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Article: How World War II saved the New Deal.
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- July 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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World war II was a godsend to American liberals. The New Deal had been dead in the water since 1937, torpedoed by its fundamental failure to effect an end to the Depression and its increasingly annoying meddling with traditional patterns of American life. A conservative coalition of Republicans and southern Democrats blocked almost all of Pres. Franklin a Roosevelt's initiatives until the foreign policy crisis of 1939-41.
That crisis renewed the President's vigor and allowed him gradually to maneuver the U.S. into a position that made entering the war in Europe and the Pacific inevitable. He was aided immeasurably by the recklessness of the Japanese and Germans. ...