Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Thanks 2.0

I don't know if Hoover could've ended the Depression
Larry J — (archived)

From what I've read, he had several of the same ideas that FDR enacted but was unable to get them though a hostile Congress. He did sign the terrible Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which was one of the big reasons why the 1929 stock market crash became a worldwide depression. At the same time, he quite likely would not have made the same kind of mistakes that FDR made, which prolonged the Depression until 1940. I kind of doubt that Hoover would've broken the two presidental terms tradition, so someone else would've been elected in 1936. Had Republicans been seen as responsible for ending the Depression, it's quite likely that a Republican would've won in 1936 and perhaps 1940. However, had the Depression lingered into 1936, it seems likely that a Democrat, perhaps even FDR, would've won.

As to what would've happened with the war, it's important to remember that most Americans were strongly isolationist* during the 1930s. Many of them believed we had been duped by the Europeans into getting involved in WWI and they wanted no part of another European war. FDR knew that we would likely be involved sooner or later and started taking the necessary steps to help us get ready. Only a president with extraordinary popular support and clout in Congress could've gotten away with that. In fact, FDR did some things such as Navy actions in 1941 that were actually acts of war against the Germans. These included having Navy ships escort British convoys while we were still declared neutrals, a violation of the laws of war. This led to the loss of some Navy lives in incidents like the attack on the USS Reuben James in late 1941.

I sometimes think that certain individuals are pivotal in history. Would we have won the American Revolution without George Washington, or been successful as a nation? Would the Union have won the Civil War without Lincoln? Would the British have been able to hold out alone against the Germans without Churchill? Would the Soviet Union have survived the Nazi onslaught without someone as ruthless as Stalin in charge? Likewise, would we have been able to win WWII without Roosevelt? Honestly, I don't know but I think the answer to most of those questions is no.

Public Opinion and Isolationism

A nationwide Gallop Poll conducted during the first week of December of 1940 asked Americans :

"If you were asked to vote on the question of the United States entering the war against Germany and Italy, how would you vote - to go into the war ot to stay out of the war?"12% said 'go in' ; 88%'stay out' while 3% expressed no opinion.

*Although some disagree.

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