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The Failed Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt: William Bullitt’s Warning
The American Spectator ^ | 7 Sep 2022 | Francis Sempa

Posted on 01/08/2022 8:55:03 AM PST by Rummyfan

Recently in The American Spectator, I wrote a somewhat controversial article claiming that Franklin Roosevelt was a failure as president. One of the areas of failure, I argued, was FDR’s decision-making during the Second World War, which resulted in the replacement of the Nazi threat with an even greater Soviet threat. Some critics have retorted, What else could FDR have done? The postwar world was largely shaped by where the Anglo-American and Soviet armies ended up when the fighting stopped. But consider the case of William Bullitt’s warning to the president.

On January 29, 1943, William Bullitt, then a close adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, wrote a memo to the president that Bullitt characterized as “as serious a document as any I have ever sent you.” In that memo (which he followed up with related memos and letters in June and August of that year), Bullitt attempted to persuade FDR to approach U.S. relations with Moscow more realistically and to wage World War II with a view towards the postwar balance of power.

* * * * * * * *

But it was all to no avail. FDR thought he could use his personal charm and political skills to persuade Stalin to join the democracies in establishing a just and stable postwar world. It was a view based on personal naïveté, ignorance about communism, and advice FDR received from the likes of Harry Hopkins, Henry Wallace, Sumner Welles, and other Soviet accommodationists within the administration.

Those who argue that FDR’s options were limited by the positioning of the armies at the end of the fighting are correct. But had the president listened to Bullitt’s advice and waged war so that the Anglo-American armies met their Soviet allies, in Churchill’s words “as far to the east as possible,” ...

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


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1 posted on 01/08/2022 8:55:03 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

Failure of Big Socialism - bump for later.....


2 posted on 01/08/2022 8:57:37 AM PST by indthkr
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To: Rummyfan

And kiss MacArthur and Patten goodbye


3 posted on 01/08/2022 9:01:45 AM PST by laweeks
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To: Rummyfan

Churchill certainly disagreed with FDR cozying up to Stalin at Malta. FDR was just there to divvy up what was left of the world. He was just another fascist with a smile.


4 posted on 01/08/2022 9:02:56 AM PST by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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To: Rummyfan

FDR, like biden, got the results he WANTED. They are both committed radical authoritarian socialists.


5 posted on 01/08/2022 9:15:07 AM PST by oldplayer
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To: Rummyfan

Because of FDR and his guilt and demand for secrecy about chemical weapons my uncle died in Bari Italy Dec 1943 ...

Most of the American, Canadian, Aussie, NZ soldiers and marines who died during a German air raid were poisoned by the deadly chemicals/mustard gas leaking from broken barrels from the sunken John Harvey into the water at the pier ... the unwounded men who leaped into the water died from blisters and sores from the chemicals ..an American doctor finally guessed what they were dying from but couldnt help them ..

My uncle lingered from Dec 2 until the 23rd ...

FDR sealed all records for years it was 1966 before the information was finally available ... My family never knew how my uncle really died ...

Im not fond of FDR ..


6 posted on 01/08/2022 9:19:49 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: Rummyfan

Roosevelt was on his deathbed at Yalta. Joe Biden today is probably in better shape than Roosevelt was then.

Roosevelt should have never been there, nor been President, but even then, the progressives/socialists and their apparatchiks had control of Fed.gov.


7 posted on 01/08/2022 9:21:28 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Tennessee Nana

My sister just gave me the book about that for Christmas.
Haven’t started it yet.
Something else to consider is the thousands of tons
of Mustard gas and others, dumped into the ocean after
WW I.


8 posted on 01/08/2022 9:27:04 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Rummyfan

Patton wanted to invade the Russia.

It might have worked during the window of Russia invading Manchuria. That was mayne the most powerful army ever assembled. They were in Asia however and couldn’t have made it back in time.

Patton may have made it work.


9 posted on 01/08/2022 9:27:16 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie (Let's go Brandon)
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To: PGR88

Biden’s brain is like FDR’s body. Totally ate-up.


10 posted on 01/08/2022 9:29:15 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie (Let's go Brandon)
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To: Rummyfan

Woulda Coulda Shoulda...A female Polish bartender once asked me why the West abandoned them at the end of the war, I told them that Roosevelt was set up by the KGB at the Yalta conference. There’s no way I believe he was that stupid and basically played into the commies’ hands for expedience. He just wasn’t man enough when it came down to it! That and he likely signed off on the hit on Patton!


11 posted on 01/08/2022 9:30:49 AM PST by gr8eman (When you're bought and paid for by commies...you're a commie!)
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To: Rummyfan

The way he set up the Social Security System (people that had never paid anything in getting paid) guaranteed we would have the crisis that will he here in about 25 years.

He was WORSE than a failure for that screw-up alone.


12 posted on 01/08/2022 9:32:59 AM PST by I cannot think of a name
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To: Rummyfan

“What else could FDR have done?”

Should have signed a separate peace with Germany instead of demanding unconditional surrender.


13 posted on 01/08/2022 9:34:13 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: gr8eman

He was that naive and confident in his “charm”!
Plus, he had American Reds (Hopkins, etc.) feeding his ego regarding his charm and persuasive skills.

Stop the conspiracy nonsense on Patton that’s been debunked dozens of times! It’s easy to wreck a jeep! Try it sometime !


14 posted on 01/08/2022 9:48:06 AM PST by Reily
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To: Rummyfan
FDR sold us out to the commies at the Yalta conference.

BTW, FDR was president when I was a kid.
Don't believe the MSM crap that everyone loved FDR.
My family hated him.

15 posted on 01/08/2022 9:48:19 AM PST by Fiddlstix ((Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Bonemaker

And left Hitler in power?


16 posted on 01/08/2022 9:50:08 AM PST by Sir_Humphrey ( I wiIl not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!i)
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To: Rummyfan

Happens when your VP is a communist.


17 posted on 01/08/2022 9:54:41 AM PST by TexasGator (UF)
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To: Rummyfan
likes of Harry Hopkins, Henry Wallace, Sumner Welles, and other Soviet accommodationists

Not Soviet "accomodationists", Soviet agents.

18 posted on 01/08/2022 9:56:40 AM PST by jdege
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To: Rummyfan

The only thing that saved FDR’s A$$ was WWII.


19 posted on 01/08/2022 9:57:17 AM PST by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: Fiddlstix
My Maternal Grandfather worshiped him. He was a Corprorist commie loving traitor.
20 posted on 01/08/2022 10:20:27 AM PST by cowboyusa (America Cowboy up! )
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