The president's man: Leo Crowley and Franklin Roosevelt in peace and war

605 Pages·1996·1.47 MB·English

by  Stuart L. Weiss

The President's Man : Leo Crowley and
title:
Franklin Roosevelt in Peace and War
author: Weiss, Stuart L.
publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0809319969
print isbn13: 9780809319961
ebook isbn13: 9780585186696
language: English
Roosevelt, Franklin D.--(Franklin Delano),-
-1882-1945--Friends and associates,
subject
Crowley, Leo, Politicians--United States--
Biography.
publication date: 1996
lcc: E807.W46 1996eb
ddc: 973.917/092
Roosevelt, Franklin D.--(Franklin Delano),-
subject: -1882-1945--Friends and associates,
Crowley, Leo, Politicians--United States--
Biography.
Page ii
Page iii
The President's Man
Leo Crowley and Franklin Roosevelt in Peace and War
Stuart L. Weiss
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale and Edwardsville
Page iv
Copyright © 1996 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Natalia Nadraga
99 98 97 96 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weiss, Stuart L.
The president's man : Leo Crowley and Franklin Roosevelt in peace
and war / Stuart L. Weiss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 18821945Friends
and associates. 2. Crowley, Leo. 3. PoliticiansUnited States
Biography. I. Title.
E807.W46 1996
973.917'092dc20 95-14363
[b] CIP
ISBN 0-8093-1996-9 (cloth)
Frontispiece: Leo Crowley. Courtesy of the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page v
For Matthew, whose life enriched us all
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
1. The Plunger 1
2. The Richelieu of Wisconsin 17
3. Cover-Up in the Capital, I 33
4. Cover-Up in the Capital, II 48
5. Banking and Politics 65
6. Private Enterprise and Public Service 81
7. A Third Term for the President 98
8. Alien Property Custodian, I 114
9. Alien Property Custodian, II 132
10. The Nation's # 1 Pinch Hitter 148
11. Global Diplomat 165
12. Embattled 183
Page viii
13. Germany, Politics, and Lend-Lease 200
14. The End of Lend-Lease 219
15. Epilogue 238
Primary Sources and Abbreviations 247
Notes 249
Index 287
Page ix
Preface
Most books are planned. This book was not. It was at root accidental.
I was not looking for a topic to exploit in an article, much less a book,
and I did not search for a subject among the many well-known,
obviously influential figures who served in the administrations of
Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Otherwise, I should
have chosen someone other than Leo T. Crowley, whose name always
prompted friends and acquaintances to exclaim, "Leo, who!"
The exclamations were understandable. Only historians fascinated
with the origins of the Cold War knew Crowley, and then only as the
lend-lease administrator charged in Truman's Memoirs with abruptly
and improperly cutting off aid to the Soviet Union just as the Second
World War ended in Europe, embittering Joseph Stalin, impairing
SovietAmerican relations, perhaps fueling the Cold War. It was a
sharp, major indictment, but far from clear-cut. Truman admitted
signing the cut-off order without reading it; he also condemned
Crowley for "policy-making," though at the same time admitting that
Crowley executed the order "literally." Crowley responded with a
lengthy (partially published) letter to the New York Times reciting the
factors that prompted him to act in May 1945, but his public battle
with Truman ended with that exchange in the fifties. There remained
only his bitterness at the wrong he felt had been done to him.
Over the next ten years few historians mentioned the issue. By the
mid-sixties, though, a symbiotic impulse generated by intervention in
Vietnam and by the training of so-called radical historians awakened
new interest in the origins of the Cold War and the responsibilityoften
the culpabilityof American leaders. That meant a new focus on the
first six months of Truman's presidency, the period when Crowley, as
foreign economic administrator, twice cut off lend-lease. What had
begun