Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Before, during and after his presidential terms and continuing today, there has been criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945). His critics have not only questioned his policies and positions but also accused him of trying to centralize power in his own hands by controlling both the government and the Democratic Party. Many denounced his breaking of a long-standing tradition by running for a third term in 1940.

By the middle of his second term, much criticism of Roosevelt centered on fears that he was leading the country toward a dictatorship by attempting to seize control of the Supreme Court in the court-packing incident of 1937, attempting to eliminate dissent within the Democratic Party in the South during the 1938 midterm elections, and breaking the tradition established by George Washington of not seeking a third term when he again ran for re-election in 1940. As two historians explain: "In 1940, with the two-term issue as a weapon, anti-New Dealers [...] argued that the time had come to disarm the 'dictator' and to dismantle the machinery".

Long after Roosevelt's death, new lines of attack opened to criticize his policies regarding helping European Jews, incarcerating Japanese Americans on the West Coast in concentration camps, and opposing anti-lynching legislation., and effectively abandoning Poland and Czechoslovakia to Soviet domination through the agreements reached at Yalta, a decision often characterized as the Western (Yalta) betrayal.

Rejection by his allies

Numerous allies and appointees turned against Roosevelt, such as advisor Raymond Moley, Postmaster General James A. Farley, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (JFK's father), and even Vice President John Nance Garner. }} The accusations of communism were widespread enough to misdirect from the real Soviet espionage that was occurring, which led the Roosevelt administration to miss the infiltration of various spy rings. Most of the Soviet spy rings actually sought to undermine the Roosevelt administration. Roosevelt was also accused of "socialism" or "communism" by Republican Representative Robert F. Rich and Senators Simeon D. Fess and Thomas D. Schall.

Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith, whom Roosevelt succeeded as governor of New York, decried Roosevelt's New Deal policies as being socialist. In response to Smith's claims that the New Deal was socialist, Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas described Roosevelt as a state capitalist. He also stated that Roosevelt's New Deal policies were a poor imitation of the platform of the Socialist Party and noted that while Roosevelt sought to regulate Wall Street, Thomas and the Socialist Party sought to abolish the system that included Wall Street.

When he was asked about his political philosophy at a press conference, Roosevelt stated: "Philosophy? I am a Christian and a Democrat. That is all."

Criticism of Roosevelt as a "warmonger"

As World War II began, Roosevelt was among those concerned at the growing strength of the Axis powers and he found ways to help Great Britain, the Chinese Nationalists and later the Soviet Union in their struggle against them. His program of Lend-Lease supplied military equipment to those powers despite the American government's official neutrality. That prompted several isolationist leaders, including air hero Charles Lindbergh, to criticize him as a warmonger who was trying to push America into war with [...] Germany, [...] Italy, and Imperial Japan. That criticism was largely silenced in the public arena after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but some persisted in the belief that Roosevelt knew of the attack beforehand.

MI6 spy Colonel Charles Howard 'Dick' Ellis, posthumously quoted in Jesse Fink's 2023 biography of Ellis, The Eagle in the Mirror, says Roosevelt was forewarned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ellis was deputy of William Stephenson at British Security Co-ordination in New York.

"Stephenson was convinced from the information that was reaching him that this attack was imminent, and through Jimmy Roosevelt, President Roosevelt's son, he passed this information to the President. Now whether the President at that time had other information which corroborated this... it's impossible to say."

Criticism of Roosevelt as a "[...]"

After 1945, the term "[...]" conjured up images of [...] death camps, but in the 1930s it had a very different connotation, meaning the centralization of political power as in Benito Mussolini's Italy and of a "third way" between communism and capitalism. While most American businessmen thought Roosevelt was hostile to them, critics on the left said he was too friendly. Comparisons of American domestic programs to [...] economics are not necessarily pejorative as one of the motives behind the Interstate Highway System was that President Eisenhower was impressed by Adolf Hitler's autobahn system. Early in Roosevelt's first term, supporters and critics alike found similarities between the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and Italian corporatism.

In 1935 and 1936, after Italy invaded Ethiopia and the Supreme Court struck down the NRA, contemporaries stopped comparing the NRA to Italian corporatism. Interest in the subject returned in 1973, when two prominent historians wrote articles on resemblances between the New Deal and [...] economics. According to James Q. Whitman, by the late 1980s it was "almost routine" for New Deal historians to identify similarities between the New Deal and [...] economic programs.

Critics on the left

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) first charged Roosevelt with being [...] less than two months after he took office. On May Day, 1933, the CPUSA ran a series of newspaper advertisements denouncing "the whole Roosevelt program of preparation for [...] and war" and calling Roosevelt a "[...] dictator". The ads' examples of alleged [...] activities included "forced labor for the unemployed" and harsh tactics against striking farm workers in California. Scholar Paul Kengor wrote that the charges were ridiculous. Richard Hofstadter noted that critics from the left believed "that the NRA was a clear imitation of Mussolini's corporate state".

Left-liberal publications such as The Nation and The New Republic worried that the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC) integration with the military could start a transformation to a fascistic society. While the CCC was operated by the military and had some militaristic aspects, the Roosevelt White House allayed those fears by emphasizing the CCC's civilian character. Unlike its German counterpart, the CCC was never a compulsory service.

While not believing that Roosevelt was a [...], Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas noted that the [...] leaders of Europe were state capitalists much like he claimed Roosevelt of being. Thomas also criticized Roosevelt for not coming to the aid of Upton Sinclair during the 1934 California gubernatorial election where Sinclair was subject to negative campaigns from the Republican Party funded by Hollywood movie moguls.

Howard Zinn in his book 'A People's History of the United States' describes New Deal as a cautious, limited reform that saved Capitalism rather than fundamentally transforming it - he argues it was driven by the treat of a potential Socialist revolution rather than pure alturism.

Zinn hightlights that the United States entered World War II only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and argues the Roosevelt administration overlooked atrocities if they didn't directly threaten American interests.

He contended that the Roosevelt administration had not entered the war in response to earlier atrocities or aggression, including Japan’s invasion of China and the Nanjing Massacre, [...] Germany’s persecution of Jews, or Germany’s invasions of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Zinn interpreted this as evidence that U.S. entry into the war was driven primarily by strategic interests following the attack on Pearl Harbor rather than humanitarian concerns.

Noam Chomsky views Roosevelt as a Conservative who initially wanted to balance the federal budget and only adopted progressive policies after being peer pressured by intense intense labor movements.

Critics on the right

Conservatives have made criticisms of Roosevelt and continued those criticisms for decades. They warned of "regimentation". They made cautionary comparisons of Roosevelt's economic programs to communism and [...], and Roosevelt responded in a June 1934 Fireside Chat by saying that the critics were motivated by self-interest and that everything he did was within the Americans' political tradition. Roosevelt was a pragmatist who had studied under William James at Harvard College. As a pragmatist, Roosevelt was willing to consider various sources of ideas for social experiments.

The most prominent of Roosevelt's critics in regards to [...] was Herbert Hoover, who saw a connection between the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the "Swope Plan", named after Gerard Swope. Hoover was an ardent supporter of trade associations but saw the Swope Plan as fascistic because of its compulsory nature. Historian George H. Nash argues:

The Old Right emerged in opposition to the New Deal of President Roosevelt and Hoff says that "moderate Republicans and leftover Republican Progressives like Hoover composed the bulk of the Old Right by 1940, with a sprinkling of former members of the Farmer-Labor party, Non-Partisan League, and even a few midwestern prairie Socialists".

Historians compare the New Deal to policies that were implemented in Europe

The Swope Plan was the starting point for the drafting of the NIRA and in no way was modeled on policies that were implemented in Europe. Many prominent businessmen had participated in the writing of it. However, Hoover denounced the Swope Plan as monopolistic and refused to support any proposal made by the Chamber of Commerce though it was widely praised by American businessmen and academics. The Swope Plan was corporatist, but far less extensive than [...] corporatism.

Historian John A. Garraty said that the NIRA was "similar to experiments being carried out by the [...] dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy and by the [...] in Hitler's Germany. It did not, of course, turn America into a [...] state, but it did herald an increasing concentration of economic power in the hands of interest groups, both industrialists' organizations and labor unions". Garraty said that another influence was the concept of the corporate state, where capitalists and workers, supervised by the government, worked out problems to avoid wasteful competition and dangerous social clashes. Historian Ellis Hawley reviewed the legislative history of the NIRA. A key member of the Brains Trust, Raymond Moley, led efforts to review industrial recovery plans. Another significant influence was Hugh S. Johnson, who drew on his experience with the war industries board. Popular historian Amity Shlaes stated:

According to comparative law scholar James Whitman, it was not the NIRA statute that fueled suspicions of [...] but the leaders of the National Recovery Administration. Hugh Johnson, head of the NRA, openly admired Mussolini. Both Johnson and his assistant, Donald Richberg, made disturbing statements indicating that they were hostile to parliamentary government. Richberg denied being a [...] but described Roosevelt several times as a "Man of Action". Whitman said that there were "striking" differences between the ideology of Johnson and Richberg and [...] propaganda.

Garraty suggested that there were some "striking" similarities between Roosevelt's programs and German anti-depression policies, but concluded that the New Deal did not have much in common with [...] in total because of the vast political differences between the two systems. Roosevelt expanded political participation for the less fortunate. Garraty stated that the main reason for the similarities was that both nations were dealing with problems that were unique in the industrial world. Garraty stated that the New Deal lacked any consistent ideological base.

While the Brains Trust got a lot of attention, theorists never had much impact on Roosevelt. He drew on populism, with its hostility to bankers and its willingness to inflate the currency; Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism in its dislike of competition and deemphasis on antitrust laws; and the ideas of social workers from the Progressive Era. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis influenced Roosevelt on financial reforms. The War Labor Board from World War I influenced Roosevelt's labor policy.

Other scholars had varying views on the relationship between the New Deal and [...] economics:

• New Deal historian William Leuchtenburg said in 1968 that "Mussolini's corporate state did not find [an] American following". Leuchtenburg said that if the New Deal had any foreign counterparts, it was in Scandinavia (see the Nordic model). According to Leuchtenburg, Roosevelt was overall a net exporter of ideas. Arthur Schlesinger's conclusions were similar.
• John P. Diggins found only superficial similarities between the New Deal and Italian [...]. However, Diggins produced some quotations indicating that Roosevelt was interested in [...] economic programs and admired Mussolini.
• Kiran Klaus Patel stated: "On the whole, there was a special closeness between the German Labor Service and the CCC, just as there was a whole series of similar measures in social, cultural, and economic policies in [...] Germany and under the New Deal". Patel stated that the two nations' politics were obviously different, with the United States adopting reform while Germany adopted [...]. The main reasons for the economic similarities according to Patel was the growth in state interventionism along with the fact that Germany and the United States faced similar problems, particularly the need to reduce mass unemployment. To that end, both nations employed instruments of economic and social policy that were often strikingly similar. On that level, the crisis led to a limited degree of convergence.
• Ludwig von Mises wrote that the New Deal was a "replica" of Otto von Bismarck's social policies. Milton Friedman also said that Bismarck's Germany influenced the New Deal. Friedman said that both Wilhelmine Germany's aristocratic and autocratic government and left-wing governments had a paternalistic philosophy. According to Friedman, other sources included Fabian England and Swedish and American universities, particularly Columbia University.
• James Q. Whitman said that in its day-to-day operations, the NRA had only limited resemblance to [...] corporatism. American corporatism was of an indigenous nature that traced back to nineteenth-century German theorists of corporatism. It was also built on the American World War I experience, which used corporatism to manage the economy. European corporatism was an ideology of political economy, built on conflicts between labor and capital. It appealed to "thuggish anti-parliamentarians who were the [...]". American corporatism was only an economic ideology, as Americans viewed Congress as a "place full of incompetents, not rogues". Whitman said that there were two main differences between the NRA's corporatism and European [...]. One was that in the United States class warfare never reached the level of intensity that it did in Europe. The other reason was that unlike Italy and Germany, the United States had a long tradition of representative government.
• Shlaes wrote that Roosevelt's policies were often inspired by socialist or [...] models abroad. She acknowledges that Hoover and Roosevelt may not have had better alternative, as their policies may have spared America some facsimile of Mussolini's [...] or Joseph Stalin's communism. Shlaes states: "The argument that democracy would have failed in the United States without the New Deal stood for seven decades, and has been made anew, by scholars of considerable quality, quite recently".

Friedrich von Hayek

In 1944, Friedrich von Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom. Hayek focused mostly on Britain, but he also mentioned the New Deal and argued that the British and American governments had started to abandon their basic commitment to personal liberty through increasingly statist economic programs. Historian Alan Brinkley said that Hayek's work was influential because it expressed concerns that already existed. The biggest challenge to the New Deal was the fear that the expanding federal bureaucracy limited personal economic freedom and autonomy. According to Brinkley, liberals accused Hayek of attacking a straw man, but their criticism had a strongly defensive tone. Alvin Hansen wrote a scathing review and considered The Road to Serfdom to be "'good medicine but a bad diet.'" Stuart Chase acknowledged that Hayek provided "a useful warning [...] which every planner should paste under the glass top of his desk." Reinhold Niebuhr noted that totalitarianism's rise prompted the democracies to be apprehensive about collectivist solutions, stating that "a wise community will walk warily and test the effect of each new adventure before further adventures."

Office of censorship

Roosevelt used censorship and surveillance, particularly during World War II, when he established the Office of Censorship in December 1941 to manage media restraint and protect military secrets.

Lobby Investigation Committee

Roosevelt backed The United States Senate Lobby Investigation Committee to suppress lobbying and influence, but critics argue it was used to suppress organized opposition to the New Deal. In 1935–36 his administration supported probes into utility companies and other groups funding anti–New Deal campaigns. Hugo Black led the committee at first; after he joined the Supreme Court, Sherman Minton took over. Beito argues a modern equivalent of The Black committee would be "akin to staffers from a congressional committee and the FCC teaming up at the headquarters of Google and Microsoft and then spending months secretly searching all emails for specific names or organizations based on any political references"

In 1935, The Black Committee ordered Western Union to turn over telegrams sent on behalf of utility company as part of its investigation into lobbying against the Wheeler-Rayburn Act.

Boise Valley Herald

In September 1942, The Roosevelt administration, under Attorney General Francis Biddle, revoked the second-class mailing rights of the Boise Valley Herald, a small weekly newspaper based in Middleton, Idaho for criticizing U.S involvement in World War II and Japanese Internment camps, The Federal government took it down for braoder wartime dissent and perceived undermining of national policy during WWII.

Relationship with Frank Hague

Roosevelt didn't confront Jersey City mayor Frank Hague's censorship and severe persecution of political dissidents, which critics argue was to win electoral support in New Jersey and keep Hague as an important political ally, and more broadly to maintain Democratic Party unity in the state. Hague employed Jersey City's police and municipal government to prevent political opponents from speaking, organizing, and distributing information. Hague required permits for public meetings and denied them to groups he opposed, especially labor unions, communists, socialists, and the Congress for Industrial Organization.

Hague's practices eventually led to the Supreme Court case Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization.

Minnesota senator Harold Knutson argued Roosevelt had the power to act against but chose not to.

Support for Woodrow Wilson's Wartime censorship as Assistant Secretary of the Navy

As Assistant Secretary of The Navy, Roosevelt backed Woodrow Wilson’s wartime censorship such as The Espionage Act and Sedition act. David T. Beito writes "Roosevelt famously proclaimed freedom of speech as the first of his "Four Freedoms", but his behavior throughout his twelve years in office often belied the flowery prose."

Historian Kenneth S. Davis states Roosevelt "went along with prevailing trends in the realm of the national spirit, uninhibited by any strong ideological commitment to the Bill of Rights."

After the publishers of an antiwar pamphlet were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, Roosevelt sent a letter of congratulation to the federal prosecutor.

After an Anarchist journal published a satirical article stating that Roosevelt's support for compulsory military service illustrated hypocrisy because he was not in uniform, Roosevelt urged on the Department of Justice to initiate a prosecution that might "send the writer and his whole plant to [the federal penitentiary in] Atlanta for the rest of their natural lives.

When the Masses Publishing Company case led to the conviction of publishers associated with the antiwar pamphlet The Finished Mystery, Roosevelt wrote to prosecutor Alfred Bettman congratulating him.

Court packing-plan

In 1937, Roosevelt proposed a plan to expand the size of the Supreme Court after several of its justices struck down key parts of his New Deal agenda during the Great Depression. Frustrated that the Court was blocking legislation aimed at economic recovery, Roosevelt’s Judicial Procedures Reforms would have allowed him to appoint an additional justice for every sitting justice over the age of 70 who did not retire, potentially adding up to six new seats.

Running for a third term

Roosevelt's decision to run for a third term, and later fourth term was controversial for breaking a long-standing unwritten rule established by George Washington, who set a precedent by only holding two terms as President. This move raised concerns about the potential for excessive power concentration in a single individual.

A 1940 Gallup Poll found that if there was no war in Europe, voters preferred Willkie over Roosevelt, and 15 months before the election most Americans opposed giving Roosevelt a third term.

Internment of Japanese Americans

Executive Order 9066, which sent 120,000 Japanese expatriates and American citizens of Japanese ancestry to be confined at internment camps, was heavily motivated by a fear of Japanese Americans, following the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack. The Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in Korematsu v. United States (1944).

In the weeks before the signing of Executive Order 9066, there was little evidence of a public groundswell for internment. A survey by the Office of Facts and Figures on February 4th, for example, reported general satisfaction with existing governmental controls on Japanese Americans. Many years later Attorney General Biddle even considered it doubtful that “political and special group pressure aside, public opinion even on the West Coast supported evacuation.”

The most cited measure of widespread public support dates from the period after the decision for internment had become a fait accompli. According to a March 1942 poll conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion, 93% of Americans supported Roosevelt's decision on relocation of Japanese non-citizens from the Pacific Coast, and only 1% opposed it. According to the same poll, 59% supported the relocation of Japanese who were born in the country and were United States citizens, whereas 25% opposed it.

By December 1942, Gallup found 35% of Americans thought they should return home; whereas 48% said no.

Beito argues Roosevelt could've possibly significantly reduced anti-Japanese sentiment by leveraging his charisma and even invoking his own Four Freedoms vision.

In August 1936, Roosevelt sent a memo to The Chief of Naval Operations about Japanese ships visiting Honolulu, worrying these ships might be used for spying or attacks. Roosevelt suggested that any Japanese person on the island of Oahu (whether they were U.S. citizens or not) who had contact with those ships should be secretly identified and put on a list to be the first people rounded up and locked in a concentration camp if war broke out with Japan.

"One obvious thought occurs to me -- that every Japanese citizen or non-citizen on the island of Oahu who meets these Japanese ships or has any connection with their officers or men should be secretly but definitely identified and his or her name placed on a special list of those who would be the first to be placed in a concentration camp in the event of trouble,

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has condemned Roosevelt's decision to Intern Japanese Americans, The Museum based in Hyde Park, New York features an exhibit titled "Images of Internment," which includes a short film with excerpts from oral history accounts of Japanese Americans describing their experiences during internment, and a video recording of Ronald Reagan's formal apology on behalf of The United States and signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which granted reparations all who've been interned.

Colorado governor Ralph Lawrence Carr was outspoken against Japanese internment camps

Beito argues that Roosevelt’s authorization of internment camps reflected longstanding personal prejudice as well as wartime considerations. He points to Roosevelt’s support for the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, his writings describing Japanese immigrants as unassimilable and opposing racial mixing, and a 1936 memorandum proposing the identification of certain Japanese residents of Oahu for possible internment in the event of war.

Catering to Southern Democrats

Roosevelt had a complex, often pragmatic relationship with Southern Democrats. They were important members of his political coalition, but they also constrained what he could accomplish on civil rights - most notably anti-lynching legislation. Roosevelt stayed close to The Southern Democrats to implement New Deal policies.

Treatment of Jesse Owens

After the 1936 Berlin Olympics, only the white athletes were invited to see and meet Roosevelt. No such invitation was made to the black athletes such as Jesse Owens, who had won four gold medals. A widely believed myth about the 1936 games was that Adolf Hitler had snubbed Owens, an event that never occurred. Owens said, "Hitler didn't snub me—it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram". However, Hitler had left after Owens won his first gold medal, and did not meet with him. Subsequently, Hitler did not meet with any of the gold medalists. Owens lamented his treatment by Roosevelt, saying that he "wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President".

Anti-lynching legislation

Roosevelt condemned lynching as a form of [...], but in contrast to his wife, Eleanor, he did not support Republican proposals to classify it as a federal crime. Roosevelt made the following remark when he spoke to an advocate of federal anti-lynching legislation: "If I come out for the anti-lynching bill now, they [Southern Democratic senators] will block every bill I ask Congress to pass to keep America from collapsing. I just can't take that risk".

Historian David T. Beito, however, disputes this rationalization often used by FDR for his inaction on this issue throughout the 1930s. He points out, for example, that a majority of Southern whites supported a federal anti-lynching law according to a Gallup poll in 1937. Moreover, Roosevelt made no attempt to use his tremendous patronage influence to sway Southern politicians. "Perhaps FDR didn’t seem to care about civil rights," writes Beito, "because he didn’t have to care. Internal polling and reports on the ground showed that African Americans, regardless of the president’s stand on this issue, were already joining Democratic ranks in large numbers."

Nomination of Hugo Black

Roosevelt nominated Hugo Black to the Supreme Court although that Black had been an active member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The nomination of Black was controversial because while he was a staunch defender of the New Deal in the Senate, he had virtually no legal experience.

Roosevelt and the members of the Senate claimed that they did not know of Black's previous Klan membership despite accusations by the Chicago Daily Tribune and other newspapers.

Black later recalled that FDR had reassured him that “there was no reason for my worrying about having been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He said that some of the best friends and supporters he had in the state of Georgia [FDR’s second home] were strong members of the organization. He never in any way by word or attitude, indicated any doubt about my having been in the Klan nor did he indicate any criticism of me for having been a member of that organization.”

Ultimately, despite his past [...] membership, Black would often establish a voting record more favorable to civil rights in numerous cases, with the notable exception of Japanese-American internment, in the years that followed, including Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Loving v. Virginia (1967), and Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969).

Anti-Semitism

Some of Roosevelt's closest political associates were Jewish. Nevertheless, historians have accused Roosevelt of expressing anti-Semitic attitudes, both publicly and privately. According to historian Rafael Medoff, "Roosevelt’s unflattering statements about Jews consistently reflected one of several interrelated notions: that it was undesirable to have too many Jews in any single profession, institution, or geographic locale; that by nature, America was, and it should always continue to be, an overwhelmingly white, Protestant country; and on the whole, Jews possessed certain innate and distasteful characteristics." Medoff argued that Roosevelt establishing a quota for Jewish students in 1923, during his time as an administrator at Harvard, was aimed at restricting, not ensuring, access to Jewish students. Medoff further claimed that in 1939, Roosevelt boasted to Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler that both men had no Jewish blood in their veins. Medoff also claimed that as a child, Roosevelt's grandson Curtis would often hear his grandfather telling stories in the White House with stereotypical Jewish characters: Lower East Side people with heavy accents.

Mexican Repatriation

From Roosevelt's first term until 1939, the Mexican Repatriation started by his predecessor Herbert Hoover continued under his administration, which some scholars today contend was a form of [...] towards Mexican Americans. Roosevelt ended federal involvement in the deportations, but did not attempt to suppress the deportations on a local or state level. After 1934, the number of deportations fell by approximately 50 percent.

Anti-Italian and Anti-German sentiment

On December 8, 1941, Roosevelt issued proclamations — No. 2525, and No. 2527—declaring nationals of Germany and Italy residing in the United States to be "enemy aliens" under the Alien Enemies Act; German and Italian-Americans were sent to Internment camps, though at a smaller extent than Japanese American.

Navajo Livestock Reduction

Roosevelt himself did not personally target the Navajo with discriminatory intent, but his administration’s policies—particularly the livestock reduction program overseen by John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs—caused severe harm to the Navajo people.

[...] Tax Act of 1937 and negative implications for Mexicans

On August 2, 1937 Roosevelt passed The [...] Tax Act of 1937, the first major federal law in the United States aimed at controlling [...]. Rather than banning [...] outright, the law imposed taxes, registration requirements, and extensive paperwork on anyone who produced, sold, or used [...] commercially.

Anti-Mexican prejudice played a role in the campaign for the [...] Tax Act of 1937, as [...] was often associated with Mexican immigrants and portrayed as a threat through sensationalized and racially charged rhetoric.

Accusations of insufficient assistance to victims of the Holocaust

Beginning in the 1940s, Roosevelt was accused by critics of not acting decisively enough to prevent the Holocaust. Critics cite instances such as the 1939 episode in which 936 Jewish refugees on the MS St. Louis were denied asylum and not allowed into the United States because of strict laws passed by Congress.

Historian David Wyman claimed that the Roosevelt administration knew that the [...] were systematically [...] Jews and other minorities, but it adhered to a policy that prevented it from rescuing them. According to Wyman, Roosevelt's record on Holocaust refugees and their rescue is very poor and one of the worst failures of his presidency.

Defenders of Roosevelt, such as Robert N. Rosen, noted that Roosevelt made numerous attempts to allow Holocaust refugees to enter the United States, and they argue that during periods when his presidency was weak, he simply did not have the political capital that would have enabled him to wage those battles. Rosen argues that the mood in the country favored the strong desire to remain neutral regarding European affairs and distrust of anything that smacked of internationalism. On one point, Wyman and Rosen agree that there were bitter divisions within numerous minority communities in America on actively lobbying for the rescue of their European counterparts from [...] persecution, which gave Roosevelt limited political capital to initiate such an effort.

Medoff claimed that after the Allied conquest of North Africa in 1942, Roosevelt chose to retain the antisemitic Vichy French leadership, which was in power there, with Jews and many other victims remaining held in concentration camps, and discriminatory laws against minorities remained in effect. Medoff claimed that in private, Roosevelt stated that Jews and other minorities did not need the right to vote because no elections were expected to be held soon. According to Medoff, it was only after an outcry was made by Jewish organizations in the US that Roosevelt acted to help North African Jews, with anti-Jewish laws remaining in effect for 10 months after the US conquest.

Newport [...] scandal

Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, approved a controversial investigation into homosexual activities at the Naval Station Newport, which involved unethical tactics such as using enlisted men to engage in [...] acts for evidence. Public outrage grew after the Navy’s methods—especially entrapment and questionable treatment of suspects—became widely known through press coverage and Senate hearings.

Even by the standards of the early 1920s—when homosexuality was widely criminalized and heavily stigmatized—many people believed the Navy’s investigation went too far, however public outrage was mainly caused by the Navy’s investigative methods, not by sympathy for homosexuality itself.

The U.S Senate Naval Affairs Committee was launched in 1921 to investigate The Scandal, and authorized an inquiry conduct after press reports and constituent complaints after public outcry promoted a senate investigation.

Roosevelt denied involvement in The Scandal, insisting he did not direct or authorize the tactics used - and disputed the Senate Naval Affairs Committee's interpretation of his responsibility.

Unconditional surrender

The Allies' "unconditional surrender" policy was announced by Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, demanding total surrender from The Axis Powers to ensure victory in World War II - with no negotiated peace or preserved regimes.

Critics believe Roosevelt's commitment to unconditional surrender ultimately prolonged World War II because it discouraged potential German resistance movements and encouraged propaganda that promoted further fighting, as there were no assurances for better treatment if they surrendered.

Recession of 1937–1938

The Recession of 1937-1938 was a recession within The Great Depression.

Scholarly studies

• Monroe Lee Billington. "New Mexico Clergymen's Perceptions of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal". New Mexico Historical Review (fall 2009). 84#4. pp. 521–544; most of the clergy were favorable and criticisms focused on relief programs and agricultural policies.
• Campbell Craig. "The Not-So-Strange Career of Charles Beard". Diplomatic History (Spring 2001). 25#2; historian Charles A. Beard accused Roosevelt of unnecessary provocation of Japan and deceiving the American people.
• John A. Garraty. "The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression". American Historical Review (1973). 78#4. pp. 907–944.
• William E. Leuchtenburg. The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy (1997). chap. 1. Columbia University Press.
• Lynn Y. Weiner and Ronald D. Tallman; Nancy Beck Young et al. eds. "The Popular Iconography of FDR". Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shaping of American Political Culture (2001). pp. 9–18; reviews the overwhelmingly favorable popular images of Roosevelt.
• James Q. Whitman. "Of Corporatism, [...], and the First New Deal". The American Journal of Comparative Law (Autumn 1991). 39#4. pp. 747–778.
• George Wolfskill and John Allen Hudson. All But the People: Franklin D. Roosevelt and His Critics, 1933–39 (1969). Macmillan.

Popular attacks

• John T. Flynn. The Roosevelt Myth (1953).
• Bruce S. Jansson. The Sixteen-Trillion-Dollar Mistake: How the US bungled its national priorities from the New Deal to the present (2001).
• Jim Powell. FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (2007). Crown.
• Jim Powell. How FDR's New Deal Harmed Millions of Poor People (2003). CATO.
• Burt Solomon. FDR v. the Constitution: the Court-packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy (2009).
• Thomas E. Woods, Jr. The Truth About FDR.
• Felix Wittmer. The Yalta betrayal: data on the decline and fall of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1953). Caxton Printers.
• Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman FDR and the Jews (2013)
• David T. Beito The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance (2023)
• David T. Beito FDR: A New Political Life (2025)

External links

• Roosevelt and the Jews: A Debate Rekindled. The New York Times. April 30, 2009.