Los Angeles Times correspondent Shogan argues that FDR negotiated
harshly and covertly with a beleaguered Winston Churchill in the
celebrated 1940 deal that marked the commencement of Anglo-American
cooperation in WW II. The story's outline is well-known: While
England was fighting for survival in the Battle of Britain,
President Roosevelt braved isolationist sentiment to trade a
handful of old destroyers (badly needed by the Royal Navy to
counter the German U-boat onslaught) for American bases in British
colonies. The deal laid the foundation for the Atlantic Alliance
that ultimately won the war against Hitler. In this careful,
step-by-step review of the negotiations leading to the accord,
Shogan argues that "in implementing the destroyer deal, Roosevelt
followed a pattern of manipulation and concealment" that breached
his trust as president. The author also contends that Roosevelt's
pursuit of a policy he knew to be unacceptable to the isolationist
American public and contrary to the Walsh Amendment, which
restricted transfers of military materiel abroad, set a precedent
for the postwar buildup of excessive presidential power. Shogan
(The Riddle of Power, 1991, etc.) draws a convincing portrait of a
chief executive determined on the one hand to get the best bargain
he could for the United States (without excessive regard for legal
niceties) and on the other to help Britain while avoiding any overt
entanglement with the war effort during a crucial election year. In
the end, as Shogan points out, Roosevelt presented Congress with a
fait accompli. The author might have noted the emergency nature of
Britain's plight, however, and the fact that other presidents,
including Abraham Lincoln, took actions of similarly questionable
legality during national crises. A detailed and absorbing analysis,
although not all readers will agree with Shogan's critical view of
FDR's actions and his tracing of modern presidential abuses to the
destroyers-for-bases accord. (Kirkus Reviews)
With "Hard Bargain," Robert Shogan offers an account of one of
World War II's most dramatic chapters--the story of how Franklin D.
Roosevelt secretly brokered a deal to provide the destroyers
Winston Churchill needed to save Britain from destruction. At the
center of the momentous events of 1940 are two extraordinary
leaders: Churchill, the forthright pragmatist, and Roosevelt, the
suave politician. As Hitler's war machine threatened to starve
England into submission, these two men initiated a complex
negotiation that would shatter all precedents for conducting
foreign policy. FDR yearned to enter the war, but was handcuffed by
domestic politics. Churchill had to plead for American intervention
at a time when the United States was intensely isolationist.
Drawing on archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Shogan
masterfully recreates the President's maneuvers as FDR stepped
around the Constitution in order to clinch the deal, a move that
has had repercussions from Korea to the Persian Gulf.
General
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