The Roosevelt Precedent

The forces of democracy were in mortal peril and Congress was intransigent, so a courageous President bent the law in the cause of freedom. Ronald Reagan and the contras? No, it was Franklin Roosevelt's decision to provide Britain with 50 overage destroyers during the desperate summer of 1940. The destroyer deal helped discourage Hitler from invading England; small wonder that Reagan's defenders now cite it as a precedent to justify secret efforts to skirt the Boland amendment.

There are, to be sure, some parallels. F.D.R. was hamstrung by a congressional ban on gifts of military equipment to foreign nations. But Roosevelt put together the destroyer deal with an openness totally at odds with the actions of Oliver North and Richard Secord. The plan was debated in a full Cabinet meeting. Even though he was in the midst of a hard-fought re- election campaign, Roosevelt felt compelled to consult Wendell Willkie, his G.O.P. rival. In cooperation with Winston Churchill, the Administration constructed a legal loophole: trading the destroyers for military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda and the West Indies. While the matter was still being debated, a legal brief supporting the President's position was published in the New York Times. Roosevelt also wrote a personal letter justifying the swap to Senator David Walsh, the leading congressional foe of aid to Britain. In the letter F.D.R. cited a questionable historical analogy of his own: Thomas Jefferson's bold action in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase without consulting Congress.