Hard Bargain: How FDR Twisted Churchill's Arm, Evaded the Law, and Changed the Role of the American Presidency - Softcover

Shogan, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813336953 ISBN 13: 9780813336954

Publisher: Basic Books, 1999

Synopsis

With Hard Bargain, Robert Shogan offers an account of one of World War II's most dramatic chapters—the story of how Franklin D. Roosevelt secretly brokered a deal to provide the destroyers Winston Churchill needed to save Britain from destruction. At the center of the momentous events of 1940 are two extraordinary leaders: Churchill, the forthright pragmatist, and Roosevelt, the suave politician. As Hitler's war machine threatened to starve England into submission, these two men initiated a complex negotiation that would shatter all precedents for conducting foreign policy. FDR yearned to enter the war, but was handcuffed by domestic politics. Churchill had to plead for American intervention at a time when the United States was intensely isolationist. Drawing on archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Shogan masterfully recreates the President's maneuvers as FDR stepped around the Constitution in order to clinch the deal, a move that has had repercussions from Korea to the Persian Gulf.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Shogan has spent more than thirty years covering the political scene in Washington as national political correspondent for Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Government at the Center for Study of American Government of Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hitler's U-boat offensive was on the point of starving the British into submission when, in May 1940, Churchill appealed to Roosevelt for "forty or fifty of your older destroyers." Shogan (Riddle of Power) tracks the tortuous negotiations between Washington and London, with FDR juggling strong domestic isolationist sentiment and the mandates of third-term politics before making a deal in which the British allowed the U.S. use of certain sea bases in exchange for 50 WWI warships. In the end the destroyers did not come up to expectations, and the bases were not as useful as had been hoped; nevertheless, the ships helped stave off Hitler's domination of the Atlantic shipping lanes. In this instructive account of how the president closed the deal without seeking congressional approval, Shogan argues that a pernicious precedent was set, enabling chief executives to override constitutional guidelines under the pretense of protecting national security. Urging total disclosure, increased candor and full accountability, Shogan contends that our presidents can cause harm with foreign policy prevarications: "Presidential lying is not only immoral, it is also impractical." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0813336953
• ISBN 13: 9780813336954
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328