Franklin D. Roosevelt, l’allié 4/5 : Vers la guerre

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Franklin D. Roosevelt, l’allié 4/5 : Vers la guerre"

Le Cours de l'histoire
Host: France Culture
Episode: Franklin D. Roosevelt, l’allié 4/5 : Vers la guerre
Release Date: July 20, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Le Cours de l'histoire, hosted by France Culture, the focus is on the pivotal role of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) as an ally during the tumultuous years leading up to World War II. The discussion delves into FDR's foreign policy maneuvers, his relationship with Hollywood, the isolationist sentiments in the United States, and the critical decisions that propelled the nation towards war.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt's Leadership and Rhetoric

The episode opens with a powerful rendition of one of FDR’s speeches, highlighting his rhetoric and vision for a free and just world. At [00:56], Roosevelt begins:

“Sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer. In this world, there's room for everyone. Greed has poisoned men's souls.”

This quote encapsulates Roosevelt’s stance against tyranny and his advocacy for liberty and equality.

Later, at [05:09], Roosevelt emphasizes national unity and the American spirit:

“Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this capitol dome that lady that stands for liberty… You'll see the whole parade of what man's carved out for himself after centuries of fighting for something better than just jungle law.”

These speeches reflect FDR’s ability to inspire and unify the American people during challenging times.

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Relationship with Hollywood

FDR skillfully cultivated a relationship with Hollywood to bolster his New Deal agenda and generate public support. As noted by the historian at [03:21], Roosevelt collaborated with studio executives to produce short newsreels that promoted his policies. Additionally, his annual birthday balls, mentioned at [06:45], served as a convergence point for Hollywood stars and political figures, enhancing his visibility and influence.

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Isolationism and Anti-Semitism in the United States

Despite the growing threats from Hitler and the Nazis, the United States was grappling with strong isolationist sentiments during the 1930s. At [07:56], the historian explains:

“There was a very anti-European sentiment in the United States isolationist movement.”

Eleanor Roosevelt adds at [09:06]:

“The United States is an isolationist country. It does not want to…”

This isolationism was further complicated by rising anti-Semitism and economic struggles during the Great Depression, making foreign intervention politically sensitive.

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FDR's Foreign Policy and Preparations for War

As tensions escalated globally, FDR took significant steps to prepare the United States for potential involvement in the conflict. The historian notes at [09:29] that in the mid-1930s, Congress passed restrictive arms embargoes, which FDR sought to modify by [13:33] extending the "cash and carry" provision and advocating for the removal of these restrictions.

At [28:07], FDR addresses the nation, emphasizing the urgent need to bolster America's defenses:

“We must have more planes, more of everything. So I appeal to the owners of plants, to the managers, to the workers, to our own government employees to put every effort into making this land the great arsenal of democracy.”

This declaration marked a significant shift from isolationism to active support for the Allies.

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Eleanor Roosevelt's Influence and Humanitarian Efforts

Eleanor Roosevelt played a crucial role in advocating for humanitarian causes and influencing FDR's policies. At [17:19], the discussion highlights her efforts to push against anti-Semitic quotas and her collaboration with various aides to support Jewish refugees fleeing persecution. Eleanor's activism complemented FDR’s political strategies, despite facing significant resistance and criticism.

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Public Sentiment and Political Challenges

Public opinion in the United States was divided, as highlighted at [23:29]. While FDR worked to garner support for his policies, there was significant backlash against immigration quotas and anti-Catholic legislation. The historian at [24:10] discusses how FDR navigated these challenges by leveraging Eleanor Roosevelt's advocacy to sway public and political opinion in favor of more progressive and inclusive policies.

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FDR’s Approach to Espionage and National Security

With the outbreak of war in Europe, FDR heightened national security measures. At [33:24], Roosevelt addresses concerns about Nazi espionage:

“I am a Nazi spy. I am one of thousands stationed in every part of the United States to steal the secrets of your national defense…”

This declaration underscored the perceived threats and justified the implementation of stringent security protocols across the nation.

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Transition to Active War Efforts

Following Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, FDR began preparing the United States for active involvement in the war. The historian explains at [38:50] how the fall of France in 1940 heightened fears and led to increased support for the "America First" movement, despite internal political opposition.

In December 1940, after a dire plea from Winston Churchill, FDR solidified America's commitment to the Allies. At [43:49], Roosevelt galvanizes the nation:

“We must be the great arsenal of democracy as serious as war itself.”

This pivotal moment marked a decisive move away from isolationism, aligning the United States with Allied nations in the fight against fascism.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes by reflecting on FDR’s strategic leadership and the complex interplay of political, social, and economic factors that steered the United States towards war. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ability to inspire, navigate political landscapes, and collaborate with key figures like Eleanor Roosevelt and Hollywood leaders were instrumental in shaping the nation's role as a formidable ally in World War II.

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Notable Quotes

• Franklin D. Roosevelt [00:56]:
  “Sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer. In this world, there's room for everyone. Greed has poisoned men's souls.”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt [05:09]:
  “Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this capitol dome that lady that stands for liberty…”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt [28:07]:
  “We must have more planes, more of everything. So I appeal to the owners of plants, to the managers, to the workers, to our own government employees to put every effort into making this land the great arsenal of democracy.”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt [33:24]:
  “I am a Nazi spy. I am one of thousands stationed in every part of the United States to steal the secrets of your national defense…”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt [43:49]:
  “We must be the great arsenal of democracy as serious as war itself.”

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Key Takeaways

• FDR's Rhetoric and Leadership: FDR's speeches were instrumental in unifying the American people and steering public opinion towards supporting Allied efforts.

• Hollywood Collaboration: Strategic partnerships with Hollywood helped promote FDR's New Deal agenda and garner public support through media influence.

• Isolationism vs. Interventionism: The United States grappled with isolationist sentiments, but FDR's policies and global events like the fall of France shifted the nation toward active involvement in World War II.

• Eleanor Roosevelt’s Advocacy: Eleanor played a significant role in pushing against discriminatory policies and supporting humanitarian efforts, complementing FDR’s political strategies.

• National Security Measures: Heightened fears of espionage and sabotage led to increased national security measures, reflecting the tension between civil liberties and national safety during wartime.

This comprehensive examination of FDR’s policies and actions provides a nuanced understanding of the United States’ transition from isolationism to becoming a key Allied power in World War II.

Transcript

[Historian or Commentator]

France Kultur.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Ladies and gentlemen I'm not going to take up your time. I want to give you the last speech of a little Jewish barber.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

As.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

The emperor of the world. The speech follows. Sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer. In this world there's room for everyone. Greed has poisoned men's souls. The great crossing Franklin Delamere Roosevelt the hour.

[Historian or Commentator]

It'S kind of interesting to think about the fact that so they're 10 years. You know what's interesting? Roosevelt told the French had no doubt.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

And so long as men die liberty will never perish.

[Political Analyst or Historian]

During the 1920s there are some interplay between presidential politics opportunity for him to sell his new dealer Movie theaters were a key element of and so he worked with many studio executives Roosevelt's new deal agenda and these were very short newsreels that would have been shown.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Peter.

[Historian or Commentator]

Arnault de Vison or cinema ductuality Roosevelt.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Vien Just get up off the ground. That's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this capitol dome that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes. If you really want to see something and you won't just see scenery. You'll see the whole parade of what man's carved out for himself after centuries of fighting and fighting for something better than just jungle law. Fighting so he can stand on his own two feet free and decent like he was created no matter what his race, color or creed. That's what you say. There's no place out there for graft or greed or lies or compromise with human liberties.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

CE batre pourotre chose que l' allete la argent comme un eco au message du President Roosevelt.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

And it's not too late because this country is bigger than the Taylors or you or me or anything else. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here.

[Political Analyst or Historian]

One of the really interesting things that he cultivates over the course of his presidency is this relationship with Hollywood. For his annual birthday ball Hollywood would come together. A variety of stars would come. It was an opportunity for each year to celebrate Franklin Roosevelt's birthday to generate attention infantile paralysis.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Madame Roosevelt.

[Historian or Commentator]

No one knows whether there was going to be a war and so forth but he was always very aware of the danger that Hitler and the Nazis posed and that awareness only. And it's a curious thing they became very bitter about rich and they set Up a and so there became a very anti European sentiment in the United States isolationist movement. Isolationism.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

REBECCA Herberding the United states in the 1930s suffering great depression rise in anti Semitism and the United States is an isolationist country. It does not want to.

[Historian or Commentator]

So as you know, in the mid-1930s, Congress passed the first one. Of course there was an arms embargo to either side in the conflict. So it was very, very restrictive. And it meant of course that Franklin Roosevelt.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

This land is your land this land is my land from the redwood forest to the New York island From the snow capped mountain to the Gulf Stream waters this land is made for you and me As I go walking my ribbon of highway I see all around me My blue blue skyway Everywhere around me the wind keeps a whistling this land is made for you and me this land is your land and this land is my land from the redwood forest to the New York island the snow capped mountain to the Gulf Stream waters this land is made for you and me I'm a chase my shadow out across this road map to my wheat fields Waving to my cornfield Dancing psycho walking this wind keeps talking this land is made for you and me.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Says Mars milleneuve Saint Transang dans le journal denouementerre La Belgique La pologne.

[Historian or Commentator]

Finally, in 1937 he convinced the Congress well, that provision only lasted for 15 months to extend the cash and carry provision. And he also asked them to remove the arms embarrassment. He got final word for this on July 12th. Franclin de la no Roosevelt.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

The preservion on trouble Many politicians did not want Jewish quotas that we had here. And Roosevelt's likely did not think he could push said that he was very nervous. He was not particularly on the rise in states that his Jewish to contribute to Roosevelt being accused by anti Semitism There was some sort of anti Semitic in quotes due deal. Eleanor Roosevelt is the humanitarian. Franklin Roosevelt is the politician. And throughout his life war in the official and everything else. And so if you think about and Franklin Roosevelt says it's okay for you Eleanor Rose that you support it. And he says that directly that is in writing. And the reason that he thinks it's at this point in time the Democratic Party is splitting between Norman immigrants and Southern Democrats who support America and Roosevelt needs their votes recovery from the Depression Is that always sort of expansion in immigration?

[Historian or Commentator]

Of course, Roosevelt has come in for criticism as many leaders have during the 1930s and 40s. The truth is of course that the United States allowed more the national Origins.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Act.

[Historian or Commentator]

People could come in per nationality progressive kind of politics United States so it was very anti Catholic and very anti catholiques of legislation. So Roosevelt was those quotas during his administration but he was always told by his various aides if you say nothing.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Eleanor pushes and he is always but he could sponsor and so Eleanor actually gave the proceeds of herself de Sachronique My day in southern France pacifists.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

My countrymen and my friends tonight my.

[Historian or Commentator]

To.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

The whole of America until 4:30 o' clock this morning I had hoped against hope Poland by Germany for four long years a succession of actual wars and constant crises and have threatened is today unhappily a fact.

[Historian or Commentator]

So once war broke out in 1939 of course Roosevelt and as you all know the war did not go well after the defeat.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Burton.

[Historian or Commentator]

Davis.

[Political Analyst or Historian]

This was a time during the 1930s when they see it as a way to gain social prestige by escaping incredibly popular movies. There's movies like the Great Dictator.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

I am a Nazi spy. I am one of thousands stationed in every part of the United States to steal the secrets of your national defense. There are spies stationed in all of the Navy yards in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Newport News. There are Nazi agents in the airplane and munition factories at Bristol, Buffalo, Seattle, Boston. The chief United States inspector in one of your factories turning out secret aeroplane parts is a German spy. A trial in the United States federal court first brought to the attention of a startled nation this amazing danger to its safety and freedom. Now from the actual revelations of Department of Justice investigator Leon G. Turo comes the mightiest dramatic blast ever filmed. The almost incredible story of foreign agents stealing our vital defense plans of a brown network spreading hatred and terrorism to mask the treacherous plots of its leaders. Confessions of a Nazi spy.

[Political Analyst or Historian]

That is one that generates a lot of criticism and so there are a variety of investigations that have this intervention those political leaders.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Senator Geraldial and so when Europe goes to war in September 19th President Franklin Roosevelt believes that and so he starts preparing the country are trying to push and to support Great Britain and France this is a hard fight Service in peacetime bill is extended only disposed in a portent army permanent standing army at Pearl harbor only because of the three groups American propaganda really doesn't.

[Historian or Commentator]

And of course France collapsed in roughly six weeks most Americans so it's a moment of panic and the chiefs in their own kind of way supporting what was called the America first America first that was very.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

I think to some extent we're lucky that the Republican nominee Wendell Wilkie was not in isolation Got the Republican nominee and so live in a very different world couple.

[Historian or Commentator]

As a consequence of all of this, you know, the British struggled on during that difficult year from 1940, end of 1940, they were actually broke. And it's really interesting to think about in December of 1940. The letter was from Churchill and if we don't get your help, basically, you know, we're in mortal danger. And Roosevelt's response was a sample of his political. Roosevelt gave two press conferences a week for 12 years. But in the middle of December 1940, he went Imagine you're going to give him the hope. Thinking back to World War I. Why don't we just give them some of it?

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Walter Compton speaking from the Oval Room of the White house in Washington D.C. where distinguished guests, news photographers, news wheel representatives and radio people are assembled to witness and to record a most important address by the President of the United States. Manufacturers of watches, of farm implements, of liner types and cash registers and automobiles and sewing machines. But all of our present efforts are not enough. We must have more planes, more of everything. So I appeal to the owners of plants, to the managers, to the workers, to our own government employees to put every. We must be the great arsenal of democracy as serious as war itself.

[Historian or Commentator]

I mean, what a phrase. And then at really the beginning he gave his State of the Union address. Tell the American people this is money for this. It's sort of a typical State of the Union address. He gave in future days human freedoms everywhere in the world. Everywhere in the world. Then we are attacked in December, Winston Churchill invites himself to the White House and shows up Winston Churchill at the end of December 1940 the struggle against fascism. And they needed a name for it. And in the middle of the night when. And he wheeled himself into this one of his male secretaries and had gotten out of the bath and had been put on him by his valet. And you know, so true, true. Roosevelt wheels and Roosevelt Winston and start Winston. Right. Remember, he's Mr. President. This government has nothing to hide from the President of the United States. But anyway, so they wanted to. And sure enough. And by the way Charles de Gaulle evolutionist declaration the Declaration of the United Nations. Roosevelt refused a governmental entity. No, he refused. It was one of the many examples in any case again, many Americans don't realize. And then eventually Roosevelt decided that the organization so he was very.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

They initially locked up not locked up, but kept track of as well as. And they stayed in lockup. But the initial feeling was that aliens were scary. You can read about.

[Historian or Commentator]

And that they're.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Going to we were there was awful. There really was German sabotage in the United States or at least.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

It looks.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

In retrospect.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

After Pearl harbor to Jews. The United States does not go to save Jews. Part of that is because the the Roosevelt administration isn't one thing. And so they're definitely than others. The US has diplomats in and so those people are saying people are dissatisfaction. And so for those people I think the news of the final that the Nazis have they are planning to round up and help the Jews of Europe and that they hold so that reaches newspapers and from that moment on that doesn't mean Americans. So their polls in January 1940 so that means a majority of Americans.

[Historian or Commentator]

Roosevelt had all kinds of maps printed in the paper Maps projected just how vulnerable we actually were. And and you know most the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other. He actually told the American.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

This war is a new kind of wars of the past. It is warfare in terms of every continent, every island, every sea, every airlock. The world encircling battle lines of this war. Soldiers, don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think of, what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with the machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your heart. You don't hate. Only the unloved hate the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don't fight for slavery, fight for Liberty. In the 17th chapter of the Luke it is written the kingdom of God is within man. Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you. You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security.

[Eleanor Roosevelt]

Roosevelt Lali Avec Joffre Ward David Woolner, Anne Roosevelt, Michael Kazim, Rebecca Herbalgin, Catherine Bronwyn, Elivois de Clara Chabalier Lise Combe, Laurent Lederer, Joachim San Anger, Evelyn Guimara, Madeleine Bonio Carnau Mavin Watara Francois l' he Priestess Benjamin Valentin Azan Virensky Traduction Celeste Carlo Marine Elgin.

[Franklin D. Roosevelt]

Sam, it.