My wife and I have been watching the enthralling and morally complicated French historical drama about a Jura town under German occupation, 1940-45. dvd.netflix.com/Movie/A-French… Unable to sell it to the kids, however, we paused to watch the 1st episode of HBO's "Plot Against America."
Something in that first episode of "Plot Against America" clanged hard on my ear. It's set, as you probably know, in a fictional universe in which Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt on an isolationist platform in the presidential election of November 1940. 2/x
One of the Jewish protagonists in "Plot" laments that FDR is at a disadvantage against Lindbergh, because FDR is a gentleman who fights with a hand tied behind his back. 3/x
Now maybe if I were to stick with "Plot" through remaining episodes, the screenwriters would reveal that they understand that life is not so simple. But something warns me: probably not.
So here's a footnote for those who prefer the adult to the child's version of history 4/x
So here's a footnote for those who prefer the adult to the child's version of history 4/x
In the election year 1940, and then during the "great debate" over intervention 1941, the Roosevelt administration and the FBI wiretapped and surveilled people suspected of pro-Nazi sympathies, including Lindbergh. jstor.org/stable/2491379… 5/x
Lindbergh was also tax-audited, pretty obviously for political reasons. The methods that the FBI of the 1960s and 1970s would deploy against the anti-Vietnam movements were forged and honed in the 1940s against Nazi sympathizers and US isolationists. 6/x
The methods the FBI of the 1960s and 1970s would deploy against left-wing opponents of the Vietnam War were forged and honed in the 1940s against right-wing opponents of entry into World War II. FDR certainly did not "tie one hand behind his back." 6/x
Was Roosevelt wrong? He confronted authentic and deadly domestic security threats. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, somebody leaked America's top-secret war mobilization plans to the isolationist Chicago Tribune. historynet.com/who-leaked-fdr… Lindbergh truly was a Nazi sympathizer. 7/x
Roosevelt was playing for the future of world civilization in 1940-41. He played rough. as his immediate successors would do during the Cold War, as his later successors George W. Bush and Barack Obama would do in the wars after 9/11. 8/x
How to judge? It's not so easy, not in my judgement at least. Barry Gewen titles his (superb) fortchoming study of Henry Kissinger and his statesmanship, "The Inevitability of Tragedy." amazon.com/Inevitability-… Yet it is also tragic to lose. 9/x
One of the noblest characters in "French Village" retorts to the excuse, "I had no choice": "one can always choose."
The artist who studies choices in their complexity not only makes better art - but tells a more engaging and satisfying story. - END -
The artist who studies choices in their complexity not only makes better art - but tells a more engaging and satisfying story. - END -
