Thread by @TruueDiscipline

Thread of excepts I found interesting from the book "The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II" amazon.com/New-Dealers-Wa…

Roosevelt issues order to shoot German submarines on sight, Hitler tries to avoid war with America:

Roosevelt gives speech after Pearl Harbor trying to bait Hitler into declaring war on America

George F. Kennan writes that FDR could have avoided war with Japan if he behaved differently:

By the late 30s other countries were recovering from the depression faster than the United States:

Roosevelt wants to provoke war but not fire the first shot... Morgenthau is upset that he FDR would rather follow public opinion than lead it...

FDR works to censor enemies like Father Couglin:

Some people were upset with Germany first policy: 50% of servicemen wanted to kill a Japanese soldier vs 10% who wanted to kill a German soldier

During the first 21 months of the war photos of dead soldiers are not displayed so that the public doesn't call for peace:

Roosevelt worried that not enough enthusiasm towards war, most couldn't name 4 freedoms. War needed to be moralized

When Roosevelt announces doctrine of unconditional surrender, Churchill and the British are concerned it would make Germans fight harder:

Goebbels is overjoyed at unconditional surrender:

British diplomatic office was filled with hatred of Germans which could be traced to one man:

Unconditional surrender may have helped prevent coup in Nazi government:

As the war continued on, race riots swept across many cities including Detroit:

The Vice president Henry Wallace uses the war aims of "fighting for democracy" to condemn these riots:

Roosevelt is sympathetic to the Jews but doesn't want people to think thats the real reason behind the war:

Churchill (first quote) and Roosevelt have harsh plans for the Germans after the war:

Vitriol towards the Japanese reaches a fever pitch, Roosevelts son thinks that half of population of Japan should be destroyed

British and Americans worked out a compromise US would target bomb during the day, British would area bomb at night

Pope sends out message that unconditional surrender is inconsistent with Christian doctrine:

Throughout the war pro Russian articles books and movies swept across America:

Roosevelt thought that a Russian American alliance could be used to reign in European fratricidal tendencies

FDR was seemingly opposed to the British empire and somewhat sympathetic to socialism

Roosevelt tells his ambassador to Moscow he doesn't care if countries bordering Russia become communist

FDR wants his approval of communist Poland kept secret until after 1944 election:

This is pretty well known at this point, but still blows my mind: the Roosevelt govt was teeming with Soviet spies

As brutal air raids continue many Germans tried to lynch downed soldiers, but were often saved by soldiers and led to POW camps

The media decided to start showing photos of the dead so that Americans wouldn't think Germans and Japanese were the only ones willing to die for their own country:

When plotters tried to kill Hitler and they were put down, allied government were unsympathetic and saw all Germans as the same:

As is well known, Morgenthau announces his plans to stamp our Germany after the war cheered on by Soviet spy Harry Dexter White

Morgenthau tells White he doesn't care if 20 million people starve, Germany needs to realize they are a defeated nation

Many German soldiers knew the war was hopeless, but fought on fearing consequences of unconditional surrender

The authors view is that the doctrine of unconditional surrender cost millions of lives

In the last scene in the book, the author describes meeting Truman and asking him what he thought of Roosevelt. Says he is the coldest person he ever met, but brought the US into the 20th century

People who might be interested: @pegobry @la_chatte_verte @s_decatur @WolfgangHutter2 @TOOEdit @AmericanKrogan @FinDeNom @Babygravy9 @NewAtlantisSun @VDAREJamesK