James Roosevelt

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World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939; the following month Roosevelt resigned the Marine commission as a lieutenant colonel that he had received in 1936 when serving as his father's military aide and accepted a commission as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve so that he could enter active duty, which he did in November 1940.

In April 1941, his father sent him on a secret, world-circling diplomatic mission to assure numerous governments that the United States would soon be in the war. The leaders contacted included Chiang Kai-shek in China, King Farouk in Egypt, and King George of Greece. During this trip, Roosevelt came under German air attack in both Crete and Iraq. In the African/Middle Eastern portions of the mission, he traveled with Britain's Lord Mountbatten as far as Bathurst in the Gambia. They reported on trans-African air ferry conditions, an important concern of FDR and Winston Churchill at the time. In August, Roosevelt joined the staff of William J. Donovan, coordinator of information, with the job of working out the exchange of information with other agencies.

After Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt was seated next to his father when the President delivered his Day of Infamy speech. He requested assignment to combat duty and was transferred to the Marine Raiders in January 1942, a new Marine Corps commando force, and became second-in-command of the 2nd Raider Battalion under Evans Carlson (Carlson's Raiders) whom Roosevelt knew when Carlson commanded the Marine detachment at the Warm Springs, Georgia, residence of his father. Roosevelt's influence helped win presidential backing for the Raiders—influenced by the British Commandos—which were opposed by Marine Corps traditionalists.

Despite occasionally debilitating health problems, Roosevelt served with the 2nd Raiders at Midway in early June 1942 and in the Makin Island raid on August 17–18, 1942, where he and 22 others were awarded the Navy Cross. In October, he was given command of the new 4th Raiders, but during training for an upcoming combat operation he became ill enough to be hospitalized by February 1943. Beginning in August 1943, he served in various staff positions for the duration of the war. He was attached to and landed with the U.S. Army's 165th Regimental Combat Team, 27th infantry Division during the invasion of Makin on November 20–23 and was awarded the Silver Star by the army. He was promoted to colonel on April 13, 1944. He was released from active duty in August 1945 and was placed on the inactive list in October 1945. That same month he became a Compatriot of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Roosevelt continued in the Marine Corps Reserve and retired on October 1, 1959, with the advanced rank of brigadier general. Roosevelt suffered from flat feet, and was allowed to wear sneakers while other Marines were required to wear boots.

Post-war career

After World War II, 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 Roosevelt, 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 Republican incumbent Earl Warren by almost 30% of the votes.

In 1954, Roosevelt was elected U.S. Representative from California's 26th congressional district, a heavily Democratic district. He 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.

Roosevelt joined the IOS despite the overseas firm's concurrent investigation by the SEC for numerous irregularities. In Geneva in May 1969, during the unraveling of IOS, Roosevelt's third wife, Irene Owens, stabbed him "eight times" with his "own Marine combat knife" while he was preparing divorce proceedings. When fugitive financier Robert Vesco obtained control of IOS from Bernie Cornfeld and absconded with approximately $200 million, Roosevelt initially stayed on under Vesco. Roosevelt 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 federal charges being laid against Roosevelt and several others, as well as a Swiss arrest warrant. The charges were later dropped and then he returned to California, settling in Newport Beach. He became associated with the Nixon Administration in several capacities and remained friendly with Richard Nixon until his death.

Despite having been a liberal Democrat all of his life, Roosevelt joined Democrats for Nixon and publicly supported President Nixon's 1972 re-election and also supported 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 Elliot'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 in 1962.

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, were investigated by the House Ways and Means Committee for questionable money-raising practices and by the 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).

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