Speaker 1: History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Mental Flaws. Theodore Roosevelt has been in the news lately,
Speaker 1: not the president, but the ship named for him. There's
Speaker 1: no question that the novel coronavirus has radically changed the
Speaker 1: lives of millions of people around the globe. As medical
Speaker 1: professionals fight to save lives in overcrowded hospitals, and as
Speaker 1: delivery people and grocery store employees had to work every
Speaker 1: day to make sure we have the supplies we need.
Speaker 1: Many non essential workers have stopped going into their offices
Speaker 1: and are instead working from home to try to slow
Speaker 1: the spread of the virus. I'm recording this episode of
Speaker 1: the podcast in my closet because close muffle echo, so
Speaker 1: if things sound a little weird or different, That's why.
Speaker 1: Even Navy ships have felt the effects of the virus,
Speaker 1: perhaps none more so than the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a
Speaker 1: Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier that was launched in
Speaker 1: the ship was at sea in the Pacific Ocean with
Speaker 1: more than four thousand crew members on board when COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen began to appear among the sailors. After the outbreaks started,
Speaker 1: the ship was docked in Guam, but the disease continued
Speaker 1: to spread. Alarmed by the situation, the ship's commander, Captain
Speaker 1: Brett Krozer, wrote a letter to senior military officials. He
Speaker 1: pointed out that in the cramped conditions of a Navy ship,
Speaker 1: social distancing and fourteen day quarantines were not possible, which
Speaker 1: meant Kerzier wrote that the spread of the disease is
Speaker 1: ongoing and accelerating. He asked that the USS Theatre Roosevelt's
Speaker 1: crew members be allowed to disembark in Guam due to
Speaker 1: the rapidly deteriorating situation, writing, removing the majority of personnel
Speaker 1: from a deployed US nuclear aircraft carrier and isolating them
Speaker 1: for two weeks may seem like an extraordinary measure. This
Speaker 1: is a necessary risk. Keeping over four thousand young men
Speaker 1: and women on board the t R is an unnecessary
Speaker 1: risk and breaks faith with those sailors entrusted to our care.
Speaker 1: He ended by writing, we are not at war. Sailors
Speaker 1: do not need to die. If we do not act now,
Speaker 1: we are failing to properly take care of our most
Speaker 1: trusted asset, our sailors. The letter, which Crozier email to
Speaker 1: senior military officials, was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle
Speaker 1: and published on March thirty one. Then Acting Secretary of
Speaker 1: the Navy Thomas B. Maudley, removed Crozier from command on
Speaker 1: April two. As Krozier disembarked the aircraft carrier, sailors cheered
Speaker 1: him from the deck. Captain Crozer, who has reportedly tested
Speaker 1: positive for COVID nineteen, was forced out because, according to
Speaker 1: the New York Times, Maudley had lost confidence in Crozier's
Speaker 1: ability to command the ship effectively as it dealt with
Speaker 1: the evolving crisis after Crozer sent a letter on an
Speaker 1: unclassified email system to twenty to thirty people, which Maudley
Speaker 1: said caused unnecessary alarm about the operational readiness of the
Speaker 1: ship and undermined the chain of command. After Crozer's removal,
Speaker 1: Maudley went to the USS Theadore Roosevelt to assess the situation,
Speaker 1: where he made disparaging remarks about Crozer, which were leaked
Speaker 1: to the public. Under pressure, Maudley resigned on April seven.
Speaker 1: The actions of Crozer, Maudley, and the Navy are obviously
Speaker 1: be hotly debated, and there will probably be more developments
Speaker 1: between when I record this episode and when it goes out.
Speaker 1: I'm not an expert in the Navy or in the
Speaker 1: military chain of command, so it doesn't feel appropriate for
Speaker 1: me to dig into any of that here. But the
Speaker 1: current news does give me the opportunity to discuss an
Speaker 1: interesting historical precedent for this situation, one that involved Theodore
Speaker 1: Roosevelt himself. I'm your host, Aaron McCarthy, and in this
Speaker 1: bonus episode of History Versus, we're going to look at
Speaker 1: the round Robin letter incident of the Spanish American War.
Speaker 1: During and after the Siege of Santiago, one of the
Speaker 1: last major operations of the Spanish American War, US troops
Speaker 1: stationed in Santiago to Cuba were beset by malaria and
Speaker 1: yellow fever. Thousands of men were sick and dying, but
Speaker 1: the McKinley administration planned to keep the troops in Cuba
Speaker 1: until peace talks were over and until they were healthy.
Speaker 1: According to some sources, there was a real fear that
Speaker 1: six soldiers would come back to this States and start
Speaker 1: a yellow fever epidemic. But the situation was growing untenable,
Speaker 1: and near the end of July, General William shafter commander
Speaker 1: of the Fifth Corps gathered all of his commanders to
Speaker 1: discuss it. Roosevelt later recalled in his autobiography that although
Speaker 1: I had command of a brigade, I was only a colonel,
Speaker 1: and so I did not intend to attend. But the
Speaker 1: General informed me that I was particularly wanted, and accordingly
Speaker 1: I went. As Edmund Morris wrote in the Rise of
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt, all agreed that it was critical, and that
Speaker 1: the War Department's apparent unwillingness to evacuate the army was inexcusable.
Speaker 1: Somebody must write a formal letter stating that, in the
Speaker 1: unanimous opinion of the Fifth Core Staff, a further stay
Speaker 1: in Cuba would be to the absolute and objectless ruin
Speaker 1: of the fighting forces. None of the regular officers wanted
Speaker 1: to risk his career by writing such a letter, and
Speaker 1: suddenly the reason Roosevelt's presence had been requested became clear.
Speaker 1: He was a volunteer who had quit his post as
Speaker 1: Assistant Secretary of the Navy in order to fight, and
Speaker 1: he intended to go right back to being a civilian
Speaker 1: after the war. He had much less to lose by
Speaker 1: offending his former boss, President William McKinley and McKinley Secretary
Speaker 1: of War Russell Alger to incur the hostility of the
Speaker 1: War Department would not make any difference to me, whereas
Speaker 1: it would be destructive to the men in the regular army.
Speaker 1: Roosevelt later wrote, I thought this true, and said I
Speaker 1: would write a letter or make a statement which could
Speaker 1: then be published. Theodore Roosevelt obviously wasn't afraid to speak up.
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt wasn't afraid of anything except in action. As
Speaker 1: Alfred Henry Lewis would write of Roosevelt, Mr. Roosevelt has
Speaker 1: often shown that it is better to do the wrong
Speaker 1: thing than do nothing at all. The best thing is
Speaker 1: to do the right thing. The next best is to
Speaker 1: do the wrong thing. And the worst of all things
Speaker 1: is to stand perfectly still. We'll be right back. In
Speaker 1: an effort to or the McKinley administration to action and
Speaker 1: bring American troops back to the States before they were
Speaker 1: decimated by yellow fever, a plan was hatched. Roosevelt would
Speaker 1: write an initial letter addressed to the General, which would
Speaker 1: then be followed by a round robin letter, a method
Speaker 1: typically used to conceal the identity of the ringleaders of
Speaker 1: a movement which would be signed by Roosevelt and the
Speaker 1: other commanders. Then they would leak those letters to the press.
Speaker 1: In his letter, Roosevelt wrote that to keep us here,
Speaker 1: in the opinion of every officer commanding a division or
Speaker 1: a brigade, will simply involve the destruction of thousands. There
Speaker 1: is no possible reason for not shipping practically the entire
Speaker 1: command north at once. All of us are certain that
Speaker 1: as soon as the authorities of Washington fully appreciate the
Speaker 1: condition of the army, we shall be sent home. Roosevelt
Speaker 1: noted that in the Cavalry Division, at least, there were
Speaker 1: no true cases of yellow fever, but there were cases
Speaker 1: of malarial fever. Hardly a man has yet died from it,
Speaker 1: he wrote, But the whole command is so weakened and
Speaker 1: che mattered as to be ripe for dying like rotten
Speaker 1: sheep when a real yellow fever epidemic instead of a
Speaker 1: fake epidemic like the present one, strikes us, as it
Speaker 1: is bound to do if we stay here at the
Speaker 1: height of the sickness season August and the beginning of September.
Speaker 1: Quarantine against the malarial fever is much like quarantining against
Speaker 1: the toothache. If we are kept here, it will, in
Speaker 1: all human possibility, mean an appalling disaster. For the surgeons here.
Speaker 1: Estimated over half the army, if kept here during the
Speaker 1: sickly season, will die. The men were unable to penetrate
Speaker 1: into the interior, and moving them around the island, Roosevelt said,
Speaker 1: only sickened them further. To delay sending the men home
Speaker 1: was not only terrible from the standpoint of the individual
Speaker 1: lives lost, Roosevelt wrote, but it means ruin from the
Speaker 1: standpoint of military efficiency of the flower of the American Army,
Speaker 1: for the great bulk of the regulars are here with you.
Speaker 1: He closed by saying that I write only because I
Speaker 1: cannot see our men, who have fought so bravely, and
Speaker 1: who have endured extreme hardship and danger so uncomplaining, lee
Speaker 1: go to just struction, without striving so far as lies
Speaker 1: in me to avert a doom as fearful as it
Speaker 1: is unnecessary and undeserved. Roosevelt's fellow commanders then signed their letter,
Speaker 1: which noted that they were all in agreement that the
Speaker 1: army must be moved at once or perish, adding as
Speaker 1: the army can be safely moved. Now. The persons responsible
Speaker 1: for preventing such a move will be responsible for the
Speaker 1: unnecessary loss of many thousands of lives. Our opinions are
Speaker 1: the result of careful personal observation, and they are also
Speaker 1: based on the unanimous opinion of our medical officers with
Speaker 1: the Army, who understand the situation absolutely. There are differing
Speaker 1: accounts of what happened next, but according to Roosevelt, he
Speaker 1: wrote his letter and an Associated Press reporter tagged along
Speaker 1: when he went to give it a General Shafter, who
Speaker 1: promptly pushed it into the hands of the reporter. As
Speaker 1: Roosevelt later recalled, I presented the letter to General Shafter,
Speaker 1: who waded away and said I don't want to take it,
Speaker 1: do whatever you wish with it. I, however, insisted on
Speaker 1: handing it to him, whereupon he shoved it or the
Speaker 1: correspondent of the Associated Press, who took hold of it,
Speaker 1: and I released my hold. Something similar happened with around Robin,
Speaker 1: And when the letters said the press, it caused a sensation.
Speaker 1: The McKinley administration was incensed by the letters. According to
Speaker 1: historian Louis L. Gould, the day after the letters were published,
Speaker 1: McKinley wrote a letter to shafter that denounced the round
Speaker 1: robin as most unfortunate from every point of view, adding
Speaker 1: the publication of the letter makes the situation one of
Speaker 1: great difficulty. No soldier reading that report, if ordered to
Speaker 1: go to Santiago but will feel that he is marching
Speaker 1: to certain death. According to Marris, some within the administration
Speaker 1: even suggested court martialing Roosevelt for his letter. The administration
Speaker 1: had reason to be irritated. On August third, the day
Speaker 1: before the round robin hit, the press alta edition in
Speaker 1: order for the army to be moved back to the
Speaker 1: United States, which meant that many newspapers printed Roosevelt's letter
Speaker 1: right next to an announcement that the troops were being
Speaker 1: brought back to the public. It looked at the Roosevelt's
Speaker 1: letter and around Robin had forced the McKinley administration to act,
Speaker 1: which wasn't the case. By August seven, the first troops
Speaker 1: were heading back to the States to quarantine in Montauk
Speaker 1: on Long Island in New York. Nothing ever, came of
Speaker 1: the suggestion to court martial Roosevelt. Instead, Secretary Alger published
Speaker 1: a private letter in which Tier bragged about the rough
Speaker 1: rider's performance, saying they were as good as any regulars
Speaker 1: and three times as good as any state troops. Well.
Speaker 1: Alger might have hoped that the letter would threaten Tier's
Speaker 1: chances of getting the governorship of New York. His tactic failed,
Speaker 1: Roosevelt returned to war hero. He became governor, and then
Speaker 1: Vice president and then president. He didn't, however, get the
Speaker 1: one thing he desperately wanted, the Medal of Honor. Though
Speaker 1: some believe he was denied the honor because of the
Speaker 1: publicity stunt he had pulled, as Mitchell Yokelsen writes for
Speaker 1: the National Archives Prologue magazine, there's no evidence for that.
Speaker 1: Exactly why the Brevet Board denied Roosevelt the award is
Speaker 1: not officially documented. Yogilsen writes, Certainly no evidence exists to
Speaker 1: support the contention that Alger held a grow edge over
Speaker 1: the round Robin affair or Roosevelt's testimony to the Congressional
Speaker 1: Committee on the contrary, letters from the War Department to
Speaker 1: Roosevelt indicate that they were more than willing to assist
Speaker 1: him in getting the Medal of Honor. One can only
Speaker 1: assume that the Brevet Board came to the conclusion that
Speaker 1: the Roosevelt's conduct in Cuba was quite admirable, it was
Speaker 1: not worthy of a Medal of Honor. Later, Roosevelt would
Speaker 1: write that I was recommended for it by my superior
Speaker 1: officers in the Santiago campaign, but I was not awarded it,
Speaker 1: and frankly, looking back at it now, I feel that
Speaker 1: the board which declined to award it took exactly the
Speaker 1: right position. Around a century after his experiences in Cuba,
Speaker 1: Tierra would finally be awarded the Medal of Honor. Back
Speaker 1: to the present day, We've talked before on this podcast
Speaker 1: about how it's impossible to know how Tier would have
Speaker 1: reacted to situations today. In this case, however, one of
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's descendants has a different opinion. In a piece for
Speaker 1: The New York Times, Tweed, Roosevelt, TR's great grandson and
Speaker 1: chairman of the Theatore Roosevelt Institute at Long Island University,
Speaker 1: wrote about Captain Krozer and the situation on the U
Speaker 1: S S. Theodore Roosevelt, as a descendant of the namesake
Speaker 1: of Captain Krozer's former command I often wonder in situations
Speaker 1: like this what Theodore Roosevelt would have done, Tweed, Roosevelt wrote,
Speaker 1: in this case, though I know exactly what he would
Speaker 1: have done, he found himself in almost the exact same position.
Speaker 1: In this era when so many seemed to place expediency
Speaker 1: over honor. It is heartening that so many others are
Speaker 1: showing great courage, some even risking their lives. Theodore Roosevelt,
Speaker 1: in his time, chose the honorable course. Captain Krozer has
Speaker 1: done the same. Before we go, I want to say
Speaker 1: a huge thank you to the medical professionals and the
Speaker 1: essential workers who are out there risking their lives for us,
Speaker 1: and to all of the History Versus listeners. I hope
Speaker 1: you're well and safe and healthy. Please hang in there.
Speaker 1: We'll be back soon with another bonus episode of History Versus.
Speaker 1: History Versus is hosted by me Aaron McCarthy. This episode
Speaker 1: was written by me, with fact checking by Austin Thompson.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy, Julie Douglas, and Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan. The show is edited
Speaker 1: by Dylan Fagan and Loeberlante. If you want to find
Speaker 1: out more about this episode and Theodore Roosevelt. Visit mental
Speaker 1: flaws dot com. Slash History Versus. History Versus is a
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