World War Two 1945 the Wheelchair President b05vlzsn default

i have just done something that franklin delano roosevelt could never do on any day of his 12-year presidency [Music] 1945 as the global war reached its devastating climax franklin roosevelt was the supreme figure of the wartime alliance but also a man living on borrowed time the images of churchill roosevelt and stalin meeting at yalta are well known what may be less familiar given his appearance is the fact that the american president was by some years the youngest of the big three [Music] roosevelt's health was collapsing sapped by chronic heart disease and by two decades as a secret paraplegic one wartime american general nicknamed him rubblex but few americans were aware that their president could not walk unaided or that he'd been diagnosed as being on the brink of cardiac failure and in roosevelt's complicated personal life other skeletons lay hidden in the cupboard his formidable yet fragile wife eleanor had supported him through his long battle with disability but their marriage was now coming under increasing strain for roosevelt was living with a dark secret [Music] about an affair exposed and ended 25 years earlier but now resurrected in wartime by a president isolated in the loneliness of power [Music] despite all these very human flaws however the public roosevelt stands as one of america's most remarkable presidents he crafted a new deal to drag america out of the depression of the 1930s and amid the catastrophe of world war ii he envisioned a new deal to redeem the whole world we are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows roosevelt would not survive the war yet his desperate bid to create a lasting peace and his tangled legacy in the post-war world is one of the great stories of the 20th century to understand the endgame of world war ii and the dawn of the cold war we must also understand the mind and the heart of this most enigmatic of leaders how his complex personality influenced world affairs at a critical moment in history by 1945 franklin roosevelt was a man inspired by visions of a better world yet also gripped by deep personal anxieties america's wheelchair president racing to shape the future before his past caught up with him at the beginning of november 1944 american forces were delivering killer blows to the enemy the american army dominated the war in western europe in the pacific the american navy had penetrated deep into japanese coastal waters to hunt down in the ship at home the arsenal of democracy was producing more combat aircraft than britain and russia combined pundits were already talking of the super powers with america in a league of its own franklin roosevelt had been elected president for an unprecedented fourth term he was the most powerful man in the world yet ironically one powerless over much of his own body on election night 7th of november 1944 roosevelt sat here on the front porch of springwood the family mansion in hyde park some 75 miles north of new york savouring the taste of victory from the porch fdr could look along the avenue to the albany post road it was a view he knew so well in the early 1920s he'd stared at it day by day in a mixture of hope and despair a mere quarter mile this was a journey he longed to make but for years his legs couldn't manage it and now his heart was too weak as well [Music] franklin delano roosevelt's character was forged in a unique crucible of privilege and then adversity he was the only son of wealthy new york gentry one of the river families whose grand estates spread out expansively along the banks of the huts after a pampered childhood dominated by his widowed mother sarah delano roosevelt he went to groton modeled on the english victorian public schools on to harvard and then into a manhattan law firm a good springboard for politics roosevelt also married well eleanor was his fifth cousin once removed and a niece of president theodore roosevelt she brought a wealth of useful connections for a young man with political ambitions over the next 11 years she gave birth to a girl anna and five boys one of whom died before his first birthday eleanor was an intelligent intense but shy young woman marriage gave her new confidence and poise but she was still prone to crippling nerves and to what she called griselda moments when she went into a deep sunk the young fdr by contrast modeled himself on uncle ted with his brash whirlwind style even though his own branch of the family were democrats not republicans his early political career was dazzling fdr rose through new york state politics to become assistant secretary of the navy during world war one while still in his thirties the navy became a lifelong passion but even more enduring was the influence of his wartime boss president woodrow wilson wilson tried to sell americans on his vision for a lasting peace built around the league of nations but the senate rejected his plans america slipped back into isolationism and wilson himself was laid low by a massive stroke which paralyzed him and the remainder of his presidency for the rest of his life fdr would be inspired by wilson's political ideals and also haunted by wilson's personal tragedy in 1920 aged 38 fdr ran as the democratic party's vice presidential candidate although the democrats lost he was clearly a rising star yet one already with secrets this was a man who flew high but lived dangerously fdr reveled in the attention that came with politics in 1918 one journalist penned this almost sensuous portrait his face is long firmly shaped and set with marks of confidence intensely blue eyes rest in light shadow a firm thin mouth breaks quickly to laugh openly and freely roosevelt knew he was attractive to women and he enjoyed it although married with a family he was an incorrigible flirt but his affection for lucy mercer helena's secretary was no mere flirtation can't get a number the world's in slumber let's misbehave lucy was tall and elegant with a rich voice deep eyes and a dazzling smile just how far things went between them during world war one is not clear but fdr seems to have talked for a time about marriage their letters were certainly passionate as eleanor discovered when she found them by chance in 1918. 1918 [Music] shocked in panic for a while she felt utterly betrayed there was talk of divorce the franklin's mother sarah weighed in hard warning her son that if he renounced his wife shaming the family name she would disinherit him and he would not get another scent fdr had to listen but the prize extracted by eleanor for staying together was franklin's promise that he would never see lucy again the affair would have ended many marriages but franklin still admired and respected eleanor her fierce intelligence her passionate sense of right and wrong for her part eleanor still believed in franklin maybe even loved him though theirs was almost certainly no longer a sexual relationship and the tension eased in 1920 when she learned that lucy had married a wealthy new york businessman but then in august 1921 came a different and even more devastating setback for the roosevelts fdr was struck down by poliomyelitis the disease was generally known as infantile paralysis because it particularly afflicted children causing them to scream in agony and lose control of their bodily functions gradually painfully roosevelt began to recover but his thighs and legs remained unusable and he was confined to a wheelchair hating the hospital variety fdr had wheels put on ordinary wooden chairs which were less obtrusive he had a special car made which he could drive without using any foot pedals at springwood ramps were installed and he was moved from floor to floor via a pulley lift in the servants quarters originally used for cases and trunks let me be blunt about what polio had done to this handsome ambitious virile politician he was now a man who could not dress or undress himself who had to be heaved into bed or placed on a toilet in the language of the time he was now a at the age of 39. how would he face such a life franklin's mother was once again quite sure what the future must be her beloved son should retreat to the hudson and retire from public view [Music] but fdr refused to heed his mother's wishes intent on making a political comeback he called his polio a childish disease something that a strong adult should simply outgrow against all the ants this mama's boy whom she dressed for much of his childhood in girls clothes and little lord fontelroy outfits dug deep finding an iron determination and radiating hope fdr had a simple straightforward faith in god like his father he was a vestment at the local episcopal church and was sustained by an underlying belief that providence was watching over him in the worst sleepless nights of his illness he would tell himself that this was trial by fire testing his moral fiber for challenges to come that faith and resilience would become an essential part of his charisma as a political leader as he would say in later life once you have spent two years trying to wiggle one toe everything is in proportion [Music] roosevelt's battle with himself accentuated the secretiveness ingrained in him as an only child being mysterious holding his cards close to his chest would become central to fdr's political identity allowing him to be all things to all men in 1939 the washington press corps caricatured him as the sinks even those closest to roosevelt only understood a fraction of his mind and very little of his heart he often said that he never let his left hand know what his right was doing which hand am i mr president asked treasury secretary henry morgenthau anxiously on one occasion morgenthau was an old friend and hudson valley neighbor roosevelt smiled sweetly you are my right hand then he added but i keep my left under the table divide and rule that would be roosevelt's motto in politics as in private life no one stereotyped as a man in a wheelchair could hope to succeed politically in that day and age somehow roosevelt had to walk again or at least appear to he was fitted with a heavy steel corset and braces running from hips to heel the weight was exhausting and the metal cut into his body but the braces when locked enabled him to stand he then worked to build up his torso so he could maneuver his locked pelvis and legs forward finally he tried to walk [Music] every morning imprisoned in what looked like something out of a medieval torture chamber roosevelt would stand near the house and vow i must get down the driveway today then he would set out towards the gates using crutches to heave each side of his body forward after a few steps he'd pause to rest covered in sweat sometimes he'd crash to the ground and have to be put back fuming into his wheelchair fdr never abandoned hope that he'd make it right down to the albany post road but after a couple of years of lumbering failure it became clear that he could not walk freely he would have to con the public that he could his chance came in the election campaign of 1924 roosevelt was booked to give the nominating address at the democratic party convention in new york on behalf of the candidate al smith this would be his first appearance in public since polio struck in 1921. he practiced for hours with his teenage son james so as to be ready to take those few vital steps behind the scenes roosevelt was helped to his feet and his leg braces locked in place then james gave him his crutches fdr slowly heaved himself across the stage eyes down face fixed in concentration the audience watched in riveted silence in the gallery eleanor knitted like a maniac [Music] when he reached the rostrum roosevelt handed back his crutches he held onto the podium for dear life grinning broadly as the crowd cheered roosevelt spoke for a full half hour with energy and animation seeming almost to glow in the spotlights at the end he praised al smith as the happy warrior of the political battlefield a reference to wordsworth's poem honoring admiral lord nelson but it was clear from press reaction that the happy warrior who stood out on that hot june day in new york was not al smith franklin wrestling smith failed to win the presidency in 1924 but tried again in 1928 with roosevelt once more making the speech of nomination this time in houston texas by now fdr was an accomplished public speaker more important still he had become a public walker fitted with steel braces and gripping the arm of his son elliot this time fdr walked to the podium using only a cane the speech was a complete success americans concluded that roosevelt had clearly recovered he was no longer crippled merely a bit lame in a way his ordeal now seemed a positive asset one new york paper lauded him as a figure tall and proud even in suffering a man softened and cleansed and illumined with pain thousand americans are here to cheer the birth of a new era in national affairs a new deal era which is supposed to pull the country out of its chaos four years later in 1932 with america hit by the worst depression of its history roosevelt himself ran for the presidency gaining a landslide victory and becoming the first democrat to occupy the white house since his political mentor woodrow wilson never were there such a joyful jubilant yelling applauding inauguration club roosevelt is the nation's idol here today first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself amazingly even after he took office most americans never discovered roosevelt's secret press and photographers maintained a discreet silence about his disability the only surviving shots of fdr in a wheelchair come from family photos or home movies but appearance didn't alter reality roosevelt was the wheelchair president and he was trying to lead his country through one of the most testing decades in its history yet ironically i think roosevelt's infirmity was his greatest source of power when he told americans traumatized by the depression the only thing we have to fear is fear itself roosevelt more than almost all his countrymen knew what he was talking about in his first two terms roosevelt was preoccupied with his new deal for america to pull the country out of the depression through massive spending on infrastructure and social programs but roosevelt became more and more engaged in foreign policy as nazism took hold in europe having spent several summers in the rhineland during his youth he had long been convinced that the german elite were militaristic expansionists and he saw through hitler describing him as a wild man and a nut when he read the abridged english edition of mein kampf in 1933 fdr wrote caustically in the fly leaf this translation is so expedited as to give a wholly false view of what hitler really is or says the german original would make a different story during the 1930s roosevelt could do little to shift isolationist attitudes in america but then came the amazing german conquest of western europe in 1940 creating a global crisis roosevelt drew america closer to embattled britain america was then pitchforked into the global war by the japanese assault on pearl harbor in december 1941 powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon the whole human race their challenge has now been flung at the united states of america we are now in this war we're all in it all the way every single man woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our american history [Music] in 1942 and 1943 america allied with britain engaged in a brutal struggle against japan in the pacific and also through its troops against the germans in north africa and then italy probing what churchill called the soft underbelly of the axis before trying to attack hitler's hard snap in france the sources of international brutality wherever they exist must be absolutely and finally broken [Music] we must begin the great task that is before us by abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity [Music] but the war posed new challenges for an already weary president roosevelt didn't simply want victory he wanted to shape an enduring worldwide piece and avoid a repeat of the tragedy of woodrow wilson for him i think that meant drawing communist russia into peacetime cooperation moving beyond the era of european imperialism and above all persuading americans to take up the burdens of international leadership in an improved version of wilson's league of nations [Music] it was in search of those goals that roosevelt traveled halfway around the world in november 1943 for summit meetings in tehran and cairo here the man they nicknamed the sphinx could take the measure of foreign leaders and test his political skills would his secretive enigmatic nature seeming to be all things to all men work on the world spent for roosevelt the highlight of the trip was his first meeting with america's other ally joseph stalin russia's revolutionary tsar had now gained the upper hand in his titanic struggle with hitler the red army was driving the germans out of the ukraine roosevelt hoped to establish a close personal relationship with the soviet leader terse soft-spoken with a dry humor stalin seemed like a man with whom he could do business but roosevelt had to persuade winston churchill the british prime minister churchill also felt he could work with stalin personally but as an inveterate anti-communist he harbored dark fears about what might happen if soviet ideology caught fire across europe roosevelt's mind by contrast was more open to him stalinism seemed very different from leninism the soviets had dropped the official ideology of world revolution and had allied with the west [Music] roosevelt genuinely believed i think that it was possible to bring the reds in from the cold into the family of nations and that he was the man to do it at tehran roosevelt was willing to manipulate his old ally winston to achieve his goal keen to show the soviets that america and britain weren't operating as a block roosevelt went out of his way to side with stalin against churchill together they baited the british leader about the number of germans that should be shot after the war roosevelt envisaged russia with britain as one of the policemen who would ensure peace and order in the post-war world as bulwarks of the new united nations organization [Music] roosevelt's other pitch for stalin's goodwill at tehran was tied up with his great aim for the post-war world the end of empire imperialism was one of roosevelt's obsessions but he viewed it as essentially a vice of the europeans with their far-flung colonial empires he didn't seem to recognize the expansion of russia across asia as imperialist and certainly not the expansion of the united states from the atlantic to the pacific when meeting on their own at tehran roosevelt treated stalin almost as a fellow anti-imperialist when discussing how to handle this issue with the reactionary europeans he told stalin that after a hundred years of french rule in indochina the inhabitants were worse off than they'd been before as for the british raj in india roosevelt advocated what he called reform from the bottom somewhat on the soviet line to which stalin responded dryly from the bottom would mean a revolution [Music] roosevelt was delighted by the results of his journey for him the meeting with stalin had been a huge step towards achieving his goal of a new world order no longer centered on the historic great powers of europe but the 12 000 mile round trip had taken a massive toll on the president's health massive and in fact [Music] fateful back in washington in december 1943 roosevelt was struck down with flu and seemed unable to regain his strength at christmas he said he felt like a boiled owl he would nod off in meetings and complained of persistent headaches several long breaks in the new year at his beloved hyde park did not make a real difference what's amazing today i think is the almost casual amateurishness of the medical care given to the most powerful man in the world for months the president's personal physician admiral ross mcintyre insisted that fdr's problem was simply persistent bronchitis and the after effects of flu but then mcintyre was a rather strange sort of presidential doctor mcintyre's day job was surgeon general of the us navy the navy's top medical post responsible for 52 hospitals and 175 000 doctors and nurses looking after the president was done on the side he got that job through contacts in the right places and because roosevelt had a chronic sinus condition and he was an ear nose and throat specialist mcintyre did his presidential duties on the run he'd call in at the white house about 8 30 in the morning and go upstairs to the president's bedroom for what he called a look see this consisted of sitting around while roosevelt still in bed ate breakfast and chatted about what was in the morning newspapers that said mcintyre told me all i wanted to know no thermometer no stethoscope no taking the pulse just listening to his master's voice this was hardly a model of advanced medical science it was not until march 1944 when the president was running a temperature of 104 degrees that mcintyre grudgingly arranged for him to have a checkup at bethesda naval hospital on the outskirts of washington in secret he was put onto the presidential train at hyde park and take him for what was probably the first serious medical examination of his whole presidency bethesda was the navy's premier hospital and the president was being seen by one of its young up-and-coming cardiologists dr howard bruin fdr was wheeled in jocular and chatty he kept that up the whole time a cover brewing guest for inner anxiety the checkup itself was deeply alarming these are dr bruins original examination notes the president's lungs were congested his heart enormous and blood pressure readings dangerously high 170 over 110 way above the norm brewing wrote that he was appalled at what he'd found the diagnosis here is stark hypertension hypertensive heart disease cardiac failure fdr's visit to bethesda could not be kept a secret but at a press conference admiral mcintyre insisted brazenly that the president's health was satisfactory apart from the lingering effects of flu and bronchitis what fdr needed claimed his doctor was just a bit more exercise and sunshine behind the scenes however mcintyre fought a desperate regard action against bruins devastating diagnosis the young cardiologist was insisting that roosevelt needed injections of the drug digitalis to strengthen his heart a regular daily pattern of rests in bed and a strict diet to wean him off rich food his infamous evening cocktails and 20 or 30 cigarettes a day mcintyre was absolutely furious you can't do that he shouted this is the president of the united states but bruin was sure that is would become was if they didn't act quickly and he calmly stuck to his guns before three boards of senior washington medics eventually given leave to go ahead brewing achieved significant results after a week of digitalis the president's lungs were clear and his heart smaller he was sleeping much better and had cut down his cigarettes to half a dozen a day but his blood pressure remained very high and with it the risk of a stroke yet in those days there were no medications available for high blood pressure and the standard remedies rest and no stress were hard to arrange for the most powerful man in the world but bruin did what he could he persuaded fdr to take a break on the estate of an old friend bernard baruch in south carolina early nights and a lot of fishing were real tonics roosevelt liked it so much that he stayed four weeks but none of this dealt with the basic problem how could the ailing president survive all the pressures [Music] he had been out of the white house for nine of the first 20 weeks of 1944. he was now back but was trying to operate on a four-hour day this was hardly satisfactory for the president of the united states especially a president who was planning to run for a fourth term [Music] the washington rumor mills speculated feverishly about how fdr's health would cope with another four years as president the choice of his new vice presidential running mate would be critical roosevelt dithered about the alternatives only late in the day pumping for the obscure and inexperienced senator harry truman of missouri and getting very stressed about the whole business it was another alarming sign of fdr's infirmity dr howard brewing was never consulted but looking back he had no doubt that a fourth term was medical impossibility and deep down fdr surely knew this too i think it's telling that at the end of his checkup at bethesda the president thanked dr bruin and the staff but then left without asking a single question he carried on avoiding any discussion of his real condition with bruin or any other qualified doctor i think roosevelt didn't want to know perhaps he couldn't afford to know this was a man with a vision who like most statesmen had come to see himself as irreplaceable with vision comes hubris the cardinal sin of all political veterans in the summer of 1944 as the war boiled up to its climax the wheelchair president was sure that he had to stay around to shape the political future but given the desperate state of his health this was a reckless gamble the 6th of june 1944 d-day the long-awaited anglo-american landings in france news of operation overlord was greeted with relief and elation across america that evening the president spoke by radio to the american people not in tones of exaltation but in the form of a simple prayer our sons pride of our nation this day have set upon a mighty endeavor a struggle to preserve our republic our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity help us almighty god to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in thee in this hour of great sacrifice but for the moment the gis didn't get much farther than the hedgerows of normandy pinned down by fierce german resistance meanwhile another d-day dawned on the eastern front little-known even today in the west this shaped the fate of europe as much as operation overall on the 21st of june the red army unleashed its summer offensive interpial russia the impact was devastating in five weeks while eisenhower and montgomery were bogged down in normandy the red army destroyed 20 german divisions and drove forward 450 miles to the gates of warsaw but when the polish home army rose up against the nazis the soviets provided little help admittedly the red army was now exhausted and in no condition to assault a well-defended city but stalin with reason viewed the warsaw rising as a deliberate attempt by the poles to liberate their country before it fell under soviet control [Music] churchill angered by the soviet attitude pressed stalin to offer aid [Music] machiavellian as ever in his approach to ends and means roosevelt kept out of this argument for him the real goal continued to be forging a long-term partnership with the soviet leader at tehran he'd even pretended to snooze when stalin and churchill haggled over the details of eastern europe joking i don't care two hoots about poland wake me up when we talk about germany but the warsaw rising did have a significant effect on roosevelt's ambassador to russia april harriman the soviet response to the warsaw rising left harriman feeling fdr was too confident about the soviet regime gradually adopting western democratic ways the question became even more pressing when in september 1944 the red army broke through into romania and bulgaria the soviets were clearly going to be a presence in eastern europe after the war was over how should the west deal with them again roosevelt and churchill were not of one mind in october 1944 churchill flew to moscow to cut a deal on spheres of influence in the balkans by conceding the fate accompli of soviet dominance in countries like romania and bulgaria he hoped to preserve britain's interests in greece and yugoslavia this was the now notorious percentages agreement roosevelt acquiesced for the moment but for him as for american public opinion this sort of spheres of influence deal making was yet another sign of the old world imperialism that had brought about two world wars biding his time the president pressed stalin for another summit at which they could confirm the shape of the new world order that he envisaged at the same time the roosevelt administration mounted a massive pr campaign to sell the new united nations to the american people billing it as the country's second chance to realize woodrow wilson's goal a new blockbuster movie about the great war president hit the cinemas that autumn portraying wilson as a tragic hero driven by a vision ahead of his time who destroyed himself trying to achieve it fdr saw a private viewing in the white house when the film reached the point of wilson's stroke roosevelt was visibly moved dr bruin heard him mutter by god that's not going to happen to me afterwards the president's blood pressure was 240 over 130 nearly double the healthy norm roosevelt wanted to achieve the new world order that wilson had failed to create and he was determined to stay around to run it but he feared it might be a long time before victory was won because this was truly a world war not just a struggle in europe american troops were encountering ferocious japanese resistance across the pacific roosevelt had approved the development of a potentially devastating new weapon but despite the investment of two billion dollars no one knew if the atomic bomb would work so the us army had to prepare for a massive invasion of the japanese home islands in 1945 1946 or even later judging by the cost of reconquering saipan laity and other pacific islands in 1944 this would be a brutal fight with heavy american losses the horrors of war touched roosevelt personally prompting him to be more open about his own disability when he toured hawaii in july 1944 [Music] usually roosevelt was seen in public in one of two positions either seated in an open car or standing with his leg braces locked to hold him upright but when visiting the seriously wounded from saipan young men in their prime who'd lost limbs and would be disabled for the rest of their lives roosevelt deliberately stayed in his wheelchair he told a secret serviceman to push him slowly through the wards rubber legs and all as he chatted solicitously to the patients [Music] the message was clear you didn't need legs to get to the top rarely did fdr display his infirmity in public but now he was performing the power of vulnerability i've told that story many times but i still find it deeply moving here was a man who had to endure every day the countless petty humiliations of being a paraplegic yet who could nevertheless in public radiate the confidence and good humor that inspired millions but the courage and self-discipline he displayed relentlessly for more than 20 years had taken its toll and now his medical regime was sucking the remaining fun from his life food drink good company the happy warrior of the world's political battlefield wielded about as much power as anyone could crave but as a human being he was deeply unhappy by 1944 i think franklin roosevelt was almost hollowed out by loneliness if one thinks of the other war leaders their private lives were relatively simple churchill had a long-suffering wife who kept him going at the cost of her own emotional exhaustion as for the dictators the abstinence hitler had a devoted mistress while stalin mourned his first wife drove his second to suicide and thereafter seems to have got his kicks from killing roosevelt's love life was more complex and typically devious yet the tangled story i think defies any simple moral judgment [Music] roosevelt's women were essential to his survival as a politician and in 1945 love and politics were entangled as never before to understand this we need to dig way back into his emotional past despite fdr's affair with lucy mercer in 1918 eleanor continued to care deeply for him nursing him through the peak of his illness in 1921 and even learning to apply catheters and manage bedpans [Music] but eleanor's crusading mission made her more driven and harder to relax with franklin continued to enjoy light-hearted female company especially attractive young women who thought he was wonderful [Music] women like marguerite lehand known as missy his principal secretary for 20 years who idolized the man whom she called f.d and who made him laugh and daisy stuckley fdr's hyde park spinster cousin 10 years younger whom he treated as a special confidante and quiet companion in their own ways these women gave him the love that was lacking in his own marriage [Music] eleanor too found love in other ways through the feminist movement in manhattan she flirted with lesbian relationships and established a furniture making business with two of her special women friends nancy cook and marion dickerman at valkyl a property a few miles from springwood privately fdr called nancy and marion the she-males but he liked them while they said that uncle franklin was utterly charming he encouraged the venture here at valkyr which finally gave eleanor a place of her own and fdr always fancy himself as an architect even designed the cottage for them fdr also needed his own hideaway and designed this simple house on the highest hill of the roosevelt estate whose porch looked out westward across the hudson river at top cottage fdr could keep some distance from eleanor clearly the roosevelts were now very far from being a traditional couple each had an independent life involving intimate friendships with others that suited franklin never keen to be dependent on any one person yet their marriage had also put down deep roots toughened by the lucy mercer affair and also by his battle with polio and they shared a commitment to progressive politics to making america a better place everything eleanor roosevelt says and does becomes news true to her prediction her personal life is no longer her own instead she's becoming an american institution when franklin moved into the white house eleanor became the eyes and ears of the wheelchair president traveling the country learning of human misery and reporting back to him and to the nation in addition to being the first wife of a president ever to hold her own weekly press conference she writes a daily syndicated newspaper column called my day my day which she started writing in 1935 quickly became one of the most popular columns in the american press [Music] she saw her role in part as launching trial balloons for her husband which he could then disown if they got shot down by critics i was the agitator eleanor said he was the politician theirs was a remarkable political partnership utterly novel in american history but when the new deal president became the war president things began to change eleanor hated the wall and she was deeply depressed at the deaths the maiming and the morning as the fighting dragged on the two of them began to drift apart no longer of one mind on the cause that mattered [Music] as eleanor tightened up franklin relied more and more on vivacious younger ladies to keep him company mrs roosevelt and crown princess martha of norway are among the notables appearing at the new york madison square garden he was very taken with princess martha exiled wife of prince olaf of norway who moved her three children to america to escape the war eleanor was booked but shrugged her shoulders telling a friend there is always a martha for relaxation and for the non-ending pleasure of having an admiring audience for every breath it was the roosevelt's daughter anna a spirited strong-minded woman in her late thirties who came to fill the gap between her parents she moved into the white house in 1944 and did whatever was asked big or small to make fdr's existence more comfortable when roosevelt became ill after the exertions of tehran elena seemed oblivious to his physical state and it was anna who prodded him into a proper medical checkup this was a battle to help keep the president alive so he could achieve his vision for the world after the war but the result was an odd and rather prickly menage [Music] eleanor a tea totaler hated fdr's cocktail hours before dinner when there was a tacit agreement that no official business would be discussed anna indulged them at a modest level as one of his few pleasures [Music] at the end of one cocktail hour eleanor marched in armed with a sheaf of papers now franklin she said in her usual brisk manner i need to talk to you about these fdr simply lost it he chucked the shefa papers across the room and said to a mortified anna you deal with those in the morning eleanor stood silent lips pussed then she said i'm sorry and walked away but fortunately for eleanor she didn't know just how far anna was going in order to keep her father happy on the 28th of april 1944 in deepest secrecy she arranged for mrs winthrop rutherford to have lunch with the president while he was recuperating in south carolina anna set up the lunch at her father's behest it was the prelude to more than a dozen intimate dinners that would follow over the next year usually in the white house when eleanor was away her absence was an essential condition because this tetartet was not with another martha franklin was seeing his former lover lucy again she was now a free woman recently widowed at the age of 52. anna acted as go-between her father asked her to arrange the timings and special access to the white house this put anna in what she later admitted was a terrible position as a girl anna had taken her mother's side about the affair but now as a divorcee who'd remarried she realized that her father needed sympathetic and appreciative company rather than eleanor's latest must-do hit list and she could also see that lucy remains special allowing him to enjoy what anna called a few hours of much-needed relaxation even so it was a truly bizarre situation daughter abetting her father's liaison behind the back of her mother in what she felt with the interests of the nation all these women mattered in different ways to roosevelt as 1945 opened the war was reaching its climax yet when and how it would end remained in doubt [Music] as the new year began the allies were recovering from heavy casualties after a desperate german counter-attack in the battle of the bulge and the american navy where the japanese kamikaze attacks off the coast of thailand roosevelt was briefed on the state of the manhattan project america's race to build the atomic bomb a test was likely within a matter of months but whether it would work was still unclear yet roosevelt did not inform his new vice president harry truman about progress on the bomb plot from the senate to be fdr's running mate truman was not part of roosevelt's inner circle yet he was now to use the cliche a heartbeat away from the presidency and looking into roosevelt's gray gaunt face truman could sense that the president's heart was failing truman in his own words felt troubled and worried but roosevelt simply kept his new vice president out of the loop on the bomb and on policy in general given the state of his health such secrecy was almost criminal but roosevelt was like a man in denial about his own mortality perhaps only in those fleeting moments with lucy conjuring up and knew the vitality and love of his lost past did roosevelt voice his dark fears about the future on the 22nd of january 1945 roosevelt set out for a second meeting with stalin the soviet leader was scared of flying and would not move far beyond his security net so roosevelt and churchill had to go to him stalin's chosen venue was the old czarist summer palace at yalta in the crimea getting there and back by boat and plane a 14 000 mile round trip was another long and arduous journey for an ailing president and when roosevelt finally got there this was no holiday resort the crimea had only recently been recaptured from the germans and mod cons were in short supply though bed bugs were abundant senior generals had to queue up to use the few bathrooms the week-long conference would draw on all of fdr's reserves of strength a huge amount was at stake for roosevelt at yalta he wanted to get agreement on the new united nations and on a strategy for defeating japan and on both these issues soviet cooperation was vital but as a tehran he and churchill didn't always see eye to eye on how to deal with stalin and the soviet leader kept unsettling them by his tactical ploys playing hard to get at dinner on the very first evening he put them on the back foot by pretending to take offense at their nickname for him uncle joe despite this roosevelt was convinced he could secure soviet participation in the united nations to anchor them in the international [Music] community to get soviet agreement on the big architecture of a new world order fdr deliberately stayed above what he saw as small details particularly in eastern europe so while churchill and stalin haggled once again over poland roosevelt pushed the soviets to sign up to the declaration on liberated europe a general commitment on the independence of all the countries free from nazi rule [Music] fdr hoped that signing this would commit the soviets to follow wilsonian values or at least to hold them to account if they didn't he told skeptics it's the best i can do for poland at this time conscious that the red army already control poland roosevelt did not push as hard as churchill in his view you couldn't make omelets without breaking eggs and it was just bad luck that so many of the eggshells would be polish his top priority as always was not to jeopardize relations with stalin and over asia roosevelt's softly softly approach appeared to pay off he conceded stalin's demands for territory in japan and china in return stalin confirmed that the soviets would enter the asian war within three months of victory in europe with the atomic bomb still untested general george marshall the us army chief of staff was relieved to share the brutal endgame of the japanese war with the red army asked when leaving yalta whether he looked forward to civilized amenities again marshall said gravely for what we've gained here i would gladly have stayed a whole month by the time he got back to washington roosevelt was exhausted he delivered his report of the summit to congress sitting down making a rare reference to his disability i hope that you will plan me for an unusual posture of sitting down but i know that you will realize that it makes it a lot easier for me in not having to carry about 10 pounds of steel round on the bottom of my legs and also because of the fact that i have just completed a 14 000 mile trip [Applause] the speech was full of optimism about stalin as a man of good faith and about a new era in international politics and i am confident that the congress and the american people will accept the results of this conference at the beginnings our permanent structure of peace upon which we can begin to build under god that better world in which our children and grandchildren must live and camel it roosevelt needed to sell yalta to his own people ahead of the founding conference of the new united nations which would be held in san francisco in april he didn't want any repeat of the tragedy of wilson and the league it wasn't just the russians he needed to bring in from the cold but the americans all through march 1945 stalin tightened his grip on poland churchill sent anguish messages to the white house demanding a joint protest to the kremlin about what he was already calling an iron curtain coming down across eastern europe but fdr more coldly realist felt that the poles were a lost cause and did not wish friction over eastern europe to imperil the un project [Music] yet by early april stalin was dragging his feet on this threatening to send only a junior diplomat to san francisco that would leave americans wondering whether the soviets had really turned over a new leaf despite odd moments fdr stuck to the end with his policy of enticing the russians into the family of nations he wrote to churchill to play down the aggro with moscow i would minimize the general soviet problem as much as possible because these problems in one form or another seem to arise every day and most of them straighten out we must be firm however and our courts thus far is correct was roosevelt right that the west needed to soothe russian insecurities would sticking with his strategy of drawing the soviets in from the cold have averted or at least eased the cold war or was churchill right that the only message they understood was firmness that has to remain a fascinating what if of history because roosevelt died before the cold war really began but the roosevelt churchill debate about conciliation versus toughness still perplexes statesmen today when dealing with vladimir putin's russia [Music] in early april roosevelt went down to warm springs georgia for another break dr bruin was in attendance so too were daisy and lucy in their own ways also part of his medical team eleanor remained in washington but she bombarded him with messages about wartime issues on one occasion they argued over the phone about aid to yugoslavia for a full 45 minutes after roosevelt hung up the veins on his forehead were bulging and his blood pressure had risen 50 points eleanor was still pushing him hard mind and heart just as she'd done ever since the dark days of polio at warm springs the president worked on his jefferson day radio speech intended to sell the new united nations to america as an essential part of an abiding peace [Music] the draft recalled the words of his inaugural address in the depths of the depression about the only thing to fear being fear itself roosevelt planned to close with these ringing words the only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today let us move forward with strong and active faith though weary the president seemed in good spirits there was nothing to suggest what would happen the next day on thursday morning the 12th of april the president complained of a stiff neck and a slight headache but he sat patiently for a portrait painter fiddling away at his papers suddenly just before lunch he looked up i have a terrific pain at the back of my head he murmured and then slumped forward and lost consciousness as aids lifted him onto his bed and dr bruin worked desperately a shocked lucy was ushered into a car and driven away for a couple of hours the president fought for life his tortured rasping breaths reminiscent of the dying abraham lincoln 80 years before at the end of another great war but at 3 35 pm roosevelt's heart finally stopped [Music] in washington that afternoon the vice president was on capitol hill while eleanor was attending a charity concert summoned by phone to the white house she took in the news trying to stay calm when truman arrived at the white house it was eleanor who broke the news harry the president is dead stunned he asked if there was anything he could do for her she looked at him gently is there anything we can do for you for you are the one in trouble now elena kept her composure all through that afternoon she retained it when she got to warm springs late that night even when she learned the guilty secret that lucy had been there for the last three days that she'd visited franklin on many occasions over the previous few months and that anna had arranged it all it was only later when she confronted anna that eleanor lost her cool consumed with a burning anger betrayed long ago but she had hoped once and for all she now found herself betrayed again this time with her own daughter as a compass it was a bitter anguished encounter leaving the two women estranged for many [Music] months next day bottling up her emotions she accompanied his body on the special train that chugged its way 800 miles north to the nation's capital eleanor still bruised and angry watched in growing awe at the thousands who lined the route openly grieving for their lost president [Music] after a service at the white house the coffin was taken to hyde park to be buried next to springwood the house where he had been born eleanor was deeply moved beginning to realize just how much her flawed husband had meant to his people she had known him too well yet in other fundamental ways had failed to appreciate [Music] as america mourned so did the free world and even stalin when ambassador harriman called on the soviet leader the day after roosevelt's death stalin's reaction seemed to vindicate fdr's policy of building trust harriman wrote i noticed that he was obviously deeply distressed at the news he greeted me in silence and stood holding my hand for about 30 seconds before asking me to sit down stalin asked harriman lots of questions about roosevelt's health and about the circumstances of his death for a paranoid dictator obsessed about assassins and poisoners it was hard to believe that the president of the united states had died merely from natural causes after botched medical care with real emotion stalin declared president roosevelt is dead but his cause must live on we shall support president truman with all our forces and all our will seizing his chance harriman suggested that the best way to help truman and to reassure the american people about soviet american relations would be for foreign minister molotov to go to see the new president and then attend the opening session of the un in san francisco after a brief discussion with molotov stalin agreed in death it seemed roosevelt had secured what was slipping through his fingers in the last weeks of his life [Music] and so the soviet union joined the united nations it became a permanent member of the security council just as roosevelt had intended [Applause] but his hopes for an eventual alignment of russia to social democratic values were utopian or at least not something realized so far despite the formal ending of the cold war the spirit of yalta evaporated in part because stalin was determined to control his conquests in eastern europe and regarded any kind of open politics as a threat to security but ironically it was another of roosevelt's legacies that poisoned peace even if the big three had managed to sort out their differences in germany and eastern europe and that's a big if the way that world war ii ended in asia made the cold war almost inevitable roosevelt had thrown all america's industrial might into the race to build an atomic bomb nazi germany capitulated before the first american atomic test [Music] the truman fearful like roosevelt of bloody battles to end the war in asia dropped two atomic bombs on japan as soon as he heard the news stalin made a soviet bomb the regime's top priority the cold war arms race was born that endless vying for superiority in ever more complex killer weapons and so ironically one of roosevelt's projects however necessary it might now seem for ending the war helped undermine his vision for peace the united nations was poisoned by suspicion amongst the policemen who he hoped would keep peace and security yet the cold war never hotted up into world war three the bomb may have acted as a deterrent but i think that the un founded in those vital transition weeks between war and peace also played a part it created the structure however fragile of an international community in that basic sense roosevelt's hopes were realized and eleanor remained true to fdr's global vision overcoming as in 1918 her grief and bitterness she drew comfort from verses sent to her by a friend they are not dead who live in lives they leave behind in those whom they have blessed they live a life again in a strangely poignant way it was as if america's outpouring of grief after franklin's death made her belatedly aware of the greatness that lay behind his pettiness secrecy and deceits daisy suckly in some ways fdr's closest companion but never his lover or his wife captured the franklin eleanor relationship perfectly on the night of his death she wrote in her diary poor er i believe she loved him more deeply than she knows herself and his feeling for her was deep and lasting the fact that they could not relax together or play together is the tragedy of their joint lives for i believe from everything that i have seen of them that they had everything else in common it was probably a matter of personalities of a certain lack of humor on her part i cannot blame either of them they're both remarkable people sky high above the average for seven years after his death eleanor was a member of the american delegation to the un the only woman [Music] it is my ruling as chairman of the commission that the point raised by the soviet member is out of all machiavellian combination of charm and persistence reminiscent of fdr himself helped push through the un declaration of human rights in 1948 she also kept her my day column going until a few weeks before her death in 1962 championing liberal causes such as civil rights [Music] equal pay for women and a national health service through the mccarthy era even after fdr's death and despite his double betrayal eleanor's partnership with franklin remained in some ways indissoluble today franklin and elena lie here in the rose garden at hyde park under its simple gravestone their complex often contrary marriage scarred by fdr's betrayals masked a deeper unity of purpose and values between two remarkable if-flawed personalities who shared a vision of a better future [Music] and from the grave one can look down the avenue to the albany post road the view that tantalized roosevelt for the last quarter century of his life the wheelchair president never made it to the main road but the journey he did complete with its successes and its failures helped define our world into the 21st century [Music] you

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Length: 89min 10sec (5350 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2016