Roosevelt was a charismatic leader who craved the limelight. As the youngest president and most energetic chief executive in history, Roosevelt was irresistibly charming and an adept raconteur. His natural aggression was a strong character trait, but he tended to suffer from procrastination.
Taft struggled with procrastination
William Howard Taft’s procrastination was not entirely his fault. He had high ambitions as a young man. He was eager to serve on the Supreme Court and would have loved to become the chief justice. However, his natural temperament made him unsuited for this job. He preferred a quiet evening in his library to a busy day on the bench.
Roosevelt’s militarism stemmed from his natural aggression
President Theodore Roosevelt had many good qualities, but it is important to note that his military approach is rooted in his natural aggression. As a president, he made a number of policy decisions that would affect the nation and its citizens, from defending the nation from foreign aggression to enforcing the nation’s morals. His domestic policies, meanwhile, were more focused on social justice and equality.
In 1939, the United States invaded Poland, triggering the “Phony War.” After the invasion, Roosevelt sought to make peace with Hitler, but the German dictator was uninterested in this strategy. Meanwhile, Japan increased its presence in the Pacific and demanded that France and its French colonies close their borders with China. As these conflicts continued, Roosevelt and Churchill developed a close relationship and Churchill became British prime minister in May 1940. At the same time, German forces invaded the Low Countries, Denmark, and France.
Roosevelt’s nativism
The political agenda of Franklin Roosevelt’s nativism was to promote social equality by expanding federal government and using its resources to protect American citizens. By his second term, Roosevelt broadened his protective agenda and supported labor organizations. He also introduced a progressive tax on inherited fortunes that ushered the nation into a new direction. This tax reflected his liberal intentions and helped move the country toward a more progressive social policy agenda.
The first visit by a President to Ellis Island took place in 1903. The party arrived on Ellis Island in the early morning, and it took five hours to get around the entire island. In the process, Roosevelt was criticized for falsely accusing Buffalo soldiers of running away under fire. In fact, the buffalo soldiers fought alongside the white soldiers and showed great bravery.
His conservatism
Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States more than a century ago, and yet his conservatism is still relevant today. The president was an environmentalist and very conscious of the environment. The deterioration of the environment has accelerated in the last 100 years. It is no wonder that the president advocated for a conservationist policy to save the planet.
But Teddy Roosevelt also had a taste for war. His Spanish-American War was dubbed by Secretary of State John Hay as “splendid little war.” While other presidents had retreated from the conflict, Roosevelt used muscular measures and gunboat diplomacy to avoid extended conflict. He also forged an agreement between warring Russia and Japan, which resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize.
His fear of a general European war
Roosevelt’s fear of a general European conflict was a key factor in his foreign policy. He saw British interests as almost identical to the United States’s, and he tended to favor Britain in diplomatic controversies. This fear caused him to instruct his envoys to stay out of European affairs and not to risk imperiling Franco-British understandings. While this approach was unusual, it reflected Roosevelt’s general fear of an international war.
In order to keep America from losing an international conflict, the president relied on military power to protect American interests. He urged Congress to increase appropriations for the army and navy, but Congress cut his requests. Nevertheless, he reorganized the army and navy to be more efficient and modern.