"To the Best of My Ability‪"‬ The National WWII Museum

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt inherits a nation amidst The Great Depression, but around the world, fascist powers gain footholds. FDR begins to shape foreign policy through a series of addresses that connect the American people to the president in an unprecedented way, threading the needle between readying the nation for war and appeasing isolationists.
This week’s episode, hosted by Museum Historian Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz and produced by Digital Content Manager Bert Hidalgo, examines the lead-up to World War II through the lens of American policy as FDR attempts to prepare a nation for war.
Referencing the dangers the Axis powers contained and threatened humanity as a whole, the title for this week’s episode comes from FDR’s 1937 speech following reports of brutality by Japanese troops in China.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wins his third term bid for president, but a foreign crisis brews in the Pacific. Contending with an isolationist movement in America, he maneuvers policies and naval fleets in preparation for war, all the while convincing the US public the importance of becoming the “arsenal of democracy.”
This week’s episode, hosted by Museum Historian Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz and produced by Digital Content Manager Bert Hidalgo, follows up on Part 1 “An Epidemic of World Lawlessness” where tensions between The Empire of Japan and The United States come to a head.
The title for this week’s episode comes from FDR’s famous speech to Congress in 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On November 20, 1945, an International Military Tribunal of the victorious Allies began a series of war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany, designed to bring prominent Nazis to justice. The very men who had perpetrated some of the most horrific crimes in human history, including the Holocaust and the mass murder of POWs and civilians, now had to stand trial for their deeds. Nuremberg was a fitting site: the very city where Adolf Hitler used to stage the Parteitag, massive Nazi rallies attended by 100,000s of his adoring followers. The trials were a significant turning point for modern international law—a recognition that “following orders” was not a sufficient excuse for brutal and inhuman behavior. 

Throughout World War II and in the aftermath, persecuted Jews tried to find their way into the British Mandate of Palestine, often deemed illegally by British authorities, as the Royal Navy tried to stop them. On December 14, 1945, the ship Hannah Senesh, carrying 252 refugees, evaded British patrols and beached itself at Nahariya in Palestine. The passengers came ashore via a rope bridge and evaded capture. Large-scale Jewish immigration to Palestine increased regional tensions, which would explode into war in 1948 with the invasion of the newly established State of Israel by its Arab neighbors. Truman was the first US president to be faced with trouble in the Middle East; he would not be the last.

After more than 20 years living abroad as an expatriate in Italy, poet and Nazi sympathizer Ezra Pound was charged with 19 counts of treason against the United States. During World War II, Pound broadcast pro-Facist propaganda into the US, accepting payment from the Italian government. He expressed support for Hitler and Mussolini, criticized FDR, and blamed the Jews for the outbreak of the war—all staples of Nazi propaganda, Pound was eventually found mentally unfit to stand trial, and was incarcerated at St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric facility for more than 12 years. While institutionalized, he managed to befriend white supremacists and members of the Ku Klux Klan, including John Kasper, a staunch segregationist who was suspected of committing multiple synagogue, church, and school bombings.

By January 5, 1946, President Truman had had enough. He was tired of Stalin’s aggressive behavior, tired of the Soviet Union establishing “police states” in countries it occupied. In a letter to his Secretary of State, James, F. Byrnes, he declared that the United States would not recognize these new Communist governments. Enough was enough. “I’m sick of babying the Soviets,” he stated. This blunt statement set off a chain of events known as the Cold War, a development that brought unprecedented American intervention across the globe. As the Iron Curtain descended on eastern Europe, fears over a new global war with the USSR cast a pallor over every aspect of American life. State-side, suspicions turned into targeting Jewish, Black, and gay Americans suspected of being involved in the Communist Party, setting the stage for an unprecedented era of domestic spying.