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The Roosevelt Myth

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This book is must reading for those who favor Constitutional government and who know instinctively that FDR began the systematic destruction of the American free enterprise system. The book fills in the details of what exactly FDR did that subverted the Constitution. Examples: His administration told the public that the free enterprise system couldn't produce enough to feed America at even a bare subsistence level-then proceeded to spend $700 million over a two year period to destroy crops and livestock to raise agricultural prices. He oversaw the creation of the National Industrial Recovery Association, which organized various industries into collectives free to fix prices and arrest those who didn't go along (in one instance, a tailor was arrested for charging 35 cents to hem a pair of pants instead of the guild mandated minimum of 40 cents). FDR got around the legislative process of lawmaking by creating agencies which then received appropriations without Congressional approval; these agencies then created their own regulations and enforcement branches. FDR created dozens of "social welfare" programs which he himself admitted were "narcotic." And despite the popular perception that FDR "ended the depression" there were just as many people unemployed and just as many people on the dole in 1939 as there were in 1932 when FDR was first elected. In short, FDR was skilled at getting elected, but not at leading (anyone could get elected 4 times if they stood on the street giving away $100 bills; the catch is that FDR didn't tell the public that their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. would be the ones paying for it). And of course there was FDR's biggest debacle: the Social Security program, the biggest pyramid scheme of all time. It's important to note that this book was written by a contemporary of FDR and not by some publicity hound. John T. Flynn had been a respected writer for years before he wrote this book and has also written other important books. WARNING: Because of the decades long propaganda by the mass media, there are many who place FDR in equal esteem with Jesus Christ. Be prepared for temper tantrums, emotional outbursts, and insults directed at you if you discuss this book.

"The American politician, without troubling his pragmatic mind with the meaning of words, has discovered socialism- and embraced it- not as a great system of social organization, but as a wondrous machine for the purpose of buying votes." - John T. Flynn

In 1997, in that excellent newsletter of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, *The Free Market*, one of my favorite historians, Robert Higgs, published a brilliant article entitled *No More "Great Presidents"*, in which he reviewed the results of a poll of thirty historians asked to rank America's presidents on a scale of "failure" to "great". Among the select three who were thought to deserve the accolade "great" was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

And this is not merely the consensus of the liberal historians in academia, who, as Higgs remarked, "worship political power, and idolize those who wield it most lavishly in the service of left-liberal causes". As John T. Flynn explains, Americans generally tend to see FDR as a "noble, gentle, selfless, hard-headed, wise and farseeing combination of philosopher, philanthropist and warrior" who "performed some amazing feat of regeneration for this country". They perceive him as the providential knight in shining armour who saved America from that evil spawn of unbridled capitalism, the Great Depression, and the world itself from that dark and alien evil from Europe, nazism.

I for one never fell for the Roosevelt myth. By the time I knew what he did, I had enough moral, political and economic common sense not to feel the slightest admiration for him. To be frank, I have always considered him the worst American president ever. So when I started Flynn's *The Roosevelt Myth*, I did not expect to have any illusions of mine destroyed.

The book did change my perception of Roosevelt though. I had always assumed he had been some evil genius who destroyed the Constitutional basis of freedom in America in a conscious, calculating and utterly insidious way. I saw him as some malignant mastermind who had thoroughly bluffed a gullible American citizenry and robbed them of liberties which they were too unintellectual (or, alternatively, too intellectually corrupt) really to understand and cherish. In other words, I perceived Roosevelt as an Ellsworth Toohey, when he was closer to a James Taggart.

True, Roosevelt was a power luster. As Flynn explains, he was a pure politician, if you define politics as the art of winning votes. But this is all he was. In this lay all his intelligence. In all other matters, except perhaps maritime history, he was just a snobbish dilettante, completely unread and devoid of curiosity. His knowlege of economics and political science was "a total blank". He was nothing but a small, shallow man whose naïveté, ignorance, overconfidence in his own charm and complete lack of principles made him a mere puppet in the hands of the reds and pinks who swarmed in his office or interacted with him on the international scene.

That he was corrupt to the bone, there is no doubt: he was corrupt to a degree I thought had only characterized the White House since the Kennedy administration. But he was politically evil only by default, because of his ineffectiveness, his blindness, his vanity, his fatuousness, his lust for power and public adulation. All the evil I saw in him while studying his speeches did not originate in him, for they were all ghostwritten: he was only lending his "golden voice" to the string pullers in his administration, the actual "thinkers" of the New Deal, the genuine Tooheys.

*The Roosevelt Myth* is not a well-structured book. It is not chronological, it does tend to repeat itself, and it may be a bit confusing for someone who is not familiar with the broad outlines of the New Deal to begin with, as it is very detailed and swarms with minor figures. But it is an important book, the work of a first-rate journalist who examined tons of material on the President and his accomplices, some of whom he personally interviewed, and reached his conclusion based on a thorough, uncompromising examination of the record.

Prefaced by Ralph Raico, published by that generally excellent editor, Fox & Wilkes, *The Roosevelt Myth* has been corroborated by independent scholars (Raico mentions Robert Nisbet's *Roosevelt and Stalin: The Failed Courtship* as further reading) and is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding this watershed era and the man who best symbolizes it.

Like most Americans, I considered Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to have been a decent and intelligent leader. If nothing else, I believed him to be a force for shaping American attitudes in a positive way when an attitude of optimism was needed most - during the Great Depression.

I will admit that I never much cared for his fathering of Big Government and the Nanny State, but I wasn't particularly offended by the accolades bestowed upon him by history. But this book has completely changed the basis for that viewpoint. History has indeed treated FDR well - too well in fact. FDR may have started out with good intentions but he quickly became corrupt and drunk with power.

He did nothing of substance to pull America out of the Great Depression (the economics of war did that). Instead, FDR allowed himself to be shaped by the experiments of the social engineers and consequently tried to re-create America's economic and political infrastructure (without any constitutional justification).

FDR attacked the very system he was supposed to be reviving (not replacing) - the free-market economy. With the direction of Keynesian "intellectuals," he tried to replace capitalism with a planned socialist economy. Fortunately, war and his death did what the electorate would not - halt the onslaught against American institutions that had served to promote this country's success and prosperity for 140 years. What should have been a repair job turned into an attempt to uproot and replace the entire system!

Then there were the foreign policy debacles, not the least of which was FDR's responsibility in allowing the Pearl Harbor attack to proceed despite full knowledge of its eminence. Then there is the war that America won but had nothing to show for it. FDR gave away the proverbial farm at a cost of many American lives. This man, in the throes of death (a fact hidden from most Americans), conceded demand after demand to Stalin in hopes of softening Uncle Joe into accepting democracy.

The post-WWII situation quickly revealed the lies of the war propaganda machinery. Yes, Hitler was defeated. But thanks to FDR's obsession with appeasing Stalin, Communist Russia emerged the victor as it captured sixteen nations, increasing the population under its control from 193,000,000 to 725,584,000! (NOTE: It took forty years and a real American president to stand up to the Communist menace and to finally give back what FDR gave away)

It is amazing that so much of the information in this book is not better known. While the New Deal advocates (liberals, socialists, and communists) deride the 20th century's real American hero, Ronald Reagan, they forget that their 20th century hero created the Big Government that thrives on public debt. And FDR did the exact opposite of Reagan - he appeased Communism and delivered people to the control of Soviet oppression. Reagan and his policies may have continued in the tradition of Roosevelt's massive debt-spending but at least Reagan had something to show for it, namely a re-strengthening of the free-market economy and liberating people from under Soviet oppression ... and restoring the European nations that existed before WWII (i.e. before FDR gave them away at Yalta and elsewhere).

Perhaps it could be said that Reagan finally did what FDR should have done. In any case, FDR should not be held up as a hero by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think the case can be made that he committed treason in his efforts to undermine, replace, and sabotage American institutions and American interests.

Every American that loves Truth and limited government (as prescribed by the Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution) ought to not only read this book but spread its message far and wide. It is time to dispense with the lies and myths surrounding Roosevelt so that the real verdict of history can be rendered.

I finished this incredible book thinking I should have read it decades ago. But I'll return to it again soon. 'The Roosevelt Myth' is a book that will, I am sure, massively repay repeated readings.

In this book, journalist John T. Flynn takes a buzzsaw to one of America's most unjustly inflated reputations. It's hard to describe how incredibly comprehensive his book is. The New Deal -- in all its fraudulent incarnations -- is analyzed, as are FDR's decisions to run for a third, and then a fourth, term. The ways socialists, communists, and other pinkos (Flynn's term) infiltrated ... no, flooded ... into the Roosevelt Administration and used it for their own purposes in war and peace are made shockingly clear, as is the way America' war propaganda system was used to promote Joe Stalin and slander and smear American anti-communists. The way FDR's wife and children used his name to make themselves rich is also thoroughly explored, as is the growth of the Regulatory State, a Roosevelt invention, as a tool of political, economic, and social control.

In my Amazon.com review of Thomas Fleming's 'The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II' (Basic Books: 2001), I said that it sometimes seemed FDR viewed the New Deal more as an electoral ploy than an ideological commitment. Flynn makes it clear (I wish I'd read this book before Fleming's) that there's no 'seemed' about it: the New Deal *never was anything but* an electoral ploy. The New Deal Roosevelt campaigned on in 1932 was jettisoned before he even entered office. The one he introduced in the First Hundred Days had a different philosophical foundation, different programs, and different goals. The so-called 'Third New Deal,' several years later, was yet again different from the two that preceded it. In short, the New Deal was a political bait-and-switch operation from the very beginning.

The reason the New Deal wasn't ideological, Flynn argues again and again, is that FDR himself was a man with no fundamental philosophy of government, no understanding of economics or finance, and no objective beyond maximizing the votes he would receive at the next election. He stumbled from policy to policy, and crisis to crisis, looking only for ways to gain political advantage.

(Flynn makes it clear, for example, that FDR deliberately refused to work with the lame-duck President Hoover to mitigate the effects of the Depression in the winter of 1932-33. FDR wanted to make sure the crisis got as bad as possible, so Republicans would be demonized and himself celebrated as the man who single-handedly turned the economy around. Years later, as the Depression got even worse, FDR seriously considered throwing the 1940 election so the GOP would be in the White House when the economy hit bottom a second time. Then, he and the Democrats would ride to the rescue again in 1944. The onset of World War II in Europe convinced him to scrap this idea and run for a third term immediately.)

'The Roosevelt Myth' has a great deal of application for the twenty-first century reader. For example, 'Any unfavorable turn [Roosevelt] attributed to a secret plot of his enemies. Any criticism of his measures he put down to some secret hatred of him personally' [Book 2, chapter 3]. Or, 'Mrs Roosevelt's long residence in the White House and the long indulgence of the people toward numerous journeys by the family across the borderline of good conduct had badly confused her sense of the proprieties. The unwritten law for Presidents and their families is that they shall be more meticulous than any in the observance of the ethical and social restraints enforced upon the population in times of stress. But Mrs Roosevelt felt that her position in the White House entitled her to an exemption from these restraints' [Book 3, chapter 2].

And again: 'Roosevelt's apologists have sought to dismiss Pegler's charges, not by refuting the facts, but by calling him a Roosevelt-hater' [footnote, Book 3, chapter 3]. Or, 'There was a wide streak of egotism in Roosevelt which made it impossible for him in some circumstances to perceive the fine line that divides correct from improper conduct in public office -- especially in so exalted an office as the presidency' [Book 3, chapter 3]. Or, as a final example, 'In the case of Roosevelt, with his somewhat easy approach to official virtue, his weakness for snap judgments, his impulsive starts in unconsidered directions, his vanity, his lack of a settled political philosophy, his appetite for political power and his great capacity as a mere politician, the Presidency became in his hands an instrument of appalling consequences' [ibid].

Substitute 'Clinton' for 'Roosevelt' in any of the sentences above quoted, and who can say this is not a dead-on portrayal of America's 42nd president? I guess Mr and Mrs Clinton were more 'Rooseveltian' than any of us realized.

Today, the mythic portrayal of FDR as the man who saved America and then stepped forward (ahead of his isolationist people) to save the world, is stronger than ever. That makes 'The Roosevelt Myth' as essential a read as it ever was. Whatever you're reading, put it down and read this first.

If the reader wants to understand what really happened during the FDR presidency regarding his success with the handling of The Great Depression and the WWII Peace Negotiations with Stalin, this is THE definitive book to read. Its six pages of (128) References and four page Bibliography of 93 separate books documents Mr. Flynn's analysis and provides the reader with many other sources to investigate this crucial period in American and World history. John T. Flynn's writing style is most engaging and the logical development of his subject matter is unsurpassed.

"The Roosevelt Myth" both shocks and educates the reader about the nature and presidency of FDR. The book goes beyond fireside chats to inspire a deeper understanding of the Depression, New Deal programs, and America's involvement in World War II. In blunt, straightforward language, Mr. Flynn strips away the accepted veneer of the president as benevolent champion of the American people to expose a more flawed personality. His well-documented examination of FDR reveals the president's machinations for power and his misuse of that power, how his disinterested ignorance of economics and subsequent economic policies actually sustained the Depression, and his pursuit of personal gain at the expense of personal integrity. Mr. Flynn's message on the character of one of the most venerated icons of American politics is often discomfiting, but well worth reading if you're looking for a clear, honest examination of history.

Franklin Roosevelt is incorrectly viewed by many as the greatest president of the twentieth century. The author totally destroys that myth and lays out the facts. FDR was an absolute liar and the consumate politician. After Lincoln, he probably did more to destroy the Constitution than any other president. His New Deal was a hopeless disaster even though many historians have credited it for ending the Great Depression when it actually prolonged it. It was World War II which ended the Great Depression. Roosevelt's administration was filled with communist sympathizers and communists, most notably Alger Hiss. It's small wonder he agreed to most of Stalin's demands and was directly responsible for the enslavement of millions of east Europeans after World War II for almost 50 years. This book puts FDR in the proper light and hopefully will lead to more people learning the truth about him.

My wife dragged me out to Danker Furniture in Fairfax to buy a couch back in 1988. I knew we had little money, and so I let her do the talking. The store had prop books on the shelves so I picked up the Roosevelt Myth, sat in an armchair and could't stop reading for the next forty minutes. Finally I told the salesman, I don't want a couch but I'll give you a sawbuck for this book. He let me have it gratis. It was a copy that had been annotated in pencil on the back cover. Flynn spared no effort to detail how thoroughly dishonest FDR was in every aspect of his life. He used to play up his infantile paralysis for public sympathy. He even abused his office to pursue his hobby: collecting stamps! By 1944 his mental health was so bad that he zoned out during a radio address. Of course the fawning craven toadies of the press dutifully covered everything up, but not Flynn. He saw a picture with an admiral's sleeve showing. He asked for an uncropped photo and contacted the admiral for the truth while the rest of the scribblers dished out wartime propaganda. Seem familiar? It should, Clinton cheated -- probably still does -- at golf and the press has not changed a bit. Roosevelt made sure that Flynn was punished for writing this courageous work, because he lost his position as editor of Colliers magazine as a result. Most so-called reporters haven't the guts to try a work of this kind today.

As a society, we have come to worship FDR's presidency. We put him on our coins, praise his New Deal, and build million dollar monuments to him. In reality as Flynn proves, FDR was not a great president. He was if anything a bad president. Roosevelt's New Deal is shown as it really was- a failure, while his mindset is proven as one of paranoia and manipulation of the public. This book is an excellent reminder of the history we have all but forgotten. I highly recomend it.

Many history books today portray Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of the greatest Presidents the United States has every had. He is credited with bring the country out of the depression and winning World War II.

This is not a friendly biography of President Roosevelt. The author, John T. Flynn, of "The Roosevelt Myth" presents another side of Roosevelt. Flynn was a journalist before, during, and after Roosevelt's presidency. He documents heavily how Roosevelt was not honorable, not truthful, and often did not make good decisions.

For example I was surprised to learn how aggressively Roosevelt had attacked Hoover for running up a deficit, while Roosevelt had been governor of New York and taking the state from a surplus of $150,000,000 to a deficit of $90,000,000. And then as president Roosevelt ran up a larger deficit in the first couple years than all the other presidents of the United States.

If you are interested in the time period of the Great Depression and World War II, this is a good book to read.