December 2002 Newsletter

THE POWER TO PERSUADE: F.D.R., THE NEWSMAGAZINES AND GOING TO WAR 1939-1941

by Michael G. Carew, New York University

Professor Richard Hill in his SHAFR NEWSLETTER article of June 2002 has stimulated interest regarding American beliefs as seen in the American press related to the beginning of American intervention in World War II. This paper, an adaptation from my recent Ph. D. dissertation, concerns the media and its role in moving the American electorate towards a belligerent confrontation with the Axis, before Pearl Harbor. Its purpose is to amplify discussion by providing the context of the editorial content of the primary American news media of the period with an emphasis on Time/Life Inc.

On December 8, 1941 President Roosevelt asked the Congress for a declaration of war against Japan in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the day before. Little information was available as to the damage done by the Japanese attack, nor had there been much opportunity for public discussion or evaluation of the consequences of the attack. Yet the Congress gave virtually unanimous support for the declaration of war. The American press also was virtually unanimous in its support for war, so was the electorate as reflected in several contemporaneous public opinion polls. This political and popular unanimity was unusual in the American experience. America's prior wars had not met with such enthusiasm; in fact strong political, press and electoral dissent had greeted similar presidential requests for war in 1846, 1861, 1898 and 1917.

Interestingly, barely thirty months prior, the political press and electoral views were strongly opposed to any American involvement in any war in Europe or Asia. (1) This change in political, press and electoral views came amidst a burgeoning world conflict of unprecedented scope and ferocity, which otherwise would seem to reinforce the anti-war views held by the political world, the press and the electorate. The transformation of American views toward engagement in a foreign war was rooted in the developing acceptance of the danger to the United States of the increasing successful military aggressions in Europe and Asia. The successful aggressors were Germany and Japan and their several allies, collectively the self proclaimed Axis.

The American political arena and the electorate perceived the threat to the United States from the rising danger of the Axis ascendancy, only gradually in the 1939-1941 period. The information that demonstrated the danger and the threat of the Axis ascendancy was brought to the electorate by the American news media, collectively the American press. The communication and presentation of the threat to the United States of Axis ascendancy occurred in a preexisting environment of the Roosevelt Administration's relations with the press. This preexisting press environment posed two major obstacles for the Roosevelt Administration. In the first instance, the publishers of a large majority of the American newspapers had become hostile to, and suspicious of the Roosevelt Administration. Secondly, the recollections of the First World War included an array of press manipulation, censorship and broad scale propaganda from both American and Allied sources directed at affecting United States electoral opinion. As a result, the Administration fully appreciated that the presentation of the threat of Nazi German and Imperial Japanese led Axis ascendancy could not originate with the Roosevelt Administration. Such an administration-based presentation of the threat to the United States electorate would be viewed as mere "propaganda," reminiscent of the World War I deception. (2)

As a result of this concern, the communication and presentation of both the threat of the Axis ascendancy, and the responding Administration foreign and defense policy initiatives required an independent media channel. Through the persuasion of the Roosevelt Administration, and the sympathies of the national newsmagazines, this independent media channel, the national newsmagazines, led the communication and presentation of the threat to the United States. The communication and presentation of the threat and the responding foreign and defense policy initiatives were seen as objective and did not appear as Administration propaganda. While the bitter isolationist opposition to the Administration complained of the newsmagazines role as propagandists, their high credibility and the wide dominant audience of the four major newsmagazines, LIFE, LOOK, NEWSWEEK and TIME, assured the appreciation of the threat and the formation of a wide political consensus in support of the Administration's foreign and defense policy initiatives. In fact the newspaper media, which followed the lead of the newsmagazines, also slowly became advocates of both defense preparedness and ultimately belligerency toward the Axis.

The perception of the danger, or the threat to the United States, in the American political world, and electorate was formed in the presentation and interpretation of the wars in Europe and Asia from the beginning of 1939 through late 1941. That presentation and interpretation was made by the several components of the American news media. Generally, the newspapers were suspicious of the Administration, its relations with the press, and were overwhelmingly opposed to Roosevelt's third term candidacy in 1940. Newsreels, radio, and periodicals did not operate effectively in the realm of broad political issues. On the other hand, the newly popular newsmagazines offered the Administration a unique channel of communication to vital segments of political and electoral opinion.

On February 20, 1940 Mrs. Henry R. Luce boarded an Italian ocean liner and sailed to Naples and a Europe, which had been at war for almost six months. As a journalist she had persuaded her husband to allow her to cover and report what was then perceived as a "phony war." Her coverage of the war would be published in the several magazines of Mr. Luce's TIME/LIFE Inc. Familiar with Europe, Mrs. Luce planned to travel through the several warring countries, with ready access through TIME/LIFE's influence to senior European politicians and resident American officials. She planned to compile her travels and reporting into a popular book, tentatively to be called Europe in the Spring.

Clare and Henry Luce had married four years earlier, after a tumultuous romance that had wrecked both their previous marriages. She had been the heir of the Boothe theatre family, and as Clare Boothe had won renown as a highly successful playwright and as the editor of VOGUE magazine. The Boothe family's theatrical notoriety, as well as the topics of Clare's plays and her own amorous reputation had lent an aroma of scandal to their romance and marriage. Their mutual interest in magazine publishing had blossomed in their marriage and led to their joint creation of the spectacularly successful LIFE magazine. (3)

Clare arrived in Rome on March 2, 1940 where she met with Count Ciano, Italy's foreign minister and son in law of Benito Mussolini. She subsequently had an audience with the Pope, and began to file her stories through the TIME/LIFE office in Paris. From Rome she proceeded to Paris and then to London where she met with the American Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy. Kennedy was in the final stages of his troubled embassy to Neville Chamberlain's appeasement government. Kennedy and his second son John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been forthcoming and helpful to the Luces during the European trips of 1938 and 1939. Their stark appraisal of the weakness of France and Britain compared to Germany's burgeoning strength emphasized to Clare the ominous dread of the coming 1940 spring military campaign.

That military campaign opened in early April with Hitler's bold stroke against the Scandinavian flank of the French and British allies. The German Wehrmacht quickly overran Denmark, and the British navy was out maneuvered and out fought by the Nazi Kriegsmarine in Norway. At this crashing end to the "phony war" Clare wired Henry in New York, pleading for him to join her in covering the war as "the curtain is going up." Henry had turned over executive management of TIME/LIFE Inc. to Roy Larsen, his deputy, allowing himself the freedom to more actively edit and cover the war. Now, responding to Clare's urgency, Henry promptly cast aside his schedule and sailed to Europe to join his anxious wife. In order to avoid the German U-Boats blockading Britain and France he sailed on the Italian liner Rex, which brought him to Naples at the end of April. The trans-Atlantic crossing gave Luce the opportunity to reformulate his view of the war and the role that his magazines could play in preparing the American electorate for what he saw as the unavoidable intervention of the United States in the spreading war. From Naples he traveled to Paris, to join Clare where they cancelled their appointments for the next day. From there they again visited with Ambassador Kennedy in London, spent a weekend with high priestess of appeasement, Lady Astor. Leaving roses, they then flew to Holland to visit with Queen Wilhelmina. Anticipating a Nazi German assault in Flanders they then moved closer to that front in Belgium arriving at the American Embassy in Brussels on Thursday night May 9.

On Friday morning they were awakened by the explosions of German bombs in front of the American embassy, as the Nazis launched their surprise offensive through neutral Belgium against the British and the French. Clare and Henry watched as the hotel opposite them was bombed into destruction, and frenzied civilians began to flee before the German rampage. Refugees streamed into Brussels as the German Luftwaffe strafed the roadways indiscriminately destroying military and civilian traffic. In response the British and French rushed their armored reserves into Belgium, and the Belgian army closed all civilian traffic into or out of that country. In the midst of this confusion and destruction came the portentous news that the Germans had also broken through the French defenses on the Belgian-French border at Sedan. To the North the Germans obliterated the city of Rotterdam in an overwhelming air bombardment that forced the Dutch to surrender to Germany after only four days of fighting. (4) Together the Luces were witness to the destruction of civilian morale and the increasingly frenetic efforts of the Belgian government that presaged its collapse, which in turn led to the Belgian surrender sixteen days later. The meticulous and well drilled Nazi German war machine chewed through the ineffective defenses of the Belgians, British and French. The jumble of frantic fleeing civilians, advancing British and French tanks, mobilizing Belgian military units and the marauding German Luftwaffe brought home to both Clare and Henry the horrors of modern war.

Using their official passes as journalists, and all the influence at their command the Luces managed to escape through the collapsing front and fleeing refugees to return to Paris early the next week. Henry felt compelled to return to the United States in order to inform President Roosevelt of the catastrophic magnitude of the allied defeat, the urgency of American rearmament and the need to provide aid to the faltering allies. Clare felt, despite Henry's pleas for her return with him, that she would better serve the cause by continuing to cover the war from Paris. Luce extracted a promise from Clare that she would not remain more than two weeks and would return home to him by the end of the month.

While awaiting the Pan Am transatlantic clipper in Lisbon, Luce accepted an invitation for a national radio speech on May 26, in order to report the dire news from Europe to a national radio audience, and to warn of the catastrophic conditions resulting from the British and French defeats. A committee in favor of aiding the allies, headed by his friend the Kansas Republican newspaper publisher William Allen White, sponsored this speech and a second Luce speech scheduled for later in June. Henry, like Clare, was casting off the partisan politics of the 1940 presidential election year and seeking to provide support for the Roosevelt Administration's rearmament program. Luce also accepted the role of leadership among pro British Republicans to assure the nomination of a Republican candidate who would support massive aid to the embattled British. From this time forward the Administration's "preparedness" efforts would receive unwavering support from TIME/LIFE Inc. (5)

More importantly, Luce arranged for an appointment with President Roosevelt to personally report his observations and evaluation of the British and French prospects, and the implications for American defense. That meeting took place at the White House on June First as the British were in the last stages of the desperate evacuation of their defeated army from France at Dunkirk. As a major publisher, Henry Luce was familiar with the corridors of power in the Roosevelt Administration. His stated purpose in meeting with the President was to report on his observations of the events in Europe. Less directly, he wanted to proffer his support to Roosevelt for assertive Administration defense and foreign policy initiatives. While Luce was recognized as a "moderate" Republican, Roosevelt was cautious of the print media which had been overwhelmingly opposed to his New Deal Administration, and to his inchoate bid for a third term as President. Moreover, Mrs. Roosevelt in her newspaper columns and her radio programs had been highly critical of Clare's plays, and the scandal attending the Luce's marriage. Therefore in this first meeting concerning the "threat" to the United States, both Luce and Roosevelt had to treat with one and another warily yet purposefully. Luce's presentation confirmed Roosevelt's fears of the European debacle, and intrigued him in the prospect of Luce's support for his foreign and defense policies. (6)

Henry again met with the President later in June to report on his efforts to organize support for the Administration's foreign policy of aid to the now alone Britain. This support came in three areas. In the first area there was the evident support within the editorial and news presentation of the TIME/LIFE Inc. magazines for rearmament and aid to the faltering Britain. In a second arena Luce reported to the President his efforts to call together and organize support for the Roosevelt Administration's foreign and defense policy initiatives among prominent Republicans and publishers in what became known as the "Century Group," after their meetings at the Century Club in New York City. Finally, Luce explained to the President his determination to work as a Republican for the nomination of Wendell Willkie as the Republican presidential nominee, as Willkie, if elected would continue the Roosevelt foreign and defense policy initiatives in support of rearmament and aid to the Allies.

Clare and Henry had another meeting with President Roosevelt at the White House over dinner and a private screening of the new March of TIME film, BY THE RAMPARTS WE WATCH on Sunday July 24th. In the two months since their return from the European debacle Henry and Clare had been able to take the measure of the political requirements for a strong American military rearmament and interventionist foreign policies. The haunting recollections of the horrors of modern war, the chaotic collapse of the British and French defenses and the upheaval of balance of power in the world committed the Luces to preparedness and intervention. Roosevelt, perceiving the same threat to the American Republic, saw the potential of the TIME/LIFE Inc. organization to inform and persuade the American electorate to his Administration's foreign and defense policies. The specific issue that set this relationship that July Sunday evening was the proposal to transfer a large segment of the United States Navy to the desperate British. This unprecedented, and probably unconstitutional, transfer was accomplished six weeks later after perfervid advocacy in all the TIME/LIFE magazines had generated broad public support for the naval transfer. (7)

The next seventeen months would see the transformation of the American electorate from sullen opposition to any intervention in foreign wars to broad support for a determined military confrontation with the Nazi led Axis and Imperial Japan.

The Roosevelt Administration had set out in early 1939 to communicate and present its perception of the danger to the United States of a Nazi German ascendancy in Europe and Japanese assertions in East Asia. This presentation to the American electorate was pursued through the several news media channels. Yet only one of those media channels, the national newsmagazines possessed a broad national readership audience. By exploiting the presentation of its policies in the national newsmagazines, the Roosevelt Administration could reach a segment of the American electorate that was otherwise unsympathetic to the Administration's program or conduct. It thereby enlisted that electoral segment into the Administration's political coalition, and an effective political consensus was established for the development of American military capability, and the confrontation of the Nazi led Axis. Through effective presentation of the threat to the United States and advocacy of the Administration?s foreign and defense policy initiatives, the national newsmagazines, as exemplified by Time and Life, fulfilled the Administration's purpose.

1. Betty Gold, Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a Senate Insider (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 241-251, 280-300.

2. Nicholas John Cull, Selling War: British Propaganda Campaign Against American Neutrality in World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 198-201.

3. Ralph G. Martin, Henry and Clare: An Intimate Portrait of the Luces (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1991), 188-191.

4. Robert Edwin Herzstein, Henry R. Luce: A Political Portrait of the Man Who Created the American Century (New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1994), 128-132.

5. Herzstein, op. cit, 136-138.

6. Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper Brothers, 1948), 6-168; Robert A. Divine, The Reluctant Belligerent: American Entry Into World War II (New York: John Wiley and sons, 1965), 86-90; Mark Lincoln Chadwin, The Hawks of War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968), 32-78.

7. W. A. Swanberg, Luce and His Empire (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972), 172-178; Herzstein op. cit, 15, 132-148; Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, Swanberg Collection, Box 18.