Chapter 01
The Final Judgment on Roosevelt After 80 Years

III. The Roosevelt Brothers and the Giant Panda

Aside from the 19th-century opium trade, one of the most disturbing episodes was the Roosevelt brothers’ hunting of giant pandas. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, shared their father’s passion for hunting wild animals.

In 1928, the Roosevelt brothers traveled to Baoxing County in Sichuan, China, then passed through Kangding to Liangshan, becoming the first Westerners on record to hunt giant pandas. They even brought back two live pandas, smuggling them to the United States — unfortunately, the pandas died en route and their specimens are now housed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

A year later, the two published a book titled Trailing the Giant Panda, detailing their expedition and encounters with the animals.

The rise of the Roosevelt family was not a historical accident, but rather intertwined with various gray and even illegal activities. The family produced two U.S. presidents, one of whom broke precedent by being elected to four terms — equal to the combined presidencies of Washington and Lincoln!

Why did the Roosevelt family dare to break with tradition? Perhaps because, as they often claimed, ‘the Roosevelt family history predates American history itself.“

In 1649, Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, a Dutch immigrant and ancestor of the Roosevelts, set foot on the American continent — a land only recently opened to European colonization.

From that point on, the Roosevelt family has had over 300 years of history in America — more than a century longer than the U.S. government itself. No wonder they acted with such impunity.

The second-generation ancestor, Nicholas Roosevelt — Claes and his wife had six children, one of whom died young. Of the five who survived, only one was male: Nicholas. He gave up the family’s farmland and became a fur trader. After profiting, he returned to New York, opened a flour mill, and entered politics, eventually becoming a city councilman.

In the third generation, the family branched off — Nicholas had two sons: Johannes, who founded the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelts, and Jacobus, who started the Hyde Park line. Although split, the families remained close and the Roosevelt influence continued to grow.

During the early founding period of the United States, the fourth and fifth generations of the Roosevelt family emerged. At that time, the Johannes branch began focusing on commercial ventures, while the Jacobus branch gravitated toward a pastoral lifestyle.

Theodore Roosevelt was the fifth-generation descendant of Johannes, while Franklin Roosevelt was the sixth-generation descendant of Jacobus.

Born into a wealthy family, Theodore Roosevelt was frail and sickly as a child and received only a few months of formal schooling. Nevertheless, he received a solid education from private tutors. At the age of 18, he enrolled at Harvard University, and at 22, he entered Columbia Law School. At 23, he left law school after winning a seat in the New York State Assembly, marking the beginning of his political career.

At the age of 39, Theodore Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President William McKinley (1843–1901). Because the Secretary of the Navy was largely disengaged, Roosevelt effectively took charge. Dedicated to modernizing the Navy, his efforts laid the groundwork for the forthcoming Spanish – American War. When the war broke out in February 1898, Roosevelt was not content to remain behind the lines — he resigned from his post and led a cavalry regiment in combat in Cuba, quickly becoming a national war hero.

After returning to the United States, he re-entered politics and successfully ran for Governor. At the age of 42, he entered the White House as the Vice Presidential candidate. The following year, after President McKinley was assassinated, he succeeded him and assumed the presidency, becoming the first U.S. president from the Roosevelt family.

One of the most praised aspects of his presidency was his trust-busting campaign: he urged Congress to pass legislation to restrict the growth of monopolistic organizations. His antitrust efforts led to lawsuits against and the breakup of over forty monopolies, targeting industries such as railroads, beef, oil, and tobacco.

He also successfully mediated the Russo-Japanese War and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his efforts.

Due to his reform agenda centered on antitrust actions during his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt has frequently been ranked as one of the most outstanding U.S. presidents in public opinion polls.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), on the other hand, was a sixth-generation descendant of the Jacobus branch of the Roosevelt family. Unlike his Republican cousin Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin began his political career as a member of the Democratic Party.

Zhong Wen remarked: The two Roosevelt presidents came from the same powerful family, yet each dominated a different political party, taking turns in the nation’s highest office — a vivid embodiment of the essence of America’s two-party system. Now that Franklin Roosevelt has been dead for 80 years, history has had ample time to render its final judgment.