WASHINGTON — Warren Kozak, the author of LeMay: The Life
and Wars of General Curtis LeMay, wrote a memorable piece in
the Wall Street Journal on June 6, 2012, that cries out
for comment. On the 68th anniversary of the Allies’ invasion of
Europe over the bloody beaches of Normandy, he reminds us of an
unthinkable act by President Franklin Roosevelt on that day. At
least it is an unthinkable act today. The President did not call a
press conference to notify Americans huddled before their radios of
what our military was doing. They already knew from news reports,
though they might have learned even more from their president. Nor
did President Roosevelt boast of how he had marshaled our troops
and given the order to action, as the present occupier of his
office is prone to do.
Instead, Roosevelt offered a prayer, a prayer of unthinkable
dimensions nowadays. I suspect if I were of voting age in 1944 I
would have been a Republican. Yet, as President Roosevelt spoke he
would have spoken for me. Transported back to the battle of
Normandy, I would have taken heart in his words. Would a Barack
Obama, similarly transported back across the decades, have taken
heart? Or would he and millions of other miraculously transported
Americans from the present have squirmed? Would they have filed
lawsuits through the American Civil Liberties Union? Is this not
another of those church and state conundrums that we conjure up
today?
These thoughts occurred to me as I read the recent polling
results from the Pew Research Center. It claims that Americans’
“values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines
than at any point in the past 25 years.” Certainly they are more
polarized than they were 68 years ago. How could an American
President offer a prayer on behalf of all the American
people today, much less a Democratic president, much less the most
revered Democratic president of all time, FDR?
According to the Pew poll, “Roughly three-quarters
of Democrats (77%) say they ‘never doubt the existence of
God.’” That is down by 11 percent over the past
decade, which is quite a lot. Among white Democrats it is down 17
percent, from 85 percent in 2002 to 68 percent today. Meanwhile,
among Republicans 92 percent say they never doubt the existence of
God. The same percentage as ten years ago, and, in fact, the figure
is unchanged from 25 years ago. On some things Republicans are rock
solid. Were today’s Republicans transported back to Roosevelt’s
America on June 6, 1944, he could count on us for support and even
our gratitude for his remarks.
He prayed with confidence and piety for all Americans. “Almighty
God,” he began, “our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set
upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our
religion (sic), and our civilization (sic), and to set free
suffering humanity.
“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms,
stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.”
And on the President went. “Some will never return. Embrace
these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into thy
kingdom.” Kozak writes, “This was an American President unafraid to
embrace God and to define an enemy that clearly rejected the norms
of humanity.”
Nor apparently was President Roosevelt alone in his piety. He
continued, “Many people have urged that I call the nation into a
single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the
desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a
continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when
each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking thy
help to our efforts.”
A lot has happened since 1944. America went on to win the Cold
War peacefully. We ended segregation. We have had years of peaceful
prosperity, prosperity beyond even Roosevelt’s dreams. There have
been technological advances beyond the imagination of that
prayerful President, and in medicine too. The average American can
now expect to live decades beyond FDR’s mere 63 years, but he,
unlike many contemporary Americans, knew why he was here and where
he was going.
In some ways President Roosevelt would have been a typical
Republican.
