From In Our Image: The United States and the Philippines. For the documentary, Stanley Karnow interviewed Elliot Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and who from time to time served as an aide to his father.
Well, I think the probably the most interesting part of my first recollections of the importance of the Philippines in the overall future policies that my father contemplated would be starting with the Casablanca conference, where my father met with Winston Churchill, and the discussions first came up about the future, F to the war, of what would happen to the colonial empires of the world. And, of course, Mr. Churchill and my father disagreed quite violently on what my father’s concept was. My father’s concept was that all of the nations, the developed nations of the world, would have to give up and grant independence.
At the Casablanca conference during the Second World War, my father met with Winston Churchill to discuss what would become of the different world countries after the war, and it was a question of what would become of the colonial powers that were controlled by the developed nations throughout the world in Asia and in Africa. And, of course, the United States main what you might call colonial possession at that time was the Philippines. And my father stated that he wanted to give freedom to the Philippines to become an independent nation and to determine their own future. Well, of course, Winston Churchill and he disagreed violently because Winston Churchill was not in favor of dismembering the British Empire.
But, of course, that is eventually what did happen. And my father’s belief as to what would happen in the world came to pass. And the independence of the Philippines was largely his decision. And he had arrived at that decision and felt that the independence of the Philippines would be a good move because of his relationship during the years leading up to World War II with the Philippine leadership in the form of Quezon and Romulo who represented in the United States, Philippine interests and the Philippine Commonwealth. The net result was that he had this tremendous feeling that these two leaders had the capability of leading the Philippines into independent nationhood and in bringing about stability in this country, in the Philippines. And I believe that if he had lived that he would have made sure that that stability was brought about with the right kind of assistance and support from the United States government so that there would have been stability here as a democratic nation and as a competent economic factor throughout all of the Asianic area…
My father did comment to us quite often in family discussions that President Quezon was a very capable individual and that he had the type of leadership that he was looking for in helping to make the Philippines into a democratic country and a very sound economic entity in the Pacific area. And I believe from my recollection that my father had great admiration, not only for Quezon, but for most of the leadership behind Quezon in this country and he felt that they were a cohesive group of people. I think that this would have come to pass and would have remained that way if he had managed to live a little bit longer.
…Let’s go back. I think the problems that did arise as a result of the way in which we did support the independence of the Philippines from the very beginning. I’m afraid that the presidents that succeeded my father, none of them had the background and the knowledge of this country that enabled them…
Oh, yes, I think that the problems that arose after my father’s death with regard to the United States position in backing the new republic in this country and ensuring that it was founded on a firm democratic basis was that we did not recognize the special position that the Philippines had to enjoy because they were our major colonial asset and we had to show toward them a great deal more knowledge of what their needs were at the very beginning. And unfortunately my father was succeeded by President Truman and after President Truman by President Eisenhower and then a succession of other presidents.
None of these presidents had the background and the knowledge that my father had regarding the need of the Philippine republic and the people to be able to meet the real problems that face any nation once it starts to become a democracy and to make it work because you got to remember that historically the Philippines had lived for hundreds of years under the Spanish rule before that by the Sultans and after that by the United States. And they had been used to living under the rule and direction of foreign powers so to suddenly become a free nation they needed all the assistance in the world in mapping their own future and in being able to have the right kind of support I don’t feel that we have ever given the support that enabled the country to stand as a solid representative country for democracy in the whole Asian area.
…I think that General MacArthur was respected by my father for his military abilities. I do not think that my father really felt that he was a man who could be entrusted with the need for leadership and the creation of a democratic power. I don’t think that he would have done what President Truman did in allowing MacArthur to dictate the terms of the rebirth of Japan. I don’t think he would have had MacArthur in that position. And I, for one, am of the opinion that he had MacArthur solely in the position that he occupied in the Pacific during the war years because of his well-known and established ability to lead military forces. Nothing about his ability as an administrator, as a peacetime administrator. He would not have been very happy with that.
…Those who were involved in the Pacific theater in the early stages of the war, they felt that they had to have all of the military support from our country that was available. But unfortunately, we were fighting a war on two fronts. We were fighting Hitler to the east of America. And the damage that Hitler was doing in Europe far overshadowed the damage that was threatening us from the Japanese, even though the Japanese were the first people to attack a, rather a military installation like they did at Pearl Harbor.
But the fact of the matter is, we had to split our resources which were extremely limited. During the early days of the war, we had to build up the momentum of production. We had to change the entire civilian production over from civilian products into military products. We turned all of the automobile factories into producing munitions. We turned everything in our country over into the military war effort. That took a long period of time. During that period, we had to say to the soldiers in the field, you have to stand and fight and try to hold the line as best you can because we can’t give you all the support you want right now to be successful on the field of battle.
That’s going to come later. And that in fact is what happened. And MacArthur did see the error of his ways after he left Corregidor and he then came back successfully in the Pacific with the aid and assistance of a very mighty production effort on the part of the United States.
…All I can tell you is that generally he gave me the impression MacArthur is a good military leader and the best that I can have in the Pacific area. He knows what he’s doing in the Pacific. Therefore, no matter how I feel about him individually and he did not particularly care for him as an individual because he felt that he really had a complex that was he really believed in himself too much. He really was a super-egotist and my father said, well, I don’t care. He is a super-egotist as long as he does his military job and that is what MacArthur did for my father and my father did have the respect of General MacArthur throughout the war years in spite of his having been angry at the start.
…I would like to remind you of the fact that my father could employ the people whom he regarded at one time as being super-dangerous and the wrong kind of people in his book for leadership because even Patrick Hurley, who was the Secretary of War under Mr. Hoover, he brought him back and made him his special envoy to Chiang Kai Shek during the war years…
This is purely my own opinion. But the fact of the matter is that my father believed in both General MacArthur and General MacArthur’s superior who had been the Secretary of War and the Hoover administration. So you see, he didn’t always have to like a person in order to use him.
…He considered MacArthur to be a super-egotist, a man who believed sometimes that he was next to God. And I think MacArthur did give that impression. And I’m not sure that he didn’t really believe that in his heart of hearts, that he was right and everybody else was wrong.
…You know, a great deal of time has passed since my father died and a great deal has happened. And we’ve had a number of presidents that have dealt with the Philippines between my father’s era and today. And I feel that probably we should look back a little bit and consider what he had hoped would happen. And in light of today’s situation, I think that he would be counseling our government, regardless of whether it’s a Democratic administration or a Republican administration. He would be counseling our government to support the Philippine people and ask them to make their democracy work.
