Harry Hopkins - World War II

World War II

On May 10, 1940, after a long night and day of discussing the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg that had ended the so-called "Phony War", Roosevelt urged a tired Hopkins to stay for dinner, and then the night, in a second-floor White House bedroom. Hopkins would live out of the bedroom for the next three-and-a-half years.

During the war years, Hopkins acted as Roosevelt's unofficial emissary to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Roosevelt dispatched Hopkins to assess Britain's determination and situation. Churchill escorted Hopkins all over the United Kingdom, and converted him to the British cause. At a small dinner party before he returned, Hopkins rose to propose a toast. "I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return. Well I am going to quote to you one verse from the Book of Books ... "Whither thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Hopkins became the administrator of Lend Lease.

Hopkins had a major voice in policy for the vast $50 billion Lend Lease program, especially regarding supplies, first for Britain and then (upon the German invasion) the USSR. He went to Moscow in July 1941 to make personal contact with Joseph Stalin. Hopkins recommended, and the president accepted, the inclusion of the Soviets in Lend Lease. He then accompanied Churchill to the Atlantic Conference. Hopkins promoted an aggressive war against Germany and successfully urged Roosevelt to use the Navy to protect convoys before the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. Roosevelt brought him along as advisor to his meetings with Churchill at Cairo, Tehran, Casablanca in 1942-43, and Yalta in 1945.

He was a firm supporter of China, which received Lend Lease aid for its military and air force. Hopkins wielded more diplomatic power than the entire State Department. Hopkins helped identify and sponsor numerous potential leaders, including Dwight D. Eisenhower. He continued to live in the White House and saw the president more often than any other advisor.

Although Hopkins' health was steadily declining, Roosevelt sent him on additional trips to Europe in 1945; he attended the Yalta Conference in February 1945. He tried to resign after Roosevelt died, but President Harry S. Truman sent him on one more mission to Moscow. American Ambassador to Moscow Averell Harriman reported to a class at George Washington University in the Fall of 1992 that it was in 1945 that he observed how Stalin once abruptly terminated a conversation and proceeded to cross the span of the a large hall at the Kremlin to personally greet Hopkins as he and Harriman entered. Harriman indicated that this was considered by all those present to be an strong indication of the Soviet view of the respect that the Soviets had for Hopkins personally, that such a breach of protocol was signaling a great honor.

Hopkins had 3 sons who served in the armed forces during the war, Robert, David and Stephen. Stephen was killed in action serving in the United States Marine Corps, during the landing on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Theater.