Table Of ContentThe World of the Roosevelts
Published in cooperation with the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Hyde Park, New York
General Editors:
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., William vanden Heuvel, and Douglas Brinkley
FDR AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES FDR AND THE HOLOCAUST
Foreign Perceptions of Edited by Verne W. Newton
an American President
Edited by Cornelis A. van Minnen and THE UNITED STATES AND
John F. Sears THE INTEGRATION OF EUROPE
Legacies of the Postwar Era
NATO: THE FOUNDING OF THE Edited by Francis H. Heller and
ATLANTIC ALLIANCE AND THE John R. Gillingham
INTEGRATION OF EUROPE
ADENAUER AND KENNEDY
Edited by Francis H. Heller and
A Study in German-American Relations
John R. Gillingham
Frank A. Mayer
AMERICA UNBOUND
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND
World War II and the Making
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of a Superpower
A Study in Presidential Statecraft
Edited by Warren F. Kimball
William N. Tilchin
THE ORIGINS OF U.S. NUCLEAR TARIFFS, TRADE AND EUROPEAN
STRATEGY, 1945–1953 INTEGRATION, 1947–1957
Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. and From Study Group to Common Market
Steven L. Rearden Wendy Asbeek Brusse
AMERICAN DIPLOMATS IN SUMNER WELLES
THE NETHERLANDS, 1815–50 FDR’s Global Strategist
Cornelis A. van Minnen A Biography by Benjamin Welles
EISENHOWER, KENNEDY, THE NEW DEAL AND PUBLIC POLICY
AND THE UNITED STATES Edited by Byron W. Daynes, William D.
OF EUROPE Pederson, and Michael P. Riccards
Pascaline Winand
WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE
Edited by Charles F. Brower
ALLIES AT WAR
The Soviet, American,
FDR AND THE U.S. NAVY
and British Experience, 1939–1945
Edward J. Marolda
Edited by David Reynolds,
Warren F. Kimball, and A. O. Chubarian THE SECOND QUEBEC
CONFERENCE REVISITED
THE ATLANTIC CHARTER Edited by David B. Woolner
Edited by Douglas Brinkley and
David R. Facey-Crowther THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
THE U.S. NAVY, AND
PEARL HARBOR REVISITED THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
Edited by Robert W. Love, Jr. Edited by Edward J. Marolda
FDR, THE VATICAN, AND THE VAN LOON: POPULAR HISTORIAN,
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN JOURNALIST, AND FDR CONFIDANT
AMERICA, 1933–1945 Cornelis A. van Minnen
Edited by David B. Woolner and
Richard G. Kurial FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT’S FOREIGN
POLICY AND THE WELLES MISSION
FDR AND THE ENVIRONMENT J. Simon Rofe
Edited by Henry L. Henderson and
David B. Woolner
Franklin Roosevelt’s
Foreign Policy and
the Welles Mission
J. S R
IMON OFE
FRANKLINROOSEVELT’SFOREIGNPOLICYANDTHEWELLESMISSION
© J.Simon Rofe,2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-8073-1
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-53876-8 ISBN 978-0-230-60489-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230604896
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rofe,J.Simon
Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy and the Welles mission / by
J.Simon Rofe.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-53876-8
1.United States––Foreign relations––1933–1945.2.Roosevelt,
Franklin D.(Franklin Delano),1882–1945.3.Welles,Sumner,1892–1961.
4.Hull,Cordell,1871–1955.5.World War,1939–1945––Diplomatic
history.6.United States––Foreign Relations––Great Britain.7.Great
Britain––Foreign Relations––United States.I.Title.
E806.R7255 2007
327.730409(cid:2)044––dc22 2007052780
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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First edition:June 2007
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C
ONTENTS
Abstract vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Mission of Sumner Welles to Europe
(February–March 1940), Rooseveltian Foreign Policy, and
Anglo-American Relations, November 1937–May 1940 1
1 Rooseveltian Foreign Policy Making and
Anglo-American Relations in 1938 and
1939—Relationships in the Making 13
2 War and Peace—Rooseveltian Foreign Policy and the
“Phony War”: “Like Spectators at a Football Match” 47
3 “Wishing Welles”: The Immediate Origins of
the Welles Mission, January and February 1940 75
4 Hope, Despair, Friends—Welles in Rome,
Berlin, and Paris, 17 February–12 March 1940 107
5 “The Grass Snake” Arrives: Welles in London,
10 March–13 March 1940 131
6 Increasingly Forlorn: Welles Heads Home via Rome 155
7 The Welles Mission: A Short-Term Legacy to the
Anglo-American Relationship and Rooseveltian
Foreign Policy 175
Appendices 193
Notes 197
Bibliography 243
Index 257
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A
BSTRACT
This work presents a new analysis of the mission undertaken by Under
Secretary of State Sumner Welles to Europe on behalf of President Roosevelt
in February–March 1940.
The book’s central question asks what Roosevelt’s motivations were for
undertaking the mission, and what he sought to achieve from it. It considers
that the Welles mission was an expression of a number of influences upon
Roosevelt that date back to late 1937. These influences, or themes, which
provide the broader context and run throughout the period up to the beginning
of 1940, are as follows: first, the integral role in Rooseveltian foreign policy
played by Sumner Welles. The second theme concerns the position of his
superior, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who was to counsel caution in the face
of an increasingly serious world situation, while a third influence was the limits
upon American foreign policy making itself. The last element to be consid-
ered throughout this study is the influence of Anglo-American relations upon
the Welles mission. Further, these themes are not always distinct and are
interrelated. And all were subject to the influence of an American public that
was deeply interested in, but firmly against intervention in, European affairs.
This work concludes that the mission that resulted developed multiple
objectives after being born out of a discussion between Roosevelt and Welles
on the role the United States could play in achieving a sound and lasting
peace in Europe. Such a hope, reckoned by Roosevelt to be “one chance in a
thousand,” was at the outset incongruous with the situation in Europe.
Roosevelt and Welles knew this to be the case and pressed ahead because of
the existence of other objectives that such a mission could achieve. These
were the gathering of firsthand information by Welles from the four capitals
of Europe, the perpetuation of Italian neutrality, and the prolonging of the
“phony war.” These objectives were never clarified by the protagonists and
evolved in themselves through the deployment of the mission, thus requiring
the analysis provided here.
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Throughout my time as his studentI would like to thank Alan Dobson
for his expertise and professionalism. He has proved an invaluable mentor.
Further thanks must go to my secondary supervisor Mike Simpson, whose
initial enthusiasm instilled an ambition to work in Swansea. Although I have
Alan and Mike to thank for their expert opinions a number of other people
who have read my work have provided invaluable suggestions: Mark Evans,
Hans Krabbendam, Jacqueline Dix, and Richard Askwith. At various points,
unbeknowingly and in no particular order, academic inspiration has been
instilled by the following individuals: David Knight, Patricia Clavin, David
Adams, and Andrew Williams.
I am grateful to David Woolner, the Executive Director of the Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI), for providing generous support to
my research at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library where I was
ably assisted by archivist Bob Clark. Elsewhere in the United States, my
research was supported by the staff at the National Archives, Washington
DC, and the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. I would
also like thank the Roosevelt Study Center (Middelburg, the Netherlands) for
the award of a grant that enabled me to utilize their resources in the spring of
1999. In the United Kingdom special thanks must go to all those who over
many trips helped my research at the National Archives. I am also grateful to
the staff at Special Collections Division at the University of Birmingham
Library, at the Borthwick Institute at the University of York, and the
Churchill Archive Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. My experience of
these archives was pleasurable and informative.
For emotional support and perspective, Caroline has always been there.
My family and friends who have sought to ask questions and prompt answers
must be thanked also. My final words are for my grandparents, my grandfather
in particular, without whose trust none of this would have been possible.
“Take life easy. Study hard, the rest will take care of itself.”
Summer 1989, Hamsa Mwapachu
