Text 25
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
One of Roosevelt's first orders after becoming President was that if people in trouble telephoned the White House for help, someone on his staff was to talk to them and figure out some way of providing assistance. After Roosevelt's death, his wife Eleanor received many letters from people telling her how in the worst days of the Great Depression they had called the President and received immediate help. When civil works projects for putting the unemployed to work were being set up, someone brought to Roosevelt's attention the plight of artists who were out of work and suggested including them in the program. “Why not?” was Roosevelt's response. “They are human beings. They have to live. I guess the only thing they can do is paint and surely there must be some public place where paintings are wanted”. Years later, painter George Biddle had this to say: “You know, it is strange. Roosevelt has almost no taste or judgment about painting, and I don't think he gets much enjoyment out of it: yet he has done more for painters in this country than anybody else ever did — not only by feeding them when they were down and out; but by establishing the idea that paintings are a good thing to have around, and that artists are important”.
Like other Presidents who exerted forceful leadership at critical junctures in American history, Roosevelt was the recipient of both passionate adoration and blind hatred. Roosevelt jokes — and jokes about his wife, Eleanor, who was always on the go — abounded. Some of them Roosevelt enjoyed; others he regarded as beneath contempt. His favorite cartoon showed a little girl running to tell her mother standing in front of a fashionable home: “Look, mama, Wilfred wrote a bad work!” The word on the sidewalk was “Roosevelt”. And his favorite story was about the commuter from Westchester County, a Republican stronghold, who always walked into his station, handed the newspaper boy a quarter, picked up the «New York Herald Tribune», and then handed it back as he rushed out to catch his train- Finally the newsboy, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, asked his customer why he only glanced at the front page. “I'm interested in the obituary notices”, the man told him. “But they're way over on page twenty-four, and you never look at them”, said the boy. “Boy”, said the man, “the son of a bitch I'm interested it will be on page one!”
Campaigning for re-election in 1936, Roosevelt had to prepare a speech to deliver in Pittsburgh. Four years earlier he had spoken there advocating drastic government economy. Now he wanted to defend government spending. He asked his adviser to figure out some way of making this about-face without appearing too inconsistent. The adviser thought it over for a few days and finally told him: “I think, Mr. President, that 1 have found a way out”. “What is it, Sam?» asked Roosevelt eagerly. “Deny that you made a speech in Pittsburgh in 1932”.
Text 26
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
When John F. Kennedy took the oath of office on January 20, 1961, he was, at forty-three, the youngest man ever elected president. He was also one of the wittiest.
Kennedy served in the navy during World War П. He was proud of his war record but never bragged about it. “Mr. President”, a high school boy once asked him, “how did you become a war hero?” “It was absolutely involuntary”, Kennedy responded. “They sank my boat”.
When the torpedo boat he commanded was wrecked by a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific in August 1943, not only did he keep up the spirits of the survivors by his own playful exuberance but also saved the life of one man who was wounded by seizing the end of his life jacket in his teeth and towing him to an island three miles away. It was several days before Kennedy and his crew were rescued, and they suffered severely from lack of food and water during that period. Then they were rescued and he wrote to a friend: “...I went to see the Doc about some coral infections I got. He asked me how I got them — I said, 'Swimming.' He then burst out with: Kennedy, you know swimming is forbidden in this area, stay out of the goddamned water!' So now it's an official order...”
In June 1961 Kennedy left Vienna after his meeting with Khrushchev with increased concern about American-Russian tensions; but he never gave up his hope that with patience and determination he could make progress toward a better understanding between the two nations. As he told Khrushchev: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. While he was President he frequently said: “All I want them to say about me is what1 they said about John Adams, 'He kept the peace'”.
And in the speech he had intended to give in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the day of his assassination, he declared: “We ask ... that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of 'peace on earth, goodwill toward men'”.
(Abridgedfrom “Presidential Anecdotes”)
The true rule in determining to embrace or reject anything is not whether it has any evil in it, but whether it has more of evil than of good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound policy of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. (Abraham Lincoln)
Comment on the following quotations
“There is nothing that takes place at home of any great importance — if it is a difficult problem, at least — that is not caused by or at least colored by some foreign consideration”.
(President Eisenhower)
“The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish Government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government”.
(George Washington)
“In politics, if you want someone to make a speech, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman”.
(Margaret Thatcher)
“It is easy to fool yourself. It is possible to fool the people you work for. It is more difficult to fool the people you work with. But it is almost impossible to fool the people who work under you”.
(Harry B. Thayer)
Text 27
My Meetings with General Grant
Mark Twain
The first time I ever saw General Grant was early in his first term as President. I had just arrived in Washington — a stranger, and wholly unknown to the public — and was passing the White House one morning, when I met a friend, a senator from Nevada. He asked me if I would like to see the President. I said I should be glad; so we entered. I supposed that the President would be in the midst of a crowd, and that I could look at him in peace and security from a distance.
But before I knew it, the Senator and I were in the presence; and there was none there but we three. General Grant got slowly up from his table, put his pen down, and stood before me with the iron expression of a man who had not smiled for seven years, and was not going to smile for another seven. He looked me steadily in the eyes; mine lost confidence and fell. I had never confronted a great man before, and was in a dreadful state of inefficiency. The Senator said: “Mr. President, may I have the privilege of introducing Mr. Clemens?”
The President gave my hand an unsympathetic wag and dropped it. He did not say a word, but just stood. In my trouble I could not think of anything to say. There was an awkward pause, a horrible pause. Then I looked up into that unsmiling face and said timidly: “Mr. President, I — I am embarrassed, are you?”
His face broke, just a little — the momentary flicker of a smile seven years ahead of time; and I was out and gone as soon as it was.
Ten years passed away before I saw him the second time. Mean-tuoe I had become a notorious person, and was one of the people ap-Pointed to respond to toasts at a banquet given to General Grant in t-hicago when he came back from his tour around the world.
I arrived late at night and got up late in the morning. All the corridors of the hotel were crowded with people waiting to get a glimpse of General Grant when he should pass to the place whence he was to review the great procession. I worked my way through packed drawing-rooms, and at the corner of the house I found a window open where there was a platform decorated with flags and carpets. I stepped out on it, and saw below me millions of people blocking all the streets, and other millions caked together in all the windows and on all the house-tops around. These masses took me for General Grant, and broke into volcanic explosions of cheers. But it was a good place to see the procession and I stayed.
Presently I heard the distant blare of military music, and far up the street I saw the procession come in sight.
And now General Grant, arm-in-arm with the Mayor of Chicago, stepped out on the platform. General Grant was looking exactly as he had looked upon that trying occasion of ten years before, all iron self-possession. The Mayor came over and led me to the General and formally introduced me. Before I could put together the proper remark, General Grant said:
«Mr. Clemens, I am not embarrassed, are you?» and that little seven-year-old smile twinkled across his face again.
President's day
President's Day is celebrated in February to honor two of the US greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. The holiday is celebrated in the United States on the third Monday in February.
Gorge Washington was born on February 22, 1732. When he was born, America was not a country yet. It belonged to England, a country across the ocean. People in America didn't want to belong to England so they fought a war to become a separate country. George Washington was an American general in the war. America won the war and picked a new name for itself: The United States of America. George Washington was elected to be its first President.
A legend is told- about George Washington as a boy. Young George had a new hatchet and with it he cut down a small cherry tree. When his father saw the tree, he was angry. ‘George”, he said... “Did you do that?” George was afraid to admit that he did.
Nevertheless, the boy decided to tell the truth. “Yes, Father”, he said, “I cut down the cherry tree with my hatchet. I cannot tell a lie”. George Washington's father was proud of George for telling the truth.
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12 in 1809. Things were different then. When Abe was a boy, he lived in a log cabin. – A log cabin is a small house made out of logs cut from trees. His father cut down the trees and made the cabin.
There were no electric lights in the cabin because electricity hadn't been invented yet. Young Abe read books by firelight and drew with charcoal on a shovel. Abe's family was poor. Often he went barefoot because he didn't have any shoes.
Then Abraham Lincoln grew up, he studied hard and became a lawyer. Then he was elected to be a lawmaker. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States.
In Their Own Words the Presidency & Power
“The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way”.
William Howard Toft, 1916
“There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power. Not organized rivalries, but an organized common реасе”.
Woodrow Wilson, 1917
“Frankly, being President is rather an unattractive business unless one relishes the exercise of power. That is a thing which «as never greatly appealed to me”.
Warren Harding, 1921
“I suppose I am the most powerful man in the world, but great power doesn't mean much except great limitations”.
Calvin Coolidge, 1926
“Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales”.
“I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match... I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master”.
Franklin Roosevelt, 1936
“In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside”.
JohnF. Kennedy, 1961
“You know, the President of the United States is not a magician who can wave a wand or sign a paper that will instantly end a war, cure a recession, or make a bureaucracy disappear”.
Gerald Ford, 1976
“I have a lot of problems on my shoulders but, strangely enough, I feel better as they pile up. My main concern is propping up the people around me who tend to panic, and who might possibly have a better picture of the situation than I do”.
Jimmy Carter, 1980
Text 28
Winston Churchill
One of the greatest statesmen who led Great Britain to victory in the Second World War was Sir Winston Churchill, a man of inexhaustible energy, a historian, a veteran of war and master of politics. He was an intense patriot and believed in his country's greatness and its historic role in Europe and in the world.
Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. After graduation from the Royal B4ilitary College at Sandhurst, the young officer wanted to make his mark. He left for Cuba. He spent there a couple of months reporting the Cuban war of independence from Spain. Later his regiment went to India where he was both soldier and journalist. He also reported the South African War. Within a month after bis arrival in South Africa he won fame for his part in rescuing an armoured train and for his success in escaping from a Boer prison camp. He returned to Britain as a military hero. In 1990 he entered politics as a Conservative and won a seat in Parliament.
у In the years that followed his government and political posts alternated with military ones. He remained outside the Government from 1929 to 1939, but he continued to hold a seat in Parliament and repeatedly warned of the menace of Nazi Germany.
On September 3, 1939 Great Britain declared war on Germany. Winston Churchilll was reappointed to the Admirality, installed as prime minister and later took over the Ministry of Defence. When he faced the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister, he warned of the hard road ahead. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”, he said. He announced his policy — “to wage war by sea, land and air” and Proclaimed one aim — “victory at all costs, victory however Wig and hard the road may be”. The Commons gave him their enanimous vote of confidence.
While the Battle of Britain raged, Winston Churchill was everywhere — at military headquarters, inspecting coastal defences, anti-aircraft batteries, visiting scenes of bomb damage, smoking his cigar, giving his “V” sign and broadcasting frank reports to the nation. He was also the perfect personification of the people he led.
With military success in 1945 came political problems. Churchill's Conservative Party failed in the postwar period, but he led it back to office in 1951 and remained prime minister until 1955 when ill health forced him to resign.
He found pleasure in 'writing. The most important are his two masterpieces “The Second World War” and “A History of English Speaking Peoples”. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.