My theory is a bit different. I think FDR didn't know what the smack he was doing with foreign policy (Typical for a Dem), so he split the difference between his two key advisers.
“I think FDR didn’t know what the smack he was doing with foreign policy (Typical for a Dem), so he split the difference between his two key advisers.”
As scary as that seems I believe your analysis is correct. It was good that FDR was a Billy Mitchell advocate or we would have ended up with a 35,000,000 man army and a bunch of battleships and probably still be fighting WW11.