Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Theodore Roosevelt and the First World War
A century ago, when the First World War began in the summer of 1914, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt strongly supported the Allied cause and was one of a number of voices calling for the United States to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Unlike President Woodrow Wilson, who wanted to keep the nation out of the war, Roosevelt advocated for a harsher policy against Germany. He especially hated Germany's campaign of submarine warfare. Roosevelt was a fierce critic of the foreign policy of President Wilson. He called it a failure, highlighting the atrocities committed by the Germans in Belgium and the violations of American rights.
In the election of 1916, Roosevelt campaigned energetically for Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes. In his rhetoric, he repeatedly criticized Irish-Americans and German-Americans, both of whom were supporters of American neutrality. Roosevelt said that these immigrants were unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated American" who juggled multiple loyalties.
When the U.S. finally entered the war in 1917, the fifty-eight year old Roosevelt wanted to raise a volunteer infantry division. He sent the following telegram to Wilson on May 18, 1917:
I respectfully ask permission immediately to raise two divisions for immediate service at the front under the bill which has just become law, and hold myself ready to raise four divisions, if you so direct. I respectfully refer for details to my last letters to the Secretary of War. If granted permission, I earnestly ask that Captain Frank McCoy be directed to report to me at once. Minister Fletcher has written me that he is willing. Also if permission to raise the divisions is granted, I would like to come to Washington as soon as the War Department is willing, so that I may find what supplies are available, and at once direct the regular officers who are chosen for brigade and regimental commands how and where to get to work.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
President Wilson responded two days later, turning down Roosevelt's request. Wilson saw it as a no-win situation politically. If Roosevelt served with heroics, it would give him political momentum in the 1920 election, and if Roosevelt was killed or wounded in the war, Wilson would be blamed for enabling Roosevelt's foolish heroics. There was no upside for Wilson to agreeing to Roosevelt's request.
Roosevelt continued his attacks on Wilson. This probably helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to seriously contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria he had contracted while on an adventure in South America (the "River of Doubt" excursion). He supported his old military companion General Leonard Wood for the 1920 Republican Presidential Nomination, but Wood was ultimately defeated by Warren G. Harding.
On May 7, 1918, Roosevelt wrote an editorial for the Kansas City Star. In that editorial, he wrote this quote about whether Americans should support their President or not, and whether or not it was patriotic to be critical of the President. He said:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
One wonders how Roosevelt's stomach for the fight may have changed in the summer of 1918, when Roosevelt learned that his youngest son Quentin, a daring pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines in 1918. Many historians believe that Quentin was Roosevelt's favorite son. It is said the death of his son distressed him so much that Roosevelt never recovered from his loss. His son Theodore III was an officer in the 26th Infantry, and was gassed at Cantigny, and later wounded on July 19, 1918 at Soissons. His son Archie was also an officer in the 26th infantry and was wounded so badly that he was fully discharged from the army. (His other son Kermit also served, but came through the war unscathed.) Theodore Roosevelt, formerly very robust and healthy, died on January 6, 1919 at the age of 60.
In the election of 1916, Roosevelt campaigned energetically for Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes. In his rhetoric, he repeatedly criticized Irish-Americans and German-Americans, both of whom were supporters of American neutrality. Roosevelt said that these immigrants were unpatriotic because they put the interest of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated American" who juggled multiple loyalties.
When the U.S. finally entered the war in 1917, the fifty-eight year old Roosevelt wanted to raise a volunteer infantry division. He sent the following telegram to Wilson on May 18, 1917:
I respectfully ask permission immediately to raise two divisions for immediate service at the front under the bill which has just become law, and hold myself ready to raise four divisions, if you so direct. I respectfully refer for details to my last letters to the Secretary of War. If granted permission, I earnestly ask that Captain Frank McCoy be directed to report to me at once. Minister Fletcher has written me that he is willing. Also if permission to raise the divisions is granted, I would like to come to Washington as soon as the War Department is willing, so that I may find what supplies are available, and at once direct the regular officers who are chosen for brigade and regimental commands how and where to get to work.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
President Wilson responded two days later, turning down Roosevelt's request. Wilson saw it as a no-win situation politically. If Roosevelt served with heroics, it would give him political momentum in the 1920 election, and if Roosevelt was killed or wounded in the war, Wilson would be blamed for enabling Roosevelt's foolish heroics. There was no upside for Wilson to agreeing to Roosevelt's request.
Roosevelt continued his attacks on Wilson. This probably helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to seriously contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria he had contracted while on an adventure in South America (the "River of Doubt" excursion). He supported his old military companion General Leonard Wood for the 1920 Republican Presidential Nomination, but Wood was ultimately defeated by Warren G. Harding.
On May 7, 1918, Roosevelt wrote an editorial for the Kansas City Star. In that editorial, he wrote this quote about whether Americans should support their President or not, and whether or not it was patriotic to be critical of the President. He said:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
One wonders how Roosevelt's stomach for the fight may have changed in the summer of 1918, when Roosevelt learned that his youngest son Quentin, a daring pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines in 1918. Many historians believe that Quentin was Roosevelt's favorite son. It is said the death of his son distressed him so much that Roosevelt never recovered from his loss. His son Theodore III was an officer in the 26th Infantry, and was gassed at Cantigny, and later wounded on July 19, 1918 at Soissons. His son Archie was also an officer in the 26th infantry and was wounded so badly that he was fully discharged from the army. (His other son Kermit also served, but came through the war unscathed.) Theodore Roosevelt, formerly very robust and healthy, died on January 6, 1919 at the age of 60.