Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
Was FDR an Alien! (You laugh, but they are currently running a series exploring the Nazi-alien connection).
I love Burns' stuff and I watched the Roosevelt series with interest.
Some lovely photos and wonderful insight into the family relationships, especially the split between the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family (with Eleanor as the tenuous connection between the two branches).
But I did have a problem with some of the perceptions of the two Roosevelt presidents. I thought the way that Teddy was depicted as a gung-ho war lover was unbalanced. He was an aggressive military-minded man, but there was another side that the series ignored -- his innate common sense. I wish they had mentioned that he could have claimed command of the Volunteer Cavalry, but he understood his lack of experience and insisted on swerving under Leonard Wood, an experienced cavalry officer.
And his conduct in Cuba was brilliant. It's always bugged me the way the "ambush" of Las Gasimaus is depicted. The Rough Riders and the 1st Cavalry and 10th Negro Cavalry (about 900 men combined) were leading the advance from Daquiri Beach to Santiago when encountered over 1,500 veteran Spanish troops in entrenched positions (with two 75 mm Krupp cannon) in the jungle. Even though they were outnumbered almost 2-to-1 and fighting veteran troops armed with better weapons (1892 Mausers with smokeless powder), in a two-hour fight, the Americans maneuvered the Cuban force out of its entrenchments and backwards in headlong retreat. The US forced suffered minimal casualties -- eight killed and 18 wounded.
It was a splendid tactical performance and TR's wing of the Rough Riders had much to do with the success (although Leonard Wood was actually in command).
Two days later, the US Army's attack on the Spanish defenses around San Juan Hill were hung up by the regular army's inability to take the fortified village of El Caney. Roosevelt, by now the commander of the Rough Riders (Wood promoted to replace ailing Joe Wheeler as overall commander of all cavalry units), broke the stalemate by ordering the assault on Kettle Hill. Helped by the 10th Negro Cavalry, they cracked the Spanish line and evoked the British Army's official observer to remark: "Magnificent ... but they can't take it." Obviously, they did.
My point is that Teddy Roosevelt might have been aggressive, but he was always in control. I just think the portrait presented in the series was a bit one-sided.
As for FDR, new research is emerging that expands his role in shaping America's military strategy in WWII -- often in the face of vociferous opposition from his top military brass -- Marshall and King.
He was certainly right -- and Marshall (who threatened to resign over the issue) -- to insist on the North African invasion in the fall over '42. And his role in guiding a reluctant American populace into preparing for the war he know was coming is only now being really appreciated. Sept. 1, 1939 to Dec. 7, 1941 was clearly his finest hour.
I don't think the Burns series did him justice for that contribution.