Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 131

BOOK REVIEWS

on a fact-finding mission. After the fall of France,
Roosevelt dispatched Bill Donovan, future head of
the OSS during World War II, to investigate Britain’s
military situation. Donovan reported that Britain could
survive, but it needed U.S. aid. The president responded with Lend-Lease legislation, while at the same time
attempting to rearm the United States and prepare a
reluctant public for war. Along with Lend-Lease, he
also sent his adviser Harry Hopkins to Britain and later, after Germany invaded Russia, to the Soviet Union.
Not only was Hopkins vital in getting Lend-Lease aid
extended to the Soviets, but also in forging the friendship between Winston Churchill and Roosevelt. The
final two envoys were Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt’s
former Republican opponent in the 1940 election, and
Averell Harriman, who oversaw Lend-Lease shipments
to Britain, while at the same time having an affair with
Churchill’s daughter-in-law.
“FDR was a seductive figure,” Fullilove writes
about Roosevelt, and the author is not immune to his
charms. “Roosevelt was the most important statesman
of the twentieth century,” the author states. “He saved
American democracy from the Depression, [and] led
the Allies to victory over fascism.” Yet the book never
really examines the moral dimension of a U.S. president
attempting to involve his country in a war the majority
of the population opposed. Months before the United
States entered the war, Roosevelt secretly informed
Churchill that he would “wage war, but not declare it,”
and the United States quickly became more belligerent
toward Germany.
On hearing the news that Pearl Harbor had been
bombed, Harriman and U.S. Ambassador John G.
Winant, according to Churchill, “nearly danced for joy.”
America’s entry into World War II was undoubtedly a
good thing; however, if Roosevelt’s name was replaced
with another president’s, perhaps William McKinley,
it is unimaginable that he would have received such
positive accolades.
Nevertheless, Rendezvous with Destiny is well researched and informative. Those interested in foreign
affairs will find it a joy to read. One cannot help missing, however, the irony of Roosevelt’s attempts to enter
the war in Europe instead of Asia, from whence the
war finally came. If anything, this is a reminder of the
fickleness of international fate.
Alexander Lovelace, P 6FV