Ralph E. Flanders Quotes
I saw him turn his charm on and off, like water from the tap at the kitchen sink. He said nothing of substance. He seemed to me essentially an actor.
Describing his first meeting Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
Ralph E. Flanders, 1880-1970, U.S. Senator (Republican, VT), Autobiography
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
De Gaulle himself was a very difficult egomaniacal (personally and nationally) man. Roosevelt was one of the few leaders who could handle De Gaulle, although even he admitted the difficulty.
In December of 1940 President Roosevelt delivered a Fireside Chat calling for full aid to Britain. The senator described it as:
Characterizing Richard Holbrooke, Assistant Secretary of State (Democrat):
Ralph Edward Flanders was an American mechanical engineer, industrialist and politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Vermont. He grew up on subsistence farms in Vermont and Rhode Island and was an apprentice machinist and draftsman before training as a mechanical engineer. He spent five years in New York City as an editor for a machine tool magazine. After moving back to Vermont, he managed and then became president of a successful machine tool company. Flanders used his experience as an industrialist to advise state and national commissions in Vermont, New England and Washington, D.C. on industrial and economic policy. He was president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank for two years before being elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.
