Transcript: Chapter 20

: The momentum behind the New Deal was slowing down. Congress was reasserting its authority. The press was turning more critical. And he now faced an even more terrible crisis. Far away, fascist armies were marching. Adolf Hitler's Germany had seized the Rhineland. Benito Mussolini's Italy crushed Ethiopia. Emperor Hirohito's Japan ravaged China. Roosevelt privately called them "the three bandit nations."

In 1936 he had written his ambassador in Berlin, "Everything seems to have broken loose again in your part of the world. All the experts say there will be no war, but as president, I have to be ready, just like a fire department." But Roosevelt knew that America was not ready.

Alistair Cooke: We had an army the size of the army of Sweden. You know, people think of us today as being a tremendous military power. The United States never wanted to be a military power. The habit had been after a war -- you mobilized two million guys and they immediately demobilized.

ROBERT DALLEK, Historian: There's no thought in the minds of the great bulk of Americans that they will ever send another land army to Europe to fight in a war again. This is the abiding feeling in the United States: avoid involvement in any war.

Chalmers Roberts: Memories of the First World War were not all that far behind, and Americans were very disillusioned about it, so they became isolationist.

Narrator: Roosevelt had to move cautiously. Congress had passed a series of neutrality laws forbidding the president to take sides. Whenever Roosevelt suggested that the United States play any part on the world stage, he met with violent isolationist opposition. Two congressmen even threatened him with impeachment.

Chalmers Roberts: For a long time, the principal battle in American politics and in Washington was between the internationalists and the isolationists, and the people who hated Roosevelt said, "He's trying to get us into war."

President Franklin Roosevelt: You may have heard that I was about to plunge the nation into war, that you and your little brothers would be sent to the bloody fields of battle in Europe, that I was driving the nation into bankruptcy and that I breakfasted every morning on a dish of grilled millionaire.

Robert Dallek: Roosevelt, from the start of his presidency, is troubled by Hitler and privately he's deeply concerned, but he's not going to say anything in public. He knows the country is so opposed to anything that would involve it in European power politics.

President Franklin Roosevelt: Actually, I am an exceedingly mild-mannered person, a practitioner of peace, both domestic and foreign, a believer in the capitalistic system, and for my breakfast a devotee of scrambled eggs.

Robert Dallek: And so he caters to the isolationist and pacifist sentiment in the country, but if he had his druthers, he would avoid war not by retreating from international politics, but by participation in international politics. And so it's a matter of method. He wants to avoid war, but the way to do it, he feels, is not to be isolationist, is not to pass these neutrality bills, but for the United States to be assertive and play a significant role in international power politics.

Narrator: In March 1938 German troops occupied Austria without firing a shot. "The dictator nations find their bluffs are not being called," Roosevelt wrote a friend in frustration. Czechoslovakia fell next. On September 30, 1938, at Munich, the British signed a treaty which recognized Hitler's new conquest.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Franklin's reaction to the Munich Conference was one of great discontent. He was very unhappy. Of course, being in an official position, my husband said little publicly.

Narrator: The president grew more and more frustrated and angry.

TRUDE LASH, Roosevelt Family Friend: Both the president and Mrs. Roosevelt would talk a lot about what went on. He would say, "Every time one gives in to Hitler, his ambitions become greater and he wants more." And I think the president felt that, in the end, a war was unavoidable.

Narrator: But Roosevelt's hands had been tied by Congress and a cautious public. Desperate to do something, Roosevelt broadcast a personal appeal to Hitler, asking him to halt further aggression. In reply, Hitler ridiculed the powerless president with withering sarcasm.

Adolf Hitler: through interpreter] Mr. Roosevelt demands that German troops shall not attack the following independent nations: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt.

Robert Dallek: In essence, he was being told by Hitler, "You're not a player in this world political game. We don't count you for very much, and we know that you've got a big political headache. Your isolationists are not going to let you do anything. You have all these neutrality laws. If we go to war against Britain and France, you're not going to have a significant say in things." And it, I think, deepened his frustration. He knew it. He knew Hitler was right in that sense, at least for the moment.

Narrator: Roosevelt was tired. He was already thinking of retiring to his Hyde Park home. His second term was coming to an end, and no president had ever served more than eight years. "I think there was a great see-saw," Eleanor wrote. "on the one end, the weariness and the desire to be home, on the other the overwhelming desire to have a hand in the affairs of the world." Eleanor was urging her husband to retire, yet she was keenly aware that the goals of the New Deal had not been fulfilled. There was much unfinished business.

MARIAN ANDERSON, Singer: [singing] My country, 'tis of thee / sweet land of liberty / For thee we sing.

Narrator: On Easter Sunday that April, Marian Anderson sang from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. With America still deeply segregated, hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites gathered together to honor the great contralto. Without Eleanor Roosevelt, the concert would never have happened. When Anderson was denied permission to sing in a segregated hall, Eleanor worked behind the scenes to bring her to the Lincoln Memorial.

DOROTHY HEIGHT: Mrs. Roosevelt inspired her. She wanted Marian Anderson, the artist, to have her moment in history, but it was a moment in history for all of us. You had a feeling that official Washington was saying, "We may be deeply segregated and we have all of this, still, but here is what we stand for." And I think that was a great moment.

Narrator: If this had been the end of the Roosevelt presidency, he would have left a mixed record. In his first term, he had restored hope to a people who had lost hope, used the power of the presidency to insure that the Great Depression could never happen again, and forced government to accept the responsibility for the wellbeing of America's poorest citizens.

But in his second term, he seemed to overreach and then lose his way. Congress no longer did his bidding. Millions were still without work and he remained helpless in the face of aggression overseas. Germany and England were on the brink of war.

In June 1939 Roosevelt did something no president had ever done before. He invited the king and queen of England to America. The president hoped their visit might inspire Americans with greater sympathy for Britain, now faced with the Nazi threat.

Alistair Cooke: The idea of the king and queen of England coming to America -- there'd never been such a thing happen before. If it had been George III, it couldn't have been more of a surprise. It was fairyland.

Narrator: The president born to wealth and privilege was in his element. "The visit was prepared very carefully," Eleanor later wrote, "but Franklin always behaved as though we were simply going to have two very nice young people to stay with us."

Alistair Cooke: And Roosevelt took them off to Hyde Park and drove his own hand-run automobile into the grounds and gave them a hot dog lunch. Well, this was a shocker to the British, but it's the thing he would do. You see, he was a natural aristocrat, Roosevelt was. He didn't have to put on airs.

GEOFFREY WARD, Biographer: American Indians were asked to dance as the entertainment. His mother thought this was a dreadful way to entertain such distinguished people, but actually they had a marvelous time. He sat up with the king quite late at night, whom he called "George," and finally put his hand on his knee and said, "Young man, it's time for you to go to bed." And the king later said to one of his aides, "Why don't my ministers talk to me that way?"

Narrator: The royal couple had won American hearts. When it was time for the king and queen to leave, Eleanor wrote that she "thought of the clouds that hung over them and the worries that they were going to face." The president called after them, "Good luck to you. All the luck in the world." Three months later, Great Britain and Germany were at war and FDR would decide to run for a third term as president of the United States.

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