Talk:Kermit Roosevelt

Model "T" Ford Not "Ancient" during WWI
the Ford Model T wasn't "ancient" during WWI... It was a current high production vehicle at the zenith of its model run. [unsigned]

Expanded Article and Added Photos
So towering was Theodore Roosevelt that his children, and their accomplishments, trials and tribulations have often been overlooked in the popular mind. I've expanded on the articles on Kermit as well as as "Archie" to show what unique and gifted individuals they were.SimonATL 13:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Kermit's Fight with Depression
Added info on family history of depression that seems to be traceable to his grandmother, Martha Bulloch's side of the family. SimonATL 13:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Problem
This page is difficult to read; there are too many pictures clumped together. I don't have the wikifu to fix it myself, so if someone could possibly do some rearranging...? 64.211.50.218roguesparks

Request for further information on circumstances of decline.
The article lacks specifics regarding his plunge into depression that I think would be of great interest.

Specifically, what were the "problems" referred to that drove him further to alcoholism upon his medical discharge? That he had dishonored his family name by not being able to complete his duties in war? After a career that reads like a success story including accomplishments achieved while still on military active duty, the reader is left to speculate.

Also, who and to what extent were these 'acquaintances' referred to as being such a negative influence on his life that FDR felt compelled enough to send him off to Alaska? This seems to be such an extreme measure of forced isolation that requires some explanation. Ydef 08:37, 3 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Here was Kermit's basic problem. He was highly emotional and extremely dependent on his father, Theodore Roosevelt and when he died, he wrote that he felt like he had lost an island in a sea or uncertainty or something to that idea. As long as his dad was alive, he felt secure in life. He was his mother's favorite.  When you study the Roosevelts you learn that TR's mother's family, the Bullochs seemed to really carry the "depression gene."  All of TR's children had it to some extent. TR, himself had it - especially in periods of inactivity. This is why he wrote that "black care (depression or the blues in modern terms) seldom sits (on a horse) behind a rider whose pace (in life) is fast enough.  TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth in her interviews that eventually became the basis of the book, "Conversations with Mrs. L" also said clearly, "my father had this tendency toward depression too. I've spoken personally to several modern-day Roosevelt family members and one of them, who is quite well known, said to me, "Well, I think people make TOO much of this depression business, personally. I just don't see it."  Well he doesn't see it because he doesn't WANT to see it, frankly.  TR's mother [Martha Bulloch Roosevelt]] used to be so overcome by bouts of depression that she would lock herself in her room for a week and the maids would just shove her meals under her door. She was either up or down.  When you combine this natural tendency toward depression with the circumstances of Kermit's loss of both his beloved father and his closest sibling, Quentin Roosevelt and then add in the fact that he soon became totally estranged from his wife, Belle, but in deference to the Roosevelt family traditions, could simply NOT divorce her, all those things were commulative and mutually supportive. I think he turned to drink as a form of deadening the pain of being unable to live up to his father's high standards. He carried on an affair with the "real love" of his life for over 20 years being unable to divorce Belle.  He would disappear literally for weeks and months at a time with his mistress. His wife and his brothers would then put out a dragnet even bringing in the FBI to locate him. By the time WWII came around, they had to send those agents looking for him. He went back into service in the British Army, but they soon had to discharge him for ill health. He was overweight and was having recurring bouts of  malaria and self-medicating the pain with alcohol. His wife then intervened with the US President, FDR to get him a commission in the US Army. Not knowing what to do with him, they sent him off to Alaska with no really useful job description. Isolation + depression + inactivity = a deadly combination. Shortly before committing suicide, he spoke of a poem that discussed suicidal thoughts and the "peace" that a gun would bring to personal suffering.  His mother, [Edith Kermit Roosevelt]] was never told of the suicide. Instead she was told that he died of a heart attack.  A tragic life really. In modern times, he might have found some professional help.  In his day, it simply didn't exist. He really was an amazing person. Incredible courage. Native intellect, sensitive. A gifted linguist. So sad he was unable to overcome those personal demons. SimonATL (talk) 02:18, 7 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you SimonATL for providing the insight to my question and more depth to this article that it had previously lacked.  You explanation is very much appreciated. eYeDEF (talk) 15:39, 2 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, all very interesting, and in scholarly quality, on par with the rest of the article—which is comparably unsourced, editorial WP:Original Research, and therefore (last I checked) disallowed as encyclopedic content. Perhaps come back with sources, or quotes from sources, so there is material usable for advancing the article. Le Prof 71.201.62.200 (talk) 03:59, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't know how to place this correctly, but I just read this on pg. 249 of Yoram Hazony's "The Jewish State" from 2000: "...Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, whose executive director Kermit Roosevelt was one of the architects of the anti-Zionist policies of the State Department and the CIA."
 * FWIW. 93.173.55.129 (talk) 16:56, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

"Template:DEFAUTSORT:Roosevelt, Kermit"
I noticed that when this is categorized, it gets put under the K section instead of the R (see here). I'm guessing this has something to do with the "Template:DEFAUTSORT:Roosevelt, Kermit" link near the bottom of this page. I won't try to fix this because I don't know how, but someone who does know should. 66.234.32.20 19:35, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

"River of Doubt?"
What is this crap posted under his death? It's unsourced and sounds like some odd inspirational email or church tract more than it does a wikipedia entry. I've no wikifu of my own, somebody fix it. --Bluedeanie (talk) 05:21, 21 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Consistent with this opinion/assessment, I have marked it as possibly plagiarised. Le Prof 71.201.62.200 (talk) 04:03, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Removed Information about wrong Kermit Roosevelt
The following information is about his son, Kermit Roosevelt Jr., [and so was r]emoved from page.""Roosevelt's role in the 1953 CIA coup to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran becomes part of the plot of Nick & Jake, a novel by Tad Richards and Jonathan Richards, published in 2012 by Arcade Publishing. In the novel, The Roosevelt character becomes Larry Darrell, the hero of Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.""

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Bill.budington (talk • contribs) 21:45, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Moving material inappropriate to this article here
...for transfer to another article. It was inappropriate for a single child of the title person to have a long paragraph, and the sources for that inappropriate volume of content were poor, and incomplete. This information can be moved to the article on his son, if the sources are completed and verified:""Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (1916–2000) was the mastermind of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Operation Ajax, which orchestrated the coup against Iran's democratically-elected Mohammed Mossadegh administration, and returned Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, to Iran's Peacock Throne in August 1953 for the purpose of returning Western control of Middle Eastern oil supplies. ""

Please do not reintroduce the text unless similar amounts of explanatory information is added for each child, and good sources are provided for all material. Le Prof 71.201.62.200 (talk) 03:49, 17 June 2015 (UTC)