Friday, April 25, 2008

FDR

One thing that this class has kind of shed light on, for me, is the fact that, as Strauss mentioned, you either loved or hated FDR as a President.  We've talked about the possibility that he was naive about the Soviets, and other things.

For me, I wonder what the exact motivations were for not having Truman in the loop at all for any of the actions taking place near the end.  I realize that no one really expected Roosevelt to die, but considering his position coupled with the notion that he was, in fact, sick, what was the deal?  Were there negative implications of having Truman more in the loop?

1 comment:

Keir said...

I think you should consider just how little time there had been between Truman starting as VP and FDR's death. Byrnes had been the man until suddenly treplaced. I think Truman had just over 80 days. During that time FDR (by then desperately ill) had to make the gruelling trip to Yalta (it took him 10 hours by car to arrive at the Conference centre from the aeroport I think) and wonder what the heck was going to happen with the imminent collapse of Germany after the palaver over Morgenthau's plan broke out.
To be honest, especially as I'm enjoying Michael Bescloss's 'The Conquerors'), my view is that that is simply more to do with FDR's terrible management than any personal disregard towards Truman.