William Dodd (ambassador) - Resignation

Resignation

Dodd considered resigning several times, beginning as early as July 1934. His health declined seriously by 1936 and his clear antagonism to the German government increased his personal sense of defeat. During the 1936 U.S. election campaign, Dodd wrote a public letter warning that the defeat of Roosevelt's programs would produce a fascist dictatorship financed by an American billionaire: "There are individuals of great wealth who wish a dictatorship....There are politicians who think they may gain powers like those exercised in Europe. One man, I have been told by friends, who owns nearly a billion dollars, is ready to support such a program and, of course, control it." Several Senators called for him to be recalled from Germany and Senator William Borah called him "an irresponsible scandalmonger." He supported Roosevelt's attempt to enlarge the membership of the Supreme Court, arguing that courts need to be responsive to popular wishes if the United States were to avoid totalitarian impulses. Consistent in interpreting American institutions in terms of their place on the aristocratic-democratic continuum, he viewed the Supreme Court as an aristocratic institution in need of an infusion of democracy. When he expressed these views in letters to senators, they reacted angrily and newspapers called for Dodd's resignation. Roosevelt told Dodd he was "frankly delighted" with the letter, but the public dispute embarrassed President Roosevelt and gave Dodd's enemies in the State Department an opportunity to press for his removal.

President Roosevelt, reacting to complaints about Dodd's effectiveness as well as his health, notified the State Department in April 1937 that he was prepared to see Dodd's tenure end September 1. Then Dodd, on his arrival in the U.S. in August, said that "the basic objective of some powers in Europe is to frighten and even destroy democracies everywhere," provoking a formal protest on the part of the German Ambassador to the U.S. Given that exchange, the State Department determined that it was more important that Dodd return to Germany than to allow his resignation to appear as a response to German protests. Dodd left a resignation letter and suggested the following March as a suitable date. In September, his dispute with the State Department over U.S. diplomatic presence at the Nuremberg rallies became public. The German government told the State Department that Dodd could no longer function in Berlin. Dodd was surprised when told in November to prepare to depart by the end of the year. His resignation was announced in December.

Dodd left Berlin without notifying the press. The New York Times reported that upon arriving in New York on January 6, 1938, he said that he "doubted if an American envoy who held his ideals of democracy could represent his country successfully among the Germans at the present time." The German government said his remarks demonstrated "the retiring ambassador's habitual lack of comprehension of the new Germany." Hitler said he felt "vivid satisfaction" with Dodd's replacement, career diplomat, Hugh R. Wilson, and Time magazine wrote:

Germans particularly criticized the seedy air and ill-fitting clothes of Professor Dodd. They highly approved the arrival of Ambassador Wilson in faultless full dress, white tie and the black waistcoat correct in Europe on such occasions. Der Führer, although he addresses the Reichstag and makes nearly all his public appearances in the khaki of a simple Storm Trooper, received Ambassador Wilson dressed exactly like him.

In a speech at the Nuremberg Congress the following September, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels denounced Dodd by name for his "laments on the decay of German culture."