The Character Factor: How We Judge America's Presidents

Chapter 3. Serious Presidential Lies

Serious Presidential Lies : 39         Serious Presidential Lies k Men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived. —  In addition to justifiable lies, the lies analyzed in the previous chapter range from relatively innocuous exaggerations about the personal background of presidential candidates to lies meant to maintain political viability . This chapter turns to presidential lies that are more serious and have more far-reaching consequences than those in Chapter . First considered are“cover-up”lies—lies that deny past behavior. The final type of lie to be analyzed is the“policy deception”lie, in which the president says the government is doing one thing when in fact it is doing another. Lies That Cover Up or Omit Important Facts Nearly everyone will lie to you, given the right circumstances. —Bill Clinton,  This observation by President Clinton introduces a discussion of the first category of lies: those intended to cover up illegal or embarrassing facts about past behavior.1 The teller might rationalize this type of lie with the argument that even though the past behavior was wrong or questionable, the publication of it now would lead to negative political consequences. These consequences would undermine the president’s political power and ability to pursue a mandate received from the voters. This category includes FDR’s misleading statements about the Greer incident, the Eisenhower administration’s U- lie, Nixon’s lies to cover up Watergate, Bush’s claims to have been “out of the loop” about Iran-Contra, and Clinton’s denial of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. 40 : THE CHARACTER FACTOR      In the fall of  Franklin Roosevelt believed that the United States had to help Britain against the Nazis and was under some pressure from Winston Churchill to provide more support.At the same time, Roosevelt had to deal with American public opinion, which was ambivalent toward war. Many Americans felt it was inevitable, but there were strong undercurrents of isolationism and fear of being dragged into a European war. The draft was extended by a very slim margin in Congress—a single vote in the House in the late summer of . On September , , an American destroyer, the U.S.S. Greer, was transporting mail and supplies to a U.S. military outpost in Iceland when it was signaled by a British plane that a German submarine was in its course. The U.S. ship continued on its course and plotted the location of the submarine for the British plane, which dropped four depth charges that did not hit the boat. When the plane left the engagement because its fuel was low, the Greer continued to track the submarine for two hours. The sub then fired a torpedo at the Greer, which responded by dropping depth charges. Each of the boats then disengaged without damage.2 Roosevelt took the incident as an opportunity to move the United States toward more support of the British. The Germans had attacked several other American ships in the preceding months, and Roosevelt decided to take a more aggressive policy. But his announcement on September , ,to the American public presented a not-entirely-accurate account of the incident:“This was piracy—piracy legally and morally.”3 He declared, “I tell you the blunt fact that the German submarine fired first upon this American destroyer without warning, and with deliberate design to sink her. . . . These Nazi submarines and raiders are the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic.” He then announced that “the time for active defense is now,” which was interpreted as a “shoot-on-sight” policy for U.S. naval vessels encountering German ships.4 “From now on, if German or Italian vessels of war enter our waters . . . they do so at their own peril.”5 Roosevelt’s public account of the incident was misleading because he implied that the attack was unprovoked and that the German submarine knew that it was firing at an American ship. In fact, the U-boat was pursued by the Greer and attacked by the plane’s depth charges, which the U-boat commander may not have known came from the plane rather than the ship. It then fired at the U.S. ship, but there is no evidence that it knew that the ship was American,and the U-boat commander might eas- Serious Presidential Lies : 41 ily have concluded that the ship...