“Happy Days Are Here Again” was his campaign song in 1932 when FDR defeated Herbert Hoover for the presidency.  But the ailing Roosevelt during his final year was not the leader he once was when coming to grips with the Great Depression, says Jim Bishop in his 1974 study FDR’s Last year:  April 1944-April 1945.

    Bishop argues that because of FDR’s poor health, he should never have served the last term.  Too much was at stake when he went to Yalta.  A bad bargain was struck with the Russians, who came away with most of the territorial loot.  Both FDR and Allied forces were nearing exhaustion by that time–and just wanted out.

      The Russian Army was stronger than ever, having smashed the German Army in its prime.  It was unstoppable.  The Russians ethnically cleansed all of eastern Europe of German blood, including the easternmost parts that had been German for centuries.

      Even Poland, the ostensible “cause” of World War II, was taken by the Russians.  The Allies were weak towards the end of war, just as they were when a fledgling Hitler seized most of western Europe early on.

      The Russians were the big winners in the West, considering that the Bolshevism that Hitler saw as his real enemy would gradually drift back across the continent in post-war years.  Europe and America today both follow the gravitational pull of what got started in 1917.

      Bishop finds that FDR was out to destroy all traces of imperialism in the world, lending succor to upstart independence movements before they were ready.  Even the British Empire was a victim, as well as the French Empire –both of which had kept the peace and allowed for unprecedented progress in countries that weren’t able to help themselves.

     Without the of the protective French empire in the Far East, not to mention the defeat of anti-Communist Japan, the war in Vietnam was bound to happen.   58,000 Americans were dead after the American pullout.  Now both Europe and America are welfare states, and Communism is flourishing around the globe, despite the face-changing of the Soviets and the Chinese.

The Burpee Seed Company is convinced that veterans are ideally suited to become home gardeners once they return from war zones.  Solitary gardening is therapeutic because of its positive calming effect, giving those who’ve experience emotional stress and trauma a chance to re-enter civilian life on terms that generations have long endorsed.

Wars have always brought out self-reliance when it comes to food supply, and victory gardens have almost been synonymous with national defense.  Speakers at the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group have described living in Occupied European countries during World War II.  Survival was at stake.  The food supply was nil.  Children would ride their bikes far out into the country in search for food.  Personal gardens were everywhere, if conditions favored their establishment.

Burpee’s packets actually contain individual seed packets  emphasizing both vegetables and flowers.  They’re being made available to veterans and their families at no cost.  The above veterans group in Rapid City, South Dakota, has passed out the Burpee seed packets  for two years now.  Some veterans have renewed their interest in gardening after the lapse of many years (many actually grew up on farms).