FDR and the Spanish Civil War

Tierney Dominic Tierney

Description

What was the relationship between President Franklin D. Roosevelt, architect of America's rise to global power, and the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, which inspired passion and sacrifice, and shaped the road to world war? While many historians have portrayed the Spanish Civil War as one of Roosevelt's most isolationist episodes, Dominic Tierney argues that it marked the president's first attempt to challenge fascist aggression in Europe. Drawing on newly discovered archival documents, Tierney describes the evolution of Roosevelt's thinking about the Spanish Civil War in relation to America's broader geopolitical interests, as well as the fierce controversy in the United States over Spanish policy.Between 1936 and 1939, Roosevelt's perceptions of the Spanish Civil War were transformed. Initially indifferent toward which side won, FDR became an increasingly committed supporter of the leftist government. He believed that German and Italian intervention in Spain was part of a broader program of fascist aggression, and he worried that the Spanish Civil War would inspire fascist revolutions in Latin America. In response, Roosevelt tried to send food to Spain as well as illegal covert aid to the Spanish government, and to mediate a compromise solution to the civil war. However unsuccessful these initiatives proved in the end, they represented an important stage in Roosevelt's emerging strategy to aid democracy in Europe.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Military history
• International relations
• Spain
• History of the Americas
• Spain (groupe)
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 02 juillet 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822390626
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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FDR T H EA N D Spanish Civil War

N E U T R A L I T Y A N D C O M M I T M E N T I N T H E

S T R U G G L E T H AT D I V I D E D A M E R I CA

D O M I N I C T I E R N E Y

FDR and the Spanish Civil War

A M E R I C A N E N C O U N T E R S / G L O B A L I N T E R A C T I O N S

     .    . 

This series aims to stimulate critical perspectives and fresh interpretive frameworks for scholarship on the history of the imposing global presence of the United States. Its primary concerns include the deployment and con- testation of power, the construction and deconstruction of cultural and political borders, the fluid meanings of intercultural encounters, and the complex interplay between the global and the local. American Encounters seeks to strengthen dialogue and collaboration between historians of U.S. international relations and area studies specialists. The series encourages scholarship based on multiarchival historical re- search. At the same time, it supports a recognition of the representational character of all stories about the past and promotes critical inquiry into issues of subjectivity and narrative. In the process, American Encounters strives to understand the context in which meanings related to nations, cultures, and political economy are continually produced, challenged, and reshaped.

FDR AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

NEUTRALITY AND COMMITMENT IN THE STRUGGLE THAT DIVIDED AMERICA

Dominic Tierney

Duke University Press 

Durham and London

©  Duke University Press Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 

Typeset in Charter by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

To my parents, John and Angela

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix

. The American Sphinx and the Spanish War, 

. International Intervention and Nonintervention, 

. Roosevelt’s Perceptions of the Spanish Civil War, –, 

. The Arms Embargo, 

. American Men, American Oil, American Arms, 

. Roosevelt’s Perceptions of the Spanish Civil War, –, 

. Covert Aid, 

. Mediation, Humanitarian Relief, and Repealing the Arms Embargo, 

. The Aftermath, 

. From a Vicarious Sacrifice to a Grave Mistake, 

Notes, 

Bibliography, 

Index, 

Acknowledgments

Over the course of almost a decade this project began as a master’s thesis, evolved into a doctoral thesis, and finally became a book manuscript. The first person I would like to thank is Steve Casey, who offered truly in- valuable guidance at an early stage that pushed me in the right direction. Avi Shlaim and Yuen Foong Khong provided wise and thoughtful com- ments as my thesis advisors. Warren Kimball, Melvyn Leffler, Peter Car- roll, Martin Ceadel, Michael Fullilove, and an anonymous reviewer read the entire manuscript and made excellent suggestions that improved the book considerably. Tom Buchanan, Barbara Farnham, Richard Traina, Allen Guttmann, Paul Preston, and Andrew Hurrell also gave extremely useful advice on aspects of the book. I would also like to thank Valerie Millholland, my editor at Duke Univer- sity Press, for ably guiding the project through the publishing process, and Fred Kameny for his accomplished copy editing. I am grateful to Natalie Hanemann for drawing the maps of Spain. The librarians and other staff at the libraries and archives I visited were uniformly helpful. I thank Sage Publications for permission to include material from my journal article ‘‘Franklin D. Roosevelt and Covert Aid to the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, –,’’Journal of Contemporary History, vol. , no.  (). I express my gratitude to the Economic and Social Research Council, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Frank Knox Memorial Trust, the Mershon Center at Ohio State University, and the Olin Institute for Stra- tegic Studies at Harvard University for providing financial support. I thank Amy Oakes for her constant love, guidance, and encouragement, and for her willingness to offer superb comments on the entire manuscript. Need- less to say, all mistakes remain my own.