by Jay Winik
Yet there were . . . at Tehran: For the fruit trees, see the chilling memoirs of Rudolf Hoess, who calmly writes of people walking beneath the budding fruit trees of the farm into the gas chamber: Rudolph Hoess, Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz (De Capo, 1996), 159. For this episode see the magisterial work by Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust—A History of the Jews, 1933–1945: The Years of Extermination (Norton, 2012), 633. See also Jadwiga Bezwinska, Danuta Czech, and Krystyna Michalik, Amidst a Nightmare of Crime: Manuscripts of Prisoners in Crematorium Squads Found at Auschwitz (Howard Fertig, 2013), 118–19, hereafter cited as Amidst a Nightmare. Written in black ink on twenty-one pages, in Yiddish, this manuscript was discovered in 1952 at the site of Crematorium III. The author’s name is unknown. “The German nation”: Gilbert, The Holocaust, 636–37.
CHAPTER 1
“I have just”: For this paragraph and indeed the entire conference (as well as visit to Sphinx, 419), see this seminal memoir: Winston Churchill, Closing the Ring (Rosetta, 2010), 306–18, 325–418. See also these outstanding works: Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (Random House, 2004), 248; Charles Bohlen, Witness to History: 1929–1969 (Norton, 1973), 132; James MacGregor Burns, The Soldier of Freedom: 1940–1945 (Open Road Media, 2012), 402; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt—The Home Front in World War II (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 473; and H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class (Doubleday, 2008), 727–28.
“The difficulties of the”: Churchill, Closing the Ring, 341.
The first official presidential airplane: See White House Museum, Air Force One.
which Roosevelt dreaded: Roosevelt’s childhood had been marred by his fear of fire; a favorite aunt of his had burned to death. See Geoffrey Ward, Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905 (Harper and Row, 1985), 117–19.
The clipper planes, although: See Von Hardesty and Bob Schiefferr, Air Force One: The Aircraft That Shaped the Modern Presidency (Creative Publishing International, 2005), 36–41.
“You can have your clouds”: For more on trips and Roosevelt’s distaste for flying, see, for instance, Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 204.
The 1,300-mile journey: FDR to ER, November 18, 1943, box 12, Roosevelt Family Papers, FDRL, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; also very good are MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 406; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 473. By any definition, the image of Roosevelt peering out his window to see Lend-Lease matériel is fascinating, particularly because he had just flown over Jerusalem, the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.
suite of private rooms: Jean Edward Smith, FDR (Random House, 2008), 630; David Reynolds, In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (Allen Lane, 2004), 326; Warren F. Kimball, A Different Take on FDR at Teheran (Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2007), http://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol49no3/html_files/FDR_Teheran_12.htm.
Tehran in late November 1943: See, for example, Philip Mattar, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and Africa, 2004 (Macmillan Library Reference, 2004); Elliott Roosevelt, A Rendezvous with Destiny: The Roosevelts of the White House (Putnam, 1975); and Michael F. Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 173–74. On the young Washington, D.C. see Jay Winik, The Great Upheaval (Harper, 2007), chap. 11.
The drive from the airfield . . . went directly to bed: See Sarah Churchill, A Thread in the Tapestry (Sphere, 1968), 64–65; Churchill, Closing the Ring, 342–43; and Bohlen, Witness to History, 135. Sarah was a keen observer of events. She also notes that the traffic blockage was due to the fact that the shah of Iran was also driving through the city at the same time; nobody had mentioned this to the Allied delegation in advance.
he moved his personal staff: See, for instance, Bohlen, Witness to History, 135; and Churchill, Closing the Ring, 343–44. Bohlen was skeptical about the threats to the American delegation. I concur with him.
“cops and robbers stuff”: For this and the protection detail see Reilly, Reilly of the White House, 178–79.
“Everywhere you went”: Ibid., 179. For more on Soviet security, which was present as much to spy on the American delegation as to protect it, see also Brands, Traitor to His Class, 732; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 406; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 249.
conference was vintage FDR: Bohlen was nervous about being Roosevelt’s sole interpreter and about the freewheeling nature of Roosevelt’s ideas for how to structure everything. See Bohlen, Witness to History, 136.
to work his legendary, Prospero-like magic on Stalin: Forrest Davis, “What Really Happened in Tehran,” Saturday Evening Post, May 13 and 20, 1944; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 474–75; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 737–39; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 253–54.
“my little man”: For this section on the young Roosevelt, see in particular Smith, FDR, especially for Grover Cleveland, 23 and 17–22, which I draw upon extensively for this section.
entered Groton: For this and the powerful influence of Endicott Peabody, ibid., especially 28; see also H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class, 24–27. Smith makes the point that Roosevelt found solace in his religious faith after his father’s death. Roosevelt was so taken by Peabody’s reading of A Christmas Carol that on every Christmas Eve he gathered his own family to listen to a reading of a condensed version, which included Tiny Tim’s words, “God bless us every one.” See Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt (Doubleday, 1957), 510; also James Roosevelt and Sydney Shalett, Affectionately, FDR: A Son’s Story of a Lonely Man (Harcourt, Brace, 1959), 57. On becoming president FDR did write to Peabody, thanking him for his “inspiring example.”
When Porcellian . . . turned him down: For Roosevelt’s time at Groton, his rejection from Porcellian, and his curriculum I’ve drawn heavily on Smith, FDR, 30; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 32–33; Geoffrey Ward, First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt (Harper and Row, 1989), 31, 34, 41. “Everything I was taught was wrong”: This observation would guide Roosevelt when he was president. An empiricist by nature and temperament, he was never quite the rigid ideologue that his critics depicted. Roosevelt would later comment that the most useful preparation he had in college for public service “was on the Harvard Crimson”: quoted in Nathan Miller, FDR: An Intimate History (Doubleday, 1983), 39.
“One of the most”: For this and the trip to Washington and meeting with Theodore Roosevelt see especially Smith, FDR, 32.
“I did not wish to be a cow”: “Dearest Cousin Sally,” ER to Sara Roosevelt, December 2, 1903. See also “Dearest Mama” to Sara Roosevelt, December 4, 1903; Smith, FDR, 36; Ward, First-Class Temperament, 16–17; Brands, A Traitor to His Class, 36, 38–41. Ward in particular conducted original research on this subject, especially FDR’s relationship with Alice Sohier, about whom he once remarked that of all the debutantes “she was the loveliest.” See (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library hereafter FDRL), March 21, 1934, FDR to Colonel Sohier. See also Ward, Before the Trumpet, 253–55. I draw heavily on all these accounts.
Eleanor’s world: On Eleanor’s youth and Progressive tendencies see Smith, FDR, 46.
“boy darling”: For the quotations and FDR and Eleanor’s early relationship see ER to FDR, January 4, 1904, FDRL; Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884–1933 (Viking, 1992); Crystal Eastman, On Women and Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1978); Smith, FDR, 47; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 16, 22.
“under his roof,” Smith, FDR, 49. Though his father and grandfather were Democrats, FDR made a point of noting that he voted for Theodore for president.
Vaguely bored . . . “made no effort”: Smith, FDR, 50.
adjoin a second home: For instance, ibid., 54. The town houses were connected by internal sliding doors. For more on FDR’s relationship with his mother until his college years see Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 14–16, 20–22. Meacham stresses that Sara meant to dominate FDR’s married life the way
she did his youth, 22.
“I think he always thought”: Smith, FDR, 55. For the rest of his life, including as president, Roosevelt clung to the notion that he could ignore matters and that they would resolve themselves.
“Father was fun”: Ibid., 57. He also had an insatiable desire to please, and in Goodwin’s words, could be evasive, devious, and lacking in candor. He also mastered the art of masking his true feelings. For a concise and elegant background treatment of Roosevelt, see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 76–80.
to run for the state senate: See especially Ward, First-Class Temperament, 122; see also Brands, Traitor to His Class, 69.
“Franklin finds it hard to relax”: See Ward, First-Class Temperament, 138–39. There is considerable debate about whether this is true. Some, like Daniel O’Connell, the veteran boss at Albany County, who would work closely with FDR, thought Roosevelt was a bigot or didn’t like poor people or was tinged with anti-Catholicism. Certainly this changed over time, if it was ever true. What is definitely true is that he was a product of his upbringing early on—of a life that was rigorously scheduled, in which he saw men and women only of his class, many of whom were distant members of his own extended family, and in which he had little access to a more diverse set of people. Ward makes the point, a good one, that Roosevelt learned tolerance as he went along, “dictated by the realities of power,” 138.
less than temperate observations about Jews: It goes without saying that Eleanor later changed her views considerably. See Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 102; Smith, FDR, 148. I would argue that she changed considerably more than Roosevelt himself. In fact, she, as much as anyone in the administration, would become a passionate supporter of the Jews in their time of need.
“I was an awfully mean”: Ward, First-Class Temperament, 159; Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I knew (Penguin Classics, 2011), 9; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 54–55. This was a rare moment of introspection on Roosevelt’s part.
self-interest most of all: Even here one can discern Roosevelt’s pragmatic roots, that he was as much a politician as a committed ideologue. Ward, First-Class Temperament, 162.
Roosevelt fell seriously ill: Of note, Eleanor fell ill as well. Ward, First-Class Temperament, 188. Eleanor blamed this on dirty water that she and Franklin used to brush their teeth while coming back from Campobello. Tellingly, she recuperated very quickly; in an omen of things to come, he did not.
by contacting Louis Howe: See Ward, First-Class Temperament, 196–99. Howe once remarked, “I am hated by everybody. . . . And I want to be hated by everybody.” The only thing that mattered to him was the sickly candidate who wanted his help, 196. For more on Louis Howe, who was a pivotal and fascinating figure in Roosevelt’s life, see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 20, 90–91, 588–89; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 69–71; Meacham, Franklin and Winston, 26, 29. Howe, this ugly little man, riddled with quirks and eccentricity, was a genius as well, in some ways a forerunner of James Carville. Howe would be inseparable from Roosevelt for the next twenty-three years. For more, see James MacGregor Burns, The Lion and the Fox (Harcourt, Brace, 1956), 45.
In the Navy Department: Walton Chronicle, September 23, 1914; FDR to Langdon P. Marvin, October 19, 1914; see also Smith, FDR, 123–25, from which I’ve extensively drawn this paragraph.
his fire hose analogy: See FDR to Navy League Convention, April 13, 1916; see also Smith, FDR, 132–34.
“Your hands were on the wheel”: For quotation and Lucy Mercer see Michael Teague, Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Doubleday, 1981), 157–58; see also Smith, FDR, 153. Elliott Roosevelt, An Untold Story, 82, described “a hint of fire” in Lucy’s eyes. Teague describes it as “lonely boy meets girl.”
“As Roosevelt retold”: Smith, FDR, 158. It is worth noting that at age thirty-one, Roosevelt was the youngest assistant secretary since 1860.
“perfect of their kind”: For this and Roosevelt’s itinerary, Smith, FDR, 158.
“dull boom” and “rain-stained love letters”: Ward, First-Class Temperament, 392–93, 401–2; Smith, FDR, 158–59.
“the bottom dropped”: ER to Joseph Lasch, October 25, 1943, quoted in Lasch, Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship (Norton, 1971), 220. For a particularly vivid account of Roosevelt’s contracting pneumonia, see Ward, who is outstanding on FDR’s health issues, First-Class Temperament, 408, 410–412. See also Smith, FDR, 159–60.
the 1920 campaign would begin: I particularly draw heavily on Smith, FDR 165–87; Ward, First-Class Temperament, 417–23; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 16, 20. FDR did remark about TR, “I do not profess to know what Theodore Roosevelt would say if he were alive today, but I cannot help think that the man who invented the word ‘pussy footer’ could not resist the temptation to apply it to Mister Harding”: FDR speech at Waukegan, Illinois, August 12, 1920, FDRL. As to Roosevelt’s speaking style, it was not yet legendary or polished. Eleanor remarked, “It is becoming almost impossible to stop F. when he begins to speak. 10 minutes is always 20, 30 is always 45, and the evening speeches are now about two hours!” ER to SDR, October 19, 1920, FDRL.
It began as a vague . . . “I believe”: I rely upon Smith, FDR, 188–98; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 16–17; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 69–71; Goodwin’s account is quite poignant. The most thorough and compelling account is Ward, First-Class Temperament, 584–98. Anna actually hid in the closet to listen to Doctor Lovett’s pronouncements and thereby learned what was wrong with her father before he himself knew: John W. Boettiger, A Love in Shadow (Norton, 1978), 88. In later years, several of the children would remember that they had the sniffles as well as Franklin and they couldn’t shake the thought that they too had been struck with polio, but in its mildest form. Ward, First-Class Temperament, 590, suggests that Grace Howe may have been moderately afflicted. Drastic measures were also contemplated. Doctor Samuel A. Levine from Boston believed that a lumbar puncture had to be done within twenty-four hours to relieve the pressure on the spine. This procedure would have immediately produced fever; in the end it was never carried out.
“If you can’t use your legs”: See Smith, FDR, 210–27, from which I draw this paragraph.
The Great Depression was horrific: I have drawn on PBS, The American Experience, “The Bonus March,” www.history.com/topics/newdeal. For a brilliant treatment of the Depression see David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1941 (Oxford University Press, 2001). See also Robert S. McElvaine, The Great Depression: America 1929–1941 (Times Books, 1993); and T. H. Watkins, The Great Depression: America in the 1930s (Little, Brown, 1993).
In his race against Hoover: On Roosevelt’s election, I have drawn upon Smith, FDR, 249–87. For more on Roosevelt’s stunning election see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 100, 110, 115; Brands, Traitor to His Class, 264–65.
“He has been all but”: Arthur Schlesinger, The Politics of Upheaval: 1935–1936, Volume 3, The Age of Roosevelt (Mariner, 2003), 3.
“had more serenity”: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 204.
“cut his throat”: Brands, Traitor to His Class, 561–62. As regards Roosevelt’s working of the press corps, in his first term he held 337 press conferences, usually at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays and 4 p.m. on Fridays. Editors were able to see the president separately. See Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: Launching the New Deal (Little, Brown, 1973), 224n.
“bunch of incompetent”: Bohlen, Witness to History, 210n. Bohlen goes on to say that Roosevelt felt the only way to get anything done with the Senate was to bypass it altogether. Moreover, he asserts correctly that Roosevelt despised protocol. One surprising observation he makes is that Roosevelt was not “a likable man.” Instead he was likable by virtue of his position, Bohlen contends. Finally, Bohlen suggests that he did his job only “moderately well” in foreign affairs.
“we are fighting to save”: Schlesinger, The Politics of Upheaval, 67. Roosevelt’s intuitive grasp of the enormity of Hitler’s threat comes through
in his eloquence here.
“It’s more than a New Deal”: Ray Tucker, “Ickes—and No Fooling,” Collier’s, September 30, 1933; Smith, FDR, 332. See also Jonathan Alter, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Simon & Schuster, 2006).
“Well, Bill, it has come”: For this seminal episode, see Smith, FDR, 434.
“I’ve said this before”: Radio Address to New York Herald Tribune Forum, October 26, 1939; also Smith, FDR, 440. To be sure, Roosevelt was shameless in saying there would be no boys going to the battlefields of Europe.
“The government had to choose”: Joachim C. Fest, Hitler (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 567, 572. For Mussolini deriding democracy at the same time, and for Chamberlain, see Smith, FDR, 425.
“would drop into the basket” Transcript, Conference with the Senate Military Affairs Committee, January 31, 1939, Item 1565, 8; Franklin D. Roosevelt on Foreign Affairs, Donald B. Schewe, ed. (New York: Garland, 1979). See also Smith, FDR, 431. Roosevelt’s words were met by enthusiastic applause by the senators present.
“This nation will remain”: From 8 Public Papers and Addresses (Random House, Macmillan, Harper and Brothers, 1933–58), 460–64. It can also be found in Smith, FDR, 436. Cordell Hull strongly objected to the statement, which also proved to be a tacit rebuttal to Woodrow Wilson’s contention about the nation remaining “neutral in fact as well as in name.”