|
Ref:
MAT2_B04.doc |
|
Part B –4 |
4. Politics and early sense of the War
|
|
Excerpts & Historical Context: Parallel Lives in Perspective |
|
JJK: And you know how the rumors start. The first thing I know, the rumors are going around that the Japanese are going to go from Hawaii, they are going to come through the Panama Canal, and then they're going to come another thousand miles and they are going to knock us off in Trinidad |
|
Table of Contents 4. Politics and early sense of the War.................................................................................................... 1 Roosevelt................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Interventionist versus Isolationist......................................................................................................................... 1 1940 Campaign and the Isolationist Press............................................................................................................. 1 They Loved or Hated FDR................................................................................................................................... 2 Early sense of War,................................................................................................................................................. 2 Jack Chased by Subs & Tom as Sailor on
Neutrality Patrol saw action............................................................... 3 Pearl Harbor comes as a surprise........................................................................................................................... 3 Rumors in Trinidad................................................................................................................................................ 4 Receiving Confidence from those a day ahead....................................................................................................... 5 |
Roosevelt
In Jan of
1937, FDR said that the "The test
of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have
much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little". This
president was fiercely loved and hated for such statements and the actions that
followed the philosophy expressed. . Schlessinger notes that it is hard to
recall how hysterically Roosevelt was reviled by those who saw their power and
income threatened by his New Deal. He also notes that others spoke in
reverential tones of FDR as "the
greatest politician the USA had ever produced." [B04-N01]
Interventionist versus Isolationist
Schlesinger
contends that there have been a number of fierce national quarrels, but that
none so tore apart families and friendships as the great debate of 1940-1941
over isolationism and intervention. [B04-N02]
1940 Campaign and the Isolationist Press
There
were a number of influential isolationist papers before the War which Roosevelt and pro interventionist forces
had to contend with. The most famous included the trio of Chicago Tribune, New
York Daily News and the Washington Times-Herald.
[B04-N03] Roosevelt was fearful of defections at the voting booth of
non-interventionist supporters and issued a statement that "your boys are
not going to be sent into any foreign wars" [B04-N04]
Jack was an early "interventionist" who
wanted the USA to enter the war on the allied side against Hitler. So he grew
to be a big supporter of Roosevelt.
They Loved or Hated FDR
The sports Illustrated story
mentioned in earlier section reported that:
In
1938, Judge Jeremiah Mahoney, who knew Keefe through the NYAC, thought an active young man
who had had polio could help his friend, President Roosevelt, in Warm Springs,
Ga. "The judge used to call him. Franklin
says Keefe." [B04-N05]
Jack discovered that some loved and some hated FDR.
He heard both views from his friends at
the New York Athletic Club when he was considering going to Warm Springs. Some wanted Jack to drown the president if he
had a chance to face him in the pool, others wanted him to give Roosevelt the
ball and help him to score when they were playing water polo.
Early sense of War,
Jack was discussed the early sense of how the war
was progressing and mentions his brother Tom's active involvement in the
Atlantic during the "neutrality patrols"
|
[excerpt below, for full see JW00se30.htm
para 07] JJK: Well, the war was on in Europe for two
years before I went overseas. It was
September of 1939 that they invaded Poland.
So, I was very much aware of the war.
We were all aware of it.
Because, the previous year in May and June of 1940s we had the Dunkirk
experience, with the British and French had just been able to get hundreds of
thousands of men back to England without any equipment. All their guns and all their armaments and
so forth. Cars, Jeeps all had to be left behind. So we were aware of what was going
on. |
Jack Chased by Subs & Tom as Sailor on Neutrality Patrol saw action[excerpt below, for full see JW00se30.htm
para 07] JJK: As a matter-of-fact, my brother
Tom, he was on a destroyer in the North Atlantic. And I remember saying to him one time, that
I was “4F” but I was the first member of the family that had been chased by
U-boats. I had been out in the
Caribbean about the 20th of December when the U-boats were knocking all of
the ships off. In 1941, right after
Pearl Harbor day. So, Tom started to
laugh. He says listen, I hate to take away the honor from you, but we weren't
playing potsi out on the neutrality patrol.
Which started in 1940 I think.
And the destroyers were out there and they were dropping depth bombs
on the subs even in those days. AKK: So, before officially war was
declared, part of the neutrality -- and that's when FDR was trying to get
support going, and he didn't think the country would buy it, at least not
wholeheartedly? He was trying to
support the British.[jw00se30.rft -
p.5] |
The
Attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the USA Officially into WW2 was a big
surprise to most Americans. Jack’s
interviews give a sense of what this was like for people already stationed
overseas and the rumors that were ever present during this time.
Pearl Harbor comes as a surprise[excerpt below, for full see JW00se30.htm
para 07] JJK: Well, I tell you, we were
more interested in what was going on in Europe and Pearl Harbor came as a
complete surprise. I remember, I had
charge of the motor pool at Trinidad on the base for the
engineers. And I was out on a trip
that day, and it was a Sunday. I got
back to the base that night at 8:00 and it was dark. Discipline was lax, before we left you
know. And all of a sudden, I come in
there and some guy with a bayonet stops me.
He says let me see your ID Card.
I said, what the hell do you mean your ID card? You know just ignored it. So, he says: let me see the ID card ! I saw well, he's got a rifle there must be
something serious. So I showed and he
said all right. So I went back into
the barracks and I said to the guy, what's this crap about some guy wanting
my ID card. He says, war with
Japan. I said what! He said war with Japan. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. So I went down to the radio shack. I didn't
believe it. And then I heard of course. |
Rumors in
|
|
War Years:
Figure 10 = 4j 14 Dec 1941 Jack Keefe with bicycle and Beard On the road to Macqueripol Trinidad, South America |
Figure 11 = 4k Sept 1944 George Keefe [Jack’s younger brother in Army Uniform Fort Dix N.J. He survived the war but died in a car accident a few years later. |
Receiving Confidence from those a day ahead[excerpt below, for full see JW00se30.htm
para 07] JJK: A little
thing I always noticed when I was overseas was if you are in a place for
three or four days all of a sudden you are a veteran, you know everything
about it. You would pull into a camp
and would say to the guys there what about this? And they would say this, this, this, boom,
boom, boom, boom. And then you would
say how long have you been here? [And
they would say] ' I have been here about a week" (chuckle).
It was kind of amazing. They knew a little and you wanted somebody to
give you a little faith in what you were doing. Because they knew what was going on. |
[For some
stories on Jack's and Wanda's involvement in Post War politics see also section B-08]
END Notes for B-04
|
End Note [EN] Part-Sect-Note |
Author |
Source & Link to Bibliography in Part G |
Abbreviated reference to Source |
Page |
|
B04-N01 |
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. |
AL20C |
Pp 098, 123, 124 |
|
|
B04-N02 |
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. |
AL20C |
Pp 241 |
|
|
B04-N03 |
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. |
AL20C |
Pp 265 |
|
|
B04-N04 |
Jeffries, John W.. |
WA |
Pp 149 |
|
|
B04-N05 |
Demak, Richard |
SI66-12 |
Pp 86, 90 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|