Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt: Leaders Who Built a Superpower and the Modern American

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Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Leaders Who Built a Superpower and theModern
American PresidencyAlexander ZachosFall
2006Political Science Capstone
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Men of Action

• American Presidency can often be a frustrating
  office
• Rigid institutions partisan fights, re-election.
• Many presidents do not make an impact
• TR and FDR left a long-lasting legacies on the
  presidency and the country.
• Each president came into office during very
  crucial periods of social upheaval and political
  change.
• Both had upper-class origins, confidence, and
  natural leadership ability combined with
  Progressive Roots.
• They can be politically analyzed, compared, and
  contrasted in several different traditional
  political arenas.
• Their most important similarity
• They did not allow their decisions to be governed
  by fear of change.

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Thesis

• TR and FDR were both presidents for whom actions
  spoke louder than words. They both came to
  office during times of great political change and
  crisis. They acted within the Progressive theme
  of the early 20th century but furthermore, it was
  their bold action during these times that
  eventually led to the creation of the modern
  American presidency and an American superpower.
• In accomplishing these endeavors both presidents
  created and strengthened the presidential roles
  of chief of party, chief legislator, chief
  policy maker, chief administrator, commander-in
  chief, and chief diplomat.

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Theodore Roosevelt
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TR Childhood

• Upper-class parents both sides
• Not an ordinary child for 2 reasons one social
  and one intellectual
• Wealthy
• Gifted mind and memory
• Childhood dark side sickness
• Severe Asthma, near-sighted, and a nervous
  digestive system.
• Overcoming of sickness creates his sense of
  heroism
• Considers himself a self-created character
• Metamorphosis from thin sickly boy to model for
  masculinity.
• Commitment to politics and most important views
  emerged from his youthful struggles.
• Obsession with physical prowess showed main
  insecurity, his youthfulness.
• For Theodore Roosevelt even more than for most
  people, the child was the father of the man.

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Early Political Career

• First position was nominated for a Republican
  seat in the New York Assembly 1882
• Police Commissioner of New York 1880s-1890s
• Assistant Secretary to the Navy 1890s
• Governor of New York 1898
• Vice-President of United States 1900
• Other careers
• Historian (War of 1812) (Winning of the West)
• Dakota Rancher and Cattleman
• Colonel of the Rough Riders Answered his prayers
  and brought him the fame necessary to win the
  Vice-Presidency.

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Analysis of TRs Political Views

• New Imperialism fight for colonies is now based
  on industrial rivalries and economic
  interdependence.
• Militarism affected by fathers failure
• Rejection of Materialism and calling upon the
  people to aspire for a higher purpose (paradox
  wealth)
• American Expansion and Necessary involvement in
  world affairs.
• Anglo-superiority
• Expanded federal government to control big
  business
• Progressivism Idea that society should make
  social progress and that peoples lives could be
  improved sometimes at the expense of businessmen.
• Conservation of natural resources
• Trust-busting
• Cultural Advancement

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First Presidency (1901-1904)

• President McKinley assassinated September 1901.
• TR spends majority of presidency battling for
  control of his party from factionalized party
  bosses.
• Thus, actual policy achievement was limited
  during his first term with some exceptions.
• He campaigned for re-election in 1904, in control
  of his party, promising America a Square Deal.

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Second Presidency (1904-1908)

• 1904 re-election, he asserted his proven
  political power with a rejuvenation of activity
  and the high point of his presidency.
• Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
• Manipulated Congress using three tactics
• Great speeches to counter railway propaganda
• Gained support of Capitol Hill by bargaining with
  the Old Guard Republicans
• Played back and forth with the Senate among
  Progressives, moderates, and Democrats in order
  to achieve policy goals
• He achieved greater success in domestic and
  foreign policy between 1904 and 1907, but was
  stymied by his party, congress, and the courts
  during the last two years of his presidency.

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TR leaves important legacy and affects FDR

• His greatest legacy did not come from his policy
  successes.
• He was a strong, influential, and bold leader.
• Experienced and confident politician who brought
  new dynamics to the presidency
• Instead he pursued social advancement and deeper
  national loyalty.
• He fought class divisions and appealed to
  minority ethnic and social classes.
• He used the whole government of the United
  States to mitigate harsh social and economic
  conditions of his time.
• The most important task of a political leader is
  to educate the public and create a demand for
  change.
• His legacy left an important imprint on the
  later Roosevelt President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Young FDR mimicked his kinsmans path Assembly,
  Ass. Secretary of the Navy, Governor of NY, then
  presidency
• FDR had talent, wealth, and the experiences of
  his fifth cousin (Uncle Teddy)

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Atmosphere prior to FDRs election in 1932

• 1929 Stock Market Crash causes the Great
  Depression
• Besides the Civil War, it is considered to be the
  worst crisis in American History.
• Who is to blame? Obviously the big-businessmen.
• The Great Depression turns focus of America
  homeward
• Apathy towards world affairs, despite Wilsons
  warnings
• Isolationism characterizes American sentiments
  from 1929-1938
• FDR was Governor of NY and promises not to forget
  the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic
  pyramid
• The Nation is in need of bold action, expanded
  government for relief, and a leader to offer
  inspiration and strength
• FDR rejects all systems and dedicates himself to
  providing hope and relief for the American
  working man and American morale.

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The Great Depression
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Analysis of FDRs Political Views

• He had a keen ability to reject rigid political
  systems whenever necessary.
• His technique for liberal government was
  pragmatism.
• He respected clear ideas, accepted them, and used
  them but was always skeptical about their
  relationship to reality.
• The battle between New Nationalism versus New
  Freedom divided American Liberalism
• FDRs New Deal had elements of both
• Schlesinger quoted, He had no philosophy save
  experiment, which was a technique
  constitutionalism, which was a procedure and
  humanity, which was a faith.
• People began to believe in the free, welfare
  state, with economic stability, and social
  justice.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt
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First Phase of FDRs Presidencies

• FDRs four presidencies can be divided into two
  major phases of different emphasis one domestic
  and one foreign
• His first phase from 1932 to around 1937 was
  characterized by a desperate need for action on
  the domestic front
• First New Deal and First Hundred Days
• Characterized by a high rate of activity,
  although courts struck down most of the
  legislation, the social effects of the New Deal
  are immeasurable.
• Later New Deal
• Social Security Act of 1935
• FDR versus the Courts and Congress
• Conservative strict-constructionist Supreme Court
  largely undid most of the New Deals policy
• Republican resurgence in Congress in the 1938
  elections, primarily blocked his reform attempts
  and this brought an end to his New Deal and the
  First Phase of his Presidency.
• Foreign Policy
• Isolation is the word

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Second Phase of FDRs Presidencies

• Rise of Fascism in Europe Hitler and Mussolini
  rise up to power in Germany and Italy during a
  time of American Isolation.
• By 1938, Hitler had taken over most of Europe
  without firing a shot.
• FDR.
• Shift away from isolationism between 1938 and
  1941 is gradual.
• Panay crisis
• Increased armaments
• Britain put on the defensive, new emphasis on
  Americas role
• Revision of the Neutrality act.
• It was indeed Pearl Harbor that completely blew
  Americans out of complacency, on December 7,
  1941.
• Sharp criticism for the architect of victory,
  along with high compliment

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FDRs Domestic and Foreign Legacies

• Unlike Theodore Roosevelt, FDR has many pivotal
  policy legacies that are worth noting
• Domestic
• Pluralism- intellectual idea emerged in 1920s to
  influence approaches to organization and problem
  solving. It favored widespread decision-making
  and constant improvisation. He wanted a flexible
  and democratic federal branch, best fitted to
  solve social problems
• Foreign
• Principally influenced by Pearl Harbor, which
  destroyed isolationist contentions about American
  invulnerability to attack, and by the countrys
  emergence as the worlds foremost Power, the
  nation ended the war ready to shoulder
  substantial responsibilities in foreign
  affairs.-Robert Dallek
• Evident by bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• FDR tried to show the world, by action, that the
  United States would be the hegemonic leader in a
  New World Order.

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Analysis of TR and FDR as Chief of Party

• TR was a progressive Republican who had to
  wrestle control of his party from Old-Guard
  Republican bosses like Mark Hanna of Ohio.
• He never really united the party, but he achieved
  some of his goals through manipulation of Old
  Guard Congressmen.
• After he announced that he would not run for a
  third term in 1908, his party treated him as a
  lame duck and his relations with them soared to
  the point of open hostility.
• FDR, on the other hand, united his party and
  created a new Democratic constituency made up of
  Northern industrial workers, ethnic minorities,
  and the farm bloc.
• Cooper says, The international crisis at the
  end of the 1930s, which renewed his lease on the
  Theodore Rooseveltian role of transcendent
  national leader, was what furnished (FDRs)
  opportunity to fulfill the Wilsonian role of
  party leader.

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Analysis as Progressives

• It is clear that FDR was affected by TR and
  Wilsons Progressivism.
• TRs social and economic Progressivism was
  characterized by moral advancement of society.
• Pure Food and Drug Act (Upton Sinclair The Jungle
  )
• FDRs New Dealers were not concerned with the
  moral advancement of society, but rather economic
  progress.
• Both presidents came into office during times
  that necessitated change.
• The movement following the Industrial Revolution
  was named the Progressive Movement
• Government regulation of big-business
• Labor reforms and consumer protection
• FDRs Progressivism was classified by the need
  for
• Workers economic relief
• Governments control of economics

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Opposition TR versus Congress and Party

• TR and Congress were destined to be opposed
• He came into office when decades of legislative
  supremacy were ending.
• The decline in legislative strength did not
  please elders on Capitol Hill.
• They would have resisted the increase of
  presidential power under any president.
• He played delicate games of cat and mouse to
  achieve his goals.
• TR usually won the battle for public opinion
  versus Congress however, this was achieved at
  some cost to his legislative record later on.
• TR was always fighting and manipulating the
  Conservative Republicans for control of his own
  party, and it was they who blocked most of his
  important objectives.

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OppositionFDR versus the Supreme Court

• Conservative Supreme Court strikes down the NIRA,
  the AAA, and the repudiation of the gold clause.
• FDR decides to retaliate in 1936 by packing the
  court
• He claimed the overworked and overage judges were
  a detriment and proposed to be able to appoint as
  many as six new judges.
• This measure failed and lost him support in his
  party and Congress.
• While they were able to defeat the large part of
  his New Deal, FDR was responsible for the famous
  switch in time that saved nine.
• FDR was able to nearly replace every justice on
  the Supreme Court during his four terms.
• He drastically affected the future of the Supreme
  Court.

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FDR and TR with the Media

• TRs popularity came from his love affair with
  the media and the American people.
• First presidential career to be conducted within
  the era of the modern journalistic press
• Rough Rider publicity
• TR used the journalistic media to strengthen his
  office, and began to build a power base apart
  from party organizations
• FDR used the press to achieve his goals
• He learned reporters names, read their stories,
  and created news for them
• FDR and the Press Conference
• Held weekly press conferences that allowed him to
  speak for himself and somewhat control public
  opinion
• FDR press policy fit the democratic ideal of an
  informed public.

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Policy AnalysisTheodore Roosevelt

• TR Domestic Policy
• 1902, Northern Securities prosecution- sought
  strict federal regulation over private business.
• Bureau of Corporations- Provided needed
  information about structure, operations, and work
  conditions in Americas corporations.
• Bureau of Labor- Provided similar information
  about Labor and its organization.
• TR Foreign Policy
• Venezuela Crisis 1902- Acts boldly but uses great
  diplomacy in dealing with Wilhelm II
• Creation of the Panama Canal- very important for
  trade routes
• Arbitration of the Russo-Japanese War-Wins the
  Nobel Peace Prize
• Jamaica Incident of 1907 and Anglo-American
  Relations- Upholds the honor of America, while
  realizing that Anglo-American relations would be
  important in the near future.
• Role as Chief Diplomat- perhaps the first
  president to truly represent this role.
• Failures Stemmed from Several Sources
• Boasted he had dissolved a Plutocracy
• Spoke against materialism Swimming against the
  strongest tide in American Politics
• Announcement in 1904, that he would not run again
  in 1908
• Even if he intended not to run, he could have
  delayed the announcement to achieve the illusion
  of future power.

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FDR Domestic Policy Analysis

• FDR Domestic Policy
• First New Deal and First Hundred Days
• Banking Reform- Holiday is a term that comforts
  everyone Banking Holiday
• AAA and Wallaces Farm bill- aimed to deal with
  depressed prices and great surpluses.
• NIRA- Industrial recovery is key. Put people
  back to work.
• Hugh Johnson negotiates codes with major
  industries.
• It was to raise purchasing power of labor and
  elevate labor standards.
• Sources of trouble were shortage of working
  capital and demand.
• Important legacy is social and psychological
  rather than economic or political.
• Social Security Act 1935- withstood court
  purging.
• Failures Complex explanations
• Court Packing incident
• Last Republican Redoubt- 1938
• Too much control of NIRA codes was given to
  private business rather than the government.

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FDR Foreign Policy Analysis

• Isolation due to American paradigm in 1930s
• FDR Foreign Policy
• Panay Incident- FDR and nation are upset, war is
  averted due to Japans willingness to apologize.
• WWII- architect of victory for the Allied
  Nations
• Yalta- toward the end of his life, slightly
  criticized for giving too much concession to
  Stalin
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki- Truman carries out FDRs
  initiative to avoid a conditional surrender of
  Japan, and to show the world that America will be
  the new superpower.
• FDR role as Chief Diplomat He exemplified this
  traditional conception.
• Criticisms Neutrality during the 1930s,
  misjudgment in
• Nazi victories 1938-1941
• Caution toward the genocide of European Jews
• American Wartime containment of
  Japanese-Americans

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Trust Busting versus NIRA

• TR and FDR differed in their approach and
  intentions toward big-business.
• While both personally despised big business men,
  each had a different approach for dealing with
  them
• TR prosecutes Northern Securities and many other
  trusts
• His goal is government regulation and consumer
  protection at the expense of large private
  businessmen.
• FDR, in the wake of the Depression, seeks to
  revive big business
• NIRA
• He believes that involving private business in
  the grand economic scheme is a major objective to
  restore the economy.
• TR perhaps sought to regulate too much private
  business however, FDRs Hugh Johnson did not put
  enough regulation on NIRA codes and this was a
  primary cause of their failure.

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Imperialism versus Isolationism

• The mood toward foreign affairs was much
  different in TRs America than it was in FDRs
  America.
• TR in the wake of the Spanish American War
• Writings of historians affected the mood of
  people who begin to believe in American
  imperialism and a future superpower
• Frederick Jackson Turner (frontier)
• Henry Adams and Brooks Adams( Anglo-superiority)
• FDR in the wake of WWI, the corrupt 1920s, and
  the Stock Market Crash.
• National mood is centered on domestic recovery of
  the economy
• Americans sit idly and watch fascism spread over
  Europe
• Until around 1938-1939, Americans and Congress
  will hear nothing of international involvement.
• Hitler takes Europe without firing a shot
• Many see his demands as justified (Unified German
  nation and living space
• FDR knows better, but is handcuffed by Congress
  and the public opinion

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Unhealthy Adult versus Unhealthy Child

• Each mans character was strengthened by
  overcoming of physical disability.
• TRs frail, sickly youth led him to seek heroism
  in every encounter
• FDR paradoxically, was struck down by polio at
  the age of 39 and paralyzed.
• Strength of character led to a certain arrogance
  and yearn for power.
• TR became the model for masculinity with his
  bully pulpit and big stick diplomacy
• FDR led the nation through the Great Depression
  and World War II while being paralyzed from the
  waist down.
• Having become strong men, it was natural for both
  to become strong presidents and create a strong
  nation.

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Creation of the Modern Presidency

• Long history of Leadership Theory
• Plato
• Machiavelli
• Modern American Presidential Theory is made up of
  several components
• Imperial Presidency (Arthur Schlesinger)
• Especially in the twentieth century, the
  circumstances of an increasingly perilous world
  as well as of an increasingly interdependent
  economy and society seemed to compel a larger
  concentration of authority in the presidency.
• Rhetorical Presidency (Jeffrey Tulis)
• Tulis believes that beginning with Theodore
  Roosevelt, the use of rhetoric has formed a
  crucial tool for modern presidents.
• Post-Modern Presidency (Richard Rose)
• The modern presidency was created by TR and FDR
  as an active president. However, the
  post-modern president is an active president who
  can no longer dominate the international system.
  Other nations can now affect the White House.

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TR and the Modern Presidency

• Right Place and Right Time
• Period of Congressional Supremacy ending.
• The worldwide rise of New Imperialism led to a
  need for a powerful leader, capable of responding
  to a increasingly perilous world.
• Presidential pre-occupation with foreign affairs
  (George W. Bush), during times of international
  instability.
• Domestically, TR expanded the Federal Branch and
  created legislation to organize the new
  institution.
• Bully pulpit- used the presidency to achieve
  his agenda and ensured that he expanded the
  presidency so that it was capable for other
  presidents to do the same.
• Demanded that the president be responsible to the
  people, in the tradition of Andrew Jackson and
  Abraham Lincoln.

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FDR and the Modern Presidency

• Founder of the Modern American Presidency
• Wilsonian Model of party leader, and united the
  Democratic Party.
• New coalition of people who had been
  traditionally ignored.
• Introduced Pluralism in government.
• Demanding times called for pragmatism and not
  rigidity.
• Leadership became facilitative rather than
  directive.
• Press Conference and Fireside chats
• People felt as if they knew him personally.
• Followed TR as transcendent national leader
• Increased the Executive branch more than any
  other president
• President should use the Federal government to
  directly help peoples lives.
• President as the wartime leader.

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Roosevelt Presidents Created An American
Superpower

• During TRs presidency, a young industrial
  American nation flexed its muscles around the
  world.
• TR and FDR contrasted many of the traditional
  roles of the modern president, but shared one
  theme in common
• Expansive use of office and liberal use of power
• U.S. emerges from WWII as the greatest superpower
  in the world.
• Both national leaders sought to create a balance
  of power among the leading nations of the world.
• Both presidents created the modern idea that the
  United States had to play a pivotal role in
  world affairs.
• Theodore Roosevelts presidency strengthened the
  office and the nation, and it was this that
  enabled Franklin D. Roosevelt to convert an
  economic and industrial superpower into a
  political and military one also.-Al

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Conclusion

• Fortune favors the bold.- Virgil
• It is not the critic who counts . . .the credit
  belongs to the man who is actually in the arena .
  . .who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph
  of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he
  fails, atleast he fails while daring greatly so
  that his place shall never be with those cold and
  timid souls who know neither victory nor
  defeat.- Theodore Roosevelt
• . . .the only thing we have to fear, is fear
  itself.- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• TR and FDR were men who did not fear change, and
  a leader who expanded the political power of the
  presidency, and the international bargaining
  power of the United States.
• They did so operating within many similar themes,
  but contrasted their use of the traditional roles
  of the president. Though certain of their
  methods and roles may be different, their goals
  were similar
• Achieve personal political power
• Expand the role of the Presidency and Federal
  Government
• Create an International superpower.

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THE END