Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

550 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
behind bars, 1 and had been elected, and was then serving, as governor
of the State of New York.
President Roosevelt had already broken the traditional twoterm
limit by running for a third term in 1940. Although many
people suspected he would run in 1944, even his closest associates
did not know for sure. Finally, on July 11, with the Democratic
convention little more than a week away ( July 19–21), he answered
the question reporters had been asking. He read to them from a
letter he had written the national chairman of the Democratic
Committee, Robert E. Hannegan: 2 “I do not want to run. . . . All
that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson
River, to avoid public responsibilities. . . . [B]ut,” he continued,
“as a good soldier, . . . I will accept and serve in this offi ce, if I am
so ordered by the Commander-in-Chief of us all—the sovereign
people of the United States.” 3 It was no surprise, therefore, that
Roosevelt was nominated on July 20 to run on the Democratic
ticket for a fourth term.
FDR was 62 years old. Although he had lost the use of his
legs in 1921 through infantile paralysis, 4 he had always been vigorous,
healthy, and resilient. By 1944, however, he was showing
the strain of almost 12 years of heavy responsibility as the wartime
commander-in-chief. He looked thin and gaunt. His doctors
insisted that he reduce his hours of work and get plenty of
rest. But FDR and his political advisers did everything they could
to make him appear well and vigorous. Roosevelt took several
1 James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: Th e Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970), p. 501.
2 Jonathan Daniels, White House Witness, 1942-1945 (Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday, 1975), p. 234; William D. Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R.,
1942–1945 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1958), pp.
260–61.
3 Letter to Robert E. Hannegan, White House release, July 10, 1944.
4 James Roosevelt and Sidney Shalett, Aff ectionately, F.D.R.: A Son’s Story of a
Lonely Man (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959), pp. 141–45.