The U.S. didn\u2019t have a good relationship with Hitler before he \u201cinvaded Europe. The German dictator was, however, beloved in certain quarters, including the editorial offices of the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>.<\/p> President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn\u2019t attack Hitler directly before the war began, but relations between the U.S. and Nazi Germany were by no means good. In September 1938, Roosevelt sent\u00a0a telegram to Hitler<\/a>\u00a0lecturing him about the importance of keeping the peace and stating: \u201cThe conscience and the impelling desire of the people of my country demand that the voice of their government be raised again and yet again to avert and to avoid war.\u201d Implying that Hitler was a warmonger was hardly a hallmark of cordial relations between the two countries.<\/p> Failing to get a satisfactory response from Hitler, on October 11, 1938, Roosevelt announced that he was increasing national defense spending by $300 million (over $5 billion in today\u2019s dollars). No one thought that money was going to build up our defenses against Britain and France.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But the New York Times? They loved them some Hitler:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The historian Rafael Medoff\u00a0recently noted<\/a>\u00a0that on July 9, 1933, just over five months after he became Chancellor of Germany and years after his virulent anti-Semitism and propensity for violence had become notorious worldwide, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0published\u00a0a fawning puff piece on Hitler<\/a>\u00a0that rivals even today\u2019s media adulation of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi in its one-sidedness, myopia, and disdain for essential facts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cjournalist\u201d Anne O\u2019Hare McCormick traveled to Berlin to become the first reporter from an American news outlet to interview the new chancellor, and she was an intriguing choice for the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0editors to make to conduct this interview, as in the presence of this man whose name has become justly synonymous with evil, she was decidedly starry-eyed: \u201cAt first sight,\u201d McCormick gushed, \u201cthe dictator of Germany seems a rather shy and simple man, younger than one expects, more robust, taller. His sun-browned face is full and is the mobile face of an orator.\u201d<\/p> As if that weren\u2019t enough, she continues with a description of the F\u00fchrer as outlandish and adulatory as\u00a0likening the supremely zaftig Stacy Abrams to a supermodel<\/a>: \u201cHis eyes are almost the color of the blue larkspur in a vase behind him, curiously childlike and candid. He appears untired and unworried. His voice is as quiet as his black tie and his double-breasted black suit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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