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FDR, OBAMA, LUCY AND THE DEPRESSION |
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Written by Don B. Kates
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Monday, 15 December 2008 15:27 |
The History Channel has been showing two presentations on FDR (total 4 hours). These were generally well done and well balanced. There are two points on which I would like to comment:
FDR AND THE DEPRESSION
(In evaluating this comment please remember that I am not trained as a economist and not an expert on 1930s history.)
The presentations did note the now well-understood point that FDR’s New Deal policies of massive government spending on infrastructure utterly failed to solve the Depression. The presentations do not address recent studies suggesting that those policies actually worsened and lengthened the Depression. This is a sobering thought since Obama appears to be following the same policies in dealing w/ the current recession.
ON THE OTHER HAND, historians seem generally agreed that Hitler’s policies of massive government spending on infrastructure did solve the German depression. I have never seen an in-depth review of Hitler’s policies or a comparison of those policies to FDR’s. The major difference may be that Hitler’s policies of massive government spending was much more on the military than FDR’s.
FDR AND LUCY MERCER
The presentation does cover the affair between FDR and the beautiful Lucy Mercer which went on for some time (years?) before Eleanor discovered it in 1918. It also notes that Lucy was w/ him when he died (April 12, 1945). The presentation inadequately and inaccurately covers the agreement that Eleanor and FDR came to which avoided a divorce: that he would never see Lucy again; and that he and Eleanor would discontinue sexual relations. (Eleanor was NOT a lesbian. She was horrified and disgusted by the physical aspects of sex. In fact she later had well-documented platonic love affairs w/ both men and women.)
FDR wanted to divorce Eleanor and marry Lucy, until his mother explained "the facts of life" to him: in the early 20th Century a divorced man stood no chance of big political office, plus if he divorced Eleanor he would have to start working for a living because mother would cut him off w/o a dime.
After the affair w/ FDR broke up, the beautiful Lucy married the richest man in America by whom she had a child (whom FDR later received in the White House) as well as being the devoted step-mother to his children by his dead first wife. It is now clear (but the presentation fails to mention) that: FDR and she maintained a correspondence through the 1920s and beyond; that they may have met, albeit he was physically impaired through most of the ‘20; that he arranged through the Secret Service for her to attend his first inaugural and they frequently had meetings in Secret Service cars; and that in the 1940s she multiply visited the president under a pseudonym.
The presentation mentions FDR’s "secretary," Missy Le Hand. She worked for FDR, and was his constant companion, from 1920 through the early 1940s. Missy was a very attractive woman who turned down multiple marriage offers to stay w/ FDR. She was obviously in love w/ him, and presumably his mistress. (Medical examinations concluded that his legs being paralyzed did not preclude him having sex.) Missy had two nervous breakdowns and then in her early 40s she had a stroke. All three of these things coincided w/ periods in which he had resumed seeing Lucy.
After her stroke, which left her partially paralyzed, FDR changed his will cutting off his five children and leaving his estate in equal shares to Eleanor and Missy. This never took effect because Missypre-deceased him.
A less than wholly admirable man, FDR had the great good fortune of having relationships w/ three admirable women.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 19 January 2009 12:17 )
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