Web Letters: The Hundred Days War

By Thomas J. Sugrue

This article appeared in the April 27, 2009 edition of The Nation.

April 8, 2009

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  • In 1942 FDR authorized an executive order to place over 100,000 Japanese-Americans, almost half of them children, in internment camps. In 1944 the Supreme Court backed his decision. This leaves me with two questions. First, why are we not more ashamed of FDR for those actions? Second, did this set a precedent for the Bush administration with regards to torture? It seems like the president can change the rules and have the judicial branch back him when it is convenient. If we go after Bush, I say we throw FDR in with him.

    Terry Malloy

    Canton, MA

    04/28/2009 @ 09:02am


  • Let's not forget, in all our admiration of our heroic FDR, that he refused entry to the ship carrying 900 Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939. I know we need our heroes, but we ignore their flaws at our peril. Healthy democracies are not founded on perfect men, and their flaws need to be exposed so that we can continue to make growing democracies dynamic. Those past attempts at democracies that have ignored this have died terrible deaths.

    James L. Pinette

    Caribou, ME

    04/14/2009 @ 05:59am


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