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The New Dealers' War: F.D.R. and the War Within World War II

Thomas Fleming

4.01 · Rating details · 162 ratings · 19 reviews

Acclaimed historian Thomas Fleming brings to life the flawed and troubled FDR who struggled to manage WWII. Starting with the leak to the press of Roosevelt's famous Rainbow Plan, then spiraling back to FDR's inept prewar diplomacy with Japan, and his various attempts to lure Japan into an attack on the U.S. Fleet in the Pacific, Fleming takes the reader inside the incredi ...more

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Hardcover, 628 pages

Published April 5th 2001 by Basic Books (first published 2001)

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Jan 25, 2015 Kevin Cole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Life's a lot easier when you take it for granted that professional politicians - even those whose policy positions you agree with - only care about two things: getting elected and staying elected. This book reveals how politicians operate behind the rhetoric, led by the master Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The fact that many today still idolize FDR speaks to the lasting achievement of his talent. Did Roosevelt have convictions and sentiments? Of course. Did he let such get in the way of his being P Life's a lot easier when you take it for granted that professional politicians - even those whose policy positions you agree with - only care about two things: getting elected and staying elected. This book reveals how politicians operate behind the rhetoric, led by the master Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The fact that many today still idolize FDR speaks to the lasting achievement of his talent. Did Roosevelt have convictions and sentiments? Of course. Did he let such get in the way of his being President for what was meant to be a 16-year reign? Of course not.

Once again, Thomas Fleming, with angry disappointment, tears into the people who were once his heroes: President Franklin Roosevelt and the men who invented the New Deal; specifically, FDR's third and fourth administrations during World War II. The title of this book should've been The War Within the War. Not once in my public school and university education was I told that politics during the war was like politics today: cutthroat and dirty. I'd always had the impression that the country was more or less united during that momentous time. Nope.

FDR was first elected in 1932 after years of Republican government that only seemed to bring about the Great Depression. The New Deal was sold as the liberal cure for the conservative disease: more government cleaning up what less government wrought. A whirlwind of programs, bureaucracies, and laws were put into play. Some survived, some didn't, but the popular perception was that FDR was trying, and the American people voted him back into power in 1936 in a landslide.

It was during this second administration that things started to go wrong. For one thing, FDR and the New Dealers, flush with success, turned arrogant. They attempted to neuter the opposition through questionable methods, alienating not just Republicans but a growing number of Democrats. Also, the so-called "Depression within the Depression," which occurred in 1937 despite all the New Deal's labors, put a bad taste in voters' mouths. The Democrats would retain their majority in the Federal government for the remainder of FDR's life, but the liberal wing of the party was increasingly pushed aside.

Roosevelt received a third mandate in 1940 by doing what his mentor, Woodrow Wilson, did in 1916: promising Americans he wouldn't involve the U.S. in World War II. FDR was the first politician to take polls seriously, and though he wanted - badly - for America to enter the war on the side of the Allies, up to 80% of the people wanted nothing to do with another European war. Pearl Harbor solved that problem for him.

This history then goes on to ask some interesting questions about FDR's conduct as Commander in Chief:

1.) Did the U.S. provoke Japan?
2.) Was it necessary to intern Japanese-Americans?
3.) Why did the U.S. insist on unconditional surrender on the part of the Germans and Japanese?
4.) What were FDR's original plans for a defeated Germany?
5.) Could the Soviet Union be trusted?
6.) Why did the U.S. nuke Japan?

The answers are not likely to please someone who again taught a rosier history of this period in school. I was fortunate to have already learned about this stuff by independent research conducted by the great British historian Laurence Rees. Though World War II is called the "Good War" because there were undeniable villains at play, does this mean the heroes were angels? And if they weren't, does it matter?

Many people think focusing on the negative in history comes at the cost of forgetting or ignoring the positive. But I think people today, 60 years after the war, are in a position to do neither. Enough time has passed to look at the history - all of it - and make new judgments.

Again Fleming writes with simplicity and vigor, like a boxer whose opponent is no match for him. ...more

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May 18, 2020 Arminius rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: presidents, history

The New Dealers War is an interesting book on the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). FDR ran against Herbert Hoover. He laid blame at the man he once had complimented. FDR’s plan to defeat the Depression was to through programs at it. Today a number of New Deal programs (as they were named) exist. These include the Federal Deposit Insurance (FDIC) which insures deposits of your money in the bank for up to $250.00. Also, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Fannie Mae's pur The New Dealers War is an interesting book on the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). FDR ran against Herbert Hoover. He laid blame at the man he once had complimented. FDR’s plan to defeat the Depression was to through programs at it. Today a number of New Deal programs (as they were named) exist. These include the Federal Deposit Insurance (FDIC) which insures deposits of your money in the bank for up to $250.00. Also, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Fannie Mae's purpose was to purchase loans from private lenders, freeing up capital so those lenders could fund new loans. In addition, National Labor Relations Board, it was create a new agency dedicated to enforcing employee rights. Securities and Exchange Commission was another surviving New Deal program. The main goal of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was to restore consumer confidence in the securities markets. The law established the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate and oversee brokerage firms, stock exchanges, and other agents. The Social Security Act is the most known New Deal program. The U.S. government established an agency to register citizens for benefits, to collect taxes on both employers and employees to fund the benefits, and to distribute those funds to beneficiaries. Social Security helped not only the elderly, but also the blind, the unemployed, and dependent children by giving money to these groups. The final one is the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Tennessee Valley Authority still provides power to 10 million people in seven states and oversees a combination of hydroelectric, coal-fired, and nuclear power plants.

While they are lasting successes he also had problems with the Supreme Court. They struck down two big programs the National Relief Act (NRA) and the Agricultural reform Act (AAA) as unconstitutional. In fact, a total of 24 programs were deemed unconstitutional.
In 1940, FDR ran for a third term. He defeated Wendell Willkie, however more Republicans come into the congress and they started to dismantle many of the New Deal programs. The most punishing of FDR’s programs was the issuing of an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000. Congress rescinded this. Congress also abolished the Civilian Conservation Core and the Works Progress Administration.
While he was getting his New Deal policies demolished. He was running our War effort against Germany and Japan. There is very suspect reasons for us getting into a War with Japan. It appears we provoked Japan into attacking us so we could get into the War with Germany.
The War with Japan went horribly wrong for the US at the beginning.
Japanese landed near Singapore and entered Thailand, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and also seized Guam. The Japanese also had invaded Burma, Hong Kong, and Luzon in the Philippines. The British lost at Borneo. General Douglas MacArthur had to withdraw from Manila to Bataan; Japanese took Wake Island. The British surrendered at Hong Kong. Manila was declared an open city however the Japanese had bombed Manila. We eventually take control of the War. Or superior Military leadership won the war for us despite FDR’s meddling.
As 1943 approached FDR was getting sickly looking. He ran for reelection in 1944. He managed to win the nomination however the Democratic Leaders didn’t want Henry Wallace, due to his controversial Liberal politics, to be President after FDR’s impending death. So they made FDR take Harry Truman as his Vice president.

FDR had practically ignored Truman when he was Vice President.
In a sly deceiving way, he made sure nobody criticized the Soviet Union. Despite the Soviet Union taking over the Baltic States, Romania and Yugoslavia. Plus murdering 10,000 Poles. He kept these acts secret apparently wishing for a Soviet attack on Japan to happen.

Another blunder he made was he insisted unconditional surrender from Germany. High ranking Germans tried to negotiate with the United States and the President. The unconditional surrender had made the Germans fight harder because they would lose everything to the conquering nations if they accepted an unconditional surrender. This act was responsible for 80,000 deaths that could have been averted. He apparently had a hatred for the Germans and a love affair with the Russians.
Finally FDR died on April 12, 1945. Harry Truman took over and he had to make enormous decisions. The Japanese refusal to surrender caused Harry Truman to use, our greatest new weapon the atomic bomb, on Japan. On August 6, 1945 the plane the Enola Gay left the Mariana Islands and headed to Japan then dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. Devastation occurred. Temperatures reached 5400 degrees Fahrenheit. Human bodies were burnt to char and stuck to the streets. In the Six mile circumference anyone who stood outside died instantly. Over the next 5 years 60,000 victims died due to radiation poison. In total 145,000 people were estimated to have died as a result of the Atomic Bomb. On August 10 another atomic bomb was dealt to Nagasaki delivering the same devastating result as Hiroshima did.

In the last chapter Thomas Fleming, the author, spells out FDR’s dismissal performance in the presidency. First, FDR concealed his intention to go to War then what became what is known as the Rainbow Five emerged in the papers. It was FDR’s War plans which included sending 5 million soldiers to fight Germany. Second, his provocative policies had lured Japan into attacking us. In fact. FDR is quoted as saying “I know they were going to hit us but I wasn’t suspecting it would be so hard. Third, FDR’s policy of unconditional surrender caused legitimized, terror bombings of civilians and the use of the atomic bomb. Fourth, he ignored the plight of the Jewish extermination attempts made by Adolph Hitler. Fourth, he is love affair with the Soviets coupled by his hatred of Germany. And finally, running a 4th time for the presidency when his health was failing miserably.
...more

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Dec 17, 2017 Charlene Mathe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It took me ten hours or so to read this book, and I pretty much read it straight through. Thomas Fleming's narrative is vivid and engaging, like a story teller. But you will learn more history than from reading a similar length textbook (561 pages+35 pages of notes AND an excellent index). Fleming engages you with the character, counselors, dilemmas and politics of War President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Never an FDR fan, these pages gave me a greater appreciation of his challenges and strengths, It took me ten hours or so to read this book, and I pretty much read it straight through. Thomas Fleming's narrative is vivid and engaging, like a story teller. But you will learn more history than from reading a similar length textbook (561 pages+35 pages of notes AND an excellent index). Fleming engages you with the character, counselors, dilemmas and politics of War President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Never an FDR fan, these pages gave me a greater appreciation of his challenges and strengths, even while it exposed some of his outrages.
Some of the takeaways:
* FDR was more gravely ill than history has appreciated; for extended periods limited to 20 work hours a week. For years, his personal doctor misdiagnosed congestive heart failure as bronchitis.
* Did FDR know about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance? Fleming makes the case that FDR baited Japan to make a first strike, expecting an attack in IndoChina not Pearl Harbor-- "to be hit, but not hurt." Lacking national support for military intervention on behalf of Britain, FDR calculated that Hitler could be goaded into declaring war on America. Baiting Japan into declaring war was step One in FDR's strategy to get America behind the war. Step Two: FDR leaked the "Rainbow Five" war plans that proposed America could not mobilize a war effort until 1943. As FDR expected, Hitler concluded from the leaked plans that he should challenge America before the projected readiness in 1943.
* America was catastrophically unprepared for war. Most of her war planes had been destroyed by Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. Troops suffered major losses in the field that were concealed from the nation.
* FDR's policy of "Unconditional Surrender" may have extended the war on both fronts. Unconditional surrender and "morale bombing" of civilian targets increased the resistance of defeated populations. He refused repeated overtures from German generals seeking to overthrow the Third Reich, and resisted surrender initiatives from Japan that were qualified by retention of the emperor.
* America's bureaucracies were infested with Communist agents, including FDR's closest aid, Harry Hopkins; senior administrative assistant to the president Lauchlin Currie; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White; Office of Strategic Services personal assistant to the director Duncan Chapman Lee; and State Department Office of Special Political Affairs agent Alger Hiss, who accompanied FDR to the critical Yalta conference. Venona transcripts identified 329 Soviet agents inside the U.S. government during WWII, while America and Britain "did not have a single agent in Moscow."
* Most shocking to me was that FDR denied the evidence of his own eyes--pictures and eye witness reports--proving thousands of Polish military officers buried in the Katyn Forest were the victims of an exceptionally cruel massacre at the hands of the Red Army. Waiving off this evidence, FDR handed the Polish people over to Uncle Joe Stalin, along with all the rest of Eastern Europe. FDR was confident that he could charm and manage Stalin; but it was Uncle Joe who played FDR (not Churchill, who was frozen out of the negotiations). It was Stalin who set Tehran and Yalta for the two Allied conferences. Both locations were an enormous challenge for the ailing FDR to travel, and demonstrated that Stalin was calling the shots.
* How did Harry Truman get on the Democrat ticket as FDR's running mate, rather than the incumbent Henry Wallace? Why did FDR leave Truman out of the loop of information pertinent to the Oval Office?? How did Truman handle the challenges of office and transition to peacetime economy?
Fleming's vivid portrayals of White House personalities and politics in the FDR era, the information and disinformation provided the public, and the complexities of government for the powerful and for the people, provoke an appreciation of the events, players and politics of our own time. The book will make you think, and probably make you think a little differently in some cases. ...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Jeff Raymond rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-nonfiction, all-time-favorites, books-i-own, read-history

I was more than happy to go along with the “historical consensus” that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a good (great?) President. I honestly cannot remember who told me to read this specific book, but it really rocked by world and introduced a whole new level of skepticism of, well, everything in my life. Today, between this book and Amity Shales’s The Forgotten Man, there’s really no excuse left for FDR worship, and that the case isn’t closed on it at this point (especially post-stimulus), well…

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May 19, 2011 Kevin O'Keeffe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is probably one of the most important books on both U.S. history, and the western Allied role within the Second World War, ever to be written. Many books claim to demonstrate that the execrable war criminal, Frank Roosevelt, was a traitor who permitted the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor, in order to generate public enthusiasm for a formal U.S. entry into the Second World War (whether motivated by some weird, ideological fixation on an anti-fascist worldview, a more perfidious desire to impos ...more

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Apr 28, 2009 Heath rated it it was ok · review of another edition

An hysterical demonization of FDR. Very interesting and closely researched, but also unrelentingly biased and relies on a great deal of titillating hearsay, after stating explicitly in the Prologue that he wishes to 'liberate history from memory'. Entertaining precisely in the respects that it is *not* a history: hearsay and anecdotes are fun, but Fleming's analyses derived therefrom are inconsistent, illogical, deeply biased, and betray a number of assumtions about right/left, capitalism, etc. ...more

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Nov 02, 2018 Patrick rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: history-politics

What is intended as a critical review of the Roosevelt Administration immediately before and during WW2 loses much of its integrity due to the author’s implacable desire to make us all understand that FDR and everyone associated with him was absolutely, completely, and totally wrong about absolutely everything. Anything critical of FDR is accepted as Gospel; any defense is shrugged off. The few times FDR is grudgingly acknowledged to have been right read like they were added later at the editor’ ...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Sean Rosenthal rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-stars, non-fiction, amer-hist-syllabus, history, int-l-relations, over-500-pages, great-depression-fdr

Interesting Quotes:

"As the Japanese slowly realized that they were not going to get any oil [after America's covert oil embargo of Japan beginning August 1941], Tokyo's hard-liners argued that this was proof that the Americans were trying to humiliate them. They began planning to use their military power to get oil--and much more. It is hard to believe that Roosevelt, if he was reading the Purple intercepts, did not see war as an inevitable outcome of this covert policy."

-Thomas Fleming, the Ne ...more

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Nov 17, 2019 Tim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a really great book that covers everything I thought I knew about FDR and so much more. Mr. Fleming digs deep to find clear evidence of the war mongering waged by the New Dealers of the day. It is incredible to think what could have been if the seeking of an "unconditional surrender" was not done. A terrible shame and history should really not be so kind to FDR and his ilk. ...more

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Nov 28, 2018 ELB rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-11, political, 2000s

One of the best books I have read, “The New Dealers War” by Thomas Fleming. I would also recommend the following books: "The Forgotten Man," by Amity Shlaes, "The Secret Betrayal 1944*1947," by Nikolai Tolstoy, "New Deal or Raw Deal," by Burton Folsom, Jr, "FDR's Folly," by Jim Powell, "Freedom Betrayed," by Herbert Hoover, "Operation Snow," by John Koster, and "THE VENONA SECRETS," by Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel.

From this book some of the main points are:

When Roosevelt ran for his th ...more

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Apr 24, 2021 Mathieu Gaudreault rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really great book.

Shows how FDR lured the USA in ww2, was naive to the soviets not by being communist but in his foolish attitude that his personal charm could "get at" Stalin and the soviets infiltration of the US goverment like Alger Hiss and Dexter White.

The pages about the physical detoriation of FDR is gripping and we see how FDR unconditional surrender policies affected for the worst the post war situation. Also this book show that Harry Truman was an under appreciated and realistic POTUS ...more

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Oct 31, 2019 Carrie Laben rated it it was ok · review of another edition

It's appropriate to not want to canonize FDR - the fact he was president by itself shows that he was no saint - but the author here tilts to the other side a bit, straining at gnats and swallowing camels in the course of putting FDR's often ambiguous actions in the worst light. In addition, time has revealed that whatever else he may have been Roosevelt was by-and-large right in his mistrust of the American businessman as a moral and political force, making some of Fleming's objections to the Ne ...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Tomi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Excellent book on the problems FDR faced regarding his domestic policies as well as the issue of WWII. I am quite convinced that “unconditional surrender” was a bad idea. I have never been a big FDR fan, and this book gave me more reasons to dislike him.

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Mar 15, 2013 Erskine rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

My opinion of this book was very mixed. On the one hand, I thought Fleming put forth a number of valid criticisms of FDR, and his handling of WWII. The most telling, imo, was FDR's failure to understand the nature of Stalin and the Soviet Union, that they were our enemy every bit as much as Nazi Germany.

Fleming failed to convince me, however, that FDR was somehow responsible for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, nor was I convinced that it was a mistake to insist on the unconditional surrend ...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-had-to-read-for-class, history

Fleming's book on FDR and the New Dealers covers a wide variety of topics and hits on many interesting details about the New Dealers. A great read that digs in depth into the fight during the fight that most people overlook and/or overlooked. An easy read for a biography/historical novel. Anyone interested in FDR should read this novel. ...more

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Sep 15, 2013 Dave rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The final chapter titled Ashes of Victory where the author draws countless erroneous conclusions drags this book down to 4-stars. Otherwise it is an interesting account of the oft chaotic, cynically dysfunctional and sycophantic world of FDR.

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Apr 23, 2008 Alec Gray rated it liked it · review of another edition

An overview of the FDR administration and how it got the US into and prosecuted the world war. Very interesting to re-visit that time to see how divided the country was about war, and how we now use WWII as the great patriotic venture while ignoring its context.

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Feb 12, 2008 Mark added it

This is one of a number of books that seek to prove that FDR put the fleet at Pearl to bait the Japanese. This book gives more background on his decision than the others.

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Mar 09, 2009 Rose added it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-non-fiction

973.91 Fle

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About Thomas Fleming

Thomas Fleming

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Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Thomas James Fleming was an historian and historical novelist, with a special interest in the American Revolution. He was born in 1927 in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of a World War I hero who was a leader in Jersey City politics for three decades. Before her marriage, his mother, Katherine Dolan Fleming, was ...more