DBWI what are this forum views on president Long?

I'm still building up my views on president Huey Long as a foreigner, so I decided to start this thread to ask you americans views on them, I mean, he led the USA during world war II and the early cold war, and he is a hero for millions, but at the same time he had one of the, if not THE most corrupt government in american history, he made a lot of social programs but his populist policy almost turned america itself into a banana republic, I also like the popular cars of his era that he made in a agreement with Henry Ford, I myself have a compact 1952 and it is awesome

Well, what do you think?
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He was even the time men of the year fter the end of the war in 1945
 
Banana Republic is putting it mildly. This is the man who massively extended the powers of the executive branch, interred the entire Japanese-American population as a "security threat", packed the Supreme Court with lackeys when they stood in the way of his reforms, and forced through his foreign policy despite it violating US law.
 
Banana Republic is putting it mildly. This is the man who massively extended the powers of the executive branch, interred the entire Japanese-American population as a "security threat", packed the Supreme Court with lackeys when they stood in the way of his reforms, and forced through his foreign policy despite it violating US law.

President Long was only ensuring the safety of the United States. Roosevelt couldn't do enough to save the economy, it took the Kingfish's radical ideas to launch the United States into the 20th century.

Let's not forget his war leadership, his decision not to aid the Soviet Union while criticized at the time was pure brilliance! It meant that the Cold War would be over by 1968, if the Soviets hadn't taken all that damage who knows how long they would have held up?
 
Huey Long is the reason we have the 24th Amendment, limiting Presidents to two terms, and after all the buttheads who kowtowed to him retired, the 26th Amendment limiting Senators to two terms and Representatives to four. Of course, there wouldn't have had to be so many damn amendments if Long hadn't rammed through the War Powers Amendment and the Jim Crow Amendment, both of which were thankfully repealed with the 27th, or the "collective sigh of relief" amendment. Black folks almost revolted over Jim Crow being in the Constitution, and God knows this country didn't need any more social unrest.

He may have been a foreign policy whiz, but he absolutely shit the bed domestically.
 
Let's not forget his war leadership, his decision not to aid the Soviet Union while criticized at the time was pure brilliance! It meant that the Cold War would be over by 1968, if the Soviets hadn't taken all that damage who knows how long they would have held up?

It also did lead to the deaths of who knows how many more millions of soldiers and civilians in Eastern Europe - by the time that photo of Soviet and American forces shaking hands at the Niemand was signed, Hitler and Bormann had been able to kill almost fifteen million members of various ethnic groups, whilst the year-long Battle of the Volga in Russia (the most destructive event in military history, by some metrics) could easily have been avoided had Long put aside his blazing anti-communism for a second and recognised the necessities of war.

Huey Long is the reason we have the 24th Amendment, limiting Presidents to two terms, and after all the buttheads who kowtowed to him retired, the 26th Amendment limiting Senators to two terms and Representatives to four. Of course, there wouldn't have had to be so many damn amendments if Long hadn't rammed through the War Powers Amendment and the Jim Crow Amendment, both of which were thankfully repealed with the 27th, or the "collective sigh of relief" amendment. Black folks almost revolted over Jim Crow being in the Constitution, and God knows this country didn't need any more social unrest.

His domestic policy was an absolute train-wreck from start to finish - it took Warren his entire eight years just to try and pull the nation back up again.

I'm British, not American, but this guy is pretty infamous even over here. Some have said that his influence, at the time Britain was most politically impressionable after the end of the war in 1946, was a major factor in the 'lurch to the left' that took place in our politics. Attlee probably wouldn't have won the 1947 election against Eden if it wasn't for the fact that Eden's close ties to America looked a bit risky with the country being led by someone that Bevan described as being 'half clown and half plantation-owner'. On a different note, Churchill might have lived a bit longer if he didn't have Long to deal with - a few historians have cited as one of the causes of his stroke in 1945 as the stress of the meetings between him and Long - though I personally suspect that the brandy consumption had something to do with it too.
 
a few historians have cited as one of the causes of his stroke in 1945 as the stress of the meetings between him and Long - though I personally suspect that the brandy consumption had something to do with it too.

I remember reading on "The torch of populism" written by Fernando Nogueira (a braizlian historian) that "for good or for ill, Huey Long was the most important american personality of the 20th century
 
I'm not a fan of his beside his aiding our British Allies and the French. If he did not send over the early M2's and early M3's in 1940 to France what would of happened there radio sets helped big time with command and control.

the other thing I do have to give him credit for was the national medicare act. I can't picture America like our Canadian friends with private health insurance
 
The Kingfish's decision to allow jews and other refugees to emigrate to Alaska in order to protect it from the Japanese saved millions of lives.

over 4 million jewish lives were saved by that decision, then you get into poles, and other ethnic groups.

Alaska as a state exists because of Longs policies, he was a flawed man but he did some serious good amongst all the garbage.
 
The Kingfish's decision to allow jews and other refugees to emigrate to Alaska in order to protect it from the Japanese saved millions of lives.

over 4 million jewish lives were saved by that decision, then you get into poles, and other ethnic groups.

Alaska as a state exists because of Longs policies, he was a flawed man but he did some serious good amongst all the garbage.

His literacy policies also allowed millions of adults and children to have access to education, and this made the difference in the long time....but we can't ignore the fact that he also introduced his policies in the education and almost every classroom had a pic of him
 
His literacy policies also allowed millions of adults and children to have access to education, and this made the difference in the long time....but we can't ignore the fact that he also introduced his policies in the education and almost every classroom had a pic of him

If a mans giving me a free college education then he can put his photo where ever he god damned wants- Lynard Skinner
 
His literacy policies also allowed millions of adults and children to have access to education, and this made the difference in the long time....but we can't ignore the fact that he also introduced his policies in the education and almost every classroom had a pic of him

I didn't know about that - sort of shows the good parts and the bad parts of Long. His policies were very foresighted, but he was always, as Nogueira said, 'one step away from attempting dictatorship at all times'. Was it true that he tried to name the international airport in New York after himself, or was that just a story the opposition made up?
 
'one step away from attempting dictatorship at all times'. Was it true that he tried to name the international airport in New York after himself, or was that just a story the opposition made up?

It is true, but he gave up, one example of something like that is New Orleans today, it remains the main populist stronghold, they say that you cannot walk more than 50 meters without seeing some statue or street or store named after him or Earl
 
It is true, but he gave up, one example of something like that is New Orleans today, it remains the main populist stronghold, they say that you cannot walk more than 50 meters without seeing some statue or street or store named after him or Earl

Seems pretty weird to me. Here in England, we don't tend to name major things after any politicians - with the exception of Churchill, since he died a hero before he could do any more controversial things. I guess it's just a cultural thing - American politics always seems much more tribal, although that may well just be a consequence of Long's long shadow and the bizarre love-it-or-hate-it nature of so many of his policies (and subsequently of Warren's and basically all of his successors). British politics, meanwhile, has persisted in a vague social-democratic/progressive-liberal consensus since Attlee was succeeded by Dalton in 1954.
 
I think it was Dewey who said "The best and the worst things you hear about him are both true."

On the one hand, he pulled the US out of the Depression (sometimes in spite of his own best efforts; the first pass at "Share Our Wealth" was...less than spectacular), lead the US through the darkest days of the Second World War, and helped establish the post-war order (which lead to the Cold War). On the other hand, he ruthlessly suppressed dissent, packed the court with his lackeys, needlessly extended the war (I've heard his name is a swearword in Eastern Europe to this day), interned millions of Americans for no other reason than some bullshit racism, and dangerously came close to establishing a dictatorship. It took years for the Republicans and whatever Democrats weren't swept up in his wake to unfuck the situation domestically, and the party is still reeling from the "Long Era".

He's a complicated figure, but even if you stack his foreign policy "success" against his domestic fuck ups, I think he ranks in the bottom half of the Presidents.
 
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