Good evening everyone. Welcome to the National World war ii museum. All of those who you are sitting here and watching on the live stream, i know you are out there and with us in spirit. And we feel your presence. I am doctor rob citino, the Senior Historian here at the museum. I am also the executive director of the institute for the study of war and democracy. Tonight is the latest installment of our meet the authors series. We always like to mention our sponsor. We bring this to you with the general support of the strike foundation. We could not do it without them. Many of you have been to our events before. You probably know we have a tradition here at the museum. May i ask, are there any world war ii veterans or home front workers in the audience tonight. If you would please stand or wave and. Thank you. I have heard the president , ceo americas, and the current president say this many times. We built this museum for you, so thank you for coming to these events. Military veterans of any other era, if you would stand and wave. [applause] we know that is a large number. I love the waves. People give different forms of waves. Thank you so much. We would like to acknowledge three special guests in the audience. A current board member there he is. Robert, good to see you. Thank you for coming. And past board members, deborah i am looking in the wrong direction. And is dr. Mike in the audience . Great to see you as always. [applause] thanks so much to all of you for being with us this evening. And of course we will never move on before we acknowledge the National World war ii museums cofounder, president , and ceo emeritus in the front row, nick mueller, as always. [applause] and to all of you in the audience and livestream who may be museum members, you keep us going, so thank you. A sincere thanks to cspan for being here. It is great to see your cameras at our events. I know i tend to stand up straighter when the cameras are in operation, so thank you too. You have all heard the phrase, so and so needs no introduction. You probably know what that means. This person deserves a very fulsome introduction indeed. It is with our speaker tonight, nigel hamilton. Nigel is an awardwinning author and biographer, author of a biography of field marshal montgomery, known as monty, which has been on my shelves for a long time. The best selling work on the young john f. Kennedy, which was turned into an abc miniseries, bill clinton mastering the presidency. Nigel is the first president of the national biographers organization, senior fellow at the mccormick graduate school of massachusetts, boston. I will say this flat out, he is one of the worlds great writers. You know you are in for a treat with his books. This one is no exception. [applause] nigel is also a dear friend of the museum. He spoke at our 2012 international conference, and for the first two books of this fdr trilogy. From a personal perspective, he is a friend of nicks and a friend of mine. He lives right down the road with his wife. Please stand if you wouldnt mind. [applause] thank you. And so, to the main event. We are honored nigel has selected our museum as the site of his official book launch for war and peace. This is the third book in the fdr trilogy. Here nigel brings this story home, covering the saga of fdr from dday to the yalta. It is an appropriate time for gathering. Today is the 74th anniversary of the german surrender in western europe. We are mere weeks away from the 75th anniversary of dday. Without further ado, i give you the incomparable nigel hamilton. [applause] good evening everybody. This is a slightly sad occasion for me because it is a sort of farewell to somebody i have lived with for 10 years. Franklin delano roosevelt. And i shall miss him. I never intended to spend 10 years writing this series. And i certainly didnt intend for the story to take three volumes. All i did know was that it was something of a National Scandal is country in this country that no one, no historian had written a fullscale account of president roosevelt in his role as commanderinchief of the armed forces of the United States in the most violent war in Human History. How was it possible that that had never been done . One of the main reasons of course was fdr died in april of 1945. He had begun to assemble his papers. I was able to interview the harvard graduate who was working in the map room in the white house who was helping him prepare those papers for his memoirs. He was never able to write them. The person who did write them was the british Prime MinisterWinston Churchill in retirement, and later when Prime Minister again. Who was an extraordinary writer, apart from being a great Prime Minister and leader of his country. And churchill took six volumes to tell the story of world war ii. So although i am in their embarrassed i have taken three volumes to tell fd rs story, it is only half of what churchill wrote. I called my talk tonight and thank you so much for coming. You work for years and years and wonder if there is anybody out there who wants you to do it, who responds to what you are doing. I call tonights talk the man who saved dday, because as bob said, we are about to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the normandy invasion. It may be probably the last occasion on which there will still be significant numbers of survivors. The story that i will focus on tonight, the focus is on dday itself, or rather, not on dday, but on the project of dday. Each of my fdr volumes began with a voyage. Volume i began with the president s trip to newfoundland in the summer of 1940, before pearl harbor, to meet a man who would become his opposite number as commanderinchief of the British Empire, Winston Churchill. They met on their battleships off the canadian coast. They drew up together, the great atlantic charter. At the end of the volume, having overruled his own chiefs of staff, the president of the United States decided not to launch a dday invasion that year, which would have been crushed, but to launch instead an invasion of north africa, far away from the german lines of communication, so that American Forces could learn in the field how to meet and defeat the German Wehrmacht. The second volume took up that story and also begins a great voyage. The first president ever to fly abroad in office in a flying boat to casablanca, where again, he met with listing Winston Churchill and again, overruled his chief of staff, recognizing that in january of 1943, almost no american troops had ever fired a single shot in action against a german soldier. Better to continue the learning process in modern warfare in the mediterranean and also to declare a moral policy, much as he had when declaring the atlantic charter, mainly, Unconditional Surrender no negotiation with the nazis. Unconditional surrender. At the end of the book, american soldiers had landed in sicily, conquered sicily, and are also on the shores of southern italy. And a whole German Wehrmacht army has surrendered to general eisenhower in north africa. And so we come to the book that is being launched tonight. Volume three. Tonight, volume iii. I can reveal that my editor was somewhat surprised at the title. He thought it had been used before. [laughter] yes, but a long time ago and nobody else had thought to use it since. [laughter] i thought it was pretty appropriate, war and peace. This third volume also begins with a voyage, a journey. It begins with fdr sailing on a new american battleship, the uss iowa with his chiefs of staff to north africa. I am looking at a picture that is very small, but i think you can see general marshall, admiral leahy, and admiral king. They are going to north africa because they were going to go on to cairo and there, once again, he is going to meet with his opposite number, the Prime Minister of britain, Winston Churchill. But before he gets to cairo, he wants to make quite certain that he has a chance to talk with the american commanderinchief, the allied commanderinchief in the mediterranean, the young dwight, david eisenhower. He is anxious, in fact, and fortunately, there are quite a number of photographs from that period, to listen to ikes views on europe, and to think about him for a very good reason. Because ike tells him that he has just been to see Winston Churchill and he is worried by the Prime Ministers unwillingness to go ahead with the dday invasion in 1944. So when roosevelt arrives in cairo, on the surface, the two men look like they have those been great friends, which they were. But sometimes, great friends fallout over great issues and dday was a great issue. And very quickly, in cairo, the president of the United States faces a crisis, an extraordinary moment in history where his main ally, the Prime Minister, not only of great britain, but de facto commanderinchief of all the empire forces including the south africans, australians, canadians, has come as he had learned, threatened to have a showdown over delaying or halting dday. Which had been agreed, should take place in the spring of 1944, in a few months time. Why was Winston Churchill, a Prime Minister whose British Empire military forces were so essential to the success of the invasion, which would be launched, a crosschannel invasion from britain, where was Winston Churchill such an implacable opponent of the great landings . Afterwards, Winston Churchill would cast his magical rhetorical and literary spell over the story, claiming that it was simply that he wanted to do much more than just cross the English Channel, but he would therefore prefer to focus first on the mediterranean and its steppingstone to the balkans in 1944. Also, that as Prime Minister, he had deep misgivings about russian intention in eastern europe. He was thus unashamedly, he wrote in his memoirs, against putting all the eggs of the western allies into one basket, dday, which could be done later if at all. Many historians have followed suit, lauding churchills political perspicacity, and downplaying the virulence of his opposition to dday planning in 1943. Some come like the biographer, andrew roberts, whom i admire, even claim that it is not true that churchill wanted to postpone, still less, cancel operation overlord, as has sometimes been alleged. Others, like the director of the churchill archives in england, alan packwood, who i count as a friend, claim that it is near hindsight to assume it is mere hindsight to us you let the dday overlord was the most important military operation of world war ii, upon which the success of the war against hitlers depended. I have to say, as a military historian, that is hornswaggle, or loyalist hogwash. I bow to no one in my admiration of churchills lonely stand against hitler after the francobritish defeat in the summer of 1940, his finest hour. But if after pearl harbor in 1941, the direction of the war against hitlers is surely fdrs finest hour, as i hope my fdr trilogy can persuade you, as it has persuaded me. All through volume ii, commanderinchief, churchill has done his best to argue vainly against a crosschannel lending, twice coming to the United States to argue personally with the president. War and peace reveals not only just how opposed to dday churchill remained, but how the Prime Minister sent arguably treasonous messages, in the view of the american secretary, Henry Stimson, direct to stalin, without telling the president , to say dday would have to be put on in favor of more combat in italy and the mediterranean. Finally, in cairo, in front of the president and his military advisers, the Prime Minister delivered his grand indictment, as he called it, of the president dday strategy in a lastditch appeal to delay or abandon the invasion. Now, this was to my mind, the greatest military crisis of the second world war. A crisis of churchills own obstinate making, and the culmination of a whole year of opposition to the dday project. The Prime Minister claims his earlier promise in quebec to carry out the invasion is simply a lawyers agreement, one that he can, as british commanderinchief, tear up. And he is serious. He threatened his own war cabinet in london, he would resign if the president continues to insist upon ddays spring 1944 timetable. He has even threatened his military chief, he will risk breaking the grand alliance by telling the americans they will be welcome to switch their focus to the pacific, if they dont accept a delay or cancellation of dday. In other words, the Prime Minister of britain is willing to break his partnership with the United States, a partnership he himself has created, rather than give in. He openly complains to his staff, he is the only genius who can win the war but is being forced to fight with one arm tied behind his back thanks to american stupidity. Rome, rhodes, turkey, the dardanelles, vienna, anywhere but dday and normandy in 1944, he demands, or the pyramids. How the president of the United States deals with churchills rebellion is therefore the core drama of war and peace, my final volume. In his six volume war memoirs of the second world war, churchill gave his own version and rightly helped him win the nobel prize for literature as literature. As a historian and biographer, i cannot match Winston Churchills prose. I can only offer fdrs point of view, which is very, very different. Fdr saw dday, as did hitler, as the deciding strategy of the war against the nazi third reich i perhaps, no one will ever really explain Winston Churchills opposition to dday. We can do, at last, 75 years after the landing, is see exactly how the president of the United States went about defusing churchills timebomb in cairo, and insisting, as the president did, that the dday operation be carried out as agreed at quebec, saving dday, in other words. Churchill was furious, boiling with rage, in fact. The two men flew to tehran. Fdr got stalin to promise to back the dday invasion with a simultaneous russian offensive on the Eastern Front which would force the wehrmacht to fight on two fronts, in which case the germans would be unable to withdraw forces from the east to reinforce their armies in france facing the allies. Stalin also promises the president to join the war against japan once hitler surrenders. Fdrs trip to cairo and tehran was thus his starring triumph. When churchill was asked by his doctor if anything had gone wrong, he snapped. A bloody lot wrong has gone wrong in fact, as history shows, the bloody lot has gone right. Certainly, hitler is in no doubt, as to the defining importance of an allied cross channel invasion, for the fate of the nazi third reich. The landings and subsequent battle will quote, decide the war, hitler warns his staff, and gerbils. It will not be too hard to beat the western allies, hitler ads. After all, he doesnt quote, have the feelings that the british have their shall we say hole heart in this attack. After the president s trip to cairo and tehran, though, the dday project is energized. It will go forward in the spring of 1944, and it is energized for one extra historic reason, as i tried to define definitively at last in this oak, war and the president s decision not to appoint general martial to command the dday invasion, but the man he had interviewed as we saw at length on his way out to cairo, young general dwight the eisenhower. This was one of the most inspired appointments of world war ii, a Coalition War involving the forces of many nations, but led by the United States. And typically, fdr is not content just to send ike a telegram. Returning from tehran and cairo, he stays with eisenhower in two tunis and together, the two men fly in the president s plane, nicknamed the sacred cow, to malta and sicily, where the president decorates general mark clark for his bravery and leadership in salerno, and tells Lieutenant General george patton, whom i think you can see next to the last figure at the back of the jeep, that despite the current black cloud hanging over patton for slapping and threatening shellshocked g. I. S in a field hospital, you will have an army command in the great normandy operation. Thus, with the grand alliance saved, dday set in stone, and its Supreme Commander appointed. Back in washington, returning on the iowa, the president is fated as a conquering hero, from hyde park. Surrounded by his family, he broadcasts a christmas message announcing to the worlds appointment of eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the forthcoming assault. He looks and sounds full of beans. In the pink as someone describes him. But he is not. He soon falls ill with flu, and he never gets better. The second half of war and peace tells the sadder story. Fdr behindthescenes, is finally and belatedly diagnosed with fatal heart disease. Neither, he nor eisenhower, who is moving to england to take command of the dday invasion, has meantime been able to stop churchill from mounting his own version of the day in italy, under new british supreme command, namely, enzio in southern italy, one of the Prime Ministers worst military intercessions in the entire war, which results in 43,