As the leader of a democracy, Roosevelt had to be concerned with the question of morale; the constant challenge he faced, through speeches and actions alike, was to figure out ways to sustain and strengthen the spirit of the people, without which the war could not be won. “We failed to see,” George Marshall observed after the war, commenting on the army’s opposition to the president’s plan for North Africa, “that the leader in a democracy has to keep the people entertained. That may sound like the wrong word but it conveys the thought.”
