FDR is the worst president in history, IMO.

He established the precedent for deficit spending, and with his many social programs destroyed the concept of personal responsibility and ushered in the "nanny state". He allowed Russia to make claims to Eastern Europe, Germany, Korea, and Southeastern Asia late in the war--and in the last two examples Russia didn't even have to do any fighting. The Korean and Vietnam wars stem directly from his failures. The Cold War lasted decades longer than it should have because he allowed Russia to establish a strong position.

Typical public TV series. If you have been in the USA for the last 60 years, you know the tone. But they were critical days and folks who remember them are fading into history..

The best quote was from a Senator from North Carolina - talking of Roosevelt - "more power than a bad man should have, and more power than a good man would want".

By the end of the war, the Soviet Union had lost 23 million people. One in seven Russians were DEAD. The U.S. was nearly unscathed. We lost less than half a million. Only one in 300 Americans died during the war. We had not fought one single battle at home, none of our civilians had been attacked, our industrial capacity was undamaged and at full production. We were in a position to liberate all of Europe.

Yet somehow, inexplicably, impossibly, FDR gives the Soviet Union most of eastern Europe! What followed was a long, unnecessary cold war with a generation of eastern Europeans living and dying behind the iron curtain. Inexcusable.

I'm sorry. You would have attacked the Soviet uniton in 1945??

not a stretch, huh

Yeah, I'd think as a sniper you'd want as much control over your gun as possible, right?:D

not a bad plan. george patton with nukes to clear a path.

My favorite book on the subject is actually Caro's biography of LBJ. The first volume, The Path to Power, contains a chapter on Rayburn that is riveting. LBJ was a protege of Rayburn, so all of Car's volumes have chapters on Rayburn. The passage on how Rayburn got the Selective Service Act to pass is breathtaking. I'll see if I can find it and type it in. No one describes it better than Rayburn. Basically the story is that there weren't the votes to pass the SSA and Rayburn knew it. He did everything in him power (which was considerable) to get the votes but he was a few short. Everyone knew it. In fact, the oposition was playing games with the vote, keeping a few back so that representatives could could change their votes once defeat was assured so that they wouldn't take heat for an unpopular vote.

Rayburn was presiding over the vote as Speaker and took it all in. As the roll call was being called the Ayes and Nays were being counted they got to the end when the votes were almost completely cast but not set permanently. And then for one split second as the votes were being finalized by the Whips, the SSA was ahead by a single vote. That was the moment Rayburn had been waiting for. He slammed down the gavel and called the vote, freezing the votes as cast, not giving the members the chance to finalize their positions, which would have resulted in several members changing their votes and assuring defeat. Because he closed the vote before all members were ready, he was immediately challenged. Rayburn responded to the challenge by raising point after point of increasingly arcane rules of order. Rayburn's points of order had to be addressed before the challenge to his ending of the vote could be addressed substantively. Raybun kept it up until his ruling stood and the vote stayed.

The SSA passed by that single vote. Without it the US would have had only a token force on the eve of WWII and would have been even more unprepared when the Japanese attacked.

Trivia tidbit of the day. The US did not declare war on Germany after Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war on the US four days later. The fact that the US did not declare war on Germany until Hitler declared war on December 11 demonstrates how deeply isolationist the country was.

How do you get that out of what he said? I think he meant that our position of strength at that time would allow us to be less charitable to the Soviets in the post war partition.

okay, but it seems to me that we were not in a great posiition of bargaining strength relative to making demands on the Soviet Union which made more sacrifices in that war than we ever could. They fought on their own soil and repulsed the invader. Anyone honestly think we had any bargaining chips to use?

I'm sure that Stalin would have been equally as charitable had the tables been turned.

I didn't know that, thanks. :)

Uh sure. nukes to clear the path right

I have read it many times, but i cannot claim to have the entire thing memorized. Can you?

nothing to do with being charitable, it is called pragmatism.

fixed it for you

I said any president after Pearl harbor would have led the US to victory.
I absolutely 100% stand by my statement. After Pearl, GW Bush could have won WWII.

I would prefer controls on criminals. And governments.

No one said that. I believe moses was stating that Roosevelt did a lousy azz job in negotiating the post war shape of Europe.

Which clearly, he did. Of course the fact he was a few steps from being a drooling Vegetable by that point probably had something to do with it....

At any rate, it was a failure that cost millions of people their lives in the Cold war that followed.

Militarily speaking, it would've made tremendous sense looking back on all that followed. However, barring the Russians attacking us first, the public will for yet another war- no matter how big a rout it promised to be, was simply not there. But again, from a purely military standpoint, the US vs Soviet Union post VE-day in Europe would have been a total disaster for the Soviets, even without the 8 nuclear weapons the US was capable of producing by the beginning of 1946.

By a long shot, he was the worst. It's not even close IMO.

Really Steve, I don't remember any three term Republicans. One thing to try, another to do.

ah but you really did not know about Grant, did you , fess up. :)