A Brief Shining Moment

A Brief Shining Moment. Could anyone lining Main Street in Poughkeepsie for the jubilant “Welcome Home” parade on September 24, 1919, imagine that the promised “War to End All War” was instead the prelude to another war, a war so closely tied they would be named World War “One” and “Two?”

The mood for global engagement was quite the opposite. The following year, the nation, and Dutchess County by a margin of two-to-one, rejected the continuation of Democratic US Presidential leadership, including the Vice-Presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Instead they elected Republican Presidential leadership that offered a return to “normalcy,” saying “tranquility at home is more precious than peace abroad.” They rejected the “entanglement” of a League of Nations. Time would show this more isolationist stance could not be maintained.

The striding Ass’t Sec’y of the Navy would lose the use of his legs to polio in 1921. He would go on to lead the country out of a global economic depression as President. Then he would lead the as US Commander-in-Chief in the next declaration of war on Germany in December 1941.

The Moment: September 1919

FDR: Prior To September 1919

FDR: After September 1919