027 - Teddy Roosevelt's Third Term, Part XI
12/31/21 • 16 min
There was no way Woodrow Wilson was going to let former President Theodore Roosevelt anywhere near Europe during the First World War.
Teddy had made multiple requests to War Secretary Newton Baker, asking permission to raise a division of volunteers, with himself as a major general, "to put our flag on the firing line."
But what Wilson actually feared was that Teddy, upon his arrival in Europe, would be drafted into chairing a peace conference. By 1916 the military situation had reached a stalemate of trench warfare and pointless killing. The Germans had made some initial peace overtures.
If the man who had successfully negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War only a decade earlier showed up, the "vital hold which personalities like Roosevelt have on popular imagination," as Georges Clemenceau told Wilson, might just get all the warring parties to the peace table and end the war.
Woodrow Wilson, who lacked Teddy's "vital personality" and international stature, did all he could to keep Teddy home.
If Teddy couldn't fight, he was going to send his four sons in his place.
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There was no way Woodrow Wilson was going to let former President Theodore Roosevelt anywhere near Europe during the First World War.
Teddy had made multiple requests to War Secretary Newton Baker, asking permission to raise a division of volunteers, with himself as a major general, "to put our flag on the firing line."
But what Wilson actually feared was that Teddy, upon his arrival in Europe, would be drafted into chairing a peace conference. By 1916 the military situation had reached a stalemate of trench warfare and pointless killing. The Germans had made some initial peace overtures.
If the man who had successfully negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War only a decade earlier showed up, the "vital hold which personalities like Roosevelt have on popular imagination," as Georges Clemenceau told Wilson, might just get all the warring parties to the peace table and end the war.
Woodrow Wilson, who lacked Teddy's "vital personality" and international stature, did all he could to keep Teddy home.
If Teddy couldn't fight, he was going to send his four sons in his place.
Subscribe to History's TrainwrecksSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/historys-trainwrecks.
Help keep trainwrecks on the tracks. Become a supporter at https://plus.acast.com/s/historys-trainwrecks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
026 - Teddy Roosevelt's Third Term, Part X
In 1916, the world was on fire, and Theodore Roosevelt was down in the dumps.
The country, with either Woodrow Wilson or Charles Evans Hughes destined for the White House, was “in the hands of two aloof and cagey deliberators. Wilson and Hughes were men who waited for events to happen and then reacted.” Teddy saw things coming, and got ready.
But as happened in 1912, Teddy allowed his candidacy, and his potential third term, to be derailed in the “smoke-filled room” of the nominating convention. He let party insiders, many with presidential ambitions of their own, talk him out of running, and he surely didn’t help himself by doing the same thing he accused Wilson of doing in Mexico: taking one step forward and two steps back.
He forgot that his true power came from the American people. In time of war, the best argument to get or retain the presidency was experience in office—it was an argument Teddy’s “fifth cousin by blood and nephew by marriage” would use decades later to win four terms in the White House. In 1916, only two men had the kind of experience the country knew it needed—Wilson and Roosevelt.
But Teddy allowed his emotions to get in the way, and his political shrewdness and canny assessment of the mood of the people was lost in a wave of self-pity. 1904 Theodore Roosevelt went after what he knew to be best for the nation. 1916 Teddy waited to be asked, not by the people, but by cynical party insiders. And he let his temper get the best of him.
As President Wilson had once said about Teddy, “The way to treat an adversary like Roosevelt is to gaze at the stars over his head.”
Woodrow Wilson’s chances in 1916 were looking pretty good.
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Next Episode
028 - Teddy Roosevelt's Third Term, Conclusion
Theodore Roosevelt was kept out of World War I by Woodrow Wilson, so he sent his sons instead.
Their fate, his own poor health, and watching from the sidelines while the President of the United States covered himself in glory had him down in the dumps. But the election of 1920 promised a good chance of his returning to the White House.
If only he could make it.
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