FDR’s foresight helped save Britain

Re “Where’s Pinafore when we need it?” Opinion, April 16

I was shocked to read Niall Ferguson’s assertion that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was responsible for our “near-fatal unreadiness” for World War II. In the face of an intransigent Congress, Roosevelt devised ways to give aid to Britain -- with sometimes questionable authority. He arranged to trade destroyers for British territory in the Caribbean. It is fair to say that, without Roosevelt’s foresight and help, England could not have won the Battle of Britain. The proposition that service in the armed forces at the tactical level qualifies one to devise our country’s strategy is preposterous. On that basis, Ferguson would have had Sgt. Alvin York as our president instead of Roosevelt.

DAVID R. CADWELL

Van Nuys