Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek
Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek
Flash Points USA - America at War - Robert Dallek (raw interview with Robert Dallek speaking about various Presidents) 06.02.03 Mr. Dallek speaking about Abraham Lincoln says "There was a terrible crisis in the United States when Lincoln was elected President in 1860, the South was threatening to secede because the Republican party was dead set against the expansion of slavery into the territories and the South felt that is was going to be overwhelmed by the North and they seceded and Lincoln felt that this was understandably the destruction of the Union." 06.03.47 He continues to say "when war erupts it's usually the consequence of unpredictable circumstances". He explains that Lincoln was lead by circumstances in the Civil War, it was the "bloodiest struggle in American history, 620,000 Americans on both sides of the line perish. He continues to say that "a series of victories in the fall of 1864 secure Lincolns re-election and put the Union on the final road to victory". Speaks more about the post-war, reconstruction, Lincolns assassination, successor Andrew Johnson impeachment. Speaks about Lincolns presidency, he wasn't seen as a great leader, called the "original baboon", retrospectively he is seen as one of the three great presidents in history along with George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt. Dallek says "He won the Civil War and he preserved the Union, and this makes him of the greatest Presidents in history", talks about his personality, his speeches are what recommends him, but contemporaries didn't see him that way. 06.08.43 Dallek talks about President Harry Truman, says he's seen now as a great President, but when he left office he was seen as a failure. Mentions FDR, Thomas Dewey, election was "the greatest upset in American Presidential history", Truman enters into a new term of popularity, fair deal, Korean War, 38th parallel, Douglas Macarthur. "It was Truman who put into the Containment Doctrine that is so instrumental in helping us win the Cold War, so Truman's reputation changes over time." 06.12.05 Robert Dallek states "The fact that Truman used the atomic bomb to end WWII to this day still sparks fierce debate." States that the United States is the only country to ever have used a nuclear weapon in anger, that tens of thousands of american lives were saved, because it helped us avoid an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Dallek continues "To get into a nuclear war would be a holocaust for the human race."