which reminds me, billy mitchell resigned from the army air corps in 1926. fdr did not become pres until 1932.
FDR as Billy Mitchells antagonist promoted the Court Martial of Billy Mitchell many times long before he ran for office, FDR was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy before Polio put him in his wheel chair....... being so well read I figured you knew that eddie, guess not.......
Mitchell resigned instead on February 1, 1926,
and spent the next decade writing and preaching air power to all who would listen. However, his departure from the service sharply reduced his ability to influence military policy and public opinion.
Mitchell viewed the election of his one-time antagonist Franklin D. Roosevelt as advantageous for air power, and met with him early in 1932 to brief him on his concepts for a unification of the military in a Department of Defense. His ideas intrigued and interested Roosevelt.....
..... Mitchell believed he might receive an appointment as Assistant Secretary of War for Air or perhaps even Secretary of War in a Roosevelt administration,
but neither prospect materialized.FDR went on his own systematic destruction of the Army Air Service and other military branches. Roosevelt tried to keep his 1932 campaign promise by cutting the federal budget – including a reduction in military spending from $752 million in 1932 to $531 million in 1934 and a 40% cut in spending on veterans' benefits – by removing 500,000 veterans and widows from the pension rolls and reducing benefits for the remainder, as well as cutting the salaries of federal employees and reducing spending on research and education.
At the time of the Munich Agreement in 1938 – with the U.S. not represented – Roosevelt said the US would not join a "stop-Hitler bloc" under any circumstances. He made it quite clear that, in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. would remain neutral.
Roosevelt said in 1939 that France and Britain were America's "first line of defense" and needed American aid, but because of widespread isolationist sentiment, he reiterated the US itself would not go to war. In the spring of 1939, FDR allowed the French to place huge orders with the American aircraft industry on a cash-and-carry basis,
as allowed by law. Most of the aircraft ordered had not arrived in France by the time of its collapse in May 1940, so Roosevelt arranged in June 1940 for French orders to be sold to the British.
The German victories left Britain isolated in western Europe. Roosevelt, who was determined that Britain not be defeated, took advantage of the rapid shifts of public opinion. The fall of Paris shocked American opinion, and isolationist sentiment declined.
A consensus was clear that military spending had to be dramatically expanded.......duh.......
