President Franklin D. Roosevelt Opposes Appeasement and Virtually Predicts World War II and American Involvement in It Four Years Before Pearl Harbor

FDR also states it is not the hurricane of criticism over his court-packing plan that worries him, but the international situation

The march of the dictators began in earnest in October 1935, when Italy took Ethiopia. Then, on March 7, 1936, Hitler invaded the demilitarized Rhineland, which action conflicted with and basically tore up the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I. In 1937 Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister of Great Britain, and despite growing pressure from Winston Churchill and some stormy Cabinet meetings, he held firm to his policy of appeasing the dictators and denying the necessity of rearming. Saying Hitler was a reasonable person with whom he could negotiate, and refusing to allocate significant funds to build planes and ships, Chamberlain overpowered or forced out of the cabinet everyone who opposed him. In Spain, with the aid of German and Italian forces on land and in the air, acting with ferocious impunity, the Fascists celebrated victory after victory over the Republicans. Neighboring France did nothing, concurring in Britain’s exercise in wishful thinking that appeasement would work. In Asia, the Japanese offensive in China reached a stormy milestone with the occupation of Beijing on July 29, 1937. Just a month later, Hitler made a speech stating that Germany was “too small to guarantee an undisturbed, assured, and permanent food supply,” thus virtually guaranteeing he would made additional territorial demands in Europe. Austria and Czechoslovakia were obvious next targets. In November the Japanese were advancing on Nanking, soon to engage in atrocities there. On November 5, Spanish Republican supporters were massacred, and Hitler announced he indeed had plans for European expansion. The next day, Italy signed an alliance with Germany. On November 9, the Japanese occupied Shanghai.

This historic letter is the very one quoted by noted author David McCullough in the PBS documentary “FDR”, and in the biography “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” by Russell Freedman. However, except for a particular phrase, the balance appears to be unpublished. The location of this original letter was unknown until now, and being in the hands of the Sweet descendants, it has never before been offered for sale.

President Roosevelt was alarmed by the unopposed march of the dictators, and worried that Britain and France had turned their backs on the free peoples and decided out of fear to fraternize with the gangsters. Speaking of the dictators in his Constitution Day speech on September 17, 1937, FDR said that “the state of world affairs brought about by those new forms of government threatens civilization”. He called them “cold-blooded” and “reckless”, and urged the American people to reject their ideologies. On October 5, he delivered his famous Quarantine Speech to a nation whose political climate was one of American neutrality and non-intervention. He challenged that, starting out by stating “The political situation in the world, which of late has been growing progressively worse, is such as to cause grave concern and anxiety to all the peoples and nations who wish to live in peace”. He spoke of the atrocities taking place abroad, saying people were being “ruthlessly murdered”, and of the disregarding of treaties and invasions of foreign lands. He accused the dictators of having instituted “the present reign of terror and international lawlessness”.  He bluntly expressed concern that “every precious thing will be in danger, every book and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate, the defenseless – all will be lost or wrecked or utterly destroyed.” He then warned America’s that they could not hide from the consequences of victories of the aggressors, saying “If those things come to pass in other parts of the world, let no one imagine that America will escape, that America may expect mercy…If those days are not to come to pass – if we are to have a world in which we can breathe freely and live in amity without fear – the peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort to uphold laws and principles on which alone peace can rest secure.” He continued, “The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality”, and called for an international “quarantine of the aggressor nations” to ensure the preservation of peace and freedom throughout the world.

He hoped to reorient American minds away from mere isolation, but mainly intended the speech as a call to Britain and France to join with the U.S. and take action. In the former goal he was arguably successful, in that he started the conversation he sought, but in the latter he was disappointed, as no democracy accepted his call; they were lost in a dream of appeasement.

At home, in February 1937, after seeing the U.S. Supreme Court declare some of his measures unconstitutional, FDR requested Congress for legislation empow­ering him to appoint six additional justices. This “court-packing plan” released a torrent of criticism, which required him, uncharacteristically, to shelve it in July. But all was not lost domestically in 1937, as Congress passed the Farm Security Administration to provide for low in­terest loans for tenants to purchase farms, and also created the U.S. Housing Authority. FDR also called a special session of Congress for November 15, 1937, urging legislation on maximum hours, minimum wages and other matters. This would result in the Fair Labor Standards Act in the following year.

Commander George C. Sweet was a U.S. Navy officer significant in promoting the early use of aircraft by the Navy. In September 1908, then-Lieutenant Sweet, serving as a Naval observer, reported favorably on the Wright Brothers airplane demonstration at Fort Meyer, near Washington, D.C. In 1909 Sweet was taken up with the Wright Brothers first Army flyer, becoming the first Navy officer to travel in an airplane. Sweet was then assigned to the Navy’s school for airplane instruction, and was thereafter a Navy engineer in Washington, specializing in steam engines. In early 1919 Sweet was named assistant to the Naval Attache at the American embassy in Paris, a particularly plum posting as the peace conference to end World War I was being carried on in Versailles.

Franklin D. Roosevelt followed in his cousin’s footsteps to fame by serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913-1920. He was a prime advocate of naval aviation, and against strong opposition is credited with preserving the Navy’s air arm from demobilization after World War I. He surely met Sweet in his capacity of promoting naval aviation. Roosevelt was called to Paris to join President Wilson at the Versailles Conference in January 1919. According to the Sweet descendants, FDR and Commander Sweet forged a friendship onboard ship, clearly indicating that the two men were passengers on the USS George Washington together in 1919, though whether on the sailing in January or return in July (or both) is not known.

Roosevelt was a careful man, aware that his statements must be made guardedly to avoid giving aid and opportunity to his political enemies. His public correspondence was generally drafted by aides, and was measured, serious, deliberate and discreet. However, the private FDR was outgoing, humorous and frank, the life of the party, and when he corresponded with those he could trust, this side could show through. Sweet was such a man.  We recently obtained this letter directly from the Sweet descendants.

In late 1937, Sweet wrote the President about the flood of criticism aimed at his domestic programs.

FDR: “I am really worried about world affairs. The dictator nations find their bluffs”

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, November 10, 1937, to Sweet, saying that it was not the hurricane of criticism over his court-packing plan that worried him, but the international situation, and virtually predicting World War II and American involvement in it four years before Pearl Harbor.  “It is good to hear from a long lost old shipmate again. I do wish you could have stopped in when you were as near as Yonkers, and you must be sure to come to Washington this winter. You are dead right about ‘take it easy’. If it were only what they call the ‘domestic situation’, I would be a lot happier because I know it is not as desperate as a good many people make out and because I know that given time the center of the hurricane is going to pass around us and disappear to windward. But on top of all of this, I am really worried about world affairs. The dictator nations find their bluffs are not being called and that encourages other nations to play the same game. Perhaps you will be back in uniform yet – and thank the Lord the Navy and, incidentally, the Army, have made a lot of real progress in the past four years. I do want to see you and talk over many things.”

This historic letter is the very one quoted by noted author David McCullough in the PBS documentary “FDR”, and in the biography “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” by Russell Freedman. However, except for a particular phrase, the balance appears to be unpublished. The location of this original letter was unknown until now, and being in the hands of the Sweet descendants, it has never before been offered for sale.