James Roosevelt
James Roosevelt II was an American businessman, Marine officer, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secretary to the President for his father and was later elected to the United States House of Representatives representing California, serving five terms from 1955 to 1965. Roosevelt received the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II.
Early life and career
Roosevelt was born at 123 East 36th Street in New York City. He was named after James Roosevelt I, his paternal grandfather. Roosevelt attended the Potomac School and St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and the Groton School in Massachusetts. At Groton, he rowed, played football, and was a prefect in his senior year. After graduating in 1926, Roosevelt attended Harvard, where he rowed with the freshman and junior varsity crews. At Harvard, he followed family traditions in joining the Signet Society and Hasty Pudding Club, of which both his father and his maternal granduncle and paternal fifth cousin once removed, President Theodore Roosevelt, had been members, the Fly Club, which his father had joined, and the Institute of the 1770. Roosevelt graduated from Harvard in 1930 and was elected permanent treasurer of his class.After graduation, Roosevelt enrolled in the Boston University School of Law. He also took a sales job with the firm of Victor De Gerard of Boston in 1930, remaining with that firm when it amalgamated with the John Paulding Meade Company which, in turn, amalgamated with O'Brion, Russell and Company in 1932. Roosevelt abandoned his law studies within a year due to his success at the firm. In 1932, Roosevelt started his own insurance agency, Roosevelt & Sargent, in partnership with John A. Sargent. As president of Roosevelt & Sargent, he made a substantial fortune. Roosevelt resigned from the firm in 1937, when he officially went to work at the White House, but retained his half-ownership.
Roosevelt was elected a director of Boston Metropolitan Buildings, Inc. in 1933. He also served briefly as president of the National Grain Yeast Corporation from May to November 1935.
Politics and the White House
Roosevelt attended the 1924 Democratic National Convention where he served, in his words, as his father's "page and prop". In 1928, he and some Harvard classmates campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith. In 1932, Roosevelt headed his father's Massachusetts campaign and made about 200 campaign speeches that year. Although FDR lost the Massachusetts Democratic primary to Smith, he easily carried Massachusetts in the November election. Roosevelt was viewed as his father's political deputy in Massachusetts, allocating patronage in alliance with Boston mayor James Michael Curley. He was also a delegate from Massachusetts to the Constitutional Convention for the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.Roosevelt was a close protege of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. In fall 1933, the two journeyed to England to obtain the market in post-prohibition liquor imports. Many of Roosevelt's controversial business ventures were aided by Kennedy, including his maritime insurance interests, and the National Grain Yeast Corp. affair. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. threatened to resign unless FDR forced his son to leave the latter company, suspected of being a front for bootlegging. Roosevelt was instrumental in securing Kennedy's appointment as ambassador to the United Kingdom.
In April 1936, Presidential Secretary Louis Howe died. Roosevelt unofficially assumed Howe's duties. Soon after the 1936 re-election of his father, Roosevelt was given a direct commission as a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, which caused public controversy for its obvious political implications. He accompanied his father to the Inter-American Conference at Buenos Aires in December as a military aide. On January 6, 1937, Roosevelt was officially appointed "administrative assistant to the President"; on July 1, he was appointed secretary to the president. Roosevelt was the White House coordinator for 18 federal agencies by October 1937.
Roosevelt was considered among his father's most important counselors. Time magazine suggested he might be considered "Assistant President of the United States".
In July 1938, there were allegations that Roosevelt had used his political position to steer lucrative business to his insurance firm. Roosevelt had to publish his income tax returns and denied these allegations in an NBC broadcast and an interview in Collier's magazine. This became known as the Jimmy's Got It affair after Alva Johnston's reportage in the Saturday Evening Post. Roosevelt resigned from his White House position in November 1938.
Hollywood
After leaving the White House in November 1938, Roosevelt moved to Hollywood, California, where he accepted a job as a $750/week "administrative assistant" for motion picture producer Samuel Goldwyn. Roosevelt was on Goldwyn's payroll until November 1940. In 1939, he set up Globe Productions, a company that produced short films for penny arcades; however, it was liquidated during Roosevelt's active Marine Corps service in 1944. Roosevelt also was the "R" of RCM Productions, Inc., in partnership with songwriter Sam Coslow and juke box manufacturer Herbert Mills which, like Globe, produced film shorts for the Soundies movie juke boxes. Roosevelt also produced Pot o' Gold and distributed the anti-Nazi British film Pastor Hall. He enlisted his mother, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to narrate a prologue added to the American version of Pastor Hall.During his Hollywood period, Roosevelt became involved with Joseph Schenck, a movie mogul who was later caught participating in a payoff scheme that was intended to buy peace with movie industry labor unions. In 1942, Schenck pleaded guilty to one count of perjury and spent four months in prison before being paroled. In October 1945, Harry S. Truman granted Schenck a presidential pardon, which was not known to the public until 1947.
Military career
broke out in Europe in September 1939, and Roosevelt resigned the Marine commission the following month as a lieutenant colonel that he had received in 1936 when serving as his father's military aide and accepted a commission as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve so that he could enter active duty, which Roosevelt did in November 1940.File:דגניה - קפיטן ג'יימס רוזוולט בנו של הנשיא רוזוולט-JNF012573.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Roosevelt visiting Degania, Mandatory Palestine, 1941
In April 1941, his father sent Roosevelt on a secret, world-circling diplomatic mission to assure numerous governments that the United States would soon be in the war. The leaders contacted included Chiang Kai-shek in China, King Farouk in Egypt, and King George of Greece. During this trip, Roosevelt came under German air attack in both Crete and Iraq. In the African/Middle Eastern portions of the mission, he traveled with Britain's Lord Mountbatten as far as Bathurst in the Gambia. They reported on trans-African air ferry conditions, an important concern of FDR and Winston Churchill at the time. In August, Roosevelt joined the staff of William J. Donovan, coordinator of information, with the job of working out the exchange of information with other agencies.
World War II
After Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt was seated next to his father when the President delivered his Day of Infamy speech. Roosevelt requested assignment to combat duty and was transferred to the Marine Raiders in January 1942, a new Marine Corps commando force, and became second-in-command of the 2nd Raider Battalion under Evans Carlson whom Roosevelt knew when Carlson commanded the Marine detachment at the Warm Springs, Georgia, residence of his father. Roosevelt's influence helped win presidential backing for the Raiders—influenced by the British Commandos—which were opposed by Marine Corps traditionalists.Despite occasionally debilitating health problems, Roosevelt served with the 2nd Raiders at Midway in early June 1942 and in the Makin Island raid on August 17–18, 1942, where he and 22 others were awarded the Navy Cross. In October, Roosevelt was given command of the new 4th Raiders, but during training for an upcoming combat operation, he became ill enough to be hospitalized by February 1943. Beginning in August 1943, Roosevelt served in various staff positions for the duration of the war. He was attached to and landed with the U.S. Army's 165th Regimental Combat Team, 27th infantry Division during the invasion of Makin on November 20–23 and was awarded the Silver Star by the army. Roosevelt was promoted to colonel on April 13, 1944. He was released from active duty in August 1945 and was placed on the inactive list in October 1945. That same month, Roosevelt became a Compatriot of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Roosevelt remained an inactive member of the Marine Corps Reserve until October 1, 1959, when he received a final promotion to the rank of brigadier general upon fully retiring from the service. Because Roosevelt suffered from flat feet, he was allowed to wear sneakers while other Marines were required to wear boots.
Military awards
Roosevelt's military decorations and awards include:Navy Cross citation
The Navy Cross is presented to James Roosevelt, Major, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service as second in command of the Second Marine Raider Battalion against enemy Japanese armed forces on Makin island. Risking his own life over and above the ordinary call of duty, Major Roosevelt continually exposed himself to intense machine-gun and sniper fire to ensure effective control of operations from the command post. As a result of his successful maintenance of communications with his supporting vessels, two enemy surface ships, whose presence was reported, were destroyed by gun fire. Later during evacuation, he displayed exemplary courage in personally rescuing three men from drowning in the heavy surf. His gallant conduct and his inspiring devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
For the President,
Chester W. Nimitz