Franklin Roosevelt | Mr. D's Neighborhood

Tag Archives: Franklin Roosevelt

August 8, 2010 · 1:08 pm

Movies for the Classroom: Decisions that Shook the World

“My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.” ~ George Washington

As many here in the Neighborhood are aware, I am not a huge fan of the policies of President Obama.

However, I do appreciate the difficulties he faces in making decisions that carry far-reaching consequences. As the above quote suggests, George Washington, our first President, understood this far too well.

In fact, nearly every President since Washington has reached that point: the place where you cannot delegate any more authority, you cannot “pass the buck” any further to a lower-ranking peon. The President, and only the President, has to make the decision–and people will be unhappy one way or another.

There’s no certainty that the decision he made was the right one. It may be many years before that decision is vindicated or villified. Few people can make such leaps in the dark without some sort of mental or emotional breakdown, yet we expect nothing less from our Chief Executives.

I thought about this as I stumbled upon this StarzFilms documentary made in 2004. Decisions that Shook the World discusses three Presidents who reached a moment of action. First, Lyndon Johnson, an accidental President thanks to a tragic assassination in 1963, makes a decision to support a Civil Rights bill, even though it meant alienating most of his white Southern base of support.

Second, Ronald Reagan steadfastly supported a “Star Wars”-like missile defensive program called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), even when a Democratic Congress howled at the expense and pundits rolled their eyes at the folly of such a “fantastic” program.

Lastly, Franklin Roosevelt, in the midst of an economic depression in his own country, decides to provide Great Britain with arms and materials before our entry into World War II. This was at a time when many Americans thought the United States should maintain its neutrality from what seemed to be a mostly European affair.

In each instance, the consequences were felt long after the decision was made. Johnson, as it turned out, made the right decision on civil rights–albeit the wrong one when it came to Vietnam. Reagan’s solid approach to anti-Communism helped ensure that the Cold War would end. However, “Star Wars” opened up the floodgates for massive spending from the Pentagon that we still cannot control. Roosevelt’s actions kept Britain going until we did enter the war. Yet the war we initially entered was in the Pacific, with the European war, in the beginning, as an afterthought.

The documentary works well as an episodic series to use piecemeal in classrooms. It works well with creating “case study” scenarios where students can make executive decisions using the same information available at the White House at the time.

Finally, I hope the film will get students to appreciate the extraordinarily difficult position that the President has. He has the toughest job in the world, and it gets harder with every passing administration.

This day in History 6/22: The 1944 GI Bill

It can safely be said that modern American culture began on June 22, 1944.

On that date, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law P.L. 78-346, or the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights or simply the GI Bill. This massive program, more than any other program save the interstate highway system, would shape and define postwar America.

The bill was begun under the shadow of tragedy. In 1932, during the height of the Great Depression, thousands of World War I veterans marched on Washington, demanding bonuses promised to them by the government at war’s end. The “Bonus Army” was brutally suppressed by US cavalry units—a shameful episode that Roosevelt’s cabinet did not want repeated after the next conflict.

It was important for a nation as militarized as the United States during World War II to readjust to a civilian economy as quickly and painlessly as possible. Furthermore, returning veterans needed, if not deserved, government support in the often brutal readjustment to civilian life.

The 1944 bill contained three important programs. The most famous of these was its education program: the initial bill allowed returning servicemen access to a college or vocational education at no cost. It is estimated that by 1956 (the year the 1944 bill expired) almost 8 million veterans, 51% of all returning service personnel, took advantage of education or training programs subsidized by Washington.

For many returning soldiers, it was the first, and only chance, to get a college or university education. This led to an academic flowering in postwar America, creating some of the most important minds at our service. Engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, politicians, judges, and even actors and directors were created thanks to the largesse of the GI Bill.

(An important note, the 1944 bill provided that the government reimburse colleges directly. This led to universities hiking tuition bills to Washington, widely perceived as tuition fraud. Since 1952, the education program consists of stipends paid directly to veterans for their expenses.)

Notable GI Bill beneficiaries included Johnny Carson, Johnny Cash, Bill Cosby, Bob Dole, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gene Hackman, Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer, Frank McCourt, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Tito Puente, Rod Steiger, James Wright, and even former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

If the first provision provided the “glamour” of the bill, the second would broaden its influence to every family in America. Returning veterans were entitled to low-interest, zero-down payment loans for homes and businesses—an unthinkable prospect today considering the cause of our current economic woes. For the first time, veterans can buy a home for their families and start businesses with help from Uncle Sam. From 1944 to 1956, 2.4 million veterans had home loans backed by the Veterans Authority (later Veterans Administration, or VA) Though many factors contributed to it, the rise of the suburbs as a middle-class bastion can be directly attributed to these programs created by the GI Bill.

The last provision is notable not for its use, but for its lack of use. Known as the 50-20 clause, the third provision provided servicemen with $20 once a week for 52 weeks a year while they were looking for work. Remarkably, less than 20 percent of returning servicemen opted for this program, as most already found employment or used their GI benefits in higher education.

Today few areas of American life aren’t touched by individuals who benefitted from the GI Bill—even though many servicemen and women today do not take full advantage of this opportunity.

Subsequent expansion of veterans’ benefits were enacted in 1952, 1966, 1984, and 2008. Korean War and Vietnam veterans made even more use of their GI benefits: roughly 72% of Vietnam vets used education benefits under the GI Bill. From 1940 until the end of the military draft in 1973, as many as one third of the population (when both veterans and their dependents are taken into account) could potentially have benefited from the programs created by the expansion of veterans’ benefits.

In 2008, Congress enacted a Post 9/11 GI Bill designed for veterans serving after September 11, 2001. The new program greatly expanded previous endeavors, especially in regards to education. It provides free education to any public college in the state that a veteran resides. Furthermore, housing stipends and $1000 yearly allowances for books are available, among other benefits.

Even for a fiscal conservative like me, the GI Bill was, and continues to be, an important element not just for American education and economics, but also as a measure of our values. Many naysayers simply don’t see this.

Some opponents of these bills use the same argument for welfare reform. Handouts induce indolence, laziness, and dependence on government benefits. Programs should be designed for a “hand-up”, not a “handout.” If this were other populations, I would agree to an extent.

This is not any other population. Veterans, especially those who’ve seen heavy combat, are not bums on the street looking for spare change. Believe me, they worked for those benefits.

For centuries, the battlefield soldier was cannon fodder, often literally. After the smoke cleared and the army disbanded, a veteran had no options other than to pick up the pieces of his life. Often, the long absence and horrors of combat were so unbearable that a former soldier could never function in society as he did before—and no one was there to help.

Yet here, we saw things differently. I have yet to see another country devote so much of its public funds to the support and readjustment of its former defenders.

The United States, for better or worse, is a country derived from the blood of its veterans. It was borne in the fires of the Revolution. It was baptized in the slaughter of the Civil War. It achieved manhood on the battlefields of two world wars. It suffered, often needlessly, in far-flung places such as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

The GI Bill, and its subsequent revisions, was a remarkable step in our history. It spurred generations towards a remarkable transformation from militarism to domestic tranquility. Even more importantly, it demonstrated that our soldiers will never simply be considered fodder for enemy guns.

A soldier, thanks to the GI Bill, can serve his/her country just as much in peace as they can in war.

For today’s veterans, take a look at the Veterans Administration’s website about the GI Bill for further information about benefits and applying.