Recognizing that building all of the subchasers needed to counter the World War I U-boat threat would take too long, FDR appealed to the patriotism of his fellow yachtsmen.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the Navy, was nothing akin to FDR the president, who had developed a profound appreciation for the working class, labor, agriculture, and the problems facing America in economic depression or in war. As a young man Roosevelt was neither particularly aware of people outside his high class nor cared. The Roosevelts had been members of the Gilded Age’s upper crust. People of such ilk were of old money or the relatively newly rich who made their fortunes during a time of great social inequality. He was handsome, arrogant, conceited, ambitious, self-centered, and an amateur in both government and military affairs. He was, however, a Roosevelt—Groton and Harvard educated, and a relation to the beloved Theodore Roosevelt—so he was easily considered for government service. 1
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