1941: THE WORLD WAR II YEAR OF INFAMY

By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist.



Like nothing had done to that point, Nazi Germany’s occupation of Paris on June 18, 1940 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) nomination to an unprecedented third term as President of the United States the following month, alerted the American people to the threats to their nation posed by Europe’s Second World War. While during his first two terms as president, FDR had used his pulpit to educate the public about those perils, sentiment consistently weighed heavily toward non-intervention in the war. The summer of 1940 saw a shifting in the attitude, one toward building up the nation’s defenses, which resulted in an eventual outpouring of material aid from America to the Allied countries, shoring up America’s military forces, and instituting the nation’s first peacetime draft in its history.

Having gone into effect in September, the Selective Service Act of 1940 placed all men between the ages of 21 and 35 eligible for one year of military service. Marlin Landon “Bob” Gaffin, having turned 21 on January 20, 1941, and the president’s swearing into office for his third term on the same day, the lives of both men thereafter are to be defined primarily by their involvement in World War II.

            Following his nomination for his third term, FDR explained his motivation for defying the country’s traditional policy of two-term presidencies. He stated that he had suffered many sleepless nights over his own right to refuse the call to duty when the young men and women of his country were facing the call to serve. He said, “Like most men of my age, I had made plans for myself, plans for a private life of my own choice and for my own satisfaction…These plans, like so many other plans, had been made in a world which now seems as distant as another planet. Today all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger. In the face of that public danger all those who can be of service to the Republic have no choice but to offer themselves for service in those capacities for which they may be fitted. Those, my friends, are the reasons why I had to admit to myself, and now to state to you, that my conscience will not let me turn my back upon a call to service.”^[1] 

            The summer of 1941 also saw the opportunity of a new kind of personal life for Bob embodied in the alluring Dorothy Boldman of Cedar Fork, Ohio, a particular private life, like the president’s, that by year’s end will be held delicately in the balance while America’s foreign affairs unfold. Meanwhile, Bob ventures no more than thirty miles southwest of the farm of his parents in search of employment that he is confident will set the pattern for the home-life for which he hopes with Dorothy. In an illustration of Bob’s plucky nature, Bob writes to his mother from Blanchester, Ohio where he has found a job: …We sure had a time coming up here. We done all right till we got on the other side of Fayetteville. We had tire trouble and didn’t get here until 9:30. I went to work Monday morning…When I went to work the boss asked me if I could drive a truck and I said sure I could. He asked me if I could handle the tractors and I said I could, so I went to work. Ha – Ha. Well a fellow has to tell a few [lies] once in a while. But I operated them like an old hand and kind of fooled them. Ha. They just seemed to come natural to me or something…

While the tone and content of the letters exchanged among Bob and his correspondents during these months are amazingly devoid of any allusion to, or speculation about, the war, especially in view of the fact of the institution of the draft, writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, in her journal, which later is published in book-form, portrays a picture of civic-minded and politically-savvy individuals whose thoughts and daily lives are deeply influenced by the government’s stance on the war. At that juncture, she states in her journal the greatest issue of speculation was whether or not Washington DC would go one step further and finally grant Great Britain’s request that American ships convoy, or in effect, act as full-metal and armed shields to British supply ships crisscrossing the Atlantic. She writes of the high tension in Washington, a state of affairs she speculates cannot go on. At the same time, she sympathizes with Roosevelt’s dilemma regarding establishing a convoy system, a predicament based on the fact that doing so will require transferring ships from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic. Such a move would render America’s presence in the Pacific so thin that the president fears it will encourage the Japanese to ever greater expansion into the Pacific. But by mid-August, FDR seems to waver in his position, and in a secret meeting off the coast of Newfoundland with Winston S. Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, the British leader comes away from the meeting convinced that FDR has agreed to America’s convoying of British ships as far as Iceland.

            But still the president is disinclined to step up his nation’s presence in the European war to such a degree. With Germany’s breaking of its non-aggression treaty with Russia and its placement of troops on the Russian border, FDR is often of the opinion that he should just sit back and let Russia handle Germany – or better still, let the two repressive dictator-nations wipe each other out. In his characteristic manner, the president adopts a stance of “wait and see.” 



Bob Gaffin spends his workdays in Blanchester and heads home for the weekends where he cuddles with Dorothy on the front porch of her parent’s Peebles, Ohio country home nestled peacefully beneath a pitch black sky alight with stars. In New York City, top-drawer matrons such as Anne Morrow Lindbergh in mink coats, Made-in-Paris chapeaus, and Estee Lauder’s “V” for “Victory” lipstick read Vogue’s latest issue sporting models in military garb in front of “Bundles for Britain,” while fuzzy-cheeked American military recruits pack the subway trains to take in the sights. All the while, spanking new Made-in-America airplanes buzz a sky streaked with searchlights.  

            Bob’s desire to marry Dorothy in the near future is dashed on November 18^th when a letter arrives, one informing him that he has been drafted into the Army. A letter of a few days later tells him to report to the Reception Center at Fort Thomas, Kentucky.



Ft. Thomas, Ky. Dec, 4, 1941…Dear Mother: Will write you this evening to let you know I am O K and hope everyone are well. Well, I’m in the army now (as the slogan goes) and its not so bad so far. Of course we haven’t had any actual training yet. I sure hated to leave civilian life, but we can’t help it…Your loving son, Bob



As tensions mount dangerously in the Atlantic theater of the war, the Japanese continue to aggress against their neighbors in the Pacific, and like the Nazis, have set against the land and resource-rich territories beyond the borders of their own land. Their resolve strengthened by the Tripartite Pact signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan, a pledge in support of one another if attacked by any outside enemy, the three aggressors strike, conquer, and plunder their ways across their particular hemispheres, to this point, almost none the worse for wear, and nearly with impunity.

            Roosevelt retaliates by placing an embargo against Japan: no more exportation to Japan of aviation fuel and highest grade steel and scrap iron. Japan responds by seizing oil-rich Indochina. The Roosevelt administration hits back by freezing all of Japan’s assets in the United States and cutting off all exports of oil to the country. Intended to halt the advance of the Japanese, the embargo ricochets and Japan counters with a threat to move in on the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies and other East Asian regions rich in natural resources. Several back and forth negotiations between the two countries failing, Japan and the United States are approaching a collision of epic proportions.

              Lulled to complacency by the promises of their president to keep their boys out of foreign conflicts, the American people conduct their daily business and personal lives as usual, unaware that warfare on a level never before seen was lying in wait for them.

In his address to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”^[2] In the Fireside Chat on the radio where he talked to the nation about the Declaration of War with Japan, in part he said:

MY FELLOW AMERICANS:

The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific provide the climax of a decade of international immorality. 

Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon the whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the United States of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated a long-standing peace with us. Many American soldiers and sailors have been killed by enemy action. American ships have been sunk; American airplanes have been destroyed.

The Congress and the people of the United States have accepted that challenge.

Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain our right to live among our world neighbors in freedom, in common decency, without fear of assault.^[3]

A letter from his mother to Bob illustrates the shock of the nation at the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor that hurls the United States into the war: Monday Morning, Dec. 8, 1941…Dear Son. I will try to write some this morning. I was so nervous yesterday I just couldn’t write and not much better this morning…Bobby we heard down at the church last night that war had been declared. It sure does worry me. I just can’t help it. They tell me if I don’t be careful I’ll go crazy. But I don’t know. They surely can’t take you though until they get you trained. Of course I know that I am just one Mother in thousands. We will just have to trust in God. Of course you know that we are praying for you, and that will help you along…



Even as the greatest challenge of both of their lives has been placed before them with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and while Bob with his characteristic curiosity and composure is in the throes of noting the vastness of the differences between the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in which he had served as a teenager, and that of the military, FDR is experiencing an odd form of relief. Japan’s strike against the American Fleet in Hawaii, while creating an enormous crisis for the president, at the same time, it lifts from him the solemn mantle of a choice between war and peace for his country, and as noted by his wife, he is serener than he has been in a long time.©



The above is a work of creative non-fiction by multi-award-winning author, Linda Lee Greene. Her books are available worldwide on Amazon.



Image: “I WANT YOU” poster.



Recommended Reading: WAR WITHIN AND WITHOUT, DIARIES AND LETTERS 1939 – 1944, Anne Morrow Lindbergh; THE ROOSEVELT PRESENCE, The Life and Legacy of FDR, Patrick J. Maney.

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[1] http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3318

[2] http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/digitalarchive/speeches/spe_1941_1208_roose…

[3] http://franklincollege.edu/pwp/bgaskins/EDE226/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt.html

“VICTORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JUSTICE.”

 By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist.



“Victory has nothing to do with justice,” noted author George Orwell in reference to the power of the imagination to rise above physical hardship and to find hope in living. This writer sees in it a fitting association with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), President of the United States before and during World War II. Historians and biographers of FDR have noted the president’s almost supernatural optimism against the worst of odds, and his uncanny serenity when all around him unceasing tempests raged. Whether or not he was born with those facilities we do not know. But certainly, latent or not, he earned them in coming to terms with polio that struck him in his prime, the affliction that could not be cured, and that derailed what was regarded as his route in the upward trajectory of his career, as well as his life.  

Jaunty and eager behind the steering wheel of his Jeep, Mrs. Roosevelt and his closet personal advisor, Harry Hopkins accompanying him, FDR was parked at the entrance of the long drive that gained access to Hyde Park, his family retreat in Upstate New York. He awaited the arrival of Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston S. Churchill and his daughter, Mary. In just a few balmy August, 1943 days, the president and the prime minister would convene a war-plans conference in Quebec, Canada. This sojourn at Hyde Park was a short getaway prior to the intense work that faced them. Exhausted from the journey to Canada from England several days before, Mrs. Churchill remained in Quebec, ensconced at the Citadelle, Great Britain’s King George VI’s residence that ranged a high cliff above the St. Lawrence River.

Convinced of the power of his personality to influence the outcome of World War II and subsequent world affairs, FDR was flushed with anticipation at hobnobbing with his British friend once more. Mr. Churchill was similarly as strong in ego and opinion as was Mr. Roosevelt. How fascinating it would have been to have had an ear in on their discussions. Mary’s noncommittal assessment of them was summed up in seven words: “Papa and he (FDR) are an interesting contrast.”

It did Mrs. Roosevelt’s heart good to see her husband so thoroughly energized by the company of his two friends, as well as the prospect of the conference. Mr. Roosevelt was often quite worn down by his immense responsibilities—much more so than in earlier days of his long presidency. Encouraging his good mood, Mrs. Roosevelt set her agenda to coincide with the Churchill’s visit and joined her husband as solicitous and sunny hosts to their guests. Their lengthy marriage had narrowed in its conjugal aspects. Incompatibility in their personalities and infidelity and maybe simply attrition had altered its character, but still there was genuine friendship, devotion, coupled with a sincere eagerness for each other’s happiness and purpose. And of course, both of them were consummate patriots and would do whatever their country called upon them to do.

Mr. Roosevelt had given up fighting his leg braces and wheelchair and Mrs. Roosevelt had ceased battling to stay in the role appointed to her by tradition. She had moved beyond her position as a wife and mother, and in her case, her mother-in-law’s compliant daughter-in-law. She had stepped forward when her husband was struck down. She had learned to be his legs, his voice, and his heart in the public realm, and in the process, had found her own true self, and once found, she was not about to relinquish it! If she could no longer occupy his bedroom, she took to showing up in his office, or at table when he took his meals, or wherever she could gain access to his ear, because now, she had ideas and opinions of her own. And there in one of the new roles she carved out for herself in their marriage, she laid her concerns about the country at her husband’s feet. It was well known that he received her graciously and with interest and was inclined to accept her views, on occasion. He was more tight-lipped with her, though. As put forth by Mary in her book CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL, the Biography of a Marriage, because Mrs. Roosevelt traveled so much and made copious speeches, as well as wrote a daily newspaper column, Mr. Roosevelt was afraid she would forget and let something “secret,” slip out.      

While Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and Mr. and Mrs. Churchill bore much in common: all of them hailed from the aristocracy of their nations; they were all classically educated and erudite; they were the leaders of their countries; and the thirty-eight-year Roosevelt marriage was prolific in the number of children it had brought into the world, as was the long marriage of the Churchill’s. The prime minister and his wife were soon to celebrate their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.

With all their similarities, they couldn’t have been more different, however, and possibly most notably, in the nature of their marriages. The chasm between the Roosevelts was not a factor in the Churchill relationship. Mrs. Churchill never had a cause nor a desire to find fulfillment outside her marriage. Projects held no interest for her. Her husband was her project for the entirety of their nearly six decades together. Shared with readers by their daughter in the above noted book, Mr. Churchill said to his wife on the occasion of their thirty-fifth anniversary, “I love you more and more each year.”

Conditions within the borders of both the United States and Great Britain were dicey. Domestic politics was a tangled web for Mr. Roosevelt, and the Nazi threat was only a narrow body of water separate from Mr. Churchill’s island nation of Great Britain. Its cities were being bombed and its people maimed or dying. But word from the battlefields of the war was encouraging. The Germans and Italians were routed from North Africa. Sicily was well on its way to being conquered. The Allied assault on the mainland of Italy was on the near horizon. In North Africa, American troops were training for that impending campaign. Mussolini and his Fascist Italian government were toppled and a new and friendly government was in its place. Russia, the Allied partner, was on the offensive against Germany in the east. The Nazi submarine menace in the Atlantic was reduced severely. The Allies had destroyed nearly one-third of German U-boats at sea. In the Pacific Theater, the United States had turned back the Japanese at Midway, Guadalcanal, and the Solomon Islands. The tide was changed in both the European and Pacific Theaters of the war in the Allies’ favor.

Both Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Churchill knew that the realities could, and more than likely would, wreck the best-laid plans, on the battlefield, and elsewhere. There was no better teacher in life of that fact than marriage to a politician. Both of their husbands were high with accomplishment and heady with their power. In their unique ways, both women sought to shield their husbands from their inevitable emotional crash when bad news filtered in. For the moment though, the four of them were content in the status quo—once again, and in particular, events were bearing out Mr. Roosevelt’s supernatural optimism. He had a vision of himself in his soul, and despite his broken body and improbable route to his stake as the 20^th century’s greatest US President and one of the greatest persons of his time, he brought his vision into being.©

Note: the above is a work of historical fiction based on actual events.



Image: Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the campaign trail.



Recommended Reading:

CLEMENTINE CHURCHILL, the Biography of a Marriage by Mary [Churchill] Soames.

A DAUGHTER’S TALE by Mary [Churchill] Soames.

THE ROOSEVELT PRESENCE, The Life and Legacy of FDR by Patrick J. Maney.



Books by Linda Lee Greene are available for purchase in eBook and soft cover at Amazon.com and by request at other booksellers.

“THIS OUTSTANDING BOOK: A MUST-READ,” a review by Fran Lewis for JustReviews/MJ Magazine

CRADLE OF THE SERPENT by Linda Lee Greene

A therapist caught in a web of deceit and lies when working with an archaeologist named Lily Light. Psychotherapist Michael Neeson has listened while she relates her dreams going back to another time period and the Indian White Flower. Feeling confident in confiding in him Lily tells him of being at odds with her husband Jacob and that he decided to not return home during his two-week break. But, for some reason this psychotherapist is drawn to her and travels to her dig thinking he would ignite his own passion for archaeology. Her reaction at first is one of anger and invasion of her privacy but as they begin to bond and talk she becomes Lily and he becomes Michael until Lily has a bad feeling, gets all upset and thinks something has happened to Jacob. Lily takes on the persona of this Indian woman and experiences different emotions when she learns about what happened to him and the fact that a woman was found dead but is this woman he was cheating with? Jacob is shot and paralyzed and the fact that he had a mistress more than upsets Lily. As you get to know Michael learning about Jacob and on their brief time at the dig you get a feeling that he is drawn to Lily as more than just a client. Miriam his wife is reliable, warm and caring but for some reason he needs some adventure in his life.

There are two voices that are heard throughout this novel: Michael the therapist and Lily talking about her relationship with Jacob and how she feels about taking care of him. Looking at him in the hospital and hoping that he gets well yet when it’s her turn to care for him she passes it off twice to his parents. Work is her salvation and talking to her therapist the second as he becomes more involved in her life trying to guide her to make the right decision that will either take her closer to Jacob or away from him completely. She still does not know the name of the mistress and the author has yet to reveal whom the woman is that was shot too.

Reverting back to White Flower it is almost as if Lily is living in a world that she would like to be in instead of the present. But, Lily seems unnerved at times and has trouble making choices yet she reveals her tattoo of a serpent as a male dragon and her husband’s as female dragon. Added in we learn about Serpent Mound where she is working.

Lily appears to be living in two different worlds trying to escape the realities of life even by sorting out photographs and deciding which ones to keep and if at all which ones to toss hoping to almost delete Jacob from her life. As she appears to be in the doctor’s site when he and his wife visit Serpent Mound he’s not sure if she’s there or in Phoenix. Flashing to two time periods we see Lily/White Flower going about life in different ways, each one trying to create their own perfect life. Meeting Jacob and feeling betrayed when she learns the truth behind a plaque signed We Love You Daddy. Joining her on her trip into another world where we are present on the Navajo reservation and learn more about what Jacob’s role is in dealing with them in the present might account for her thoughts about the past. What about his two children from this other woman; how will that play out?

The psychotherapist seems fixated on her at times and although he tries to keep his thoughts and advice objective at times you feel that he is pulling himself back in order to stay impartial and not give Lily a real way out but allowing her to sort things out on her own.

Her Indian background comes into play as she sits in court trying to get her husband custody of his two children born to a Navajo Indian.

Jacob is now paralyzed and might get back the use of his arms to a limited extent while Lily speaks at times with Michael as we hear his rendition of their talks or visits and we get the feeling she is restless, conflicted as author Linda Lee Greene shares the history of the Navajo Indians, the correlation of this story of Jacob to that of FDR and Christopher Reeve who played Superman and was truly an inspiration for Linda writing this story as you will read in the author’s notes at the end of the book. As Jacob progresses a little Lily decides to find a way to meet his children leaving her remembering what her father did to her and the child she lost. Added in we learn that White Flower was having a child and Running Deer was with her trying to save her but her fate was not what Lily would have hoped for her alter personality. At times it seems that she reverts to this other time period and place just to release her tension and find a way to deal with the present but Lily seems bent on divorcing Jacob yet hoping he gets custody of his daughters. Lily listens closely to the judge both times during the two hearings as he explains Navajo Law and the reasons why he is going to postpone his decision for another 6 months until she decides on whether she wants to remain with Jacob. The judge is sure that the children will have a nurturing home with two foster parents on the scene. Whereas she and Jacob plus his parents are beyond the age to adopt children the judge reserves judgment at this time.

The author shares the history of many of the places Lily and Jacob visited when dating and when married and it brings to light their relationship before things went south and this woman, his mistress was killed.

I loved the history of the Navajo Indians and the chapters on the research done to help quadriplegics move again and the surgery that Jacob wanted to undergo hoping he would be able to move his hands and arms again. The tension runs high and Lily is torn between leaving Jacob or supporting him in his efforts to get his two daughters to live with him, being a parent of some type to the girls and yet deciding where her career was going. Would she remain on digs or would she decide on something else? The ending will shock readers and take you along with Lily on a journey that is so compelling, so heartwarming, tormenting and will let you the reader learn that sometimes mistakes lead to something better if you can forgive. With the help of her sister Hannah to listen to her complaints, hear her scream and wipe away her tears, Lily just might decide what is right for her but will it be with Jacob and his parents living under one roof with his children, or will it be to find her own way?

A story of a love gone wrong, forgiveness, understanding her heritage and the heritage of the woman who was part of Jacob’s life, respecting who you are and understanding that not everything is cut and dry or black and white. Davina Yashi was the victim who was shot with two gun shots in her back and if she had survived she would have been worse off than Jacob as the author describes using medical terms his injuries and what they mean and where they are. She compares it to the injuries sustained by Christopher Reeve which becomes a stronghold for Jacob to want to emulate him and hope to have more mobility. When Lily decides to face the man who shot her husband something within her snaps, the reality of the situation takes hold and she begins to feel like she is about to fade and decides to get a bottle of vodka to drown her sorrows. Her anger soars when she tells Jacob about her past and her father and at this point she comes to a crossroads as to what she wants to do about her life, her marriage and why doesn’t he understand her pain?

Miracles happen, perspectives change and it’s up to Lily if she can withstand what Jacob will endure in the future with the healthcare he needs and will she assist his parents as another caregiver? Read what the therapist says as he analyzes their marriage and tries to make sense of Lily Moore Light and Jacob Clay Light and their future. Whether he agrees or disagrees does not matter; what does matter is whether each one can forgive, forget, understand and join as one once again.

A story that will give readers much pause for thought and one that hits home, as my cousin is a paraplegic losing his legs the week before his wedding and with hope, family support, the support of the woman who married him anyway, two children and tons of grandchildren he is now one of the most renowned Oral Surgeons in the world. Jacob refused to give up but what about Lily? For anyone in the same situation this book is a definite must read and will give you and your families hope. Jacob was the light and a paralyzed person and the research sites listed at the end of the book will provide resources.  Posted in the footnotes are also resources that will help readers understand the struggles of others that the author sited within this outstanding book. Cradle of the Serpent - goo.gl/i3UkAV

Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ magazine