Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom: 1940-1945

Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom: 1940-1945 by James MacGregor Burns

Imagine if you will – a giant chess board.  Only instead of it being square shaped with only two players, it’s a hexdecagon (a 16 sided shape).  There are about 16 different people all playing against one and other.  As one of the players, your strategy is to somehow not only be the victor of this colossal chess game, but also ensure some of the players other than yourself manage to beat some of your opponents while never getting the upper hand on you.  Many of your “allies” on this chessboard aren’t really your friends – you just need them to help you beat some of the participants that you really don’t like.  Get all that?

Essentially, this is what Franklin Roosevelt had to do for the United States of America before, and during, World War II.  All of the geopolitical implications of the major (and minor) players in this game are enough to make your head spin.  Yet FDR proves that he’s a master of this chess game.  He manages to play his chess pieces perfectly and although he might lose a piece or two during the match, he proves that he is a genius.

Let me now say that this is volume 2 of a 2 volume series by James MacGregor Burns.  Volume 1 details Roosevelt’s life from birth up until 1940.  I did not like volume 1.  In a word, I thought it was boring.  So I wasn’t that enthused to pick up this next installment.  Let’s just say that I was immensely overwhelmed as to how much I enjoyed this one as opposed to the first.  I’m thinking the subject matter had a lot to do with it.  Reading about the details of the ugliest war in our world’s history is much more interesting than reading 500 pages about The New Deal.   In many cases, you almost forget this is a book about Roosevelt, and instead think you’re actually reading a book about the war.  Yet Burns carefully crafts his telling of history to ensure that everything that happens is happening through Roosevelt’s eyes.

There’s a lot of buildup in the early part of the book to December 7^th, 1941.  The war actually explodes in Europe more than 2 years prior, and the “good guys” (mainly Winston Churchill – the brand new Prime Minister of England) is soliciting help from FDR anyway that he can.  FDR’s constituents, however, want no part of a European conflict.  Why should we get involved of something that’s “over there” when we have enough problems “over here”?  So Roosevelt has to walk a fine line.  Sadly, he and most other intelligent figures in the government know that America will eventually have to be involved in this ugly conflict.  It’s just a matter of when.  Without going into too much detail, relationships with Japan are not good, and you can actually feel the buildup of tension.  Once Pearl Harbor is attacked, no one is really surprised.  There’s almost a sense of “relief” (dare I use that word) that the waiting is over.

So Roosevelt’s job is to motivate his countrymen towards a sense of inevitable duty, and as history as shown us, he does a remarkable job.  We’re not given too many glimpses into the everyday cries of sacrifice and patriotism.  Instead the author focuses on the masterful global wide chess game.  FDR seems to always be thinking of the future, always visualizing the chess board two or three moves in the time to come.  He knows what will happen, and his energy therefore is devoted to what his next moves are to be.  Once the war starts, Roosevelt knows that there will be setbacks.  Yet once we arrive at about 1943, the consensus amongst the major powers is that the allies will, without a doubt, actually win the war.  It’s just a matter of when.

A lot of negotiating and bickering goes on between Roosevelt, Churchill and Joseph Stalin.  These three men want very different things, have different priorities, different objectives and seem to be at odds with each other quite a lot.  It’s a bit interesting seeing FDR’s relationship with Stalin, particularly.  Nowhere in these pages is the man portrayed as the evil butcher that we know he was.  He never comes across as a soft, cuddly teddy bear, but he’s always portrayed here as “one of the good guys”.  Perhaps this is because Roosevelt had to treat him with kid gloves since our ultimate goal was to destroy Adolf Hitler.  In other words, the only reason Russia was our ally in World War II was because Nazi-ism was a greater evil than communism.

The book isn’t entirely about the War.  There are plenty of issues happening within the continent, yet FDR still manages to handle all of it wonderfully.  Still, with all of the problems at home, the war is the main thing on everyone’s mind, and just about everything that is done in the U.S. is geared towards winning the conflict and bringing the boys back home as soon as possible.  Yet there is still a lot of bickering within the halls of congress about just about anything, so things obviously weren’t that much better than they are today.

1944 arrives.  D-Day is a success and there are talks of “ending the war by Christmas”, yet within all of this drama, it’s time for another presidential election.  According to Roosevelt, he doesn’t really “want” a fourth term, but people are obdurate in their feelings and desires.  So he runs again and wins.  Oddly, before the election, FDR starts to have serious health issues.  He pushes them down as best he can, and makes a huge effort to appear presidential, yet those closest to him are worried.  Many times, you have to wonder if his illness may have hampered some of the ongoing relationships with Churchill and Stalin, yet the author maintains that Roosevelt handles things just fine – he just has to treble his efforts to overcome these issues.  I couldn’t help wondering that if the internet or cable television had been around, if FDR would have been re-elected.  Yet since most people couldn’t “see” him frequently, his illness was more gossip than fact among most.

So as the war starts to wind down in 1945, sadly, so does Roosevelt.  He passes away in April, without getting to see final victory in Europe a few short weeks later, and victory over Japan a few months after.  This was really the only minor gripe about the book.  The author just “ends” the story when Roosevelt dies.  I would have enjoyed a postscript that would give a summary of how and when the war ended (it was very different in Europe than it was in Asia), as well as an overview of the state of the world following the end, yet we don’t get that here.  I was actually very surprised. Still, though, this was a great read and well deserved of the Pulitzer that it received.  

After I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Lincoln and his advisors (“Team of Rivals”), I made the comment that I felt that God had placed one of the best presidents of the United States directly into the time when we needed one the most.  After reading this book, I’d like to believe that The Almighty did the United States one more favor eighty years later.  

A truly great man.