On 21 Jun 2004 18:34:24 GMT, ost (Chris Mark) wrote:

FDR also called Europe an incubator of wars, and it was one of his major
postwar policy goals to see that Europe was permanently disarmed.

He bore a particular animus toward France. Sometimes it seems that his
principal object in a postwar Asia was to ensure that France would
never return to Indochina. (Too bad he didn't succeed!)

Britain was a tougher nut, given that it was in reality America's only
friend in the world with any potential for carrying a load (rather
like today). Roosevelt was equally skeptical about the British
empire, but he choked it down for the sake of Churchill.

As for Roosevelt's genius at coalition building, recall that it was
the cause of the Cold War that bedevilled the administrations of
Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and
Reagan ... did I leve anyone out? Roosevelt was so afraid that Russia
would make a separate peace with Germany that he handed over half of
Europe to Stalin.

It is easy to romanticize the leaders of the past, now that their
blunderings have been frozen into history.

I happen to be reading William Manchester's account of Tarawa atoll.
When the marines went ashore at Betio, it was a typical battalion that
lost half its men. Altogether, for that bit of coral, America gave up
more than three thousand of its sons.

all the best -- Dan Ford
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