FDR’s New Take on National Security

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is popularly regarded as one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had and is one of the most significant political figures of the 20th century. He inherited a nation and a world in crisis and over the course of three presidential terms and part of a fourth, was an integral part of correcting many of the domestic and global problems of the day. The methods FDR employed have been considered revolutionary by many and simply a logical development of previous policies by others. Though it is certain that many of FDR’s policies were inspired and informed by the past, the environment in which he applied them and the way he combined them into one cohesive policy for national security through world security were utterly unique. This is one of the reasons why he is one of the most influential people of the twentieth century.

In order to understand the way FDR approached national security, it is necessary to understand the nation that he inherited. Roosevelt had been involved in the previous two presidencies to varying degrees and had been an advocate of many of the policies that led to the problems of his own presidency. But there were also many concerns that were not his or any other single person’s fault, even a president. The Great Depression afflicted the entire world and correcting its destabilizing effect was the interest of the entire world, but FDR’s first response was to focus on domestic issues. He cut costs across the board and contradicted the fiscal and security policies of Wilson and Hoover in the interest of getting the United States back on stable ground.  Things were not to stay so simple, however. The world had grown small and FDR’s policies could not afford to remain local. What followed this initial era of locking down and tightening up was a more accurate representation of FDR’s approach to national security.

By 1933, FDR’s gaze had spread wider and further than domestic troubles. In 1926, Herbert Hoover had advocated generous foreign trade policies to build up the economic capabilities of the rest of world.  The Depression and Hoover’s own moratorium had derailed that noble ambition, but FDR was quick to revisit it. At this point, FDR began to demonstrate that his national security policy was actually an ambition for world security. In his “Message to the Nations”, FDR claimed, “If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the weapons which make possible a successful attack, defenses automatically will become impregnable and the frontiers and independence of every Nation will become secure.”   His dream was not for the ability to rebuff any attack or destroy any enemy, but rather to remove the presence of enemies from the world stage.

This philosophy was not unfamiliar to the United States, though it had not been previously incorporated as a matter of global policy. President Woodrow Wilson had advocated a resolution to World War I that followed this same idea, “Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished… Only a peace between equals can last.”  What Wilson was advocating, and FDR later employed was a maturing of the world’s leading nations. Victory was not a favorable result because it could not mean lasting stability within and between nations. One of FDR’s dearest hopes was that the world economy could become stable and beneficial for all nations, “The [World Economic] Conference must establish order in place of the present chaos by a stabilization of currencies, by freeing the flow of world trade, and by international action to raise price levels.”  He wanted to resolve the world’s turmoil through economic rather than military means to achieve the same end that Wilson had advocated, lasting peace. FDR’s philosophy toward foreign policy was the same economically as militarily, to remove the need for conflict and establish national security by ending any lack of security outside the nation’s borders.

A microcosm of this grand plan was seen in FDR’s policy toward Latin America. Within the Western Hemisphere, a climate of relative peace and stability was reached for and achieved and gave credence to FDR’s global ambitions. He specifically credited non-military methods for the success of peace in the Western Hemisphere, “Many of the intolerable burdens of economic depression have been lightened and, due in no small part to our common efforts, every Nation in this Hemisphere is today at peace with its neighbors.”  Neither the world nor the United States nor FDR himself overestimated the importance of economic stability in maintaining peace. FDR also credited democratic government with the success of stabilizing Latin America, “it is our duty by every honorable means to prevent any further war among ourselves. This can best be done through the strengthening of the processes of constitutional democratic government.”  Up to this point the United States had been largely concerned with simply growing and surviving, but this declaration of the supremacy of democracy in regards to peaceful relations between nations began a new world order that had only been hinted at by Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. Again, FDR was employing a previous idea in an entirely new way and on a grand scale of foreign policy that would shape the future of national and global security.

Only a year after declaring success in Latin America, FDR’s eyes turned to the brewing conflict in Europe. Though war had not yet broken out, it seemed imminent and could not be ignored. FDR was still holding to relatively isolationist views of direct national security, but he was also looking to the future and to foreign shores for ways to ensure that security, “the people of the United States under modern conditions must, for the sake of their own future, give thought to the rest of the world.”  His foreign policy had not yet escalated to the point of intervention, but he did acknowledge that it might soon be necessary. Despite the ideals of peace without victory that he carried through from Wilson, FDR did not shirk from the realities of war in Europe or the need for war when it came “In view of the nature of this undeniable threat, it can be asserted, properly and categorically, that the United States has no right or reason to encourage talk of peace, until the day shall come when there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon all thought of dominating or conquering the world.”  Though there is sound opinion that had the United States intervened much sooner, World War II might have been avoided, that was not an option by 1940 when FDR delivered his fireside chat regarding the arsenal of peace that he, at that time, envisioned the United States would become. Still loathe to actually engage combat, he proved the individuality of his national security policy by flexing to fit the developing situation in Europe and Asia.

FDR also demonstrated consistency of philosophy in his efforts to stay out of World War II. He wanted to help the Allies, but he also wanted to avoid what might be unnecessary conflict. He compromised by committing American resources in the interest of protecting American lives, “Thinking in terms of today and tomorrow, I make the direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war, if we do all we can now to support the nations themselves against the attack by the Axis that if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory , and wait our turn to be the object of attack in another war later on.”  He clearly hoped that economic and diplomatic tactics, at least on the part of the United States would be enough to give the edge to the Allies in Europe. Further proving his independence of thought regarding national security, FDR again changed policies when his hope was proven in vain.

Once Japan directly engaged the United States and once France succumbed to Germany, there was no longer an option of distance. The war had come to U.S. soil in the Pacific and had very nearly breached the Atlantic wall of Allied defenders. War was forced to become a foreign policy. By 1942, FDR was fully committed, “We went into this war fighting. We know what we are fighting for. We realize that the war has become what Hitler originally proclaimed it to be—a total war.”  He demonstrated his commitment with troops, even more military resources, and ultimately the atomic bomb. In this way, as well, FDR brought a new world of national security into being. Through years of holding out and carefully managing the national consciousness and domestic economy of the United States, FDR had built a slumbering giant out of a once tenuous and isolated nation. His national security policy proved both reserved, as was characteristic of previous policies, but uniquely his own, as well, as when that giant was finally moved to action it brutally and decisively reversed the course of World War II, ultimately enforcing many of the policies that FDR had been patiently encouraging even before the war began.

It would be difficult to say whether FDR’s national security policies would have ever been so thoroughly explored and tested as they were because of the turmoil of the Great Depression and the subsequent chaos of World War II. Because of one crisis coming on the tail of another, the United States had an opportunity to implement and see in action political philosophies that might have otherwise remained hypothetical and unemployed. This rich experimental field was also why FDR’s national security policy was so uniquely his own. It was developed based on pre-existing concepts, it would have been foolish of him to ignore the past, but it also had to respond to never-before-seen situations and respond to unimagined problems. FDR’s methods were truly new if only because they were put to the test as never before and made to work based on those challenges. 

Bibliography

Herring, George C. From colony to superpower: U.S. foreign relations since 1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 

Hoover, Herbert. “Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover Extols U.S. Foreign Trade, 1926.” Washington, D.C. 1926.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Address before the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace.” Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1936.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Broadcast to the Nation.” White House. 1942.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside chat on national security and the common cause.” Washington, D.C. 1940.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Message to the Nations of the World appealing for Peace by Disarmament at the end of the Economic Chaos.” White House. 1933.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Quarantine Speech.” Chicago, Illinois. 1937.

Wilson, Woodrow. “A League for Peace.” 64th Congress, 2nd Session. Washington, D.C. 1916.