Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On American Warlord 2

CSPAN2 Book Discussion On American Warlord June 22, 2024

Eisenhower and George Patton and bradley and how they provided leadership on the allied assaults, especially the european assaults on nazi germany in world war ii. When we heard he was writing his second book to figure out of way to get the museum on the books they need to reread the to have you back. His latest book covers the alliance of the american war effort but this time from the perspective of the president fdr and his war cabinet. The men who were responsible for assembly eng securing the forces of victory and this is a particularly interesting topic from fdr as the commander. So this will be an Exciting Program but before i call him up he didnt just come down here to talk this evening he did extra duty to go above and beyond to work with us through the Leadership Academy who came from around the country to put the headband struggle of world war ii and the 20thcentury and with the shipyards and went to a variety of sites through this city and got them into the swamps with john was there with him to give examples and discussions on the broader issues and the countrys leaders three during the war. You are beyond the call of duty. I appreciate it. [applause] now please join me to welcome jonathan to the stage. [applause] thank you for that kind introduction and thanks for coming out today so we can have some fun sharing some stories of the most remarkable wartime political accommodation. Every minute highspeed clunker i shouldnt they will depress the elevation on this end with this level of with the head level stock one way or the other. [laughter] but tonight we will talk about a book that i worked on over the last few years called american red warlords howell president pro Franklin Roosevelt set aside the philosophical differences to lead america to victory through the greatest bloodbath. The genesis of that book peaky and with a question before i started researching, i did not know the answer to. Why not guadalcanal . Until shortly after world war ii with that Monuments Commission was around the Pacific Theater in tutus cemeteries there was 6000 american troops buried in guadalcanal. If we accept the awful truth that some americans would have to lay down their lives to defeat fascism a reasonable question is why guadalcanal . Why did they have to die there . And island and nobody had heard of prior to world war ii. Why not sicily horror and normandie . Why were they sent to burgundy norway or singapore . It was indeliberate stages the United States had over 40 million men and women in uniform before the war was over and for the reasons they were sent to some places and not others and the great day transformed American Society those are questions wrapped up in the personalities of half a dozen people who make the really Big Decisions. So tonight story is how military back towards the isolationist country is the global superpower in the astonishing five years how a handful of men generated that transformation but to go back in time before pearl harbor and the bull than the bomb to look back to the late 30s and 40s and see the world as roosevelt saw that. Fdr was elected 1932 with a mandate to put america hands back to work to stabilize the industries to data war and had absolutely no interest to get america involved with foreign entanglements. But the world was changing in the 1920s fascism sprung up under mussolini and it was perfected if that was the right word by heller hitler. So the story begins not with pearl harbor or sometime during the war but in 1940 when president roosevelt sitting upstairs in the white house received a call from his ambassador to belgium for coated german planes were of the low country and western europe was about to be over run. That france and britain the democracies is to be put to the test. In the end did not own a defeated france buttered of war machine against dahlin soviet union in june 1941 and so by december of that year sold they had plenty to smile about because those two men virtually ruled europe from the gates of moscow to the pyrenees mountains. Of the fourth of the far side japan was running through china and as you can see the getting by conquering manchuria. That was an important military and geopolitical fact because remember japan is a small island nation not economically selfsufficient like United States or Continental Europe 80 of the petroleum came from the United States along with most of the steel and aluminum therefore they had a strategic leash and roosevelt was not averse to pulling it to keep the japanese quiet because japan was so dependent their richer their eyes to the south to French Indochina there all colonies of countries and there in the southern colonies the japanese knew they could find massive stocks of petroleum and the strategic materials they needed to become selfsufficient to keep the warda issued going. So president roosevelt knew it is only a matter of time before america was dragged into war. The long road to victory began by taking in the right key that begins with a president under article ii is the commander in chief of the United States but the commander did chief had military training before he was commander in chief but as the assistant secretary of navy during the First World War he sail loft europe and two were friends behind the front line and like any good politician to exaggerate his military record for the rest of his life. [laughter] but he had a guest of when to metal or leave things alone he did have some complaints the way the navy played the star spangled banner but generally he said i dont know enough about the army so i have to take with general marshall gives me. He also all the medals id war strategy when he thought there is an overriding political reason to do so. In 1940 when driving into paris roosevelt decided he needed more reminded cabinet official said the Democratic Party was filled with new dealers to stay out of the war so roosevelt did something not unprecedented by Reach Across Party Lines to select two republicans to join the cabinet and a drug transfusion of the first was frank who ran against roosevelt in 1936 as a republican vicepresident ial candidate the second was Henry Stimson the old upper crust new york lawyer serving as a secretary of war under republican president taft and secretary of state under republican president hoover. They disagreed with virtually every tenet of the duke deal but they believe japan and germany posed great threats to use United States to verbally to put service ahead of their Party Affiliation and it costs them. They were rolled out to the Republican Party for a tie and think about it in todays terms if president obama selected paul ryan to become his defense secretary [laughter] but we are fortunate these to a conservative republicans and their liberal democrat boss could criticize differences and Work Together and were also fortunate they would head the military branches with two of the finest officers our nation has produced. General marshall dignified comedy period prided himself on self discipline never letting his personal feelings get in the way of service to his country and eloquent speaker that was trusted name to the end of the year from 1944. Eventually becoming secretary of state with the european Recovery Plan that he would refer to by the popular name, the Marshall Plan to become head of the American Red Cross secretary of defense and professional soldier in in history to win the nobel peace prize. But marshall never commanded anything larger betted infantry regiment and was not a gifted strategist but a genius at organizing head of logistics with a genuine gift to pick men to the crb american was fighting in nine different theaters before it was over and if you wanted to do some things to invade like the french coast you could picture what that would do to operations elsewhere around the globe if we took one side but would that do to the other parts of the american strategy . After the war with sulfur churchill refer to him as the organizer of victory. Of the other side of constitution avenue was most powerful naval commander in our nations history and the all the naval officer to hold between titles chief of Naval Operations making him George Marshall of the navy and commanderinchief u. S. Fleet like the eisenhower of the navy. But the admiral was blood dash had a dagger tattoo in an anchor on the other he had seven children with his wife and before the war he had a mistress if not every pore then quite a few. Onshore the if he would treat and fight and curse like a sailor then show the next morning showing up for duty virtually an impaired. The admiral was hit mr. Saying after pearl harbor when the going gets tough they call florida sons of bitches. But later he did not say that instead he wish he would have thought of it. But coming into our room of vice admiral and we are admiral with freezes would head for the door. His daughter said the heat was the most even tempered he was always in a rage. [laughter] not knowing much about strategy the air commanders like then head zero of the Army Air Force and just discover the airplane a little while ago that the british had stayed out of his Pacific Ocean and. So the feeling was mutual. A staffer working for general marshall named white eisenhower wrote that he was a bully and one thing that would help to with the board is to get somebody to shoot king. [laughter] but like other officers such as George Pattons he had the intellectual side the not about strategy on land as much as at sea and was stubborn but only for the things he believed he needed to get he had a very clear vision and in the end the british thought he had the best grasp of strategy of any of the american war leaders. Won a general marshalls important job is to leave forces overseas and at home with the mediterranean theater for alaska or eight inlander california and though we got through the ranks about marshal support period concede those you owe their careers to general marshall like the commander in italy the headed the air force and Dwight Eisenhower to of the rule that you had to be a marshals me and to get anywhere is the exception the man with a corncob pipe Douglas Macarthur was the army chief of staff he was flashy and obsessive about his publicity and to appease congress and the public to stretch the criteria for awarding the medal of honor and giving one to macarthur. There was the big macarthur for president bubble for those who saw then a general as the best hope to up seat roosevelt with the Upcoming Elections macarthur knew how sensitive and macarthur used that to push for things like supplies it Naval Support to move up through new guinea and through the philippines he had a running feud with most of the navy and it would be next to impossible for marshall to go effectively. Admiral king was much more flexible to read a war over dozens of an important islands and hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean and he had. Host that proved invaluable. The first was a texan from the hill country who ran the pacific war outside the territory and the second gentleman was holland m. Smith they would see him writing shotgun and behind him is a more even tempered admiral. So all these leaders would do precious little good unless the high command figured out where to send them or what jobs to send them with the question of grand strategy for the first two years of before america entered the war that country was not known to get involved overseas but fdr said they had to be defeated so until the of public was ready to shed american blood and until we have an army and navy and air force to do the job roosevelt had to be content to let the American Public, along behind him to fight the enemy with the only weapon he had come at a very netiquette Industrial Power america of would become the great white of what . Writes. He would use his emergency wartime power to make it that arsenal of democracy before the war was over he would be in production of civilian cars and even regulate so as the Ford Motor Company was turning out b52 bombers but they were making those like the one Holland Smith was holding. A textile plant was a potential source of electronic shop was a possible source of radio parts for the navy or air force. Roosevelt was a civilian commander in chief forced to do unpopular things from an elected of official rationing every item of the American Consumer and the list of what we had to ration was immense just look through the last coffee was something we rationed and in late 1942 the government put americans basically on one cup of coffee per day rasheed you can imagine what that did to the voters. We didnt rationed coffee because youre out of coffee but the ships needed to carry the beans from south america to the United States were more profitably used to carry weapons from the u. S. We had to ration day coffee supply. The war production board issued a regulation to govern for added cuts on payments and to the delight of the young men to increase the hemlines on womens dresses. Rubber was banned for womens hurdles because it was a strategic material all the outcry was so great it even the administration had to back down. [laughter] nylon was nowhere to be found because we needed the material for parachutes. Parousia the river would not be enough the arsenal of democracy did very little unless they get those fighter planes into the hands of the british and chinese and russians to put them to use that many getting those weapons across a swarm of new votes across the ocean fdr wanted the navy to provide protection so not until september 1941 that roosevelt ordered the atlantics the commander keen so lets get the undeclared shooting war september 1941 but before the war Roosevelt Marshall and he met with churchill in a series of conversations with their Heads Together to agree if america had to go to war against japan and germany the allies would hold the line and we would do the best we could while devoting most of the energy in europe that was the german the first strategy. As president it was roosevelts job to keep the American Public focused on the germany for cited the equation rather than japan remember for the First Six Months is where we were doing most of the fighting that capture the american end attention we had to figure out how to resolve the problem to focus on germany that led to the first big strategic showdown but both concluded the best way to defeat hitler was a direct approach to invade northwestern france to go straight to berlin. The problem was the allies with lack the strength to do that we didnt have enough divisions or landing kraft we didnt have the air pocket airpower their resources to sustain the army on the continent you have to wait and helped 1943. But churchill did not want to wait when not invade north africa . Just go straight for the part of germany we ought to bomb germany from the air then to send weapons to stall and to fight the germans on the ground marshall and king fought with the british over this strategy for months but they could not reach a decision and they were deadlocked seven was up to fdr to decide the average guy really wanted revenge on the japanese after all they drew first blood at pearl harbor. But he believed the American Public spent the next year fighting japan and not germany that americans of want to finish the job in the pacific so roosevelt overruled the military professionals to side with the british on that one. And so they were beside themselves when they found out he wanted to go to north africa instead of weight another year to do the job right so they put together a memorandum to roosevelt that if you do not agree that america will prove most of the wage against japan you will turn our back on the Germany First agreement that we have so this memo dated sway of to fdr he end in hyde park new york in the scallops when he looked at it because he thought they were not in there for a japan first strategy but called there bluff and left messages that that afternoon he wanted them floated to hyde park for the germany for strategy he wanted to know where they plan to invade how many ships they would need read it would get them and what that would do to the strategy in germany said they were all out of town so they had to rush back to washington to get this dash together and works furiously for a few hours so by the time they had to send the package up to hyde park they had to live mitt they had nothing more than the basic outline of a campaign against japan. Roosevelt figured that. He knew they reverse serious about going after japan they would have had a better answer on short notice so he picked up the fountain pen and wrote an extraordinary letter to general marshall that is now in the fdr museum. I have read your estimate my First Impression is exactly that is what they hope they would do following pearl harbor and it is not in fact, used in fighting except a lot of violence his occupation will not affect the world this year or next. So it is disapproved so instead of though little fdr he signed the letter roosevelt cnc he wanted no doubt who was giving orders to military professionals so the british won that round a

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