Guns and Jobs

Full recovery from the Depression was the unintended consequence of FDR’s policy to prepare the nation for war in the two years leading up to the U.S. entry into it. The spending entailed by his requests for a massive buildup of the army and navy in 1940 alone surpassed anything that had been laid out for New Deal programs. A major reason why the U.S. economy made only a partial recovery from the Depression during FDR’s first two terms was devotion to the principle of balanced budgets. It was held dearly, as polls show, by the American people and was embraced by FDR as well. To incur deficits as a means of overcoming the Depression was simply unthinkable. It took the sense of national unity created by a threat from abroad to void any misgivings about debt and deficits.