Mid Term Elections: 1942
In 1940 Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been elected to his third term in office as President of the United States, something that had never occurred before and has never occurred since (and will never occur unless the US Constitution is amended. Roosevelt had steered the nation through the great depression and soon he would have another crisis to deal with: a world war.
History was repeating itself, in that earlier in the century the world had been at war and an American President (Woodrow Wilson) had successfully won re-election to the Presidency because he had kept the country out of war, only to join that war after the election was over. In the 1940 Presidential election, Republican nominess Wendell Willkie warned voters that Roosevelt would drag the country into another European war, but in response to Willkie's attacks, Roosevelt promised to keep the country out of the war. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote, winning 38 of the 48 states, and 449 electoral votes (to 82 for Willkie).
The world war was the dominant issue that FDR had to deal with. Roosevelt maintained close personal contact when it came to all major diplomatic and military decisions. He worked closely with his generals and admirals, and with the War Department, and with the allies. By late 1940, arms manufacturing was in high gear, in part to equip the Army and Navy if required, and also to have the nation fulfill its role as the "Arsenal of Democracy" for Britain and other allied nations. In what was called his "Four Freedoms" speech in January 1941, Roosevelt made a case for an Allied battle for basic rights and freedoms throughout the world. With support from his previous Republican opponent Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt won Congressional approval for his "Lend-Lease" program, which provided massive military and economic aid to Britain, and China. Roosevelt began to take a firmer stance against Japan, Germany, and Italy.
In response, American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee attacked Roosevelt, calling him a warmonger. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to support the Allied cause in every way except for providing military forces.
In August 1941, Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill conducted a highly secret bilateral meeting in which they drafted the Atlantic Charter, a document which outlined wartime and postwar goals. This was the first of several wartime conferences and Churchill and Roosevelt would meet ten more times in person. Churchill pressed for an American declaration of war against Germany, but Roosevelt believed that Congress would oppose any attempt to bring the United States into the war.
In September of 1941, a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer. In response, Roosevelt declared that the U.S. Navy would assume an escort role for Allied convoys in the Atlantic as far east as Great Britain and would fire upon German ships or submarines (U-boats) if they entered the U.S. Navy zone.
Japan was also a major concern for Roosevelt, as relations between the US and Japan had deteriorated since Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Roosevelt's support for China made things more tense. The Japanese leaders wanted to take control of vulnerable European colonies such as the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, and British Malaya, knowing that their European nations were tied up with the war in Europe. After Roosevelt announced a $100 million loan to China, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, an agreement which bound each country to defend the others against attack. Germany, Japan, and Italy became known as the Axis powers.
In July 1941, after Japan occupied French Indochina, Roosevelt cut off the sale of oil to Japan, depriving Japan of more than 95 percent of its oil supply. He placed the Philippine military under American command and appointed General Douglas MacArthur to command U.S. forces in the Philippines.
These moved angered the Japanese, who made efforts to convince the US to lift the embargo on oil sales. The Roosevelt administration was unwilling to reverse the policy. After diplomatic efforts to end the embargo failed, the Japan government authorized a strike against the United States. Two targets considered vital were the destruction of the United States Asiatic Fleet (stationed in the Philippines) and of the United States Pacific Fleet (stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii).
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese struck the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor with a surprise attack, knocking out the main American battleship fleet and killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians. At the same time, separate Japanese task forces attacked Thailand, British Hong Kong, the Philippines, and other targets. An outraged Roosevelt called for a declaration of war against the Japanese in his famous "Infamy Speech" to Congress. He said:
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
In a nearly unanimous vote, Congress declared war on Japan. After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, isolationist sentiment in the United States largely evaporated overnight. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and the US responded with its own declaration of war against those nations.
In late December 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Arcadia Conference, in order to established a joint strategy between the U.S. and Britain. Both agreed on a Europe first strategy that prioritized the defeat of Germany before Japan. In 1942, Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy. Admiral Ernest J. King as Chief of Naval Operations commanded the Navy and Marines, while General George C. Marshall led the Army and was in nominal control of the Air Force.
The military buildup spurred economic growth and unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million in spring 1940 to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and fell to 1.5 million in the fall of 1942, as the mid-term elections were being held. To pay for increased government spending, in 1941 Roosevelt proposed that Congress enact an income tax rate of 99.5% on all income over $100,000. That proposal failed. In response, Roosevelt issued an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000. Congress rescinded that order. The Revenue Act of 1942 was passed and instituted top tax rates as high as 94% and it instituted the first federal withholding tax.
Uncertainty about the war initially worked against Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. In the 1942 mid-terms voter turnout was historically low (33.9%). This was attributed to the absence of military men and the apathy of workers at war production plants, many of whom had migrated to work in factories and had failed to re-register to vote in their new communities. In the House of Representatives, Roosevelt's Democratic Party lost 45 seats to the Republican Party, retaining only a slender majority of 222 to 209 (down from 267 to 162). Democrats lost the popular vote by over 1 million votes (3.9%). This was the most successful congressional election for Republicans since 1930.
In the Senate, the Republican party took eight seats from the Democrats and one from an independent. The Democrats nonetheless retained a significant majority of 57 to 38, though this was the smallest since Roosevelt was first elected in 1932. The Republicans gained enough seats to end the Democrat's supermajority control
In an election post-mortem, The New York Times attributed the results to "voters' dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war, both at home and abroad." The paper observed that a candidate's stance as isolationist or interventionist before Pearl Harbor had little impact on his success at the polls. The paper's editorial board saw the results as a welcome alternative to the unbalanced majorities of the previous decade. Another result was that several longtime supporters of the New Deal were replaced by conservative Republicans.
This would be the last mid-term elections that Roosevelt would see. In 1944 he would win re-election to an extraordinary fourth term in office, but would not live to see it through. He would be dead by April of 1945.
History was repeating itself, in that earlier in the century the world had been at war and an American President (Woodrow Wilson) had successfully won re-election to the Presidency because he had kept the country out of war, only to join that war after the election was over. In the 1940 Presidential election, Republican nominess Wendell Willkie warned voters that Roosevelt would drag the country into another European war, but in response to Willkie's attacks, Roosevelt promised to keep the country out of the war. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote, winning 38 of the 48 states, and 449 electoral votes (to 82 for Willkie).
The world war was the dominant issue that FDR had to deal with. Roosevelt maintained close personal contact when it came to all major diplomatic and military decisions. He worked closely with his generals and admirals, and with the War Department, and with the allies. By late 1940, arms manufacturing was in high gear, in part to equip the Army and Navy if required, and also to have the nation fulfill its role as the "Arsenal of Democracy" for Britain and other allied nations. In what was called his "Four Freedoms" speech in January 1941, Roosevelt made a case for an Allied battle for basic rights and freedoms throughout the world. With support from his previous Republican opponent Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt won Congressional approval for his "Lend-Lease" program, which provided massive military and economic aid to Britain, and China. Roosevelt began to take a firmer stance against Japan, Germany, and Italy.
In response, American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee attacked Roosevelt, calling him a warmonger. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to support the Allied cause in every way except for providing military forces.
In August 1941, Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill conducted a highly secret bilateral meeting in which they drafted the Atlantic Charter, a document which outlined wartime and postwar goals. This was the first of several wartime conferences and Churchill and Roosevelt would meet ten more times in person. Churchill pressed for an American declaration of war against Germany, but Roosevelt believed that Congress would oppose any attempt to bring the United States into the war.
In September of 1941, a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer. In response, Roosevelt declared that the U.S. Navy would assume an escort role for Allied convoys in the Atlantic as far east as Great Britain and would fire upon German ships or submarines (U-boats) if they entered the U.S. Navy zone.
Japan was also a major concern for Roosevelt, as relations between the US and Japan had deteriorated since Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Roosevelt's support for China made things more tense. The Japanese leaders wanted to take control of vulnerable European colonies such as the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, and British Malaya, knowing that their European nations were tied up with the war in Europe. After Roosevelt announced a $100 million loan to China, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, an agreement which bound each country to defend the others against attack. Germany, Japan, and Italy became known as the Axis powers.
In July 1941, after Japan occupied French Indochina, Roosevelt cut off the sale of oil to Japan, depriving Japan of more than 95 percent of its oil supply. He placed the Philippine military under American command and appointed General Douglas MacArthur to command U.S. forces in the Philippines.
These moved angered the Japanese, who made efforts to convince the US to lift the embargo on oil sales. The Roosevelt administration was unwilling to reverse the policy. After diplomatic efforts to end the embargo failed, the Japan government authorized a strike against the United States. Two targets considered vital were the destruction of the United States Asiatic Fleet (stationed in the Philippines) and of the United States Pacific Fleet (stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii).
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese struck the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor with a surprise attack, knocking out the main American battleship fleet and killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians. At the same time, separate Japanese task forces attacked Thailand, British Hong Kong, the Philippines, and other targets. An outraged Roosevelt called for a declaration of war against the Japanese in his famous "Infamy Speech" to Congress. He said:
"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
In a nearly unanimous vote, Congress declared war on Japan. After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, isolationist sentiment in the United States largely evaporated overnight. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and the US responded with its own declaration of war against those nations.
In late December 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Arcadia Conference, in order to established a joint strategy between the U.S. and Britain. Both agreed on a Europe first strategy that prioritized the defeat of Germany before Japan. In 1942, Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy. Admiral Ernest J. King as Chief of Naval Operations commanded the Navy and Marines, while General George C. Marshall led the Army and was in nominal control of the Air Force.
The military buildup spurred economic growth and unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million in spring 1940 to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and fell to 1.5 million in the fall of 1942, as the mid-term elections were being held. To pay for increased government spending, in 1941 Roosevelt proposed that Congress enact an income tax rate of 99.5% on all income over $100,000. That proposal failed. In response, Roosevelt issued an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000. Congress rescinded that order. The Revenue Act of 1942 was passed and instituted top tax rates as high as 94% and it instituted the first federal withholding tax.
Uncertainty about the war initially worked against Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. In the 1942 mid-terms voter turnout was historically low (33.9%). This was attributed to the absence of military men and the apathy of workers at war production plants, many of whom had migrated to work in factories and had failed to re-register to vote in their new communities. In the House of Representatives, Roosevelt's Democratic Party lost 45 seats to the Republican Party, retaining only a slender majority of 222 to 209 (down from 267 to 162). Democrats lost the popular vote by over 1 million votes (3.9%). This was the most successful congressional election for Republicans since 1930.
In the Senate, the Republican party took eight seats from the Democrats and one from an independent. The Democrats nonetheless retained a significant majority of 57 to 38, though this was the smallest since Roosevelt was first elected in 1932. The Republicans gained enough seats to end the Democrat's supermajority control
In an election post-mortem, The New York Times attributed the results to "voters' dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war, both at home and abroad." The paper observed that a candidate's stance as isolationist or interventionist before Pearl Harbor had little impact on his success at the polls. The paper's editorial board saw the results as a welcome alternative to the unbalanced majorities of the previous decade. Another result was that several longtime supporters of the New Deal were replaced by conservative Republicans.
This would be the last mid-term elections that Roosevelt would see. In 1944 he would win re-election to an extraordinary fourth term in office, but would not live to see it through. He would be dead by April of 1945.