Did Roosevelt engender the war in Europe in 1938?

[David Guyatt]

This document reads like a German propaganda piece with its Nazi-like emphasis on "International Jewry" and the bloodlines of the actors therein. The source material, allegedly "documents from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, captured by Nazis at the fall of Warsaw", seem suspect as well; and as the story mentions, denied by the alleged authors and participants at the time. While I don't doubt that Roosevelt, in opposition to the Congress, privately favored war with the Axis, and also organized international support for the war, I have serious doubts that these were the "cause" of WW2, as opposed to Axis expansionism and armed invasion of its neighbors.

It is further curious that the author lists Averill Harriman as a foe of Germany, when we know that he was a major financier of the German "economic miracle", and internationalist businessmen like Morgan, Mellon, and Forbes.

Has anyone ever seen any of the source documents from any other (non-Nazi) source?

That was my first reaction too, Drew, and it's really distasteful language too. And I have no knowledge whether they are genuine as stated by the author and his various sources in the paper - even though they were used by the Nazis as propaganda and rebutted by Roosevelt at the time as being fabricated.

But I think we should also remember that the Poles were very largely anti-Semitic in those days - as indeed were the British Establishment too, and I dare say you would've heard similar language in use in the corridors of power in Whitehall, and probably Paris also. As stated in the paper it seems that the documents are historically accurate - even though they were used by the Nazis as propaganda and rebutted by Roosevelt at the time as being fabricated, but stronger proof of accuracy would be welcome.

The interesting parts for me are the recorded discussions between Ambassador Bullitt and his polish counterparts, as this apparently reveals Roosevelt's thinking.