“You know this is a Protestant country, and the Catholics and Jews are here under sufferance.”
-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Not a very charming line, is it?
Roosevelt is having lunch with two members of his cabinet, a Jew and a Catholic, and he is pretty much asserting his priority. You would think he might feel secure enough in his authority as president of the United States, but he apparently did not want any doubt that he should get his way.
This was just after Pearl Harbor, perhaps on January 27, 1942. The new pressure of being in wartime may have given Roosevelt a new sense of urgency in taking control and exercising authority.
(Source: “The Conquerors” by Michael Beschloss)
-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Not a very charming line, is it?
Roosevelt is having lunch with two members of his cabinet, a Jew and a Catholic, and he is pretty much asserting his priority. You would think he might feel secure enough in his authority as president of the United States, but he apparently did not want any doubt that he should get his way.
This was just after Pearl Harbor, perhaps on January 27, 1942. The new pressure of being in wartime may have given Roosevelt a new sense of urgency in taking control and exercising authority.
(Source: “The Conquerors” by Michael Beschloss)