5. Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew (New York: Harper Collins, 1946), 381.
6. See Geoffrey C. Ward, Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905 (New York: Harper Collins, 1985), and Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (New York: Knopf, 2014).
7. “The Presidency: Prelude to History,” Time, no. 24 (June 10, 1940), 17–19.
8. For more on FDR’s health, see Robert H. Ferrell, The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–1945 (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1998); Steven Lomazow, MD, and Eric Fettmann, FDR’s Deadly Secret (New York: Public Affairs, 2009); and W. Bruce Fye, “President Roosevelt’s Secret Hypertensive Heart Disease,” in Fye’s Caring for the Heart: Mayo Clinic and the Rise of Specialization (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 127–157. Two additional works that discuss FDR’s health and cover the last year of life of FDR’s life include James Bishop’s FDR’s Last Year: April 1944-April 1945 (New York: Pocket Books, 1975), and Joseph Lelyveld’s recent fine work, His Final Battle: The Last Moments of Franklin Roosevelt (New York: Knopf, 2016).
Prologue: The Last Christmas
1. Anthony Beevor, Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge (New York: Viking, 2015), 81; Hanson W. Baldwin, “Enemy Offensive Alters War on Western Front,” New York Times, December 24, 1944, 49.
2. “74,788 Lost on Western Front in December,” Washington Post, January 19, 1945, 1; “Germans Drive to Point Within 4 Miles from Meuse,” New York Times, December 27, 1944, 1 (in fact, Robert Sherwood, one of FDR’s speechwriters, thought the war might be over by the time of the election); Robert Sherwood to Samuel Rosenman, July 3, 1944, Samuel Rosenman Papers, Box 4, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (hereafter cited as FDRL), Hyde Park, New York.
3. Lansing Warren, “Hatch and Ball See Danger in United Nations’ Disunity,” New York Times, December 24, 1944, 1; Franklin D. Roosevelt Calendar, December 23, 1944, FDRL.
4. Ben W. Gilbert, “Charter only a Combined Press Release: President Reveals Atlantic Document Never Existed as Formal State Paper,” Washington Post, December 20, 1944, 1.
5. “‘People Fooled’ About Charter, View in Capital,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 21, 1944, 4; “Atlantic Charter: History Repeats,” Washington Post, December 22, 1944, 8; Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), 838; “U.S. Opposes the British on Italy, Bars Intervening in Freed Lands…,” New York Times, December 6, 1944, 1. For more on the difference between London and Washington over governance in Italy, see Andrew Buchanan, American Grand Strategy in the Mediterranean During World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014); for a discussion of the outbreak of fighting in Greece in December 1944, see Procopis Papastratis, British Policy Towards Greece During the Second World War, 1941–1944 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
6. “Atlantic Charter Never Signed, Says President,” Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1944, 1; Franklin D. Roosevelt Press Conferences, December 19 and 22, 1944, The Complete Press Conferences of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933–1945, Series 1, Transcripts, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Website, version 2016 (hereafter cited as Complete Press Conferences), FDRL.
7. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 843–845; Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952), 509. The Allied Control Commission was the organization established by the European Advisory Commission to govern Germany during the period of occupation.
8. “Tighter Rationing,” New York Times, December 27, 1944, 18.
9. Vice Admiral (Dr.) Ross T. McIntire, White House Physician (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1948), 183–187; Clinical Notes on the Illness of the President, Dr. Howard G. Bruenn Papers, 1944–1946, FDRL.
10. Drs. James Paullin and Frank Lahey also served as “Honorary Navy Medical Consultants”; see interview with Dr. Howard G. Bruenn conducted by Jan K. Herman, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Riverdale, New York, January 31, 1990.
11. Ibid.; Oral History, The Medical Heritage Library, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Office of Medical History Collection, Bethesda, Maryland; Howard G. Bruenn, M.D., “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,” Annals of Internal Medicine 72 (April 1970): 579–591; Clinical Notes, March 28, 1944, Howard G. Bruenn Papers, FDRL.
12. Ross T. McIntire, medical notes, March 30, 1944, Ross T. McIntire Papers, Box 2, FDRL; Franklin D. Roosevelt, Medical Information, 3/27/44–4/12/45, Howard Bruenn Papers, 1944–1946, FDRL
13. Memorandum by Dr. Frank Lahey, July 10, 1944, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA, as cited in Steven Lomazow, MD, and Eric Fettmann, FDR’s Deadly Secret (New York: Public Affairs, 2009), 119–121. Lahey’s reference to Russia in the memo refers to FDR’s meeting with Stalin and Churchill at Tehran in late 1943. For more on the medical questions surrounding FDR’s health and cause of death, see Robert H. Ferrell, The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–1945 (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1998), and Lomazow and Fettmann, FDR’s Deadly Secret. Lomazow and Fettmann assert that FDR most likely suffered from a malignant melanoma (a virulent form of skin cancer) that metastasized to his brain, and that this is what brought on the cerebral hemorrhage that was the immediate cause of his death. They admit, however, that absent an autopsy or objective confirmation from FDR’s still-missing medical records, they cannot be incontrovertibly certain of their diagnosis.
14. Memorandum by Dr. Frank Lahey, July 11, 1944; Bruenn, “Clinical Notes on the Illness and Death of President Roosevelt,” Annals, April 1970; Dr. McIntire, Press Conference, June 8, 1944; transcript of interview with US News and World Report, March 13, 1951, McIntire Papers, Box 9, FDRL.
15. Margaret (“Daisy”) Suckley Diary, May 5, 1944, Reel 2, FDRL; “President’s Heath,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 17, 1944, 14; “A Vote for F.D.R. May be a Vote for Truman,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 28, 1944, 10; “The President’s Health Not a Private Matter,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1944, A4.
16. Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 272–273; Franklin D. Roosevelt Press Conference, July 11, 1944, Complete Press Conferences, FDRL.
17. Editorial, Chicago Daily Tribune, July 12, 1944.
18. Franklin D. Roosevelt to Frederick B. Adams, September 4, 1944, President’s Personal File (PPF), FDRL.
19. William Hassett Diary, December 23, 1944, Box 22, FDRL.
20. Ibid., December 25, 1944.
21. Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, December 26, 1944, FDRL. See also Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley, edited and annotated by Geoffrey C. Ward (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), xv–xvii.
22. “7,000 Planes Batter German’s Winter Offensive,” Washington Post, December 25, 1944, 2.
23. Elliott Roosevelt, As He Saw It (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946), 226; Grace Tully to Marguerite “Missy” LeHand, November 4, 1943, Grace Tully Papers, Box 2, FDRL; Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, December 29, 1944.
24. Ibid.
1. An Uncertain New Year
1. “Slick Streets Hospitalize Score, Injure Others Here,” Washington Post, December 31, 1944, M1; “New Year Greeting with Hope and Joy by City’s Millions,” New York Times, January 1, 1945, 1.
2. Vice Admiral (Dr.) Ross T. McIntire, White House Physician (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1946). The Declaration by United Nations was drawn up on January 1, 1942, under the direction of FDR. It committed the signatories to employ a maximum war effort and not to sign a separate peace with the Axis. The term United Nations would thus become the official name of the anti-Axis alliance, and by the end of 1943 FDR had decided to call the international body that he hoped would emerge after the war the United Nations Organization.
3. Lord Edward Halifax, The Wartime Diaries of Lord Halifax, diary entry dated January 4, 1945, The University of York Digital Lib
rary (hereafter cited as Halifax Diary); Gifford Pinchot to Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 4, 1945, and to General Edwin (“Pa”) Watson, January 8, 1945, PPF, 299–300, FDRL; Anna Rosenberg to Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 15, 1945, Anna Rosenberg Hoffman Papers, Container 3, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (hereafter cited as Schlesinger Library), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
4. “Roosevelt Hints That Allies Differ, But Hints at Big 3 Talk ‘Anon,’” New York Times, January 3, 1945, 1; “Congress Gathers in Solemn Mood for Opening Today,” New York Times, January 3, 1945, 1; “New Congress in Clash at First Session,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 4, 1945, 1; “Lublin Poles Ask Wide Recognition,” New York Times, January 3, 1945, 9. As expected, the Soviet Union extended formal recognition to the Lublin Poles two days later, on January 5, 1945.
5. Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952), 510.
6. “Draft of Textual Material for Possible Inclusion in the President’s Address to Congress on the State of the Nation,” December 27, 1944, Folder 28, Box 81, George C. Marshall Papers (hereafter cited as GCM papers), George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia; Marshall to Stimson, January 5 and January 11, 1945, Folder 23, GCM papers, Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union Address, January 6, 1945, Presidential Speech File, FDRL (emphasis added).
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. “Roosevelt Demands a National Service Act, Draft of Nurses, and 4Fs Postwar Training,” New York Times, January 7, 1945, 1; “President Calls for Total Draft, Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1945, 1; “President Asks Full Use of Manpower,” Washington Post, January 7, 1945, 1; “Draft War Deserters,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 7, 1945, 1; Arthur Vandenberg Diary, January 11, 1945, in The Private Papers of Arthur Vandenberg (Greenwich, CT: Greenwood, 1974), 147.
11. Edward R. Stettinius Diary, January 11, 1945, Box 243, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
12. Diary of Henry Stimson, January 11, 1945, Sterling Library, Yale University, Hartford, Connecticut; Unpublished Diary of Henry Wallace, January 11, 1945, in possession of the Wallace family.
13. Unpublished Diary of Henry Wallace, January 11, 1945; Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew (New York: Penguin Classics, 2011), 390–391; Frances Perkins Oral History, Columbia University Library.
14. Curtis Roosevelt, in discussion with the author, May 2, 2015; Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 6, 1945, FDRL; Anna Roosevelt Halsted interview with Bernard Absell, in Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt (New York: Penguin, 1982), 177.
15. Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Oral History, Columbia University.
16. See, for example, the letters from FDR to Mrs. Winthrop (Lucy) Rutherfurd dated September 15, 1927, and May 18, 1928, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd Papers, Box 1, FDRL, as well as Reminiscences of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, FDRL.
17. Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 12, 1945.
18. William Hassett Diary, January 13, 1945.
19. Geoffrey Ward, Closest Companion: The Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 383;Testamentary Instructions, 1945, Grace Tully Papers, Box 12, FDRL.
20. Gifford Pinchot to Franklin D. Roosevelt, August 29, 1944, ”Conference on Conservation and Natural Resources, 1944–1945,” Official File, 5637, FDRL; Franklin D. Roosevelt to Gifford Pinchot, October 24, 1944, Box 397, Gifford Pinchot Papers, Library of Congress; FDR Memorandum for Under-Secretary of State, November 22, 1944, and Franklin D. Roosevelt to Gifford Pinchot, January 16, 1945, “Conference on Conservation and Natural Resources, 1944–1945,” Official File 5637, FDRL; Gifford Pinchot to Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 21, 1945, and Gifford Pinchot to Anna Boettiger, January 21 and January 22, 1945, Box 397, Gifford Pinchot Diary, January 22, 1945, Gifford Pinchot Papers, Library of Congress.
21. Franklin D. Roosevelt Press Conference, January 19, 1945, FDRL.
22. Unpublished Diary of Henry Wallace, January 19, 1945.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. The Roosevelt I Knew, 391–392; Harold Ickes, The Diary of Harold Ickes (hereafter cited as Harold Ickes Diary), Harold Ickes Papers, Box 21, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
27. Frances Perkins Oral History, Columbia University Library; Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew, 393–394.
28. Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 19, 1945.
29. Statement of the Joint Congressional Inaugural Committee, Edith B. Helm Papers, Box 28, Library of Congress; “Shivering Thousands Stamp in the Snow at Inauguration,” New York Times, January 21, 1945, 1; Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 20, 1945; author’s interview with Curtis Roosevelt, May 2, 2015.
30. Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 20, 1945; “Shivering Thousands Stamp in the Snow at Inauguration,” New York Times, January 21, 1945, 1.
31. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fourth Inaugural Address, January 20, 1945, Presidential Speech File, FDRL.
32. Unpublished Diary of Henry Wallace, January 20, 1945.
33. Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (New York: W. W. Norton, 2014), 715.
34. James Roosevelt Papers, FDRL; James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (New York: Playboy Press, 1976), 283–284.
35. Author’s interview with Curtis Roosevelt, May 2, 2015.
36. James Roosevelt, My Parents, 284. For more on the important role that Missy Lehand played in FDR’s life see Kathryn Smith, The Gatekeeper: Missy Lehand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency (New York: Touchstone, 2016).
37. See Roosevelt Family Papers, Boxes 20–21, FDRL; James Roosevelt, My Parents, 281–284; Harold Ickes Diary, January 27, 1945; Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, February 1, 1945, Box 84, FDRL.
38. Harold Ickes Diary, January 27, 1945.
39. “The President’s and Jones’ Letters,” New York Times, January 22, 1945, 30; John C. Culver and John Hyde, American Dreamer: A Life of Henry Wallace (New York: W. W. Norton, 2009), 384.
40. Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 20, 1945.
2. Atlantic Sojourn
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, June 10, 1940, Master Speech File, FDRL.
2. Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), 827; Thomas M. Campbell, “The Resurgence of Isolationism at the End of World War II,” American Diplomatic History Issues and Methods (June 1974), 41–56.
3. Charles Bohlen, Witness to History, 1929–1969 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973), 177; “An Appreciation of Anglo-American Relations,” by Mr. Stephenson, British Security Coordination, New York, December 14, 1944, FO371/44559, The National Archives, Kew.
4. William Hassett Diary, January 22, 1945, Box 22, FDRL.
5. Eleanor Roosevelt, The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 273; interview with Dr. Howard G. Bruenn conducted by Jan K. Herman, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Riverdale, New York, January 31, 1990, 14; Margaret (Daisy) Suckley Diary, January 22, 1945, FDRL.
6. Conferences at Malta and Crimea, Official Log, Box 29, Map Room Files, FDRL; Edward I. Bloom, “FDR and the Potomac Stewards,” Potomac Currents (Spring Edition, 2011), 3; Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, January 23, 1945, Box 84, FDRL.
7. Anna Roosevelt Halsted Columbia Oral History, 1970–1975, Box 12, FDRL; Curtis Roosevelt, Too Close to the Sun (New York: Public Affairs, 2009), 282–283; Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (New York: W. W. Norton, 2014), 699–700, 716; author’s interview with Curtis Roosevelt, May 2, 2009.
8. Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, January, 23, 1945.
9. The President’s Conferences at the Crimea and the Great Bitter Lake, Official Log, Map Room Files FDRL.
10. William Leahy, I Was There (New York: Whittlesey House, 1950), 296–297; James F. Byrnes, Speaking Frankly (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947), 22.
11. Official Log, January 24, 1945, FDRL.
12. Brynes, Speaking Frankly, 22.
13. Ibid.
14. Edward J. Flynn, You’re the Boss: The Practice of American Politics (Viking Press: New York, 1947), 186–188.
15. Edward J. Flynn to Helen Flynn, January 30, 1945, Edward J. Flynn Papers, Box 25, FDRL.
16. Flynn, You’re the Boss, 185; Peter C. Kent, “Toward the Reconstitution of Christian Europe: The War Aims of the Papacy, 1938–1945,” in David B. Woolner and Richard Kurial, eds., FDR, the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church in America, 1933–1945 (New York: Palgrave, 2003), 171–172.
17. Flynn, You’re the Boss, 186; Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, January 24, 1945; Edward J. Flynn to Helen Flynn, February 9, 1945, Edward J. Flynn Papers, Box 25, FDRL.
18. Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, January 24, 1945.
19. Anna Roosevelt Halsted Diary, January 25, 1945.
20. Hopkins to Roosevelt, and Churchill to Roosevelt, January 24, 1945, Cab 120/170, The National Archives, Kew.
21. Churchill to Roosevelt, January 26, 1945, Cab 120/170, The National Archives, Kew.
22. “Four Presidents as I Saw Them,” unpublished memoir by Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, Wilson Brown Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
23. Franklin D. Roosevelt Diary, July 15–18, 1918, Papers of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Personal Files, Box 33, FDRL; The William Lyons Mackenzie King Diary (hereafter cited as Mackenzie King Diary), March 11, 1945, National Archives, Canada.
24. Memorandum by Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, “Normal Schedule at Sea,” January 24, 1945; William Rigdon Papers, 1942–1945, FDRL; William D. Leahy Diary, January 29, 1945, Library of Congress.
25. William D. Leahy Diary, January 30, 1930; Roosevelt to Rosenman, February 1, 1945, Official File 5430, Box 2, FDRL.
The Last 100 Days Page 37