James Roosevelt - Postwar Career

Postwar Career

After the war, Roosevelt returned to live in California. He rejoined Roosevelt and Sargent as an executive vice president, and established the company's office in Los Angeles. In 1946 he became chairman of the board of Roosevelt and Haines, successor to Roosevelt and Sargent. He later became president of Roosevelt and Company, Inc.

On July 21, 1946, Roosevelt became chairman of the California State Democratic Central Committee. He also began making daily radio broadcasts of political commentary. Like his brother Elliott, James Roosevelt was prominent in the movement to draft Dwight Eisenhower as the Democratic candidate for President in 1948. When President Truman was renominated instead, Roosevelt stepped down as state chairman on August 8. He remained a Democratic National Committeeman until 1952.

In 1950, Roosevelt was the Democratic candidate for Governor of California, but lost to incumbent Earl Warren by almost 30 percentage points.

In 1954, Roosevelt was elected U.S. Representative from California's 26th congressional district, a "safe" Democratic district. James won despite a concurrent scandal surrounding his divorce from his second wife, Romelle Schneider. He was forced to admit numerous extramarital affairs that his wife had used to blackmail him, dating back to his father's presidency. James was re-elected to five additional terms and served from 1955 to 1965, resigning during his sixth term. Roosevelt was one of the first politicians to denounce the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was also the only Representative to vote against appropriating funds for the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In April 1965, Roosevelt ran for Mayor of Los Angeles, challenging incumbent Sam Yorty, but lost in the primary.

He resigned from Congress in October 1965, 10 months into his sixth term, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him a delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Roosevelt resigned from UNESCO in December 1966, and retired to become an executive of the Investors Overseas Service (IOS) in Geneva, Switzerland.

James joined IOS despite the overseas firm's concurrent investigation by the SEC for numerous irregularities. During the unraveling of IOS, James's third wife, Irene Owens, stabbed him "eight times" with his "own Marine combat knife." When fugitive financier Robert Vesco obtained control of IOS from Bernie Cornfeld and absconded with approximately $200 million dollars, James initially stayed on under Vesco. James later wrote that "As soon as I saw the situation for what it was, in 1971, I resigned my position." However, this episode resulted in U.S. charges being laid against Roosevelt and several others, and in a Swiss arrest warrant. James returned to California, settling in Newport Beach, and charges were dropped. He became associated with the Nixon Administration in several capacities and remained friendly with Richard Nixon until the latter's death.

Despite having been a liberal Democrat all of his life, James Roosevelt joined Democrats for Nixon and publicly supported President Nixon's re-election in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.

His writings include Affectionately, FDR (with Sidney Shalett, 1959) and My Parents, a Differing View (with Bill Libby, 1976). The latter was written in part as a response to his brother Elliott Roosevelt's book An Untold Story, which told of FDR's marital issues and was fiercely repudiated by the other siblings. He authored the novel A Family Matter (with Sam Toperoff, 1979), and edited The Liberal Papers, published 1962.

Later Controversy

In the 1980s, a non-profit organization established by Roosevelt, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and its associated political action committee, was investigated by the House Ways and Means Committee for questionable money raising practices, and by the U.S. Post Office for mail fraud. By direct mail, Roosevelt's group solicited contributions from elderly persons by claiming that Social Security and Medicare programs were in financial jeopardy. Roosevelt also urged contributors to order their Social Security statements of earnings from his group (these are free from the government.)