James
Roosevelt, the son of Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Eleanor
Roosevelt,
and brother of Franklin Roosevelt Jr.,
was born in New York City on 23rd December,
1907. After graduating from Harvard University
in 1930 he became an insurance broker in Boston. He eventually became
president of Roosevelt & Sargent Incorporated.
Roosevelt
joined the United
States Marines in
November 1940. After
Japan attacked at Pearl
Harbor two leading marines, Evans
Carlson and
Merritt Edson
advocated the use of guerrilla warfare against the Japanese
Army in the Pacific War. Eventually
Edson was given command of the 1st Raider Battalion
whereas Carlson got the 2nd Raider Battalion. Roosevelt became Carlson's
assistant.
Based in
San Diego, the Carlson's Raiders were taught the military tactics
employed by the Red Army against the Japanese. This included learning
how to kill silently and quickly. Following the example of the guerrillas
in China, Carlson abolished the traditional privileges enjoyed by
officers. They ate the same food, wore the same clothes and carried
the same equipment.
In August 1943 the 2nd
Raider Battalion landed on the small island of Makin Atoll. After
two days of fighting Carlson's men were able to destroy the radio
station, burned equipment and captured important documents. Thirty
marines were killed before General Alexander
Vandegrift ordered them to leave the island. As a result
of the raid the Japanese Army fortified
the Gilbert Islands.
On
4th November 1943, the Carlson's Raiders landed
in Guadalcana. Over the next month
Carlson's men killed more than 500 Japanese while only losing 17 men.
By the end of the war Roosevelt
had reached the rank of brigadier general. After leaving the army
he became chairman of Roosevelt & Haines. A member of the Democratic
Party he was
an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of California in 1950.
Roosevelt was elected to
the House of Representatives and served between 3rd January, 1955
and 30th September 1965. A
strong opponent of McCarthyism
Roosevelt
was one of the first politicians to attack the tactics of Joseph
McCarthy. He
was also the only
member of the House of Representatives to voted against giving the
House
of Un-American Activities
money.
He resigned from Congress
to become the United States representative to United Nations Economic
and Social Council. James
Roosevelt died in
California on 13th August 1991.
(1)
Evans
Carlson, letter to Agnes
Smedley (November 1943)
There were two
factors which modern military leaders do not seem to understand or
prefer to ignore. One, comfort and personal convenience are not consonant
with the conduct of military-naval operations against an alert and
tenacious enemy; two, men are inspired to fight with all that is within
them only by leadership based on merit, a profound knowledge of the
reasons they fight, and the conviction that the things for which they
fight are worth fighting for. We will win because of our economic
strength, but the sacrifice in men and treasure will be out of proportion
to our effort and far beyond what
it would be if we as a nation had learned that there is no smooth
road to freedom.
(2)
A member of the 2nd Raider Battalion who served under Roosevelt and
Evans
Carlson during the Second
World War was interviewed for Michael Blankfort's book, The
Big Yankee: The Life of Carlson of the Raiders (1947)
Day after day we followed
the Old Man's jungle-guerrilla tactics, putting into practice his
theory of the mobile fire team. The team worked wonders. Toward evening
we'd make a base; then next morning fan out patrols to find the enemy
as well as the site of a forward base. The Old Man would okay it,
and we'd all move up to it. The next day would be the same. The Old
Man led the whole battalion over the ridge. Carlson called out, "Let's
sing, Onward, Christian Soldiers." We didn't care whether
or not the Japs heard us. We felt good singing.
We had spent a month in
the jungle, and marched one hundred and fifty miles, met the enemy
daily, captured and destroyed his guns and ammunition and food and
medical supplies; we reassured the command that nothing important
was going on in the interior; we mapped out his exit-west route; we
destroyed 'Pistol Pete,' and finally we killed officially 488 Japs,
but the Seabees who went in later to bury them said we killed 700.
For all this, we lost 17 men, and 17 wounded.
(3)
Howard
Zinn,
A People's History of the United States (1980)
In
the early fifties, the House Un-American Activities Committee was
at its heyday, interrogating Americans about their Communist connections,
holding them in contempt if they refused to answer, distributing millions
of pamphlets to the American public: "One Hundred Things You
Should Know About Communism" ("Where can Communists be found?
Everywhere"). Liberals often criticized
the Committee, but in Congress, liberals and conservatives alike voted
to fund it year after year. By 1958, only one member of the House
of Representatives (James Roosevelt) voted against giving it money.
Although Truman criticized the Committee, his own Attorney General
had expressed, in 1950, the same idea that motivated its investigations:
"There are today many Communists in America. They are everywhere
- in factories, offices, butcher shops, on street corners, in private
business - and each carries in himself the germs of death for society."
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