The influence of domestic politics on foreign policy in the election of 1940

The election of 1940 marked a new beginning in presidential politics. The United States had emerged as the most powerful industrial power, while a cataclysmic crisis was developing on a global scale. Americans could no longer ignore foreign affairs and insulate themselves behind the oceans. FDR had been a remarkably astute politician, ever-mindful of public opinion. He also believed that America's national interests were tied to foreign affairs. With the outbreak of war in September 1939, the president began to reconsider retirement and challenge the "no-third-term" tradition. While the Nazi threat grew Roosevelt remained silent about his political future. In the interim, he worked continuously to aid the Allies in their struggle against Hitler and to awaken Americans to the threat posed by a German victory. Arrayed against Roosevelt to stop his efforts were a multitude of forces: isolationists, Republicans, anti-New Dealers, and a public overwhelmingly opposed to involvement in another European war. To keep the beleaguered British viable and his reelection options open the president played politics with foreign policy. He refused to adopt a position contrary to that of the majority of public opinion. In the case of the controversies surrounding the arms embargo repeal, the destroyer deal, and the selective service act, he had others accommodate Americans to his plans and when popular support emerged for the actions he publicly endorsed the policy. Roosevelt was often deceptive in manipulating foreign policy to further his political agenda. For example, in acknowledging the objective of the Welles mission, deciding to seek a third-term, supporting the Allies, and denying plans to trade destroyers for bases with England, in all instances, FDR hid the truth to bolster his standing in the polls. Up to the election, FDR proclaimed that the best way to avoid involvement in international crisis was to provide the British with the means to do the fighting. He promised American mothers that their boys would not fight in foreign wars, yet he pushed the Japanese into the arms of Hitler, which ensured that the European bloodbath would be global. It eventually engulfed the United States during FDR's third term.