DiMaggio, Joe 95

Had expected, the agreement outraged isolationists, who formed the America First Committee; but the public, increasingly supportive of helping Britain short of directly entering the war, generally endorsed it, and it had relatively little impact on the election of 1940.

The 50 destroyers eventually transferred to the Royal Navy after refitting provided some help to the British, though their importance was more symbolic than military. In return for the destroyers, the United States received naval bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland and leases to bases in the Caribbean. A major step away from the Neutrality Acts and toward a more anti-Axis foreign policy, the destroyers-for-bases deal prepared the way for Lend-Lease.

See also Anglo-American relations; Committee to Deeend America by Aiding the Allies.

Further reading: Warren F. Kimball, Forged in War: Roosevelt, Church-ill, and the Second World War (New York: Morrow, 1997); William L. Langer and S. Everett Gleasan, The Challenge to Isolation, 1937-1940 (New York: Harper, 1952).

National Campaign Committee, in charge of organizing and mobilizing female Democratic Party voters. While dedicated to mobilizing women voters, Dewson, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, also worked during the next five years to secure prominent appointments for women in the Roosevelt administration. Their major success was the appointment of Frances Perkins as secretary of labor, the first female cabinet member. Dewson was an important member of the women’s network, which sought to advance women and women’s interests in the administration.

By 1937 Dewson, anticipating that Roosevelt would serve only two terms, and becoming less interested in political activity, was ready to leave the Women’s Division to a capable successor. She was appointed to the Social Security Board in 1937 and promptly resigned her directorship of the Women’s Division to accept the new position. But for health reasons, Dewson served on the board for only a short time. In June 1938 she resigned from the board, but not before making sure that her successor was a woman (Ellen S. Woodward). Dewson spent her remaining years in retirement at her home in Castine, Maine, where she suffered a stroke and died five days later on October 12, 1962.