Transcripts For CSPAN2 David Woolner The Last 100 Days 20180127

President ial library museum. We are glad you braved the cold to come out and we are lucky enough to have cspan here with us tonight so after the presentation if you are going to ask questions please come to the microphone can record you. How many of your members here tonight . Wow what, thats fantastic. Im so happy you are here i cant tell you how much we appreciate your support. Because of you you make programs like this possible and i feel the community has come out tonight to hear what i think will be one of the most important programs we have this year. David woolner has been involved with the roosevelt institutes and the Roosevelt Library for 25 years and really has enormous insight and a depth of understanding about the roosevelt era that i think if you read the book it really comes through. Hes also been involved with Marist College for 20 years and now involved with bart and really has spent most of the last 25 years of his life dedicated to the Roosevelt Legacy and one of the interesting things about this life and history he has done and looking at these last 100 days is that he peels away a lot of the superficial analysis we read about the roosevelt and goes to some of the more important underlying structural issues that were being dealt with at the most critical point in world history. These three men, churchill, roosevelt and stalin were determining the future of the world and he brings insight into the process in a way and dont else has before, so please welcome. David woolner. [applause]. Picu, paul. Wonderful and reduction and thank you for your generous support. Very much appreciated. I would like to extend my thanks to cliff, the sort of tireless director Public Programs here and of course the entire archival staff. They have been very patient with me over the years as i come rushing into the Research Room asking for documents at the last minute and they are always very accommodating and there are many dear friends and colleagues here this evening that deserve my thanks. Richard aldus, chris prices, my colleagues and Marist College in the roosevelt institute, trustees of the fdr library, doctor murray and his successor, david yellen. Of the entire marist history department. My friends at the Center Pacific engagement bar college, so its wonderful to see all of you and i want to again express how enormously grateful i am to each of you for your support and encouragement in seeing this project through. Its not just nice to see Richard Grinnell here. Richard gave me some and vice and help about the opening quotation from shakespeare that i used to dedicate the book to my father, so you have a copy coming. Dont worry. Speaking of my father, the book is dedicated to him and he always had a joke for every occasion and i thought i better poll and out of the hat for this its a story of two men in a park that one had just become a father and hes pushing his stroller along in the park with his baby boy in their hes very proud and he meets a colleague who says this is wonderful, so you have a new baby. Let me have a look at him and he looks down and says what a handsome young chap he is. Who knows, someday he might crop to be president and the man looked at him and said whats wrong with roosevelt. [laughter] as all of you know, of course, fdrs first 100 days are justifiably famous. It was during that brief period of over three months that Franklin Roosevelt and Congress Passed no less than 15 major pieces of legislation, a record no president has come close to matching. Fdr began this. Machinations history by declaring at the opening of his first inaugural address, this is a day of national consecration, a time in which the American People might join together, not to embrace fear, but to banish it. In addition to the first 100 days perhaps the two most periods in his office include the secondary deal in 1935 when he brought social security, unemployment insurance, the right of workers to form unions and in the summer of 1940, when he made a critical decision to support Great Britain and its struggle against germany after the fall of france when the british had left to defend themselves with the inspiring rhetoric of Winston Churchill and the valiant courage of the pilots as they are off. Theres another peer not been fdrs president ial legacy thats crucial importance, not only from the perspective as of his political legacy, but because of what it can tell us that fdr the man and here im referring to his last 100 days. Like the early 1920s when fdr first had to learn to deal with the reality of his disability come the last 100 days of fdrs life are period of great vulnerability, a time in which a tired president began to speculate more and more about what life might be like outside of the oval office, a time in which this most private individual felt the urgent need to be near those who with whom he could truly be himself and not exhibit a is he sometimes referred to his public persona. Given the unprecedented nature of his tenure in office, its easy to its all too easy to succumb to the notion this activist president possessed unlimited confidence and energy. To fall into the view so ably projected by fdr himself that there was no challenge he could not meet and that this was a man incapable of selfdoubt or fatigue. After all, fdr is the only president to lead our nation through not one, but to great crises, the Great Depression and world war ii. Hes also our only wheelchair president. Although, the extent of his disability was largely concealed from public be of you. Hes the only president to hold two press conferences a week for virtually his entire tenure in Office Meeting by the time he died in april, 1945, he had held a stunning 998 meetings with the press. Yet for all this theres a good deal of mystery that surrounds franklin d roosevelt, like Winston Churchills off quoted phrase about russia the president in many respects remains quote a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in on a name out. You really can find his innermost thoughts was family, friends and advisor, refused to take notes during meetings and insisted there was of his cabinet and other senior officials do the same. The outstanding biographer of roosevelts life Geoffrey Moore speculated fdrs reminiscence to show emotion reveal his inner feelings stems from a practice he and his mother adopted to deal with the weak heart of his father who was 54 years old when fdr was born. As his father became more and more of an implement mother and son conspired to always remain cheerful to avoid stress or public shows of emotion so as not to upset the delicate constitution of the aging james roosevelt. Fdr carried this effervescent tendency into adulthood with the result of the cheerful exuberance was often used either consciously or unconsciously as a mask to hide what he was really thinking or feeling. Emotional this has advantages with being president of the United States, but also has its disadvantages and can lead to a feeling of isolation and worse still, loneliness even for a person surrounded by a large family and dozens of assistance. Theres no question by the end of the 1943 the big man as Time Magazine called him was beginning to feel somewhat isolated and alone and by the end of 1944, the twin burdens of the presidency coupled with the sense of isolation had almost become too much. Fdr in short was exhausted and with this exhaustion came a narrowing of the sense of what was important both to him personally and to the nation and the world. Its is this fact that makes fdrs last 100 days of his life and presidency so instructive. Here we see a president and leader shorn of the usual distractions of office, a man whose sense of duty and responsibility for the fate of the American People and the world for heavily upon him. The man who despite his duty desire to return to his beloved home or retire to his beloved home on the hudson river chose instead to run for a fourth term in office so he might be able to finish the work he started 12 long years before. This brings us to the start of our story. Lets me note here that for the purposes of this discussion today and i use that word purposefully because im hoping there will be questions at the end and we can open it up for discussion, but for the purposes of this talk i plan to focus on the three main goals that fdr was desperate to try to hook, should the final months life. First, winning the war against the axis, second establishing United Nations and third, bringing about an end to american isolationism. It is fitting that this story in the story of fdrs last 100 days begins here on the grounds of his beloved estate in hyde park. As noted in the book, few president s are more rooted in a sense of place than Franklin Roosevelt. Knowing the beauty of the Hudson River Valley i think we can all understand why he returned to this place again and again seeking solace in the timeless quality of rural life in the sense of Community Among the many friends and neighbors who made up the small village he called home. Having won an unprecedented fourth term in office in november, 1944, fdr decided he liked to spend christmas at springwood, which for those of you that are unaware of the name of the family home located about a few hundred yards from where im standing. As you see from this slide, springwood is exceptionally beautiful in the winter blanketed under fresh layer of snow and my family will testify that im obsessed with winter. I happen to like it. This is a scene that would have greeted fdr as he arrived on Christmas Eve day nearly three quarters of a century ago. As we can well imagine the sense of peace and serenity that he would have felt as he gathered his family about him for the holidays. Com. On the other side of the atlantic things were quite different. There a surprise to german counteroffensive had thrown the allies back more than 60 miles on a broad front in the regions of belgium in northeastern france. The fighting that ensued in what became known as the battle of the bulge turned out to be some of the fiercest of the Second World War. Hitler sudden move came as a shock to the allies took only a few months before as the angloamerican armies swept across northerns france in august many hoped the war would be over my christmas, but then came the failure of the operation Market Garden in september, the socalled bridge too far end of this coupled with the tightening of german resistance as the allies near the german boarder followed by hitler sutton counteroffensive in december brought about the dire realization that the war in europe was far from over. As we can see here. German village, german assault on allies and sending reinforcements desperately to get to the region. Adding to the anxiety caused by these events was the growing concern among the American Public about soviet behavior in poland, but also british behavior in greece. We are all familiar with the charges leveled against Joseph Stalin concerning poland and other parts of Eastern Europe and less well known is that extent which the American Public was also upset about british intervention and behavior in greece. In the fall, 1944, after the nazis had left when it became clear the communist anti assistance by the way who were allies of the british during the war that the communist anti resistance increase my gain the upper hand. The british sent forces into the country to establish a conservative regime. There were protests. This is the scene on december 3, 1944, of a protest movement in athens which british soldiers fired upon killing some civilians. Their work rests and members of the climbing this party. So, the American Public was not just focused on poland and what might happen in Eastern Europe with respect to the russians, they were very concerned about the british behavior in Eastern Europe particularly greece as well. Then, equally unsettling at the time was this unexpected revelation that the Atlantic Charter was a document that was supposed to spell out the work aims of the United States, which included a clause about the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they would live had in fact it never been assigned by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Many people said it was just a press release. Heres a headline from the chicago tribune, late december 1944. American people fooled. A lot of concern and confusion about what does this mean, whats happening in the war . Are we going to go back to imperialism in this sort of behavior . Taken together all these factors combined to create this great deal of uncertainty about when the war in europe might end, that the behavior of the soviet and british allies, about the ability for Roosevelt Administration to secure the principles articulated in the atlantic charger charter was the war was over. One result of these anxieties is the sharp contrasts in congress that was when into office in 1933 when we had the 100 days with frantic activity versus the congress that was voted in and sworn in at the start of fdrs fourth term. They were sworn in january 3, 1945. This congress was at the opposite. There wasnt much activity with no push for legislation and in light of the many problems that seem to plague the allies, there was no push for new legislation in the congress. On the contrary, most members of the house and senate concluded it would be better to wait till they received the president s 1945 state of the Union Message before they set themselves to the task at hand and this is an important time. There was a general sense that the 79th Congress Convening at this moment might the quote one of the most fateful assemblies in the nation in the history of the nation as reported by the new york times, but again because they were unsettled and waiting for leadership they decided to hold back and wait for the president s message. Not knowing, of course, the man with whom most of the book to provide leadership during this critical period would fall victim to a massive cerebral hemorrhage exactly 100 days after the speakers gavel brought the congress into session and i should note by the way that the phrase 100 days is universally thought of as referring to the president ial term. It is not. It refers to the first 100 days of congress, so i can argue my book is accurate because it was really quite remarkable stunning to me when i learned it because the id. 100 days came to me before i realized it was exactly 100 days that he died. So, now i have tried to set the scene here. What i will do now is go on this Little Journey together. We will start by looking at fdrs 1945 state of the Union Message. Dont worry. Wont be boring. And i think so you understand that theres a lot of questions out there about whats going on with the allies, where we are heading about whats going to happen when will the war and and all kinds of other issues i could talk about with a manpower shortage. Its a difficult moments. Anticipating going to be with churchill and roosevelt to put things right so to speak and is so well aware of the unsettled nature of both the congress and the public, fdr would use his state of the Union Message in 1945 as kind of almost like a prologue to the address that comes in march. Key began by reminding people to listen to this line and think about going on and by reminding the American People that quote the nearer we come to think pushing our enemies the more we inevitably become conscious of the differences among the victors. He also argued that it was vitally important quote not to let those differences divide us and blind as to our more important common and continuing interest in winning the war and building the peace. Indeed, he went on in our dissolution after the last war, he said, we preferred International Anarchy to International Cooperation with nations that did not see and think exactly as we did. We gave up the hope of gradually achieving a better piece because we had not the courage to fulfill our responsibilities in admittedly imperfect world. We must not let that happen again or we shall have to follow the same tragic road again, the road to a third world war. Interesting phrase because i have written that phrase doesnt sometimes over the years and when i wrote it for this book actually thought to myself that this might be possible. It makes you think. As for the Atlantic Charter he admitted that the principles of the charter do not quote provides rules of the easy application to reach everyone of this wartorn tangled situation, but its a good and useful thing , essential thing to principles towards which we can aim. This notion of principle is important to roosevelt and we will talk more about that later, so he saw the Atlantic Charter is kind of a aspirational document which is important to realize. As to the recent criticism of the press about what was going on in greece poland fdr admitted he shared the publics concern, but again quoting we must not permit he said the many specific and immediate problems of adjustment connected with the liberation of europe to delay the establishment of the permanent machinery for the maintenance of peace. His eyes are always on the longterm goal and you have to keep that in mind when thinking about Franklin Roosevelt. So, these statements very much reflect his thinking at the time and very much are applicable to what happens in poland. With this critical what was critical in his mind, excuse me, with the establishment of the United Nations and the maintenance of weight Power Cooperation thats important component we fail to recognize often that roosevelt notion of a Security Council is about great Power Cooperation. Isnt like the call of great power diplomacy because of his unfashionable at the time, but i think his vision always was that if you had those for big powers in the same room there wouldnt be a third world war. Indeed, by the spring of 1945 theres no question both churchill and roosevelt recognize the soviet union would demand a measure of control over poland and the severe influence in Eastern Europe and the best evidence for this comes from the press famous percentage deal that churchill dealed with stalin. Churchill called it his naughty document. In the fall, 1944 was a developer churchill took on the one hand roosevelt doesnt seem to be paying the attention to the british he used it to. Churchills desk which have another meeting with stalin roosevelt. Not going not fall, so he meets with roosevelt in september, and flies off to moscow simply to meet with stalin and this is the first thing he presents to the socalled seal, churchills cutting a deal with the soviets for control over the eastern mediterranean. Churchill proposes russia has a 90 control of interest in romania versus 10 for greece and britain meanwhile would hold a 90 hold on greece versus 10 for the russians and they would split hungry and yugoslavia 5050 and divide bulgaria 75 for the russian and 25 for the british so the notion somehow roosevelt is the feeble naive guy who sold out Eastern Europe and that churchill is this anticommunist is just well frankly its nonsense. The reality of soviet power is there. Ask yourself if you think its a serious question to say, for example, to invade north korea tomorrow morning, i mean, great powers just cant often attack one another because they disagree over certain issues. Of this is the reality they were facing in the fall, 1944. Churchill is desperately trying to carve out particularly increase prior to the actual british intervention. This gives you a sense of the kind of horsetrading that goes on underneath the surface. Poland is not appear because poland is the big problem particularly for the british. Remember, britain went to war over poland. We forget that. If hitler wanted one word a time and he did not want world war ii prick the british declared war in germany and in a sense technically started world war ii over poland, so for churchill poland is a tremendous problem. Theres the whole issue of the notion that they went to war to defend the nation. Its a political problem for him because it would be in pub it would be unpopular if he tries to get away poland, so its a complicated issue. For churchill in particular. We can talk more on the discussion about the american perceptional poland, but in the book i make a point as for the americans, the american attitude about poland early on in the war was purposeful noninvolvement. They did not want to get involved. This was a problem with the british in the polls themselves to settle with the russians. Now, given the nature of the war and reality of soviet power as i have just said there was a limit to how far both churchill and roosevelt could go to promote a free and independent poland and it was this reality that dictated their treatment of poland. Poland was a very unlucky place. Lets be honest about it. Given the time we had today it would be impossible to get into them the new of the conference and as i said we can talk about this when we get to the discussion period. Im happy to answer questions about it, but at this point that we would kind of embark on the rest of our journey, focusing on those three issues i mentioned and some of the other teachers become up in the book. Here is roosevelt at his fourth inaugural address. He see his son, jim, stand behind him strong and it all. Vice president truman on the right and jim is an important character. Roosevelt insisted jim, for this inauguration. He had been at all the other three so he flew from the philippines back to the us to be with his father this day and after the inauguration ceremony they went into fdrs privates study to talk about fdrs will. Shortly after just less than two days later roosevelt leaves on this extraordinary journey, almost 14000 miles from Norfolk Virginia auto across virginia atlantic up through the straits of gibraltar, which were still pretty dangerous. Interesting crossing. You can imagine a straight only 9 miles wide with 6p35 mustang fighters with a blimp overhead, to catalina flying boats, seven destroyers, two cruisers, i mean, unbelievable. Then, of course, they get to the sonny alta, the most mom place on earth which we dont have time to talk about today, but that is the entrance with an extraordinary story which unfortunately we cant get into. There is the uss quincy, fdrs ship as he sails into the harbor. Here is in the harbor speaking with Sarah Churchill and winston on the deck enjoying a little bit of the mediterranean sun. This makes up an entire chapter, but is 13 hours and again, he writes as they going to port basically saying an awful day ahead before we fly off to crimea. In other words, he knows he will have one visitor after another, one meeting after another in his description of this day is, awful day ahead. Again, we welcome into that, but very interesting. Then, he flies to crimea and if you look here you can see i guess i have a little pointer here. Right here is the airfield they landed in and the planes took off at 15 minute intervals, 700 people, dozens of aircraft. They didnt have the 740 sevens line all night in churchill and roosevelt landed about 15 minutes apart from each other and its very adjusting trip that they take here and they have to drive up over the Crimean Mountains and then downed the post. But, what i find interesting is the efforts to make fdr a man whose disabled feel comfortable. You see here hes in this soviet jeep which is unamerican cheap under lease and you see they put a nice carpet here for fdr. Stalin, the crimean range, thinking about reforestation programs. He is extraordinary. Probably looked just before the war, here is what it looked like during the war, here is what it looked like if you go today, here is the conference room, a circular table here next to the fireplace, the fires were going, it was relatively cool, it wasnt winter in the sense that we would think of winter, it wasnt like going to a tropical area but warmer than it would be in washington at that time of year. In terms of roosevelts goals, they are threefold. The first, to organize the final defeat of germany, the Second Coming to secure soviet participation in the United Nations and the third to secure soviet participation in the war against japan. What is fascinating, what people overlook, then the german problem. Initially front and center, we tend to think about the cold war or this tension with the russians but you have to remember the Second World War, that generation in many respects considered germany, 1870, 71, the francoprussian war and 1939, there is a perception in the world that piece was incompatible, the conference is a continuation of the teheran conference like theyre finishing up the business they didnt finish. One of the major discussion points was the division of germany, breaking up germany into 547 states. What is fascinating, when they arrive, when the Conference Begins Franklin Roosevelt is the only head of state amateur jill head of government, stalin head of government, he will chair the sessions and he begins the session on germany by talking about occupation zones they will try to work out that more or less worked out and the question is what france is going to do andcooperation, they wanted a relationship with the west, they are scared of germany, they have 20 million dead in the Second World War. We can interpret soviet behavior as being aggressive, deserving territory in Eastern Europe but really obsessed with security. That is the critical issue. Roosevelt is not talking, the fact that they basically, it looks as if germany will not be dismembered. That will make the question of poland even more important as far as the russians are concerned. We dont want to get into the minutia. On numerous occasions the issue of polling comes up, Slobodan Milosevic talks to roosevelt, roosevelt appoints arthur lois lane to be the new ambassador to the polish government, they have a conversation, and he is saying you should stand up to the russians and roosevelt says do you want me to go to war with russia . Is that what you want . And looking at the check example. The check leader who was not a communist negotiated understandings with stalin and the soviet government, that roosevelt saw as a model for what poland should do. I am not trying to excuse away for what happens and roosevelt and churchill are very frustrated because they would not compromise, wouldnt negotiate with stalin and in a sense refused to recognize the reality of soviet power. The polish issue becomes a terrible terrible problem for the entire conference. In the publics mind, because of the issues i talked about in the fall of 1944 the issue of greece and poland, they are linking this to the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations, what the United Nations will stand for so poland becomes linked to the question of the United Nations and settling the, quote, polish problem becomes a critical part of the conference in a way that is to be compatible with expectations roosevelt articulated in freedom in the Atlantic Charter and so forth and so on, that is why he tries to frame these issues and try to get the russians to essentially support the idea of free elections. He does what he says to admiral lee, i did the best i could and we could talk more about that later. The meeting with stalin the first day, an interesting picture of churchill, and stalin, here you can see the typical Conference Meeting would be like, hopkins admiral lady is there because roosevelt asked him to take extra notes, speculates that roosevelt was worried that he might die, and someone has a solid record. Roosevelt came to everyone and he was there to take notes. All right, it is a complicated is this, we will get back to it in a minute. Here is the courtyard and you can see anthony here, mister molotov, soviet foreign minister, roosevelt this was not a very happy day, this was a difficult day, the polish question settled, they take a break to get their photograph taken and things cheer up after a few minutes but it is very interesting, poland goes to the very end of the conference. Roosevelt leaves and goes on his last mission and he flies to egypt and lands here at the field and takes a boat to this extraordinary meeting with king of saudi arabia and this is another major story in the book. Palestine was controlled by the british who issued a white paper in 1939 restricting jewish immigration to the area during the war which of course was terrible for those jews trying to escape europe but the british were desperate to maintain peace because they couldnt afford to have rapid unrest between the jewish occupation and palestine during the war and roosevelt never endorsed the white paper and one of the most interesting parts of the story is he has this idea of going to saudi arabia, the king of saudi arabia and convince him granting the jews a homeland in palestine is not going to cause the population in the region much difficulty. Every single one of roosevelts major advisors say you shouldnt do it, some people say it was a violation of the charter. What about the oil we need from the region and then there is the military dimension of this, if we cause unrest in the build up to dday we cant put troops into the middle east and so forth and so on so they were dead set against it but he went ahead anyway which says a lot about his determination and something about the estimation of his own personality, that he could convince someone to grant the jews a homeland in palestine. The destroyer murphy coming alongside, this is what roosevelt would see, the entourage from saudi arabia, had to build a bedouin tent, he refused to sleep in the state room because he thought it was an acceptable accommodation. The king has to eat so they corralled sheep at the back because the king had to have fresh lamb every day so they are slaughtering a sheep. The crew of the murphy arrived with this stuff and there was a lot of fraternizing that went on, quite an extraordinary trip. A couple of the king gaps bodyguards, you wouldnt want to meet these guys in a dark alley at night and it really is quite extraordinary and here is the famous photograph from the Roosevelt Library, the king meeting with fdr, to convince him and believe me it is not a casual conversation, he goes on to the point where he says im not going to talk about this anymore. The king keeps saying let the germans play a home for the jews etc. Roosevelt little go home and call this the great failure of his political career. He said that to elliott, eleanor, he couldnt move the king at all. He was told that would be the results but he went ahead anyway. So here is palestine. Here is what is happening. Then he is going to go home. We have a few minutes, the home journey is interesting because one of roosevelts ea aids, sinks into a depression and sits on deck smoking day after day, he has none of his key advisors, they have different responsibilities, he brings down a speechwriter from london to help him write the speech to give congress and he says day after day when are we going to start, roosevelt doesnt start until the day before they arrived. He is giving this address, the famous address he gave sitting in the well, you can see he is sitting down, not on the rostrum, didnt have to build the ramp and everything, heres the interesting picture i like to look at, heres the normal step. This ramp was built, this is us famous moment, first time in roosevelts career that he has publicly wheeled down in front of a cheering congress. Very moving scene, Eleanor Roosevelt watching from the gallery, they really choked up and said it was like an admission not only to the world but to himself that he was a crippled man. It is a very moving scene and he goes on back here to say pardon my sitting down with 12 tons of steel on my legs but after 14,000 miles i am a bit tired. Very interesting scene. Then he goes back to the white house. Really interesting. 16 days, thats it. The longest period Franklin Roosevelt is in the white house continuously, he is gone all the time. Every chance he gets he goes to hyde park and yellowstone which takes six weeks, he doesnt want to be there. His study, Oval Office Desk with a chair downstairs and the library, quite a bit of the book talks about the 16 day period, issues that come up. The final 16 days, from canada, crams these meetings in, freeing up time on the weekend, when he leaves he begs him to stay. Anna roosevelt walked king to the door of the white house, couldnt you please stay . He regards you as family. He misses mcintyre, the people who were close to them. He has to leave. He talks about the atomic bomb which is interesting. A fascinating time. And every time i go to the media, up here he sees davis oakley. And Anna Roosevelt is arranging these meetings. This is the man who Needs Company and solace and Eleanor Roosevelt is like a policy advisor. And dont have an agenda, and a political agenda she was trying to promote, and shared the desire to move things forward, used to be that bombed the two of them for decades. He wants to get away from that. And princess giuliana of the netherlands arrives on his anniversary with Eleanor Roosevelt in a moving scene on the countryside and describes to him horrible conditions where people are starving to death, western holland occupied by the germans and roosevelt is determined to do something about it, an interesting story. Then to warm springs, as you know. This is the white house. It is close quarters. It is a very small place. Very modest. That is the thing about the roosevelts, their modesty. There we go. This is the dining room so to speak on the opposite end of the room from the fireplace. And at the card table, with his legs propped up in his favorite chair. His bedroom would have been on the opposite side of this photograph so there are two bedrooms on this side of a one bedroom on the other side and the bathroom. Henry morgan comes the day before he dies and sees him in this position and he pours drinks and morgans hands shook so much it was embarrassing to watch when he was trying to pour the drink and morgenthaler felt he had to hold his glass so he was not in the greatest shape. Lets leave it at that for the moment. At Orange Springs he is focused on the United Nations. I go through this quickly, part of what he has to do to make the United Nations a success is get the soviet union in which is why we have the Security Council which you are aware of, not just for the soviets but the American Senate, the American Senate was skeptical about the league of nations in violation of american sovereignty and so forth. From the american and soviet perspective the fact there is a ito in that provision was felt to be politically necessary and acquiesces in the idea the soviets can have three seats in the general assembly. By the time they leave there is no outstanding issue with respect to soviet participation but there is still the american problem and this great fear roosevelt has the American People will turn away from their International Responsibilities and one of the most spectacular fireside chats he addresses this issue, this, by the way, i cant resist showing this declaration of the United Nations, written in january 1942, the United States, china, soviet union, and Great Britain, with what you can see written underneath, roosevelt puts them down in alphabetical older, here is the sketch to the United Nations, the general assembly, the executive council of policeman, and so forth and so on but here is the fireside chat, he asks the American People to take out there maps, to purchase maps in advance of the fireside chat. And they do. It is the largest sale of National Geographic maps in the United States and it says take up your maps and also he said he wanted to give them a lesson, them to see the Second World War is a new kind of war not only in its methods but its geography. Warfare on every continent, every island, every sea and most significantly every air lane in the world. The last decade is critical because fdr insisted the advent of empowerment the American People had to adopt a new way of thinking of the physical location in the United States, they embrace atmospheric point of view, equatorial projection, that encouraged the United States to be viewed as a wonderful loan continent separated from the rest of the world by the atlantic and pacific, they now have to adopt a poll projection. When you look at that, published in various magazines to see this, the United States is close to the eurasian continent and not that far away when you add airpower. Roosevelt said they had to change their thinking. They could no longer embrace this hemispheric view. They had to adopt a Global Vision based on polar projections that saw the United States is intimately linked with the rest of humanity. This involves more than merely a change in the way americans interpret geography and the placement of north america on a map but also involved a psychological shift that encouraged mobile thinking on a geographical plane but universal thinking on an ideological plane. As he said in the same address this great struggle has taught us increasingly that freedom and security of property anywhere in the world depends on the security and rights and obligations of liberty and justice everywhere in the world. Viewed from this perspective, the struggle to help americas allies be the axis another continent became synonymous with the struggle to defend American Values wherever the need may arise. The two in short were indistinguishable. It was impossible in one world to separate American Security from the needs of other peoples. Based on these concepts if the i was able to argue isolationism or unilateralism was not only naive but dangerous, for it was imperative in the wake of twin crises that struck the world in the 1930s and 40s with the United States to stay actively engaged in the world and the primary instrument to achieve this goal, the polar projection was the United Nations and it should come as no surprise the symbol of the United Nations is a map that uses this very technique. To conclude fdr may have suffered from declining physical and Mental Energy in the final hundred days of his life but his determination to secure the United Nations, called the new deal for the world had not waned. Fdr understood there were contradictions in his drive to establish the family of nations. He knew the United Nations would not be without its faults given the imbalance of power is accorded to the 4 and 5 police men on the one hand and states that made up the rest of the International Body on the other. He never imagined he could will a perfectly foreign world government into being. His aim was to make the exclusive during the big war, less exclusive after the war. The first step in what he called democratization of democratic organizations of the world. This overarching goal he saw as more cataclysmic war. Cant stress this enough. Regardless of the atomic bomb if you think of the violence of the Second World War in russia but also hamburg and tokyo, utter destruction, i think roosevelt was convinced before the bomb was successfully tested that the world could not survive another conflict like this. This is the key, the establishment of the United Nations and the un charter passed on 26 june 1945, the purest expression of fdrs costs, its emphasis on human rights and establishment of human rights commission, under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt to the declaration of human rights in 1948, calling for the establishment of, quote, International Machinery for the promotion of economic and social advancement of all people, echoes fdrs freedom from want and four freedoms, closely mirrored the Atlantic Charters appeal for the, quote, fullest collaboration between all nations of economic field with objects of securing for all improved labor standards, economic advancement, social security. The new world bodys emphasis on social and economic progress would lead to the founding of unicef, the World Health Organization in 1948, World Food Program in 1961, creation of the Trusteeship Council for the un charter stands as another reflection of cause close to fdr and started the issue that divided him from churchill. The council was established for the ministration of trust territories and ensure the government responsible for the administration took adequate steps to prepare them for the achievement of the charters goals which include the right to selfdetermination so it is clear this organization is foreseeing colonization of the world and as you know the Trusteeship Council is still there, it doesnt have anything to do, it is done. The last colony was disassociated on november 1, 1994, so the legacy of fdrs globalism in addition to promotion of free trade includes this multilateral security system, helps prevent another global conflagration also endures and fdr could not have predicted every outcome of his policies he was always a farsighted politician especially in his waning days and mccormick noted in an extra in her interview with fdr that on 23 march 1945, fdr was, quote, looking beyond victory towards the San Francisco conference when the United States and the world would project into the future into the picture, the design for peace. In the warm georgia sun, the day before he died he was at work, the jefferson day address. Contemplating the work of the third executive he was struck by the fact that jefferson himself, a distinguished scientist once spoke of the brotherly spirit of science brought into one family all of its whatever grade and however widely dispersed throughout different quarters of the globe. Theres a lesson in this. I am quoting now, today we are faced with the preeminent fact, civilization is to survive we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all people of all kinds to live together and Work Together in the same world, at peace. Millions of people shared his resolve. Fdr remains confident a lasting peace could be achieved, possible to move against the terrible scourge of wars. To those dedicated to this purpose he then wrote out in his frail hand the last words he would ever craft. The only limit to the realization of tomorrow, let us move forward with a strong and active faith. Fdrs unbounded optimism and faith in his own ability to carry on despite this utter exhaustion after years of toil could not revive his frail body. His final tribute to jefferson was never delivered, there would be no address from his wheelchair opening the United Nations conference, on the hudson to live in tranquility, peace, and his spirit and vision indoor and the institutions he helped create and a determination of people the world over to continue to build the permanent structure of peace that he worked so hard to establish during his time in office and at no time more urgent than in his last hundred days, thank you very much. [applause] questions . I am looking forward to reading your book, david. First, i want to make a comment, yalta was a triumph, not a tragedy. The notion that roosevelt did anything wrong or somehow gave away Eastern Europe to the communists is a canard that is beyond unbelievable. It is untrue. He did the best anyone could have done, he did three great things. As you point out, he agreed on the occupation zones in germany. The agreement that the russians would join the war against japan. Number 3, the agreement on the us to say in any way, and it is fake news, that is what it is. It is time for us to stand up for Franklin Delano roosevelt and the great things in this country and around the world. We would have lost world war 2 rubber, hitler would have won it. You cant prove it but there is nobody in the american political scene who could have been president in 19391940 who would have done what Franklin Roosevelt did. That is my comments. My question to you is my usual question. If you could ask Franklin Roosevelt one question, what would you ask him and what do you think his answer would be . I would ask him what his favorite ice cream was and i think his answer would be chocolate. Your point is well taken. It is not a happy story if you are polish, the Second World War is a tragic story for poland, the war was fought to defend poland against nazi aggression, nothing the british could do to help poland in 1939. In 1945, it is a tragic story. Not to say the polls, the london polls, to understand with stalin, the russians, stalin lives up to that in 1948 then he moves into czechoslovakia. That is part of the cold war story. Theres very little they could do, they tried the best they could to ameliorate the situation but it was a tough situation the polls found themselves in in which they probably contributed. Some have argued roosevelts failure was not in the agreement that yalta but his failure to prepare the American People for what the likely results would be. Roosevelt himself is kind of this unique combination of a real estate idealist. He understood he had no real control over the future of poland and is the other gentleman pointed out he got other conceptions that are more important. Roosevelt never prepared the American People for those likely results and as a result the American People i disillusioned by evens in poland and greece where the british were reimposing the monarchy and various other things. And enlightening what he understood was more likely to look like . In a way, roosevelt understood he was ill but wasnt expecting to die when he did. Theres a line in the book about what i call the policy of procrastination and one thing i bring up in the book is for roosevelt, when it came to palestine, poland, these issues, after pearl harbor he assumed the United States would be much stronger two or three years down the road and in a better position to negotiate so he pursued the policy of procrastination, put off difficult questions until later partly because they were difficult to deal with, and you have a war to fight and he anticipated that the us would be in stronger position later and he anticipated a peace conference after the war. The notion of preparing, when he tries to do is create an idealistic framework, the Atlantic Charter, numerous pronouncements and the economic bill of rights speech in 1944, this is roosevelt attempting to frame the issues and why the declaration was so important to liberate europe. The elections in poland will be the first test of this document. We forget there is a link between those agreements, between poland and the declaration. In a way, when you look at his yalta address, he will never forget the words, britain and the United States have agreed to, and he tells stalin we are going to hold this up, we have this expectation to be met. You are right in a way. Perhaps he could have done more. As he is warning people it is an imperfect world and other examples where he brings that up and same thing in the yalta speech, these are difficult issues, you cant expect them to think exactly as we do, the message we might send certain places in washington these days. I think he did but could have done more. Other questions . I was wondering if you could speculate for me the differences that may have occurred in Eastern Europe had roosevelt lived out his term as opposed to harry truman becoming president in april 1945. From my readings it seems he tried to trust roosevelt, certainly more than churchill. I wonder if you could speculate for me. 64 million question. What would have happened had roosevelt lived . Difficult to say. Stalin respected roosevelt more than he did churchill. Very interesting stalins response, very interesting, speechless. To tell him what happened, stalin just pulls his hand for 30 seconds and doesnt say a word. Stalin says something to the effect the president s cause must live on and makes a big decision at that moment. There have been all kinds of problems, he was furious there were all kinds of issues in switzerland over italy, surrendering and all kinds of things, a lot of tension between the two men and the kind of punishment stalin meet out the roosevelt as he decides to keep molotov, the foreign minister back from the conference. You are not going to send the foreign minister to the founding conference of the United Nations . This was a real blow and at that meeting he says i will send molotov, he changes his mind so you get that sense. It is a tough question, stalin is a brutal dictator, a murderer. What both churchill and roosevelt recognize is soviet power was a reality and you have to deal with it. January 1945 he brings up the issue, and he says why cant the polls be like the checks, sit down with the russians and negotiate an agreement . There will be difficult issues, and at least give it a try, both men were frustrated with the unwillingness of the polish government to work for an understanding. They didnt trust each Franklin Roosevelts position on palestine, the state of israel, the papers that he put out and pushed for the state of israel, president trumans position greatly influenced by Franklin Roosevelts position for the state of israel. That is another question i get asked, interesting we havent had more questions about roosevelts health. One issue we see quite clearly is he doesnt get to the issues he needs to get to. He spent little time with truman, most of it has to do with the fact that he is physically not in washington. He is gone much of the time especially the trip to yalta which takes six weeks. Truman is largely kept in the dark, maybe that is not the right expression. We didnt ever get the chance to sit down and talk in a profound kind of way. The extent to which i dont think i have not seen any communication between the two on that issue. After the war, the American Government pressed hard for the British Government to set up a joint american palestine belongs to the british, saudi arabia, the british sphere of influence. The americans insist on a joint angloamerican commission to look at the jewish settlement in palestine. That Commission Goes back to interview almost a year after roosevelts interview, one of the more interesting revelations in the book, roosevelt asked him to admit 3 million jews into palestine. You admit 30,000 and expect me to admit 3 million . Which is a document that was never seen before. It is found in the british archives by Richard Brightman and another jewish scholar in washington. They graciously informed me about it so they had not seen it, they heard about it and i looked at it. I dont think there was communication about this with truman. I could be wrong but i dont think so. Other questions . I think we should give David Woolner a round of applause. [applause] the most important part of the meeting, there will be a book signing out front. If you havent already bought a book you can buy a book. David woolner will be out there signing books for the next 21 2 hours, 3 hours. This shows the depth of his understanding and mastery of this and we are proud to have david here as part of our family. A quick round of applause. [applause] [inaudible conversations] booktv has covered many president ial biographies. Most recently kenneth whites hoover, american ulysses about president grant and Herbert Hoover in the white house. President ial history is a topic that interests you, visit booktv. Org and visit president ial biography book. Several programs will. You can watch them online. The National Book critics circle, price literary critics, authors and members of the Book Publishing industry, and the outstanding books of 2017, other finalists include jack daviss look at the gulf of mexico, Francis Fitzgeralds history of evangelism in america. Russianamerican journalists report on the generation of russians who came of age during the putin regime. And the art of death, kevin youngs bunk and roxannes memoir hunger. Booktv has covered several of this years finalists. It means losing people we love but one thing i learned, especially the dying writers like audrey lord who have this even with my experience, one thing i realized, dying people want to live. Live the best life you can. Dont have any regrets at the end. Do we find that message . Living itself, in the back of our minds. We dont want to concentrate on our mortality because it is depressing but one thing christopher hitchenss life in his book mortality, at the end or before, living and dying, living and dying and living, youre constantly aware you have an expiration date. For most of us it is fuzzy, a possibility, something that lies ahead but for dying people, every day is a gift. It would be great if we all lived like that. You can watch these programs in full online at booktv. Org. All six categories, head to book critic. Org. [applause]