception area. Each grave site for the World War I and World War II cemeteries is marked by a headstone of pristine white marble. Headstones of those of the Jewish faith are tapered marble shafts surmounted by a Star of David. Stylized marble Latin crosses mark all others. Annotated on the headstones of the World War I servicemen who could not be identified is: "Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.” The words "American Soldier" were changed to "Comrade in Arms" on the headstones of the unidentified of World War II.

Memorials Built by ABMC

Three memorials in Washington, D.C. – the American Expeditionary Forces Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the World War II Memorial – were established by ABMC and are now administered by the National Park Service.

Commission Structure

The policy making body of ABMC consists of 11 commissioners who are appointed by the President of the United States for an indefinite term and serve without compensation. They meet with the professional staff of ABMC twice annually. ABMC has 400 full-time civilian employees. Eighty, full-time civilian employees are U.S. citizens; all but 30 of them are located overseas. The remaining civilian employees are foreign nationals from the countries where ABMC installations are located.

ABMC headquarters is located in Arlington, Va. A Paris-based operations office has operational responsibility for ABMC’s overseas cemeteries and memorials. Cemetery superintendents and their assistants are selected for their administrative ability; knowledge of horticulture; knowledge of vehicle, equipment and structural maintenance; knowledge of construction; and their ability to show compassion and tact when dealing with the public.

Chairmen

General of the Armies John J. Pershing was appointed to the newly-formed ABMC in 1923 by President Warren G. Harding and was elected chairman by the other members. He served as chairman until his death in 1948, at which time he was succeeded by Gen. George C. Marshall. Following Gen. Marshall's death in 1959, Gen. Jacob L. Devers became chairman. He was succeeded by Gen. Mark W. Clark in 1969. Gen. Clark died in 1984 and Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster was elected the following year. Gen. P. X. Kelley succeeded Gen. Goodpaster in 1991. Gen. Frederick F. Woerner became chairman in 1994. Gen. Kelley returned to ABMC in August 2001, succeeding Gen. Woerner. Upon Gen. Kelley's resignation from ABMC in 2005, Gen. Frederick M. Franks, Jr., assumed the chairmanship and served until his resignation in January 2009. Gen. Merrill A. McPeak was elected chairman in June 2011.
(Source: American Battle Monuments Commission)

More:
Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission
American Battle Monuments Commission - AllGov
American Battle Monuments Commission - Honoring U.S. War Dead - History.net
The American Battle Monuments Commission - greatwar.co.uk
Federal Register | American Battle Monuments Commission
(no image) Financial Audit: American Battle Monuments Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2011 and 2010 by Government Accountability Office (no photo)
by Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations, . United States C (no photo)
by Jesse Russell (no photo)
by Gene Smith (no photo)
by Frank E. Vandiver (no photo)

Calvin Coolidge



As America's 30th President (1923-1929), Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts of frugality amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era.

At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that he was President. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible.

Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement," wrote a Democratic admirer, Alfred E. Smith. "His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history ... in a time of extravagance and waste...."

Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics in Northampton, Massachusetts. Slowly, methodically, he went up the political ladder from councilman in Northampton to Governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican. En route he became thoroughly conservative.

As President, Coolidge demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying. He refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. His first message to Congress in December 1923 called for isolation in foreign policy, and for tax cuts, economy, and limited aid to farmers.

He rapidly became popular. In 1924, as the beneficiary of what was becoming known as "Coolidge prosperity," he polled more than 54 percent of the popular vote.

In his Inaugural he asserted that the country had achieved "a state of contentment seldom before seen," and pledged himself to maintain the status quo. In subsequent years he twice vetoed farm relief bills, and killed a plan to produce cheap Federal electric power on the Tennessee River.

The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...."

Coolidge was both the most negative and remote of Presidents, and the most accessible. He once explained to Bernard Baruch why he often sat silently through interviews: "Well, Baruch, many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes more."

But no President was kinder in permitting himself to be photographed in Indian war bonnets or cowboy dress, and in greeting a variety of delegations to the White House.

Both his dry Yankee wit and his frugality with words became legendary. His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, "You lose." And in 1928, while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he issued the most famous of his laconic statements, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."

By the time the disaster of the Great Depression hit the country, Coolidge was in retirement. Before his death in January 1933, he confided to an old friend, ". . . I feel I no longer fit in with these times."
(Source: White House)

More:
Calvin Coolidge at Biography
History Today: 'Silent Cal'
Calvin Coolidge at Britannica
Calvin Coolidge's oath as President
Calvin Coolidge's legacy
by Robert Sobel (no photo)
by John Donald Hicks (no photo)
by George Henry Soule (no photo)
by Calvin Coolidge
by Robert H. Ferrell

The Great Depression




The Great Depression (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its nadir, some 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed. Though the relief and reform measures put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped lessen the worst effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the economy would not fully turn around until after 1939, when World War II kicked American industry into high gear.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION BEGINS: THE STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929

The American economy entered an ordinary recession during the summer of 1929, as consumer spending dropped and unsold goods began to pile up, slowing production. At the same time, stock prices continued to rise, and by the fall of that year had reached levels that could not be justified by anticipated future earnings. On October 24, 1929, the stock market bubble finally burst, as investors began dumping shares en masse. A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as “Black Thursday.” Five days later, on “Black Tuesday” some 16 million shares were traded after another wave of panic swept Wall Street. Millions of shares ended up worthless, and those investors who had bought stocks “on margin” (with borrowed money) were wiped out completely.

As consumer confidence vanished in the wake of the stock market crash, the downturn in spending and investment led factories and other businesses to slow down production and construction and begin firing their workers. For those who were lucky enough to remain employed, wages fell and buying power decreased. Many Americans forced to buy on credit fell into debt, and the number of foreclosures and repossessions climbed steadily. The adherence to the gold standard, which joined countries around the world in a fixed currency exchange, helped spread the Depression from the United States throughout the world, especially in Europe.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION DEEPENS: BANK RUNS AND THE HOOVER ADMINISTRATION

Despite assurances from President Herbert Hoover and other leaders that the crisis would run its course, matters continued to get worse over the next three years. By 1930, 4 million Americans looking for work could not find it; that number had risen to 6 million in 1931. Meanwhile, the country’s industrial production had dropped by half. Bread lines, soup kitchens and rising numbers of homeless people became more and more common in America’s towns and cities. Farmers (who had been struggling with their own economic depression for much of the 1920s due to drought and falling food prices) couldn’t afford to harvest their crops, and were forced to leave them rotting in the fields while people elsewhere starved.

In the fall of 1930, the first of four waves of banking panics began, as large numbers of investors lost confidence in the solvency of their banks and demanded deposits in cash, forcing banks to liquidate loans in order to supplement their insufficient cash reserves on hand. Bank runs swept the United States again in the spring and fall of 1931 and the fall of 1932, and by early 1933 thousands of banks had closed their doors. In the face of this dire situation, Hoover’s administration tried supporting failing banks and other institutions with government loans; the idea was that the banks in turn would loan to businesses, which would be able to hire back their employees.


FDR ADDRESSES THE GREAT DEPRESSION WITH THE NEW DEAL

Hoover, a Republican who had formerly served as U.S. secretary of commerce, believed that government should not directly intervene in the economy, and that it did not have the responsibility to create jobs or provide economic relief for its citizens. In 1932, however, with the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression and some 13-15 million people (or more than 20 percent of the U.S. population at the time) unemployed, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won an overwhelming victory in the presidential election. By Inauguration Day (March 4, 1933), every U.S. state had ordered all remaining banks to close at the end of the fourth wave of banking panics, and the U.S. Treasury didn’t have enough cash to pay all government workers. Nonetheless, FDR (as he was known) projected a calm energy and optimism, famously declaring that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Roosevelt took immediate action to address the country’s economic woes, first announcing a four-day “bank holiday” during which all banks would close so that Congress could pass reform legislation and reopen those banks determined to be sound. He also began addressing the public directly over the radio in a series of talks, and these so-called “fireside chats” went a long way towards restoring public confidence. During Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office, his administration passed legislation that aimed to stabilize industrial and agricultural production, create jobs and stimulate recovery. In addition, Roosevelt sought to reform the financial system, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect depositors’ accounts and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market and prevent abuses of the kind that led to the 1929 crash.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION: HARD ROAD TO RECOVERY

Among the programs and institutions of the New Deal that aided in recovery from the Great Depression were the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built dams and hydroelectric projects to control flooding and provide electric power to the impoverished Tennessee Valley region of the South, and the Works Project Administration (WPA), a permanent jobs program that employed 8.5 million people from 1935 to 1943. After showing early signs of recovery beginning in the spring of 1933, the economy continued to improve throughout the next three years, during which real GDP (adjusted for inflation) grew at an average rate of 9 percent per year. A sharp recession hit in 1937, caused in part by the Federal Reserve’s decision to increase its requirements for money in reserve. Though the economy began improving again in 1938, this second severe contraction reversed many of the gains in production and employment and prolonged the effects of the Great Depression through the end of the decade.

Depression-era hardships had fueled the rise of extremist political movements in various European countries, most notably that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany. German aggression led war to break out in Europe in 1939, and the WPA turned its attention to strengthening the military infrastructure of the United States, even as the country maintained its neutrality. With Roosevelt’s decision to support Britain and France in the struggle against Germany and the other Axis Powers, defense manufacturing geared up, producing more and more private sector jobs. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led to an American declaration of war, and the nation’s factories went back in full production mode. This expanding industrial production, as well as widespread conscription beginning in 1942, reduced the unemployment rate to below its pre-Depression level.
(Source: The Great Depression - History.com)

More:
PBS An American Experience: Timeline of the Great Depression
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of English: The Great Depression
The Great Depression - about.com
Overview of the Great Depression - Digital History
The Great Depression - UShistory.org
Timeline of the Great Depression - World History Online
by Benjamin Roth (no photo)
by Gene Smiley (no photo)
by Russell Freedman
by Amity Shlaes
by Pierre Berton

Fox Conner



GEN Dwight D. Eisenhower served under, commanded, or worked closely with, GENs John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Omar N. Bradley, George S. Patton, Jr., and Walter Bedell Smith. However, when Eisenhower was asked who was the greatest American soldier he knew, he replied MG Fox Conner, adding, “In sheer ability and character, he was the outstanding soldier of my time.”

Conner’s father had served in the Confederate Army and was blinded at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. In spite of his father’s debilitating wounds, Conner wanted to become a soldier from a young age. He graduated from West Point in 1898 and was commissioned in the artillery.

In 1907, Conner graduated from the Army Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. He then taught at the Army War College for four years, which he found “something of a strain.” However, in 1911, Conner was sent to France as an exchange officer and assigned to the French Army’s 22nd Field Artillery. This assignment proved very fortunate for Conner’s career. While in France, Conner observed the French Army in drills and met many of its officers. In addition to his military training, he also attained near proficiency in French.

Thus, when America entered the World War I and GEN John J. Pershing was assembling his staff for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), he immediately called on Conner and made him the assistant chief of staff for operations (G-3) for the AEF. Before Pershing and his officers boarded the S.S. Baltic on 23 May 1917 for England, they had been told to wear civilian clothes to elude German spies. Everyone complied, but Fox Conner, ever the soldier’s soldier, could not resist wearing his sword as he headed off to battle.

Conner planned the Army’s artillery needs during the war. His previous duty in France proved invaluable, as U.S. manufacturers were unable to supply many guns and the Army mostly used French artillery. He was promoted to brigadier general and set about organizing the AEF. Moreover, he displayed his innate prescience, for which he later became very well known, by predicting a German offensive in the Meuse-Argonne, a relatively quiet sector of the Western Front, a year before it occurred. Conner also worked with LTC George C. Marshall, the G-3 of the 1st Infantry Division during the war, and came to view Marshall as a man and a soldier of the very highest caliber.

After the war, Conner commanded the 20th Infantry Brigade in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1922, MAJ Dwight D. Eisenhower reported to Panama on Conner’s staff. Conner was an outstanding commander and mentor for Eisenhower. He inculcated a love of military history in Eisenhower which did not exist previously. He ordered Eisenhower to read von Wartenburg’s biography of Napoleon, Clauewitz’s On War (three times), Steele’s Campaigns, and many other historical classics. Conner tested Eisenhower daily on his reading, re-fought the great battles with his protégé, and scrutinized the errors made in wars in the past.

Moreover, Conner instilled in Eisenhower the insightful belief that “another war was written into the Treaty of Versailles.” Eisenhower’s readings taught him the rudiments of warfare, but also instructed him in some of the finer arts of high command. Conner especially emphasized instruction in working with allies in war, which Conner thought would prove crucial in the next world war. Conner knew the Allies would have to be more coordinated than they had been in World War I; they needed a single chain of command, and such a task would require considerable diplomatic skills in addition to military acumen.

After Panama, Conner served as the deputy chief of staff for the Army, commanded the Hawaiian Department and later commanded the First Corps Area. In all of his commands, Conner strove to teach and instruct his junior officers in the military disciplines.

Promoted to major general in 1925, his name was often mentioned as a contender for the Army Chief of Staff position. History remains clouded on Conner’s thoughts about becoming the Chief of Staff. Eisenhower thought Conner “hated staff jobs” and would have resigned before taking the post. Others presumed that Conner was very saddened that he was not appointed to the top Army position.

Conner retired in 1938, on the eve of World War II, which he had predicted nearly twenty years earlier. Eisenhower and others continued to seek his counsel throughout the war, a testament to the great esteem in which they held him, “a born leader of men.”
(Source: National Museum of the U.S. Army)

More:
Military achievements of Fox Conner
U.S. Army's page on him
Relationship between Conner and Eisenhower
Fox Conner in WWI
Fox Conner's biography
by Edward Cox (no photo)
by Mark Perry (no photo)
by Thomas J. Fleming
by David M. Kennedy
by Joseph E. Persico

Herbert Hoover



Herbert Hoover achieved international success as a mining engineer and worldwide gratitude as "The Great Humanitarian" who fed war-torn Europe during and after World War I, while serving as America's 31st president from 1929-1933. Son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian.

Born in an Iowa village in 1874, he grew up in Oregon. He enrolled at Stanford University when it opened in 1891, graduating as a mining engineer.

He married his Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry, and they went to China, where he worked for a private corporation as China's leading engineer. In June 1900 the Boxer Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tientsin. For almost a month the settlement was under heavy fire. While his wife worked in the hospitals, Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children.

One week before Hoover celebrated his 40th birthday in London, Germany declared war on France, and the American Consul General asked his help in getting stranded tourists home. In six weeks his committee helped 120,000 Americans return to the United States. Next Hoover turned to a far more difficult task, to feed Belgium, which had been overrun by the German army.

After the United States entered the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed.

After the Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Soviet Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"

After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity. Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the Nation spiraled downward into depression.

After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending.

In 1931 repercussions from Europe deepened the crisis, even though the President presented to Congress a program asking for creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, additional help for farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic governmental economy.

At the same time he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility.

His opponents in Congress, who he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political gain, unfairly painted him as a callous and cruel President. Hoover became the scapegoat for the Depression and was badly defeated in 1932. In the 1930's he became a powerful critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward statism.

In 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the Executive Departments. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Eisenhower in 1953. Many economies resulted from both commissions' recommendations. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which he was working on when he died at 90 in New York City on October 20, 1964.
(Source: White House)

More:
President Hoover at Biography
Britannica's article on him
Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
Hoover's humanitarian actions
Hoover's immigration policy
by William E. Leuchtenburg (no photo)
by Kendrick A. Clements (no photo)
by Martin L. Fausold (no photo)
by William J. Barber (no photo)
by Herbert Hoover

Major General George Van Horn Moseley



George Van Horn Moseley (September 28, 1874 – November 7, 1960) was a United States Army general. Following his retirement in 1938, he became controversial for his fiercely anti-immigrant and antisemitic views.

Biography

Moseley was born in Evanston, Illinois, on September 28, 1874. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1899 and was commissioned second lieutenant in the cavalry. He served in the Philippines twice, from 1900 to 1903 and 1906 to 1907, where his assignments included commanding a troop of the 1st Cavalry and serving as Aide-de-Camp to Generals J. M. Bell and J. M. Lee. In 1901 Moseley, accompanied by only one other officer, without escort and under conditions of great danger, penetrated a major Philippine insurgent stronghold. 2nd Lt. Moseby and st Lt. George Curry convinced Brigadier General Ludovico Arejola to sign the peace agreement in Taban, Minalabac (Philippines) on 25 March 1901.

The honor graduate of the Army School of the Line in 1908, he also graduated from the Army Staff College in 1909 and the Army War College in 1911. Moseley married Mrs. Florence DuBois in July 1930.

He held camp and Washington assignments from 1920-1929. He was the executive for the Assistant Secretary of War, 1929–30, Deputy Chief of Staff of Army, 1930–33. He served as General Douglas MacArthur's Deputy Chief of Staff during the 1932 Bonus March on Washington, D.C., in the course of which he recorded his fears of a Communist conspiracy against the United States and his identification of Jews with radicals and undesirables. He wrote in a private letter:

We pay great attention to the breeding of our hogs, our dogs, our horses, and our cattle, but we are just beginning to realize the....effects of absorbing objectionable blood in our breed of human beings. The pages of history give us the tragic stories of one-time leading nations which...imported manpower of an inferior kind and then...intermarried with this inferior stock....Those nations have either passed out of separate existence entirely, or have remained as decadent entities without influence in world affairs.

In 1934, he asked MacArthur to consider the immigration issue in terms of military manpower, contrasting a group of "southern lads" of "good Anglo-Saxon stock" with their counterparts from the North with names "difficult to pronounce" that "indicated foreign blood". Moseley linked the latter to labor problems and "so much trouble in our schools and colleges." MacArthur expressed skepticism in response to Moseley's argument that "It is a question of whether or not the old blood that built this fine nation...is to continue to administer that nation, or whether that old stock is going to be destroyed or bred out by a lot of foreign blood which the melting pot has not touched."

He was Commanding General of the 5th Corps Area, 1933–34, 4th Corps Area, 1934–38, and the Third United States Army, 1936-38. He was a member of several important commissions, including the Harbord Commission to investigate Armenian issues. After commanding the Second Field Artillery Brigade, in 1921 he was detailed as assistant to General Dawes in organizing the newly created Bureau of the Budget. In 1921 he was promoted brigadier general, Regular Army. Commanding the 1st Cavalry Division (1927–1929), he successfully interceded, under fire, with principals in a 1929 Mexican insurrection. His actions stopped stray gunfire from Juarez, Mexico, from endangering life and property in adjacent El Paso, Texas, and precluded further incidents. In 1931 he was promoted major general, Regular Army.

Moseley's awards included the Distinguished Service Medal (one oak leaf cluster); Commander, Order of the Crown (Belgian); Companion, Order of the Bath (British); Commander, Legion of Honor, and Croix de Guerre with Palm (French); Commander, Order of the Crown of Italy.

While still on active service, Moseley expressed controversial opinions in public. In 1936, he proposed that the Civilian Conservation Corps be expanded "to take in every 18-year-old youth in the country for a six-month course in work, education and military training." In the late 1930s, when admitting refugees from Nazi persecution was a matter of national controversy, Moseley supported admitting refugees but added the proviso "that they all be sterilized before being permitted to embark. Only that way can we properly protect our future."

Moseley retired in October 1938 with a statement that described the New Deal as a growing dictatorship: "We do not have to vote for a dictatorship to have one in America....We have merely to vote increased government responsibility for our individual lives, increased government authority over our daily habits, and the resultant Federal paternalism will inevitably become dictatorship." Secretary of War Harry Woodring called his statement "flagrantly disloyal." In April 1939 he attacked Jews and said that he foresaw a war fought for their benefit. He attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt for appointing Felix Frankfurter to the U.S. Supreme Court. He predicted that the U.S. army would not follow the orders of FDR's leftist Administration if they "violate all American tradition." He described fascism and nazism as good "antitoxins" for the United States, adding that "the finest type of Americanism can breed under their protection as they neutralize the efforts of the Communists."

Time reported his view that "more money should be spent on syphilis prevention and less on national defense" Two months after leaving the military, he questioned the President's proposed increases in military spending: "Much of our present weakness is in the fear and hysteria being engendered among the American people for...political purpose.... A nation so scared and so burdened financially is not in a condition to lick anybody. And then, who in hell are we afraid of? With Japan absorbed...with the balance of power so nearly equal in Europe, where is there an ounce of naval or military strength free to threaten us?" He became increasingly more outspoken and instead of the language of Social Darwinism expressed anti-Semitic and conspiratorial views overtly. In Philadelphia, he told the National Defense Meeting that Jewish bankers had financed the Russian Revolution and that "The war now proposed is for the purposes of establishing Jewish hegemony throughout the world." He said that Jews controlled the media and might soon control the federal government.

In June 1939, Moseley testified for five hours before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He said that a Jewish Communist conspiracy was about to seize control of the U.S. government. He believed the President had the authority to counteract the planned coup and could do so "in five minutes" by issuing an order "to discharge every Communist in the government and everyone giving aid and comfort to the Communists." He said the President could use the army against "the enemy within our gates" but did not seem willing to do so. He said he held no anti-Semitic views and that "the Jew is an internationalist first...and a patriot second." He praised the "impressively patriotic" German-American Bund and said its purpose was to "see that Communists don't take over the country." Among Moseley's supporters who attended the hearing were Donald Shea, head of the American Gentile League and James True of America First Inc. The Committee found a prepared statement he read into the record so objectionable it was deleted from the public record. A few days later, Thomas E. Stone, head of the Council of United States Veterans, charged Moseley with treason and wrote that his praise of the Bund "abets a foreign government in the preparation of disruption against the eventuality of possible future hostilities, and that this he is acting in treason to our national safety."

Moseley held anti-immigrant views throughout his life. In his unpublished autobiography, he quoted approvingly from Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race. He used the language of Social Darwinism to describe the problem the United States faced:

Watch a herd of animals. If a member of the herd becomes unfit...the unfortunate is recognized at once and driven out of the herd, only to be eaten by the timber wolves. That seems hard–but is it, in fact? The suffering is thus limited to the one. The disease is not allowed to attack the others....With us humans, what we call civilization compels us to carry along the unfit in ever increasing proportions.

He described the Jew as a permanent "human outcast." They were "crude and unclean, animal-like things...something loathsome, such as syphilis." Following the Nazi invasion of France he wrote that in order to match the Nazi threat, the U.S. needed to launch a program of "selective breeding, sterilization, the elimination of the unfit, and the elimination of those types which are inimical to the general welfare of the nation." In December 1941, Moseley wrote that Europe's Jews were "receiving their just punishment for the crucifixion of Christ...whom they are still crucifying at every turn of the road." He proposed a "worldwide policy which will result in breeding all Jewish blood out of the human race."

In 1947, he said of his years as a West Point cadet, "there was one Jew in my class, a very undesirable creature, who was soon eliminated."

In 1951, the president of Piedmont College in Georgia invited Moseley to speak. Students and faculty protested because of his racist views. TIME called him a "trumpeter for Aryan supremacy." One faculty member was fired for speaking in opposition to the speaking engagement. Calls for the president's resignation followed. Almost the entire faculty and 9 trustees resigned in the next two years and enrollment fell by two thirds.

In 1959, Moseley was one of the founders of Americans for Constitutional Action, an anti-Semitic successor to America First.

In retirement he lived at the Atlanta Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. He died on November 7, 1960.
(Source: Wikipedia)

More:
Hoover & the Depression: The Bonus Army | Authentic History
Moseley, George Van Horn, 1874-1960 | SNAC
1st Cavalry Division History - Commanding Generals | Cavalry Outpost Publications
A Brief Chronology Of Major Events In The Great War | Emory University
Find A Grave: Col George Van Horn, Jr. Moseley
by D. Clayton James (no photo)
by Richard Norton Smith (no photo)
by Stanley Weintraub (no photo)
by Lynne Olson
by Peter Levenda

National War Powers Commission (War Policies Commission)



By Public Resolution No. 98, Congress, in 1930, created a War Policies Commission "to promote peace and to equalize the burden and to minimize the profits of war." The hearings before this Commission resulted in focusing attention in the Navy Department on the low state of its own procurement planning for war, and indirectly this resulted in a reorganization fo the ANMB in June 1931. An Executive Committee was provided consisting of two officers from the Army and two from the Navy. The Navy members were the Director of the Material Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Chief of Procurement Planning in that Division. The senior of the four officers was to be the chairman. For the working organization just as before, a number of committees and subcommittees were set up consisting of officers appointed by the heads of the various divisions and subdivisions of the War and Navy Departments. Most of the officers were assigned to this duty on a part time basis with paramount duties elsewhere.

National War Powers Commission
Bipartisan panel led by Secretaries of State Baker and Christopher
Senator Tim Kaine Again Voices Support for Miller Center War Powers Legislation, Splits with Obama On the Issue

It was reported in an October 5 New York Times article that Senator Tim Kaine, a strong supporter of legislation proposed by the Center’s National War Powers Commission, engaged President Obama in a conversation about his actions in Syria and voiced dissent about the president’s right to engage in military action without Congressional approval. The article quoted Kaine as saying, “you don’t ask people to sacrifice their lives until the nation has debated and committed to the mission. It’s immoral.” Senator Mark Warner, also a supporter of the proposed legislation, praised Kaine’s stance. The proposed legislation emphasizes greater executive and legislative cooperation on matters of war, and President Obama was briefed on it in 2008.

War Powers Legislation Introduced in the Senate


On January 16, 2014, Senators Tim Kaine and John McCain introduced war powers legislation on the Senate floor that closely mirrored legislation originally proposed by the Miller Center’s National War Powers Commission. The Miller Center’s commission recommended the repeal of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and the enactment of a War Powers Consultation Act to replace it. View the comments by Senator Kaine and Senator McCain praising the War Powers Consultation Act.

National War Powers Commission

Former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher co-chaired the Miller Center’s bipartisan National War Powers Commission. The Miller Center impaneled the Commission in 2007. Over 14 months, this bipartisan body met seven times in full-day sessions, interviewing more than 40 witnesses about the respective war powers of the President and Congress. The Commission issued a unanimous report to the President and Congress, calling for the repeal and replacement of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 with the proposed War Powers Consultation Act. In the months following the issuance of the report, Secretaries Baker and Christopher briefed President Obama and testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Commission’s proposed legislation.

Along with Secretaries Baker and Christopher, Commission members included: Slade Gorton, former U.S. Senator from Washington; Lee H. Hamilton, former U.S. Representative Indiana; Carla A. Hills, former U.S. Trade Representative; John O. Marsh, Jr., former Secretary of the Army; Edwin Meese, III, former U.S. Attorney General; Abner J. Mikva, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; J. Paul Reason, former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet; Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor; Anne-Marie Slaughter, then-Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University; and Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin served as the Commission’s historical advisor. John T. Casteen, III, then-President of the University of Virginia, and David W. Leebron, President of Rice University, served as ex officio members.
John C. Jeffries, Jr., the Emerson Spies and Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law of the University of Virginia School of Law, and W. Taylor Reveley, III, President and John Stewart Bryan Professor of Jurisprudence at the College of William & Mary, served as Co-Directors of the Commission.

The War Powers Consultation Act:
• Provides that the president shall consult with Congress before deploying U.S. troops into “significant armed conflict”—i.e., combat operations lasting, or expected to last, more than a week.
• Defines the types of hostilities that would or would not be considered “significant armed conflicts.”
• Creates a new Joint Congressional Consultation Committee, which includes leaders of both Houses as well as the chair and ranking members of key committees.
• Establishes a permanent bipartisan staff with access to the national security and intelligence information necessary to conduct its work.
• Calls on Congress to vote up or down on significant armed conflicts within 30 days.

“This statute does not attempt to resolve the constitutional questions that have dominated the debate over the war powers, and does not prejudice the president or Congress their right or ability to assert their respective constitutional war powers,” said Secretary Baker when the report was released. “What we aim to do with this statute is to create a process that will encourage the two branches to cooperate and consult in a way that is both practical and true to the spirit of the Constitution.”
“We have tried to be as specific as possible in this report and in this legislation,” said Secretary Christopher. “We have defined the kinds of armed conflict that would be covered by the statute, and have laid out a clear course of action for both the president and Congress that is practical, constructive and deliberative.”
The principal staff members of the Commission were: Andrew J. Dubill, Staff Director of the Commission; Matthew T. Kline, Counsel to Secretary Christopher; John B. Williams, Policy Assistant to Secretary Baker; Juliana E. Bush, Policy and Planning Coordinator; and W. Taylor Reveley, IV, Coordinating Attorney for the Commission and Associate Director of the Miller Center.

The James A. Baker, III Institute of Public Policy at Rice University, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, Stanford Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the William & Mary School of Law served as partnering institutions.

Partnership with Cross Examination Debate Association

The Miller Center has developed a partnership with the Cross Examination Debating Association (CEDA) – the nation’s largest intercollegiate debating organization – to co-host a series of four public debates on presidential war powers. The Commission’s report, which was instrumental to CEDA’s decision to pursue war powers as the topic, will inform these debates. Students representing 24 colleges and universities will participate in debates at the following dates and locations over the course of the 2013-2014 school year.
(Sources: HyperWar: Administration of the Navy Department in World War II [Chapter 20] and National War Powers Commission | The Miller Center)

More:
Ike Reconsidered - Christopher Preble | Washington Monthly
Records of the office of the Secretary of War | NARA
Defence Industry Privatization and National Security Requirements | NATO
National War Powers Commission Press Coverage | The Miller Center
Press Release | Miller Center of Public Affairs
National War Powers Commission Report | Miller Center of Public Affairs
FSI - National War Powers Commission Report
News | FSI - National War Powers Commission
War Powers Resolution | Law Library of Congress
The Baker-Christopher War Powers
Commission | Law Library of Congress
Panel calls for new war powers law | Politico
Obama to Hear Panel on Changes to War Powers Act | New York Times
Kaine, McCain Introduce Bill to Reform War Powers Resolution | New York Times
War Powers, the Constitution and Bipartisanship | Politico Magazine
Commission Recommends War Powers Overhaul | NPR
Website for National War Powers Commission Now Online | Free Government Information
War Powers Resolution of 1973 | Wikipedia
Video: Role for Congress and the President in War: Recommendations of the National War Powers Commission | YouTube
by Stuart D Brandes (no photo)
by James H. Willbanks (no photo)
by Steve R. Waddell (no photo)
by Keith E. Eiler (no photo)
by Stephen R. Graubard (no photo)

New Deal (FDR)



The Great Depression in the United States began on October 29, 1929, a day known forever after as “Black Tuesday,” when the American stock market–which had been roaring steadily upward for almost a decade–crashed, plunging the country into its most severe economic downturn yet. Speculators lost their shirts; banks failed; the nation’s money supply diminished; and companies went bankrupt and began to fire their workers in droves. Meanwhile, President Herbert Hoover urged patience and self-reliance: He thought the crisis was just “a passing incident in our national lives” that it wasn’t the federal government’s job to try and resolve. By 1932, one of the bleakest years of the Great Depression, at least one-quarter of the American workforce was unemployed. When President Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans. More than that, Roosevelt’s New Deal permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the U.S. populace.

GREAT DEPRESSION LEADS TO A NEW DEAL FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address before 100,000 people on Washington’s Capitol Plaza. “First of all,” he said, “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He promised that he would act swiftly to face the “dark realities of the moment” and assured Americans that he would “wage a war against the emergency” just as though “we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” His speech gave many people confidence that they’d elected a man who was not afraid to take bold steps to solve the nation’s problems.

The next day, the new president declared a four-day bank holiday to stop people from withdrawing their money from shaky banks. On March 9, Congress passed Roosevelt’s Emergency Banking Act, which reorganized the banks and closed the ones that were insolvent. In his first “fireside chat” three days later, the president urged Americans to put their savings back in the banks, and by the end of the month almost three quarters of them had reopened.

THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS

Roosevelt’s quest to end the Great Depression was just beginning. Next,he asked Congress to take the first step toward ending Prohibition—one of the more divisive issues of the 1920s—by making it legal once again for Americans to buy beer. (At the end of the year, Congress ratified the 21st Amendment and ended Prohibition for good.) In May, he signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law, enabling the federal government to build dams along the Tennessee River that controlled flooding and generated inexpensive hydroelectric power for the people in the region. That same month, Congress passed a bill that paid commodity farmers (farmers who produced things like wheat, dairy products, tobacco and corn) to leave their fields fallow in order to end agricultural surpluses and boost prices. June’s National Industrial Recovery Act guaranteed that workers would have the right to unionize and bargain collectively for higher wages and better working conditions; it also suspended some antitrust laws and established a federally funded Public Works Administration.

In addition to the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, Roosevelt had won passage of 12 other major laws, including the Glass-Steagall Banking Bill and the Home Owners’ Loan Act, in his first 100 days in office. Almost every American found something to be pleased about and something to complain about in this motley collection of bills, but it was clear to all that FDR was taking the “direct, vigorous” action that he’d promised in his inaugural address.

THE SECOND NEW DEAL

Despite the best efforts of President Roosevelt and his cabinet, however, the Great Depression continued–the nation’s economy continued to wheeze; unemployment persisted; and people grew angrier and more desperate. So, in the spring of 1935, Roosevelt launched a second, more aggressive series of federal programs, sometimes called the Second New Deal. In April, he created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for unemployed people. WPA projects weren’t allowed to compete with private industry, so they focused on building things like post offices, bridges, schools, highways and parks. The WPA also gave work to artists, writers, theater directors and musicians. In July 1935, the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, created the National Labor Relations Board to supervise union elections and prevent businesses from treating their workers unfairly. In August, FDR signed the Social Security Act of 1935, which guaranteed pensions to millions of Americans, set up a system of unemployment insurance and stipulated that the federal government would help care for dependent children and the disabled.

In 1936, while campaigning for a second term, FDR told a roaring crowd at Madison Square Garden that “The forces of ‘organized money’ are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.” He went on: “I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match, [and] I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces have met their master.” This FDR had come a long way from his earlier repudiation of class-based politics and was promising a much more aggressive fight against the people who were profiting from the Depression-era troubles of ordinary Americans. He won the election by a landslide.

Still, the Great Depression dragged on. Workers grew more militant: In December 1936, for example, the United Auto Workers started a sit-down strike at a GM plant in Flint, Michigan that lasted for 44 days and spread to some 150,000 autoworkers in 35 cities. By 1937, to the dismay of most corporate leaders, some 8 million workers had joined unions and were loudly demanding their rights.

THE END OF THE NEW DEAL?

Meanwhile, the New Deal itself confronted one political setback after another. Arguing that they represented an unconstitutional extension of federal authority, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court had already invalidated reform initiatives like the NRA and the AAA. In order to protect his programs from further meddling, in 1937 President Roosevelt announced a plan to add enough liberal justices to the Court to neutralize the “obstructionist” conservatives. This “Court-packing” turned out to be unnecessary–soon after they caught wind of the plan, the conservative justices started voting to uphold New Deal projects–but the episode did a good deal of public-relations damage to the administration and gave ammunition to many of the president’s Congressional opponents. That same year, the economy slipped back into a recession when the government reduced its stimulus spending. Despite this seeming vindication of New Deal policies, increasing anti-Roosevelt sentiment made it difficult for him to enact any new programs.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. The war effort stimulated American industry and, as a result, effectively ended the Great Depression.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND AMERICAN POLITICS

From 1933 until 1941, President Roosevelt’s programs and policies did more than just adjust interest rates, tinker with farm subsidies and create short-term make-work programs. They created a brand-new, if tenuous, political coalition that included white working people, African Americans and left-wing intellectuals. These people rarely shared the same interests–at least, they rarely thought they did–but they did share a powerful belief that an interventionist government was good for their families, the economy and the nation. Their coalition has splintered over time, but many of the New Deal programs that bound them together–Social Security, unemployment insurance and federal agricultural subsidies, for instance–are still with us today.
(Source: History.com)

More:
The New Deal | Roosevelt Institute
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal | Library of Congress
FDR's New Deal - Shmoop
An Evaluation of the New Deal [ushistory.org]
The New Deal | PBS The American Experience
Top 10 New Deal Programs - American History - About.com
Roosevelt's New Deal - HowStuffWorks
America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal | DPLA Omeka
Franklin D. Roosevelt | whitehouse.gov
by Paul K. Conkin (no photo)
by Michael A. Hiltzik (no photo)
by Ronald Edsforth (no photo)
by William E. Leuchtenburg (no photo)
by Kirstin Downey
by Robert P. Murphy