Franklin D. Roosevelt Sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Navy
Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913.
He served under Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. In 1914, he was defeated in the Democratic primary election for the United States Senate by Tammany Hall-backed James W. Gerard. As assistant secretary, Roosevelt worked to expand the Navy and founded the United States Navy Reserve. Wilson sent the Navy and Marines to intervene in Central American and Caribbean countries. In a series of speeches in his 1920 campaign for Vice President, Roosevelt claimed that he, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, wrote the constitution which the U.S. imposed on Haiti in 1915.[28]
Roosevelt developed a life-long affection for the Navy. Roosevelt negotiated with Congressional leaders and other government departments to get budgets approved. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine and of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he proposed building a mine barrier across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In 1918, he visited Britain and France to inspect American naval facilities; during this visit he met Winston Churchill for the first time. With the end of World War I in November 1918, he was in charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely dismantle the Navy. In July 1920, Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
As a reward for his support, Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, a position he held until 1920. He was an energetic and efficient administrator, specializing in the business side of naval administration. This experience prepared him for his future role as Commander-in-Chief during World War II.
After the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912, FDR accepted an appointment as assistant secretary of the navy, a post he held for the next seven years. A lover and student of the sea and ships from his childhood on, FDR vigorously argued within the administration for a better prepared navy and for a more militant stance in crises than Wilson was willing to take. When the United States finally entered World War I in 1917, FDR worked to ensure that the navy had a vital role to play in the war. In the making of peace at the end of the war, FDR absorbed President Wilson’s internationalist ideals, as well as the lessons of Wilson’s failure to bring the United States into the League of Nations. His experience during this period helped produce the combination of idealism and realism that he later brought to the creation of the United Nations.
Roosevelt served 1913-20 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson.
In 1914, he was defeated in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate by Tammany Hall-backed James W. Gerard. Roosevelt worked to expand the Navy and founded the United States Navy Reserve. Wilson sent the Navy and Marines to intervene in Central American and Caribbean countries. In his 1920 campaign for Vice President, Roosevelt claimed that he had played a significant role in Latin American politics and had even written the constitution which the U.S. imposed on Haiti in 1915.[3]
Roosevelt developed a life-long affection for the Navy. He showed great administrative talent and quickly learned to negotiate with Congressional leaders and other government departments to get budgets approved, and with officials like Joseph P. Kennedy at Navy yards and commercial shipyards to get the ships built. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine and also of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he proposed building a mine barrier across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In 1918, he visited Britain and France to inspect American naval facilities; during this visit he met Winston Churchill for the first time. With the end of World War I in November 1918, he was in charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely dismantle the Navy.
