FDR and the Soviet Union: The President's Battles over Foreign Policy by Mary E. s> Glantz (review)

Abstract

362 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 The authorhas adaptedhis title 'The Land of the White Dusk?' from that of Sir Paul Dukes's memoirsabout Soviet Russia, RedDuskandtheMorrow (London, I922). Fortunately, Finland experienced a happier morrow than Russia. Enormousprogresswas made during the 1920S and I930Sin building a democratic state in Finland. In I9I8-2I the nation was deeply divided; in 1939 Finland united to resist Soviet aggression. Berkhamsted J. E. 0. SCREEN Glantz, Mary E. FDRandtheSoviet Union: 7hePresident's Battles over Foreign Policy. Modern War Studies. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2005. Viii + 253 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?27.50. THE diplomatic battles identified by Mary Glantz that added to Franklin Roosevelt's burdens were between the president and those entrusted with carrying out his policy towards the Soviet Union. Glantz has undoubtedly made a distinct contribution to our understanding of the evolution of his policy in her wide-ranging, well researched and stimulatingstudy. Previous workshave focused on the makersof policy ratherthan its executors. Glantz makes effective use of an explanation of the tensions that can disrupt the businessof government offeredby Graham T. Allison, namely, that the main obstacle presidents must overcome is bureaucratic 'politics'. Glantz goes so far as to suggest that these struggles within the executive branch defined 'the formulation of United States-Soviet relations throughout Roosevelt's presidency' (pp. I, 35). Consequently,Glantz'sprime focus is on the machineryof governmentand the president's effort to modify it. These manoeuvres, she believes, offer 'a necessaryclue' (p. 2) to elucidatingthe enigmaticRoosevelt'smotives. She also gives due weight to the impact of militaryfactors on diplomatic calculations. The latterwould seem to be an obviousfactor,but the militarydimension has often been overlooked.The historiographyhas been influencedby an undue preoccupationwith diplomaticevents resultingfrom an obsessionwith seeking out the origins of the Cold War rather than illuminating the history of the Second World War. The basis of FDR's policy had been laid down before I939 thanks to the work of the Ambassador in Moscow, Joseph E. Davies, and the military attache, Lieutenant Colonel Philip R. Faymonville, who built up extensive contacts with the Soviet military. Their successors, Ambassadors Laurence Steinhardtand Admiral William H. Standley, and attaches Ivan Yeaton arid Joseph Michela, were much more hostile to the Soviet Union. They favoured a strictpolicy of reciprocity.Concessionsshouldbe demanded from the Soviet Union in return for any aid, and Soviet diplomats should be treated in the same way as the Americans, few of whom enjoyed their service in Moscow. Glantz argues that this group proved incapable of grasping the strategic importance of the Soviet Union within a broad internationalcontext. They allowed their anti-Sovietprejudicesto warp theirjudgment;Moscow Embassy staffunderestimatedthe importance of the Soviet Union as an ally. REVIEWS 363 Glantz explores the intellectuallegacy of Robert F. Kelley, the head of the State Department'sDivision of EastEuropeanAffairs.He chose and groomed an entire generation of Soviet experts that remained hostile to Roosevelt's policy of developing American-Soviet cooperation. Before I943 Roosevelt sought to hold the GrandAlliance together,mainly because of the vital Soviet contributionof pinning down the bulk of the Wehrmacht.He remainedwary of any compromisepeace that the Sovietsmight signwith Hitler, and thought reciprocity was a luxury the Western Allies could not afford. He was thus prepared to give the Soviet Union all the aid that it demanded. Roosevelt by-passedcriticsin the State Department and Moscow Embassyby sending a stream of special envoys to deal with Stalin directly, including Davies, Wendell Wilkie and W. Averell Harriman. He also by-passed the bureaucracyby creating the Office of Lend Lease Administration(OLLA),whose Moscow office for a time operated independently of the Embassyunder the direction of BrigadierGeneral Faymonville. Admiral Standley mounted a counter attack. He ambushed Davies at a Moscow press conference, having briefed the press against his predecessor. On 8 March I943 he denounced the Soviet Union and embarrassed Roosevelt, by claiming that the Kremlin was ungratefuland concealed from the Russian people the source of Lend Lease material. And Faymonville's reputation was besmirched when Michela had the FBI investigate him on 'moralscharges' (p. I35), that is, homosexuality. After I943 Roosevelt's dependence on the Soviet militarycontributiondid not diminish, as the Second Front could not be opened untilJune...