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WWW.MY-SUBS.CO
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Previously on "The Roosevelts,"
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FDR began an unprecedented third term.
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Why is it do certain moments
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produce exactly the right human beings?
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Eleanor campaigned for civil rights.
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There was that confidence
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that Mrs. Roosevelt would get it done.
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And America went to war.
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I ask that the Congress
declare a state of war.
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And now the final chapter
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of "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History."
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Funding for this program
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was provided by members
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of The Better Angels Society,
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a nonprofit organization
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dedicated to educating Americans
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about their history
through documentary film.
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Members include Jessica and John Fullerton,
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The Pfeil Foudation,
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Joan Wellhouse Newton,
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Bonnie and Tom McCloskey,
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and The Golkin Family.
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Additional funding was provided
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by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,
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dedicated to strengthening
America's future through education;
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by the National Endowment
for the Humanities,
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exploring the human endeavor;
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by Mr. Jack C. Taylor...
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and by Rosalind P. Walter.
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Major funding was provided by
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the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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and by the generous
contributions to your PBS
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station from viewers like you.
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Thank you.
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Before the names Theodore,
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Eleanor, and Franklin
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were indelibly etched into
the American consciousness
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and the course of human
history was forever changed
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by their individual endeavors,
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a prominent family made a point
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of teaching the value of altruism,
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the power of perseverance,
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and the virtue of helping
out one's fellow man.
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In April of 1944
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in the midst of the Second World War,
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the greatest cataclysm in history,
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the president of the United States
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seemed to have vanished.
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Wartime security had obscured
Franklin Roosevelt's movements
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ever since the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor,
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but this was different.
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He was said to be vacationing
"somewhere in the south,"
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getting over a bout of bronchitis.
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Actually, he was resting
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on the sprawling south Carolina estate
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of the financier Bernard Baruch.
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Coast guard men and marines
guarded the perimeter.
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He had been secretly diagnosed
with congestive heart failure.
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His doctors feared for his life.
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Reporters from the 3 wire services
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were housed 8 miles away, told nothing
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about the president's actual condition,
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rarely able even to lay eyes on FDR.
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His uncharacteristic
silence was interrupted
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by embarrassing headlines
about him and his family.
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His son Elliott's second wife
won a divorce on the grounds
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of "unkind, harsh, and
tyrannical" treatment.
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His sons marine lieutenant
colonel James Roosevelt
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and Navy lieutenant commander
Franklin Roosevelt Jr.
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Both received promotions.
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Republican newspapers charged favoritism.
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Despite the courage all
of the Roosevelt boys
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had shown in combat, gop*** congressmen
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routinely attacked their war records,
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claiming they were somehow
being protected against harm.
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Elliott Roosevelt, who
flew 300 combat missions
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and won the distinguished flying cross,
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had written to his father that,
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"I sometimes really hope
that one of us gets killed
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so that they'll stop picking
on the rest of the family."
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Democratic senator Harry
S. Truman of Missouri
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insisted the White House
respond formally to a letter
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from a constituent
claiming that Mrs. Roosevelt
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was using 4 cars and
burning up 2,000 gallons
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of precious rationed gasoline a month
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gallivanting around the country.
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Montana senator Burton K. Wheeler,
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an isolationist Democrat
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who had long since
broken with the president,
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predicted FDR's health would
prevent him from running again,
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adding, "I wouldn't vote for my
own brother for a fourth term."
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Franklin Roosevelt
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so transformed the United States
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that it was, in essence, a different land,
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a different Republic
from when he took office.
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There was an acceptance in the White House
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that government has a responsibility
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not just to a few, but to all of the nation
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that no subsequent president,
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no matter how Conservative his views,
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has ever been able to get away from.
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Prior to Franklin Roosevelt,
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the assumption was that
the federal government
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existed to produce the conditions
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for the pursuit of happiness.
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Franklin Roosevelt said, "why stop there?"
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The federal government
can, in no small measure,
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deliver happiness understood
as material well-being.
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No one was president longer.
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No one defined the office
in quite such personal terms.
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You know, it used to be said
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that Franklin Roosevelt's
philosophy of the presidency
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was himself in it,
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and I think a lot of Americans
came to agree with that.
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Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
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had already occupied the White House
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for more than 11 years.
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Millions of Americans could
remember no other first family
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and had a hard time imagining another,
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especially so long as the country
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and the world were still at war.
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FDR wanted to see the
struggle through to victory
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and then to do what Woodrow Wilson
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had been unable to do
after the first world war...
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bring the United States into a
new international organization
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strong enough to ensure
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that the world would not go to war again.
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Then, he told his devoted
cousin Daisy Suckley,
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he thought he might break yet
another presidential precedent
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and retire from office
before his fourth term ended.
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Meanwhile, he would maintain
the strictest secrecy
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about his own condition,
even from his wife.
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I wouldn't discuss
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the president's health with
him because I hated the idea
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and he knew I hated it.
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Either he felt he ought
to serve a fourth term
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and wanted it or he didn't.
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That was up to the man himself
to decide, and no one else.
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May 10, 1944. The White House.
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Everyone wanted to greet the president
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and see how he looked and felt.
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Anna and I held long
talks about his "routine,"
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and how difficult it is
going to be to keep him to it.
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Anna had the brilliant
thought of suggesting
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a nice, cool lunch on the porch,
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the lawn looking "green as green."
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The president looked across
at the Jefferson Memorial
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and decided to give instructions for
trimming the trees back for the vista.
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Daisy Suckley.
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Daisy Suckley and the
president's daughter Anna,
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now living in the White House
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with her second husband away at war,
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were relieved to see that
a month in South Carolina
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had cleared up the president's
supposed "bronchitis."
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He did his best to follow
his doctor's regimen
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and was pleased to be losing weight
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because it would allow him more
easily to stand in his braces,
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but he remained listless and easily tired.
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Despite his frailty and
the relentless demands
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of the continuing struggle overseas,
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Roosevelt had ambitious
postwar plans for his country.
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In his latest State of the Union message,
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he had called for a new
"economic bill of rights"
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that would guarantee to
every American a living wage,
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a decent home, a good education,
and adequate medical care.
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"Unless there is security
here at home," he said,
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"there cannot be a lasting
peace in the world."
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In truth, Roosevelt late in the war.
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At a time when one would suppose
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that he was only concerned
with war strategy,
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called for an economic bill
of rights more broad-reaching
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than anything that the new
deal had contemplated before,
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and one of the pieces of
legislation that's put through
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near the end of his presidency
is the G.I. Bill of Rights
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that will sustain veterans
for many years to come.
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The G.I. Bill of Rights,
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signed by the president after
it was passed by Congress
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without a single dissenting vote,
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would provide almost 8
million returning veterans
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with vocational or college educations,
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help more than two million
more to buy new homes,
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and offer other kinds of loans
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to launch hundreds of
thousands of new businesses.
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No other single piece of
legislation would do more
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to expand the American middle class.
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Eleanor applauded her husband's
renewed call for reform
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and was determined to make
sure he did not abandon it,
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but she thought he was exaggerating
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his medical condition for attention
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and complained that by dining
alone with Anna and Daisy,
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he was cut off from the dissenters
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she had always invited to
speak their minds to him
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over the dinner table.
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FDR craved company, but not that kind.
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He asked Anna if she would
quietly arrange to have
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his old love Lucy Rutherfurd
come to dinner again.
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He began seeing her again
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because, I suppose, she was a reminder
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of a simpler life when he was able-bodied,
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but I think she was a genuinely nice person
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who adored him and believed him
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and had no causes of her own,
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and, like Daisy Suckley,
she was there to admire him.
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His secretaries knew about it.
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Daisy Suckley knew about
it, and his daughter,
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his daughter Anna, knew about it,
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but his wife didn't know about it,
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and the other children
didn't know about it,
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and it just shows you the worlds
within worlds of the Roosevelts.
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I'm convinced that it's simply
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a friendship at this point
in time, but think about it.
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Lucy must remind him of what it was like
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when he was young and healthy,
when he could walk and run,
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00:12:24,439 --> 00:12:28,441
and here, he's deteriorating
physically day after day,
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and it gives him a lift to
remember those old times.
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So he decides that he wants to see her.
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It will help him to see her,
but the only way he can do that,
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fearing that Eleanor wouldn't understand,
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00:12:40,922 --> 00:12:43,022
is to have her come to the White House
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when Eleanor is away, and
the only person he can trust
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to make those scheduling decisions is Anna.
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So you can imagine the
dilemma that it put Anna in,
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00:12:51,199 --> 00:12:55,401
being asked by her father if she will
make it possible for Lucy to come,
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which she does 6 different
times during that year,
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but knowing how much it
would hurt her mother,
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00:13:01,242 --> 00:13:03,676
but she makes the decision that her father
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00:13:03,678 --> 00:13:06,145
needs this friendship, this companionship,
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00:13:06,147 --> 00:13:08,214
in order to keep going,
as hard as it would be
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00:13:08,216 --> 00:13:11,450
for her to be the one
that makes that happen.
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FDR Jr. told me that one time,
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he came back to the white
house and walked in unannounced,
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and his father was
sitting in a chair upstairs
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and a strange woman was massaging his legs,
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00:13:28,703 --> 00:13:33,339
and he had never seen her before
and had no idea who she was,
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00:13:33,341 --> 00:13:36,375
and Roosevelt simply said,
"this is an old friend,"
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and they shook hands, and Franklin Jr.
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Went off to have dinner or whatever,
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and years later, he figured out
that that was Mrs. Rutherfurd.
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Hyde Park. May 19, 1944.
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About 11:30 A.M., the president came,
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and suggested we go to top
cottage to see the dogwood.
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We put a couple of chairs
in the sun north of the porch
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00:14:04,439 --> 00:14:08,808
and just talked quietly
about the view, the dogwood,
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a little about the
coming invasion of Europe.
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Next week is the time,
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00:14:14,916 --> 00:14:18,684
the exact date depending on
wind and weather and tide.
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00:14:18,686 --> 00:14:21,954
How that event hangs over us,
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00:14:21,956 --> 00:14:24,857
has been hanging over us for months,
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00:14:24,859 --> 00:14:28,661
and here it is, almost at hand.
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00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,168
The world had waited nearly 30 months
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00:14:36,170 --> 00:14:38,537
for the allies to launch their invasion
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of Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
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00:14:41,242 --> 00:14:44,944
It began with 5 coordinated landings
254
00:14:44,946 --> 00:14:50,683
along the coast of
Normandy on June 6, 1944...
255
00:14:50,685 --> 00:14:52,618
D-Day.
256
00:15:29,656 --> 00:15:31,924
His son James called Franklin Roosevelt
257
00:15:31,926 --> 00:15:34,360
a frustrated clergyman.
258
00:15:34,362 --> 00:15:38,197
It's an interesting insight
because when you think
259
00:15:38,199 --> 00:15:41,133
about what clergymen
do, what do priests do?
260
00:15:41,135 --> 00:15:44,537
All ears are attuned to their voices.
261
00:15:44,539 --> 00:15:47,073
All eyes are on them, and they're acting
262
00:15:47,075 --> 00:15:49,609
in the service of a larger cause.
263
00:15:49,611 --> 00:15:54,313
It's precisely what FDR saw himself doing.
264
00:15:54,315 --> 00:16:00,219
The great climax of this was
the D-Day prayer in June of 1944
265
00:16:00,221 --> 00:16:02,622
when, for 100 million Americans
266
00:16:02,624 --> 00:16:05,091
listening on the radio, he read aloud
267
00:16:05,093 --> 00:16:07,593
a prayer of his own
composition that he'd written
268
00:16:07,595 --> 00:16:11,297
using the episcopal book of common prayer.
269
00:16:11,299 --> 00:16:14,300
If 100 million Americans listened in,
270
00:16:14,302 --> 00:16:16,469
that was one of the largest moments
271
00:16:16,471 --> 00:16:19,739
of mass prayer in human history.
272
00:16:19,741 --> 00:16:22,875
Almighty God,
273
00:16:22,877 --> 00:16:26,913
our sons, pride of our nation,
274
00:16:26,915 --> 00:16:31,017
this day have set upon a mighty endeavor,
275
00:16:31,019 --> 00:16:34,353
a struggle to preserve our Republic,
276
00:16:34,355 --> 00:16:38,891
our religion, and our civilization
277
00:16:38,893 --> 00:16:44,063
and to set free a suffering humanity.
278
00:16:44,065 --> 00:16:47,566
Lead them straight and true.
279
00:16:47,568 --> 00:16:52,772
Give strength to their arms,
stoutness to their hearts,
280
00:16:52,774 --> 00:16:55,841
steadfastness in their faith.
281
00:16:55,843 --> 00:16:59,779
They will need thy blessings.
282
00:16:59,781 --> 00:17:03,049
Their road will be long and hard,
283
00:17:03,051 --> 00:17:06,152
for the enemy is strong.
284
00:17:06,154 --> 00:17:08,854
He may hurl back our forces.
285
00:17:08,856 --> 00:17:13,726
Success may not come with rushing speed,
286
00:17:13,728 --> 00:17:18,698
but we shall return again and again,
287
00:17:18,700 --> 00:17:21,867
and we know that by thy grace
288
00:17:21,869 --> 00:17:24,971
and by the righteousness of our cause
289
00:17:24,973 --> 00:17:27,373
our sons will triumph.
290
00:17:35,149 --> 00:17:38,117
The American commander
who had been assigned
291
00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:40,753
to take Utah Beach on D-Day
292
00:17:40,755 --> 00:17:43,622
was the oldest man in the invasion force...
293
00:17:43,624 --> 00:17:47,226
57-year-old General
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.,
294
00:17:47,228 --> 00:17:52,365
the oldest son of the 26th
president of the United States
295
00:17:52,367 --> 00:17:55,835
and the fifth cousin of the 32nd.
296
00:17:55,837 --> 00:17:59,071
Drifting smoke that had obscured the target
297
00:17:59,073 --> 00:18:03,275
and strong currents that drove
their landing craft off-course
298
00:18:03,277 --> 00:18:06,479
had brought his men in
to shore on Utah Beach
299
00:18:06,481 --> 00:18:10,015
more than 2,000 yards from the spot chosen
300
00:18:10,017 --> 00:18:11,984
by the D-Day planners.
301
00:18:16,490 --> 00:18:19,525
Roosevelt limped badly from arthritis
302
00:18:19,527 --> 00:18:21,660
and his World War I wounds,
303
00:18:21,662 --> 00:18:24,330
but he refused to seek cover.
304
00:18:24,332 --> 00:18:26,832
He had explained to his wife that,
305
00:18:26,834 --> 00:18:30,369
"it steadies the young men
to know that I am with them,
306
00:18:30,371 --> 00:18:32,905
plodding along with my cane."
307
00:18:32,907 --> 00:18:35,041
He rallied his men
308
00:18:35,043 --> 00:18:37,743
and took the beachhead
in less than an hour,
309
00:18:37,745 --> 00:18:41,614
then accompanied them as
they fought their way inland,
310
00:18:41,616 --> 00:18:46,152
despite sporadic chest pains
that he kept to himself.
311
00:18:46,154 --> 00:18:49,021
A little over a month later,
312
00:18:49,023 --> 00:18:52,091
he died of a massive heart attack.
313
00:18:53,727 --> 00:18:57,863
"Ted's death did something to me
from which I shall not recover,"
314
00:18:57,865 --> 00:19:00,966
Edith Roosevelt told her daughter Ethel.
315
00:19:00,968 --> 00:19:03,302
She had now outlived her husband
316
00:19:03,304 --> 00:19:08,007
and 3 out of 4 of her boys.
317
00:19:08,009 --> 00:19:12,178
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
was posthumously awarded
318
00:19:12,180 --> 00:19:16,949
the medal of honor for gallantry
and courage at Utah Beach.
319
00:19:16,951 --> 00:19:20,986
It was the same medal his father
had once sought for himself
320
00:19:20,988 --> 00:19:24,290
after the battle of San Juan Hill.
321
00:19:29,763 --> 00:19:33,165
Two days after D-Day, Admiral McIntire,
322
00:19:33,167 --> 00:19:35,334
the president's official physician,
323
00:19:35,336 --> 00:19:38,504
issued one of his cheery
periodic bulletins.
324
00:19:38,506 --> 00:19:41,407
The president's health,
he assured the press,
325
00:19:41,409 --> 00:19:44,009
was "excellent in all respects."
326
00:19:44,011 --> 00:19:47,012
As the Democratic convention approached,
327
00:19:47,014 --> 00:19:50,916
fewer and fewer Democratic
insiders believed him,
328
00:19:50,918 --> 00:19:54,820
but it was no time to change leadership.
329
00:19:56,323 --> 00:19:59,024
The allies had not yet
begun to fight their way
330
00:19:59,026 --> 00:20:01,360
through the hedgerows that boxed them in
331
00:20:01,362 --> 00:20:03,696
behind the Normandy beaches.
332
00:20:03,698 --> 00:20:07,700
In the Pacific, American
forces were months away
333
00:20:07,702 --> 00:20:12,905
from beginning the campaign
to retake the Philippines.
334
00:20:12,907 --> 00:20:15,441
No one was willing publicly to admit
335
00:20:15,443 --> 00:20:19,879
that Roosevelt was too ill
to survive a fourth term,
336
00:20:19,881 --> 00:20:23,516
but now the choice of a
vice presidential candidate
337
00:20:23,518 --> 00:20:27,520
assumed an importance
it had never had before.
338
00:20:27,522 --> 00:20:33,292
Conservatives insisted on
replacing the Liberal Henry Wallace.
339
00:20:33,294 --> 00:20:36,395
Even some of Wallace's
most passionate supporters
340
00:20:36,397 --> 00:20:39,632
found him dreamy, impractical, aloof.
341
00:20:39,634 --> 00:20:43,536
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote
a column praising him.
342
00:20:43,538 --> 00:20:46,105
The president told her not to publish it
343
00:20:46,107 --> 00:20:48,774
until the convention was over.
344
00:20:48,776 --> 00:20:54,013
He took no public position on
who should be his running mate
345
00:20:54,015 --> 00:20:57,149
but this time made no
objection to the choice
346
00:20:57,151 --> 00:20:59,718
of the party's more moderate leaders...
347
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,421
senator Harry S. Truman.
348
00:21:04,424 --> 00:21:07,092
Roosevelt was so little interested
349
00:21:07,094 --> 00:21:10,463
that he met privately with Truman just once
350
00:21:10,465 --> 00:21:14,433
so that photographers could
take a picture of them together.
351
00:21:14,435 --> 00:21:17,136
Truman noticed that the president's hand
352
00:21:17,138 --> 00:21:21,240
trembled so badly, he couldn't
pour cream into his coffee.
353
00:21:21,242 --> 00:21:24,376
Roosevelt never bothered to tell Truman
354
00:21:24,378 --> 00:21:28,080
about the Manhattan Project,
the top-secret program
355
00:21:28,082 --> 00:21:31,550
that would one day yield the atomic bomb.
356
00:21:34,121 --> 00:21:37,089
Roosevelt accepted his party's nomination
357
00:21:37,091 --> 00:21:40,893
from his railroad car
on a siding in San Diego.
358
00:21:40,895 --> 00:21:44,196
An associated press photographer caught him
359
00:21:44,198 --> 00:21:48,400
looking especially gaunt and slack-jawed.
360
00:21:48,402 --> 00:21:52,571
The picture startled newspaper
readers across the country.
361
00:21:52,573 --> 00:21:54,340
The president's press secretary
362
00:21:54,342 --> 00:21:56,809
kicked the photographer off the train,
363
00:21:56,811 --> 00:21:59,712
but a reporter for the "Chicago Tribune"
364
00:21:59,714 --> 00:22:03,482
noticed something else in
the uncropped picture...
365
00:22:03,484 --> 00:22:08,387
a uniformed stranger who turned
out to be FDR's cardiologist
366
00:22:08,389 --> 00:22:10,623
Lieutenant Commander Howard Bruenn,
367
00:22:10,625 --> 00:22:16,395
assigned to be at Roosevelt's
side wherever he went.
368
00:22:16,397 --> 00:22:20,032
Everyone noticed that he'd
lost a great deal of weight,
369
00:22:20,034 --> 00:22:22,234
and part of it was his illness,
370
00:22:22,236 --> 00:22:27,773
but part of it was a desire
to get back on his feet.
371
00:22:27,775 --> 00:22:30,442
The thinner you are, the easier it is
372
00:22:30,444 --> 00:22:33,112
to stand in braces, and during the war,
373
00:22:33,114 --> 00:22:34,947
he had not made a lot of speeches.
374
00:22:34,949 --> 00:22:36,282
He had not had to stand.
375
00:22:36,284 --> 00:22:38,884
He was exhausted and weary,
376
00:22:38,886 --> 00:22:41,187
and he went to Warm Springs at one point
377
00:22:41,189 --> 00:22:44,823
and was almost pathetically pleased to see
378
00:22:44,825 --> 00:22:47,693
that he could stand in the pool again
379
00:22:47,695 --> 00:22:49,962
and that somehow if he kept the weight off,
380
00:22:49,964 --> 00:22:53,732
he would be able to
campaign the way he once had.
381
00:22:54,901 --> 00:22:59,038
On Sunday evening, July 30, 1944,
382
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:01,206
in Somerville, Massachusetts,
383
00:23:01,208 --> 00:23:04,910
the president's devoted,
long-time personal secretary
384
00:23:04,912 --> 00:23:08,180
Missy Lehand was taken to the movies.
385
00:23:08,182 --> 00:23:11,884
She had suffered two serious
strokes 3 years earlier
386
00:23:11,886 --> 00:23:14,220
but seemed to be improving.
387
00:23:14,222 --> 00:23:19,725
Then she saw the newsreel of FDR
accepting his party's nomination
388
00:23:19,727 --> 00:23:23,662
aboard his railroad car in San Diego.
389
00:23:23,664 --> 00:23:27,766
She hadn't seen him for nearly a year.
390
00:23:27,768 --> 00:23:32,404
He looked like a different
man, haggard and sick.
391
00:23:32,406 --> 00:23:37,710
What is the job before us in 1944?
392
00:23:37,712 --> 00:23:40,346
First, to win the war...
393
00:23:40,348 --> 00:23:42,648
to win it fast,
394
00:23:42,650 --> 00:23:46,218
to win it overwhelmingly.
395
00:23:46,220 --> 00:23:52,992
Secondly, to form worldwide
international organizations
396
00:23:52,994 --> 00:23:56,528
and to arrange to use the armed forces
397
00:23:56,530 --> 00:23:59,365
of the sovereign nations of the world
398
00:23:59,367 --> 00:24:03,836
to make another world war impossible
399
00:24:03,838 --> 00:24:06,972
within the foreseeable future.
400
00:24:08,541 --> 00:24:10,542
Back home from the theater,
401
00:24:10,544 --> 00:24:12,778
Missy leafed through pictures of them both
402
00:24:12,780 --> 00:24:15,080
when they were young.
403
00:24:15,082 --> 00:24:18,450
That night, she suffered a third stroke
404
00:24:18,452 --> 00:24:21,053
and died the following day.
405
00:24:38,104 --> 00:24:41,874
August 26, 1944.
406
00:24:41,876 --> 00:24:45,611
The war has moved so
fast in the last few days,
407
00:24:45,613 --> 00:24:47,746
one can hardly take it in.
408
00:24:47,748 --> 00:24:51,717
Paris has always been a symbol,
409
00:24:51,719 --> 00:24:56,422
and now that it is again a
city where Frenchmen are free,
410
00:24:56,424 --> 00:24:58,924
I feel that the whole American nation
411
00:24:58,926 --> 00:25:02,328
must breathe a sigh of relief and hope.
412
00:25:11,538 --> 00:25:13,672
The landing craft,
413
00:25:13,674 --> 00:25:16,175
a wholly new type of ship,
414
00:25:16,177 --> 00:25:21,614
one we didn't dream of
two years and a half ago,
415
00:25:21,616 --> 00:25:24,550
came to the beach.
416
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,654
This landing came to the beach
417
00:25:28,656 --> 00:25:32,324
from the transports that
were lying off shore...
418
00:25:32,326 --> 00:25:34,994
August 12, 1944.
419
00:25:34,996 --> 00:25:40,032
At 8 P.M., the president spoke
on the radio from his cruiser
420
00:25:40,034 --> 00:25:42,968
in the Bremerton Navy yards at Seattle.
421
00:25:42,970 --> 00:25:45,971
The social and economic feature... future.
422
00:25:45,973 --> 00:25:48,941
His voice sounded strong,
423
00:25:48,943 --> 00:25:52,277
but, being on the lookout
for anything "wrong,"
424
00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:55,481
it seemed to me as though he was tired
425
00:25:55,483 --> 00:25:59,618
and that he once or twice
got mixed up on his words.
426
00:25:59,620 --> 00:26:04,089
This would mean nothing with anyone else,
427
00:26:04,091 --> 00:26:07,626
but we expect perfection
from the president,
428
00:26:07,628 --> 00:26:12,798
and any tiny slip of any
kind always worries me.
429
00:26:14,701 --> 00:26:17,269
Roosevelt had not stood to speak
430
00:26:17,271 --> 00:26:19,772
since losing so much weight.
431
00:26:19,774 --> 00:26:22,041
His braces no longer fit.
432
00:26:22,043 --> 00:26:24,476
The wind ruffled his speech.
433
00:26:24,478 --> 00:26:26,478
The deck heaved,
434
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,616
and he suffered intense pain
in his chest and shoulders...
435
00:26:30,618 --> 00:26:34,286
a sudden, severe attack of angina.
436
00:26:34,288 --> 00:26:37,756
"It scared the hell out of
us," Dr. Bruenn remembered,
437
00:26:37,758 --> 00:26:41,160
but Roosevelt soldiered on.
438
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:48,901
At Quebec citadel,
439
00:26:48,903 --> 00:26:50,369
there was an air of satisfaction.
440
00:26:50,371 --> 00:26:52,404
The 6-day conference was over.
441
00:26:52,406 --> 00:26:56,375
At the eighth allied conference since 1941,
442
00:26:56,377 --> 00:26:58,811
Roosevelt and Churchill agreed
443
00:26:58,813 --> 00:27:00,913
that once Germany had surrendered,
444
00:27:00,915 --> 00:27:03,549
she should be divided among the victors,
445
00:27:03,551 --> 00:27:06,118
including the Soviet Union.
446
00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:10,823
After a final formal dinner
on the evening of September 15,
447
00:27:10,825 --> 00:27:14,259
Roosevelt, Churchill, the
Canadian Prime Minister,
448
00:27:14,261 --> 00:27:17,930
and their aides watched a
new movie from Hollywood...
449
00:27:17,932 --> 00:27:21,066
"Wilson," a romanticized
life of the president
450
00:27:21,068 --> 00:27:25,671
under whom FDR had served
during the Great War.
451
00:27:25,673 --> 00:27:28,240
Toward the end, the exhausted president
452
00:27:28,242 --> 00:27:31,944
refuses to give up his struggle
for the league of nations
453
00:27:31,946 --> 00:27:36,782
and a world in which such
wars can never happen again.
454
00:27:36,784 --> 00:27:39,718
But you'll kill yourself.
455
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:42,588
I must go on.
456
00:27:42,590 --> 00:27:43,856
Mr. Tomkin,
457
00:27:43,858 --> 00:27:45,224
will you please tell the newspaper men
458
00:27:45,226 --> 00:27:47,259
that we're returning to
Washington immediately?
459
00:27:48,328 --> 00:27:51,263
As FDR watched the film,
460
00:27:51,265 --> 00:27:53,565
he was heard muttering to himself,
461
00:27:53,567 --> 00:27:57,703
"by God, that's not going to happen to me."
462
00:27:57,705 --> 00:28:00,906
His whole left side is paralyzed.
463
00:28:02,809 --> 00:28:04,309
Afterwards,
464
00:28:04,311 --> 00:28:06,578
Bruenn took the president's blood pressure.
465
00:28:06,580 --> 00:28:10,916
It was 240 over 130, dangerously high,
466
00:28:10,918 --> 00:28:14,319
the highest his doctors had yet recorded.
467
00:28:20,093 --> 00:28:23,929
♪ We'll remember in November
how you voted in the spring ♪
468
00:28:23,931 --> 00:28:27,866
♪ we're keeping score for '44,
and we won't miss a thing ♪
469
00:28:27,868 --> 00:28:31,336
Governor Thomas Dewey of New York,
470
00:28:31,338 --> 00:28:35,474
Roosevelt's Republican opponent in 1944,
471
00:28:35,476 --> 00:28:38,377
struck many, even among his supporters,
472
00:28:38,379 --> 00:28:40,312
as stiff and pompous.
473
00:28:40,314 --> 00:28:42,314
Alice Longworth,
474
00:28:42,316 --> 00:28:44,650
Theodore Roosevelt's oldest daughter,
475
00:28:44,652 --> 00:28:46,385
once compared Dewey
476
00:28:46,387 --> 00:28:49,021
to "the little man on the wedding cake,"
477
00:28:49,023 --> 00:28:51,690
but he was young and vigorous,
478
00:28:51,692 --> 00:28:53,992
in vivid contrast, he said,
479
00:28:53,994 --> 00:28:57,095
to the "old, tired, and quarrelsome men"
480
00:28:57,097 --> 00:29:00,566
of the Roosevelt administration.
481
00:29:00,568 --> 00:29:03,435
Questions about Roosevelt and his health
482
00:29:03,437 --> 00:29:06,138
were being raised everywhere.
483
00:29:06,140 --> 00:29:07,906
"Let's not be squeamish,"
484
00:29:07,908 --> 00:29:10,409
said an editorial in the "New York Sun."
485
00:29:10,411 --> 00:29:13,545
"6 presidents have died in office."
486
00:29:14,547 --> 00:29:16,749
"I don't know how it will turn out,"
487
00:29:16,751 --> 00:29:19,284
Eleanor Roosevelt told a friend.
488
00:29:19,286 --> 00:29:23,055
"If Franklin loses, I'll be personally glad
489
00:29:23,057 --> 00:29:25,491
but worried for the world."
490
00:29:25,493 --> 00:29:28,594
If FDR were to win again,
491
00:29:28,596 --> 00:29:33,399
he had to convince the country
he was still up to the job.
492
00:29:37,103 --> 00:29:40,205
Before the International Teamsters Union,
493
00:29:40,207 --> 00:29:44,109
president Roosevelt opens
his fight for re-election.
494
00:29:44,111 --> 00:29:47,713
In late September, FDR
spoke at a Teamster's dinner
495
00:29:47,715 --> 00:29:52,384
in Washington where everyone
had had a lot to drink.
496
00:29:52,386 --> 00:29:55,687
The speech was broadcast
all over the country,
497
00:29:55,689 --> 00:29:58,624
and the president made the most of it.
498
00:29:58,626 --> 00:30:02,027
A Republican congressman
had charged falsely
499
00:30:02,029 --> 00:30:04,496
on the floor of the
house that the president
500
00:30:04,498 --> 00:30:08,567
had wasted taxpayer dollars
and risked sailors' lives
501
00:30:08,569 --> 00:30:13,105
by sending a destroyer to pick up his dog.
502
00:30:13,107 --> 00:30:17,476
These Republican leaders
have not been content
503
00:30:17,478 --> 00:30:21,880
with attacks on me
504
00:30:21,882 --> 00:30:26,518
or on my wife or on my sons.
505
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:31,023
No. Not content with that,
506
00:30:31,025 --> 00:30:34,560
they now include my little dog Fala.
507
00:30:56,182 --> 00:31:01,253
Well, of course, I don't resent attacks,
508
00:31:01,255 --> 00:31:06,358
and my family don't resent attacks,
509
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,194
but Fala does resent them.
510
00:31:19,973 --> 00:31:22,140
You know...
511
00:31:22,142 --> 00:31:24,509
you know, Fala is scotch...
512
00:31:26,714 --> 00:31:29,281
And being a scottie,
513
00:31:29,283 --> 00:31:33,452
as soon as he learned that
the Republican fiction writers
514
00:31:33,454 --> 00:31:39,224
in Congress and out had concocted a story
515
00:31:39,226 --> 00:31:43,962
that I'd left him behind
on an Aleutian island
516
00:31:43,964 --> 00:31:48,066
and had sent a destroyer back to find him
517
00:31:48,068 --> 00:31:51,937
at a cost to the taxpayers
of $2 million or $3 million
518
00:31:51,939 --> 00:31:56,008
or $8 million or $20 million dollars,
519
00:31:56,010 --> 00:31:58,510
his scotch soul was furious.
520
00:32:10,023 --> 00:32:13,926
He has not been the same dog since.
521
00:32:13,928 --> 00:32:16,061
The president made
522
00:32:16,063 --> 00:32:18,964
his first campaign
speech on Saturday night.
523
00:32:18,966 --> 00:32:22,834
It was extremely clever, and he never spoke
524
00:32:22,836 --> 00:32:25,203
with more "pep" and humor.
525
00:32:25,205 --> 00:32:28,006
A few speeches like
that, and we won't worry
526
00:32:28,008 --> 00:32:31,109
about the results of the
election on November 7.
527
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:46,124
As he launched his formal
campaign in New York on October 21,
528
00:32:46,126 --> 00:32:49,595
a cold, steady rain lashed the city.
529
00:32:49,597 --> 00:32:51,597
His doctors protested,
530
00:32:51,599 --> 00:32:55,100
but the president insisted
on riding in an open car
531
00:32:55,102 --> 00:32:59,338
for 51 miles through 4 of the 5 boroughs.
532
00:32:59,340 --> 00:33:03,742
Somewhere between 1.5
million and 3 million people
533
00:33:03,744 --> 00:33:06,411
turned out to see if he was all right,
534
00:33:06,413 --> 00:33:10,716
and he had to demonstrate
to them that he was.
535
00:33:13,319 --> 00:33:15,153
Now the procession
536
00:33:15,155 --> 00:33:17,489
through the Metropolis
in a downpour of rain
537
00:33:17,491 --> 00:33:20,058
which Mr. Roosevelt braves in an open car,
538
00:33:20,060 --> 00:33:24,863
FDR's first outdoor appearance
as a campaigning candidate.
539
00:33:24,865 --> 00:33:26,865
He doesn't seem to mind
the weather one bit.
540
00:33:26,867 --> 00:33:31,937
New York certainly knows
there's a political campaign on.
541
00:33:35,541 --> 00:33:38,377
At one point, his car was stopped
542
00:33:38,379 --> 00:33:40,579
so that he could be carried inside
543
00:33:40,581 --> 00:33:43,148
to have his soaking wet clothes changed
544
00:33:43,150 --> 00:33:45,917
by aides and secret service men
545
00:33:45,919 --> 00:33:49,655
and to down a stiff bourbon.
546
00:33:55,094 --> 00:33:57,396
Watch the car. Watch yourself.
547
00:34:29,462 --> 00:34:32,230
Crowds at Ebbets Baseball Field, Brooklyn,
548
00:34:32,232 --> 00:34:33,598
greet president Roosevelt,
549
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,034
starting his tour of New York City.
550
00:34:36,036 --> 00:34:38,437
Here on behalf of his
friend Senator Bob Wagner,
551
00:34:38,439 --> 00:34:42,541
Mr. Roosevelt has a special
word for Brooklyn Dodger fans.
552
00:34:47,413 --> 00:34:49,648
We want Roosevelt!
553
00:34:49,650 --> 00:34:51,850
We want Roosevelt!
554
00:34:51,852 --> 00:34:53,685
We want Roosevelt!
555
00:34:53,687 --> 00:34:55,554
We want Roosevelt!
556
00:34:55,556 --> 00:34:57,589
We want Roosevelt!
557
00:34:57,591 --> 00:34:59,925
We want Roosevelt!
558
00:34:59,927 --> 00:35:03,161
Hey!
559
00:35:03,163 --> 00:35:06,832
You know I come from the state of New York,
560
00:35:06,834 --> 00:35:09,901
and I've got to make a
terrible confession to you.
561
00:35:11,871 --> 00:35:13,805
I come from the state of New York,
562
00:35:13,807 --> 00:35:16,241
and I practiced law in New York City,
563
00:35:16,243 --> 00:35:19,478
but I have never been
in Ebbets Field before.
564
00:35:23,216 --> 00:35:26,485
I've rooted for the Dodgers...
565
00:35:31,491 --> 00:35:35,127
And I hope to come back here
some day and see them play.
566
00:35:37,631 --> 00:35:40,232
Thanks ever so much.
567
00:36:06,859 --> 00:36:10,228
The tour of the city
took more than 4 hours,
568
00:36:10,230 --> 00:36:13,832
and then Roosevelt went
on that evening to deliver
569
00:36:13,834 --> 00:36:17,769
a major address to the
foreign policy association.
570
00:36:31,517 --> 00:36:35,087
As election day grew near,
good news was coming in
571
00:36:35,089 --> 00:36:37,622
from battlefields all around the world.
572
00:36:37,624 --> 00:36:41,326
The Navy destroyed most of what remained
573
00:36:41,328 --> 00:36:44,930
of the Japanese fleet at Leyte Gulf.
574
00:36:44,932 --> 00:36:50,302
General Douglas MacArthur
waded ashore in the Philippines.
575
00:36:52,205 --> 00:36:55,907
The first American troops
had crossed the Rhine
576
00:36:55,909 --> 00:36:58,477
and ventured onto German soil.
577
00:37:08,988 --> 00:37:11,123
Roosevelt took no chances.
578
00:37:11,125 --> 00:37:14,393
He campaigned through 7 states
579
00:37:14,395 --> 00:37:16,928
and spoke at Wilmington and Philadelphia;
580
00:37:16,930 --> 00:37:19,931
Fort Wayne and Chicago;
581
00:37:19,933 --> 00:37:22,834
Clarksburg, West Virginia;
582
00:37:22,836 --> 00:37:25,670
Bridgeport; Hartford; Springfield;
583
00:37:25,672 --> 00:37:30,976
Kingston and Poughkeepsie
before returning to Hyde Park
584
00:37:30,978 --> 00:37:34,880
to vote and wait for the returns.
585
00:37:36,282 --> 00:37:40,952
It was the closest of the 4
presidential races he'd run.
586
00:37:40,954 --> 00:37:45,357
FDR for the fourth time.
587
00:37:45,359 --> 00:37:48,760
It has become trite to
say he is an amazing man
588
00:37:48,762 --> 00:37:50,762
with an amazing career,
589
00:37:50,764 --> 00:37:54,032
and what more does the future hold for him?
590
00:37:54,034 --> 00:37:59,571
The "tired old man" put
one over on Dewey this time!
591
00:37:59,573 --> 00:38:01,840
The night was like the
other election nights
592
00:38:01,842 --> 00:38:03,408
with the president
593
00:38:03,410 --> 00:38:06,078
and a handful of helpers
bringing the tickers.
594
00:38:07,513 --> 00:38:11,383
Only one real interruption
when the Hyde Park torch parade
595
00:38:11,385 --> 00:38:13,452
had to be spoken to from the terrace.
596
00:38:13,454 --> 00:38:15,487
It was chilly out there,
597
00:38:15,489 --> 00:38:19,891
but FDR, with cape open,
seemed unconscious of it.
598
00:38:19,893 --> 00:38:22,794
The rest of us hugged our coats about us.
599
00:38:36,275 --> 00:38:38,276
On December 16
600
00:38:38,278 --> 00:38:41,213
under a thick cloud of winter mist,
601
00:38:41,215 --> 00:38:45,784
3 Nazi panzer divisions began
a massive surprise attack
602
00:38:45,786 --> 00:38:48,520
on the allied lines in Belgium
603
00:38:48,522 --> 00:38:52,224
in what became known as
the battle of the bulge.
604
00:38:52,226 --> 00:38:54,993
For a week, it seemed possible
605
00:38:54,995 --> 00:38:59,097
they might split U.S. forces
from their British comrades,
606
00:38:59,099 --> 00:39:03,402
a final gamble by Hitler and his generals.
607
00:39:11,444 --> 00:39:16,915
As always, Roosevelt remained
calm when receiving bad news.
608
00:39:16,917 --> 00:39:19,484
He followed the fighting in his map room,
609
00:39:19,486 --> 00:39:23,121
but he did not try to
second-guess his commanders.
610
00:39:23,123 --> 00:39:24,789
"In great stress,"
611
00:39:24,791 --> 00:39:26,691
General George Marshall remembered,
612
00:39:26,693 --> 00:39:29,628
"Roosevelt was a strong man."
613
00:39:31,364 --> 00:39:35,300
Then on December 23, the weather cleared.
614
00:39:35,302 --> 00:39:38,069
American planes began bombarding the enemy,
615
00:39:38,071 --> 00:39:41,039
and things began to turn.
616
00:39:44,811 --> 00:39:49,014
It was the costliest
battle in Western Europe.
617
00:39:49,016 --> 00:39:53,351
There were 90,000 American casualties.
618
00:39:56,055 --> 00:39:58,723
Two days later, the president gathered
619
00:39:58,725 --> 00:40:03,228
all his family around him
at Hyde Park for Christmas.
620
00:40:03,230 --> 00:40:08,400
His sons and his son-in-law
were home on leave.
621
00:40:08,402 --> 00:40:11,436
I am thankful for every glimpse,
622
00:40:11,438 --> 00:40:14,873
no matter how short, of any of our own boys
623
00:40:14,875 --> 00:40:18,076
when they get a short time
out of the fighting areas.
624
00:40:18,078 --> 00:40:21,079
I try to remember always
625
00:40:21,081 --> 00:40:24,683
what an old friend of my
grandmother's used to say...
626
00:40:24,685 --> 00:40:30,422
"enjoy every minute you
have with those you love,
627
00:40:30,424 --> 00:40:34,893
for no one can take joy
that is past away from you.
628
00:40:34,895 --> 00:40:37,829
It'll be there in your heart
629
00:40:37,831 --> 00:40:41,166
to live on when the dark days come."
630
00:40:58,751 --> 00:41:05,523
For Roosevelt's fourth
inaugural on January 20, 1945,
631
00:41:05,525 --> 00:41:08,994
there was no traditional
ceremony at the Capitol,
632
00:41:08,996 --> 00:41:10,996
no procession.
633
00:41:10,998 --> 00:41:14,733
With the world at war,
"who is there to parade?"
634
00:41:14,735 --> 00:41:17,235
The president had asked.
635
00:41:17,237 --> 00:41:19,838
The signal came,
636
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,841
and the president moved out to the porch
637
00:41:22,843 --> 00:41:25,810
behind the chief justice
and the two vice presidents,
638
00:41:25,812 --> 00:41:27,913
old and new.
639
00:41:27,915 --> 00:41:30,649
Two men lifted him out of his chair
640
00:41:30,651 --> 00:41:32,651
to an upright position.
641
00:41:32,653 --> 00:41:37,556
He held on to the handles
on the desk with both hands.
642
00:41:37,558 --> 00:41:40,792
During the first part of the speech,
643
00:41:40,794 --> 00:41:43,195
it looked as though his right arm
644
00:41:43,197 --> 00:41:45,297
was straining a good deal.
645
00:41:45,299 --> 00:41:48,667
It was trembling.
646
00:41:50,670 --> 00:41:54,706
You will understand and, I believe, agree
647
00:41:54,708 --> 00:41:58,777
with my wish that the
form of this inauguration
648
00:41:58,779 --> 00:42:01,646
be simple and its words brief.
649
00:42:01,648 --> 00:42:07,319
FDR had not attempted to
stand in public for 3 months.
650
00:42:07,321 --> 00:42:11,990
His inaugural address was the
shortest since George Washington,
651
00:42:11,992 --> 00:42:14,225
less than 5 minutes,
652
00:42:14,227 --> 00:42:17,896
but his message was pure Roosevelt.
653
00:42:17,898 --> 00:42:22,500
We shall strive for perfection.
654
00:42:22,502 --> 00:42:25,904
We shall not achieve it immediately,
655
00:42:25,906 --> 00:42:29,107
but we still shall strive.
656
00:42:29,109 --> 00:42:31,943
We may make mistakes,
657
00:42:31,945 --> 00:42:35,880
but they must never be
mistakes which result
658
00:42:35,882 --> 00:42:42,120
from faintness of heart or
abandonment of moral principle.
659
00:42:42,122 --> 00:42:50,929
I remember that my old
schoolmaster Dr. Peabody said...
660
00:42:50,931 --> 00:42:57,369
in days that seemed to us then
to be secure and untroubled,
661
00:42:57,371 --> 00:43:05,010
he said, "things in life
will not always run smoothly.
662
00:43:05,012 --> 00:43:09,180
Sometimes we will be
rising toward the heights.
663
00:43:09,182 --> 00:43:15,720
Then all will seem to reverse
itself and start downward.
664
00:43:15,722 --> 00:43:19,724
The great fact to
remember is that the trend
665
00:43:19,726 --> 00:43:25,363
of civilization itself is forever upward,
666
00:43:25,365 --> 00:43:28,233
that a line drawn through the middle
667
00:43:28,235 --> 00:43:33,038
of the peaks and the
valleys of the centuries
668
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:36,941
always has an upward trend."
669
00:43:41,714 --> 00:43:45,483
"It did us all good to
see him standing there,"
670
00:43:45,485 --> 00:43:48,720
Daisy wrote, "straight and vigorous,
671
00:43:48,722 --> 00:43:50,822
thin but with good color.
672
00:43:50,824 --> 00:43:54,292
All the sentimental ladies
who love him," she added,
673
00:43:54,294 --> 00:43:55,827
"were ready for tears!"
674
00:43:55,829 --> 00:43:57,462
As they say, that and that.
675
00:43:57,464 --> 00:43:58,997
Yes, sir.
676
00:43:58,999 --> 00:44:00,565
That's it.
677
00:44:05,938 --> 00:44:09,341
Hoping to solve intricate
problems of war and peace,
678
00:44:09,343 --> 00:44:11,409
President Roosevelt
reaches the Yalta meeting
679
00:44:11,411 --> 00:44:14,479
accompanied by his daughter
Mrs. Anna Boettiger.
680
00:44:14,481 --> 00:44:16,214
These are army signal corps pictures
681
00:44:16,216 --> 00:44:17,949
of an historic world meeting
682
00:44:17,951 --> 00:44:21,186
that will shape the destiny
of future generations.
683
00:44:21,188 --> 00:44:24,556
In early February 1945
684
00:44:24,558 --> 00:44:27,425
as American forces gathered for the assault
685
00:44:27,427 --> 00:44:29,961
on Iwo Jima in the Pacific,
686
00:44:29,963 --> 00:44:34,532
the next rung on the
ladder that led to Japan,
687
00:44:34,534 --> 00:44:39,204
Roosevelt undertook yet
another arduous overseas journey
688
00:44:39,206 --> 00:44:40,939
to the Soviet Union
689
00:44:40,941 --> 00:44:42,741
and the dilapidated czarist palace
690
00:44:42,743 --> 00:44:45,243
near Yalta on the Black Sea
691
00:44:45,245 --> 00:44:49,381
to meet once more with
Churchill and Stalin.
692
00:44:49,383 --> 00:44:53,718
Roosevelt's mind was still perfectly clear,
693
00:44:53,720 --> 00:44:56,888
but he was obviously very ill,
694
00:44:56,890 --> 00:45:00,692
startling the Russians and the British.
695
00:45:00,694 --> 00:45:03,028
Eleanor had hoped to attend,
696
00:45:03,030 --> 00:45:06,898
but FDR had taken Anna with him instead.
697
00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:11,002
She tried her best to keep
him from too much exertion.
698
00:45:11,004 --> 00:45:15,473
"I found out through Dr. Bruenn
that this ticker situation
699
00:45:15,475 --> 00:45:17,709
is more serious than I ever knew,"
700
00:45:17,711 --> 00:45:19,244
Anna wrote to her husband,
701
00:45:19,246 --> 00:45:22,080
"and the biggest difficulty is that we can,
702
00:45:22,082 --> 00:45:24,683
of course, tell no one.
703
00:45:24,685 --> 00:45:26,684
It's truly worrisome,
704
00:45:26,686 --> 00:45:31,222
and there's not a hell of a
lot anyone can do about it."
705
00:45:31,224 --> 00:45:34,092
Churchill was tired, too,
706
00:45:34,094 --> 00:45:37,562
and the stakes could not have been higher.
707
00:45:37,564 --> 00:45:42,934
Churchill saw, in his tragic
world view, that the Soviets
708
00:45:42,936 --> 00:45:46,538
were going to be more of
a threat than Roosevelt
709
00:45:46,540 --> 00:45:50,375
at least wanted to think at that moment.
710
00:45:50,377 --> 00:45:53,411
There's a myth of Yalta
that Roosevelt got it wrong
711
00:45:53,413 --> 00:45:55,480
and Churchill got it right,
712
00:45:55,482 --> 00:45:57,749
but it's much more complicated than that.
713
00:45:57,751 --> 00:46:00,351
Roosevelt was always
714
00:46:00,353 --> 00:46:02,620
a practical politician.
715
00:46:02,622 --> 00:46:05,557
Roosevelt never believed
in making the first move.
716
00:46:05,559 --> 00:46:08,460
He didn't make the first move with Hitler.
717
00:46:08,462 --> 00:46:10,628
He didn't make the first move with Stalin.
718
00:46:10,630 --> 00:46:16,034
He let his opponents commit
themselves and then he struck,
719
00:46:16,036 --> 00:46:18,803
and I think that that
would have been his reaction
720
00:46:18,805 --> 00:46:21,573
to what became the cold war.
721
00:46:21,575 --> 00:46:25,210
The Soviet premier was triumphant.
722
00:46:25,212 --> 00:46:28,379
His armies had overrun Romania, Bulgaria,
723
00:46:28,381 --> 00:46:31,483
Hungary, Poland, and East Prussia
724
00:46:31,485 --> 00:46:34,352
and were closing in on Berlin itself,
725
00:46:34,354 --> 00:46:37,889
and he saw no reason
to let go of the eastern
726
00:46:37,891 --> 00:46:42,260
and central European
nations his armies had taken
727
00:46:42,262 --> 00:46:46,631
from the Germans at such a fearful cost.
728
00:46:46,633 --> 00:46:49,801
The Americans and British
had neither the resolve
729
00:46:49,803 --> 00:46:53,171
nor the capability to change his mind.
730
00:46:53,173 --> 00:46:57,742
Stalin agreed to join
a postwar united nations
731
00:46:57,744 --> 00:47:03,281
provided the USSR had a veto as
a member of the Security Council
732
00:47:03,283 --> 00:47:06,918
and was awarded two extra
votes in the general assembly
733
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:09,454
for the so-called independent "republics"
734
00:47:09,456 --> 00:47:12,223
of Ukraine and White Russia,
735
00:47:12,225 --> 00:47:15,860
and he pledged, to
Roosevelt's great relief,
736
00:47:15,862 --> 00:47:20,732
to enter the ongoing
struggle against Japan.
737
00:47:20,734 --> 00:47:22,867
At the time, this seemed necessary.
738
00:47:22,869 --> 00:47:25,003
Roosevelt didn't know... nobody knew...
739
00:47:25,005 --> 00:47:26,905
that the atomic bomb would work.
740
00:47:26,907 --> 00:47:32,644
Roosevelt also understood that
Soviet domination of Poland
741
00:47:32,646 --> 00:47:36,080
was, at this point, a fait accompli,
742
00:47:36,082 --> 00:47:38,016
that the only way to get
the Soviets out of Poland
743
00:47:38,018 --> 00:47:41,953
was to march into Poland
with American soldiers.
744
00:47:41,955 --> 00:47:43,421
He knew perfectly well
that there was no support
745
00:47:43,423 --> 00:47:44,756
in the United States for that.
746
00:47:44,758 --> 00:47:48,893
It's a sign of the enormous tension
747
00:47:48,895 --> 00:47:52,931
and the conflicting
forces that were at play
748
00:47:52,933 --> 00:47:55,366
in the highest levels of the alliance.
749
00:47:55,368 --> 00:47:59,104
Roosevelt always believed
that he could end up
750
00:47:59,106 --> 00:48:03,842
in the end managing those to the good.
751
00:48:03,844 --> 00:48:07,545
He just ran out of time in 1945.
752
00:48:07,547 --> 00:48:09,547
Maybe he could have,
753
00:48:09,549 --> 00:48:13,017
but Warm Springs intervened.
754
00:48:15,988 --> 00:48:18,923
Roosevelt was weak and weary
755
00:48:18,925 --> 00:48:22,093
when he returned from
Yalta, so weak and weary
756
00:48:22,095 --> 00:48:24,996
that, for the first time
in his political life,
757
00:48:24,998 --> 00:48:27,432
he made reference to the braces
758
00:48:27,434 --> 00:48:30,401
without which he could not stand.
759
00:48:32,438 --> 00:48:36,841
I hope that you will pardon
me for an unusual posture
760
00:48:36,843 --> 00:48:39,844
of sitting down during the presentation
761
00:48:39,846 --> 00:48:42,781
of what I want to say, but
I know that you will realize
762
00:48:42,783 --> 00:48:46,384
that it makes it a lot
easier for me in not having
763
00:48:46,386 --> 00:48:49,854
to carry about 10 pounds of steel around
764
00:48:49,856 --> 00:48:52,991
on the bottom of my legs
and also because of the fact
765
00:48:52,993 --> 00:48:56,761
that I have just completed
a 14,000-mile trip.
766
00:49:04,136 --> 00:49:08,072
I come from the Crimea Conference
767
00:49:08,074 --> 00:49:12,610
with a firm belief that
we have made a good start
768
00:49:12,612 --> 00:49:14,846
on the road to a world of peace.
769
00:49:14,848 --> 00:49:21,486
Never before have the major
allies been more closely united,
770
00:49:21,488 --> 00:49:25,089
and they're determined
to continue to be united,
771
00:49:25,091 --> 00:49:29,894
to be united with each other
and with all peace-loving nations
772
00:49:29,896 --> 00:49:34,499
so that the ideal of lasting
peace will become a reality.
773
00:49:34,501 --> 00:49:38,636
We haven't won the wars yet.
774
00:49:38,638 --> 00:49:42,473
It's a long, tough road to Tokyo.
775
00:49:42,475 --> 00:49:45,243
Roosevelt still had big plans.
776
00:49:45,245 --> 00:49:48,313
He told Eleanor he wanted
her to accompany him soon
777
00:49:48,315 --> 00:49:51,015
to Britain, Holland, France,
778
00:49:51,017 --> 00:49:53,918
and he hoped someday to
travel to the Middle East
779
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:58,356
and show the people there how
to make their desert bloom,
780
00:49:58,358 --> 00:50:01,392
but first, he told Daisy in private,
781
00:50:01,394 --> 00:50:03,995
he wanted to return to Warm Springs
782
00:50:03,997 --> 00:50:07,865
and "sleep and sleep and sleep."
783
00:50:13,139 --> 00:50:17,108
Warm Springs. March 30.
784
00:50:17,110 --> 00:50:21,012
A crowd was waiting at
the station, as always.
785
00:50:21,014 --> 00:50:25,950
We drove slowly past the
front of Georgia Hall,
786
00:50:25,952 --> 00:50:30,655
where a large group of patients
were collected to clap and wave
787
00:50:30,657 --> 00:50:34,959
and from there on up to
the little White House.
788
00:50:34,961 --> 00:50:39,497
Dear Franklin, he is completely "let down,"
789
00:50:39,499 --> 00:50:44,602
which means that he is
relaxed and able to rest.
790
00:50:44,604 --> 00:50:47,505
Later, the stationmaster
791
00:50:47,507 --> 00:50:50,608
at Warm Springs would
remember that the president
792
00:50:50,610 --> 00:50:56,047
had been "the worst-looking man
I ever saw who was still alive."
793
00:51:01,086 --> 00:51:03,421
"The boss is slipping away from us,"
794
00:51:03,423 --> 00:51:05,423
one of the president's secretaries
795
00:51:05,425 --> 00:51:07,759
told Dr. Bruenn that evening,
796
00:51:07,761 --> 00:51:10,895
"and no earthly power can save him."
797
00:51:10,897 --> 00:51:13,798
Bruenn agreed his patient was "precarious"
798
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,901
but still hoped rest might restore him
799
00:51:16,903 --> 00:51:19,971
as it had so many times before.
800
00:51:19,973 --> 00:51:23,308
For 10 days, with Daisy Suckley
801
00:51:23,310 --> 00:51:26,544
and his cousin Laura Delano caring for him,
802
00:51:26,546 --> 00:51:29,280
he did his best to rest,
803
00:51:29,282 --> 00:51:31,082
but the president of the Philippines
804
00:51:31,084 --> 00:51:33,151
stopped in for lunch.
805
00:51:33,153 --> 00:51:36,154
There were cables back and
forth between him and Churchill
806
00:51:36,156 --> 00:51:39,257
over how to deal with the Soviets,
807
00:51:39,259 --> 00:51:42,427
and when the first lady called one evening
808
00:51:42,429 --> 00:51:45,797
urging him to intervene
personally to get arms
809
00:51:45,799 --> 00:51:49,300
to a particular band of Yugoslav partisans,
810
00:51:49,302 --> 00:51:51,936
she would not take no for an answer.
811
00:51:51,938 --> 00:51:56,241
When the president finally put
the phone down after 45 minutes,
812
00:51:56,243 --> 00:52:00,545
his blood pressure had risen 50 points.
813
00:52:00,547 --> 00:52:07,185
On April 9, Lucy Rutherfurd
joined FDR at Warm Springs,
814
00:52:07,187 --> 00:52:11,022
bringing with her a painter
named Elizabeth Shoumatoff
815
00:52:11,024 --> 00:52:15,026
whom she had asked to paint
the president's portrait.
816
00:52:15,028 --> 00:52:17,795
April 10.
817
00:52:17,797 --> 00:52:20,999
The lunch party was awfully nice.
818
00:52:21,001 --> 00:52:24,235
Everybody was cheerful and responsive,
819
00:52:24,237 --> 00:52:29,507
and Franklin told stories to
his heart's content until 4 P.M.
820
00:52:29,509 --> 00:52:33,244
He went off to rest, came out at 5:00
821
00:52:33,246 --> 00:52:37,815
looking more tired than ever,
and went out for a drive.
822
00:52:37,817 --> 00:52:42,320
He took Lucy and Fala
with him to Dowdell's knob.
823
00:52:45,257 --> 00:52:49,494
They sat in the setting
sun for over an hour,
824
00:52:49,496 --> 00:52:52,997
the best thing he could do.
825
00:53:00,739 --> 00:53:04,909
On April 12, 1945,
826
00:53:04,911 --> 00:53:07,745
Eleanor Roosevelt held
her usual press conference
827
00:53:07,747 --> 00:53:09,581
at the White House.
828
00:53:09,583 --> 00:53:13,518
She laid out her crowded
schedule for the next few days,
829
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:16,354
beginning with the annual thrift-shop tea
830
00:53:16,356 --> 00:53:18,990
that afternoon at the Sulgrave club,
831
00:53:18,992 --> 00:53:21,726
dinner with the American friends committee,
832
00:53:21,728 --> 00:53:23,928
a tea for New York Democrats,
833
00:53:23,930 --> 00:53:26,764
a visit to a handicapped children's clinic,
834
00:53:26,766 --> 00:53:28,967
and then she would join her husband
835
00:53:28,969 --> 00:53:31,135
for the San Francisco conference
836
00:53:31,137 --> 00:53:34,739
that was to form the united nations.
837
00:53:34,741 --> 00:53:37,508
Nothing had so deeply interested her
838
00:53:37,510 --> 00:53:40,912
since the early days of
the new deal, she said.
839
00:53:42,548 --> 00:53:46,150
In Georgia, working over
the final draft of a speech
840
00:53:46,152 --> 00:53:49,420
in the warm southern
sun, FDR had been thinking
841
00:53:49,422 --> 00:53:54,425
about his hopes for the
postwar world, as well.
842
00:53:54,427 --> 00:53:57,362
I remember saying
843
00:53:57,364 --> 00:54:03,334
once upon a time in the long,
long ago when I was a freshman,
844
00:54:03,336 --> 00:54:09,907
that the only thing our people
had to fear was fear itself.
845
00:54:12,044 --> 00:54:16,080
We were in fear then of economic collapse.
846
00:54:16,082 --> 00:54:21,152
We struck back boldly against
that fear, and we overcame it.
847
00:54:23,489 --> 00:54:27,759
The work now, my friends, is peace...
848
00:54:27,761 --> 00:54:30,862
more than an end to this war,
849
00:54:30,864 --> 00:54:35,066
an end to the beginnings of all wars,
850
00:54:35,068 --> 00:54:38,269
and to all Americans who
dedicate themselves with us
851
00:54:38,271 --> 00:54:43,107
to the making of an abiding peace, I say,
852
00:54:43,109 --> 00:54:47,745
the only limit to our
realization of tomorrow
853
00:54:47,747 --> 00:54:51,983
will be our doubts of today.
854
00:54:51,985 --> 00:54:58,089
Let us move forward with
strong and active faith.
855
00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:04,562
Late that morning, when the president
856
00:55:04,564 --> 00:55:07,799
was wheeled into the
living room of his cottage,
857
00:55:07,801 --> 00:55:11,602
Daisy thought he looked
better than he had in days.
858
00:55:11,604 --> 00:55:14,405
So did Lucy Rutherfurd and Laura Delano
859
00:55:14,407 --> 00:55:16,407
and Madame Shoumatoff,
860
00:55:16,409 --> 00:55:19,310
who continued to work on his portrait.
861
00:55:19,312 --> 00:55:22,146
He stopped reading his mail to eat a little
862
00:55:22,148 --> 00:55:24,882
of the sweetened oatmeal
his doctors thought
863
00:55:24,884 --> 00:55:27,652
might help improve his appetite,
864
00:55:27,654 --> 00:55:30,354
then returned to reading his mail.
865
00:55:30,356 --> 00:55:34,292
It was about 1:45.
866
00:55:34,294 --> 00:55:38,429
Lunch was to be served in 15 minutes.
867
00:55:38,431 --> 00:55:42,100
Daisy looked up from her crocheting.
868
00:55:42,102 --> 00:55:44,102
Franklin seemed
869
00:55:44,104 --> 00:55:46,104
to be looking for something,
870
00:55:46,106 --> 00:55:49,607
his head forward, his hands fumbling.
871
00:55:49,609 --> 00:55:53,011
I went forward and looked into his face.
872
00:55:53,013 --> 00:55:55,413
"Have you dropped your cigarette?"
873
00:55:55,415 --> 00:55:58,416
He looked at me with his
forehead furrowed in pain
874
00:55:58,418 --> 00:56:01,018
and tried to smile.
875
00:56:01,020 --> 00:56:05,523
He put his left hand up to
the back of his head and said,
876
00:56:05,525 --> 00:56:09,193
"I have a terrific pain
in the back of my head."
877
00:56:11,663 --> 00:56:14,432
Roosevelt lost consciousness.
878
00:56:14,434 --> 00:56:17,635
He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
879
00:56:19,772 --> 00:56:23,040
The president was carried into his bedroom.
880
00:56:23,042 --> 00:56:25,610
Daisy called for the doctor.
881
00:56:25,612 --> 00:56:29,013
There was nothing anyone could do.
882
00:56:29,015 --> 00:56:32,417
Lucy Rutherfurd drove
away with Madame Shoumatoff
883
00:56:32,419 --> 00:56:34,852
as quickly as she could.
884
00:56:38,123 --> 00:56:41,626
3:35 P.M.
885
00:56:41,628 --> 00:56:44,028
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
886
00:56:44,030 --> 00:56:46,397
the hope of the world,
887
00:56:46,399 --> 00:56:48,966
is dead.
888
00:56:48,968 --> 00:56:53,004
What this means to all
who knew him personally
889
00:56:53,006 --> 00:56:58,209
is impossible to put into words.
890
00:56:58,211 --> 00:57:02,613
What it means to the world,
only the future can tell.
891
00:57:05,083 --> 00:57:08,619
He was just 63 years old.
892
00:57:12,291 --> 00:57:15,960
Eleanor was listening to a pianist play
893
00:57:15,962 --> 00:57:19,397
at the thrift-shop tea
at the Sulgrave Club.
894
00:57:19,399 --> 00:57:21,332
Before she left the White House,
895
00:57:21,334 --> 00:57:23,534
Laura Delano had called from Georgia
896
00:57:23,536 --> 00:57:26,304
to tell her the president had "fainted,"
897
00:57:26,306 --> 00:57:29,807
but admiral McIntire had urged
her to go on with her schedule
898
00:57:29,809 --> 00:57:33,911
as if nothing had happened
for fear of alarming anyone.
899
00:57:33,913 --> 00:57:36,414
She happened to be sitting at the tea
900
00:57:36,416 --> 00:57:40,284
next to the widow of Woodrow Wilson.
901
00:57:40,286 --> 00:57:43,221
Then the mistress of ceremonies
902
00:57:43,223 --> 00:57:45,957
whispered that she had a telephone call.
903
00:57:45,959 --> 00:57:49,060
The president's press secretary Steve Early
904
00:57:49,062 --> 00:57:52,463
asked her to come home immediately.
905
00:57:52,465 --> 00:57:55,333
"I did not even ask why," she remembered.
906
00:57:55,335 --> 00:57:57,502
"I knew down in my heart
907
00:57:57,504 --> 00:58:00,638
that something dreadful had happened."
908
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:04,041
Early and Admiral McIntire told her
909
00:58:04,043 --> 00:58:07,378
that the president had slipped away.
910
00:58:07,380 --> 00:58:10,114
Vice President Truman arrived at 5:00,
911
00:58:10,116 --> 00:58:12,917
not sure why he'd been summoned.
912
00:58:12,919 --> 00:58:14,952
"Harry," Eleanor told him,
913
00:58:14,954 --> 00:58:17,889
"the president is dead."
914
00:58:17,891 --> 00:58:19,891
After a moment, he asked
915
00:58:19,893 --> 00:58:22,727
if there was anything he could do for her.
916
00:58:22,729 --> 00:58:24,195
"No," she said.
917
00:58:24,197 --> 00:58:26,797
"Is there anything we can do for you?
918
00:58:26,799 --> 00:58:29,834
For you're the one in trouble now."
919
00:58:35,707 --> 00:58:37,642
We interrupt this program to bring you
920
00:58:37,644 --> 00:58:40,344
a special news bulletin
from CBS World News.
921
00:58:40,346 --> 00:58:42,346
A press association has just announced
922
00:58:42,348 --> 00:58:44,982
that President Roosevelt is dead.
923
00:58:44,984 --> 00:58:47,318
The president died of
a cerebral hemorrhage.
924
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:49,720
All we know so far is
that the president died
925
00:58:49,722 --> 00:58:52,723
at Warm Springs in Georgia.
926
00:58:52,725 --> 00:58:56,327
On April 12, 1945,
927
00:58:56,329 --> 00:58:59,964
I had a date with a young
woman in Greenwich Village,
928
00:58:59,966 --> 00:59:04,101
and I walked into her apartment,
and the radio was blaring,
929
00:59:04,103 --> 00:59:08,206
and I listened to it, and she said to me
930
00:59:08,208 --> 00:59:10,107
when I was listening on the radio,
931
00:59:10,109 --> 00:59:13,377
"Franklin Roosevelt has died,"
932
00:59:13,379 --> 00:59:17,281
and I was dumbstruck, and then I said,
933
00:59:17,283 --> 00:59:20,885
"oh, my God, Harry Truman is
president of the United States,"
934
00:59:20,887 --> 00:59:23,454
and it seemed inconceivable that anybody
935
00:59:23,456 --> 00:59:26,123
but Franklin Roosevelt
could be president...
936
00:59:28,060 --> 00:59:34,065
And I wandered around the city
hardly knowing what I was doing
937
00:59:34,067 --> 00:59:39,370
or felt, and I thought,
"my father has died,"
938
00:59:39,372 --> 00:59:43,207
and the notion that Franklin Roosevelt
939
00:59:43,209 --> 00:59:45,309
was father to the American people,
940
00:59:45,311 --> 00:59:48,546
even would call himself papa,
941
00:59:48,548 --> 00:59:51,515
it really was true,
942
00:59:51,517 --> 00:59:55,586
and there was this
extraordinary sense of loss,
943
00:59:55,588 --> 00:59:59,257
of not knowing how we were gonna go on...
944
01:00:01,059 --> 01:00:06,197
and that feeling was
widespread in the country,
945
01:00:06,199 --> 01:00:12,536
an enormous sense of mourning,
946
01:00:12,538 --> 01:00:19,710
of feeling that they had been
in the presence of greatness
947
01:00:19,712 --> 01:00:24,382
and it was now taken away from them,
948
01:00:24,384 --> 01:00:26,517
that they were on their own.
949
01:00:29,988 --> 01:00:32,456
Eleanor wrote out a cable
950
01:00:32,458 --> 01:00:36,027
to be sent to her 4 sons overseas...
951
01:00:36,029 --> 01:00:40,631
"he did his job as he would
want you to do," it said.
952
01:00:40,633 --> 01:00:44,602
Then she left for Warm Springs.
953
01:00:44,604 --> 01:00:47,605
She arrived shortly before midnight.
954
01:00:47,607 --> 01:00:50,374
She asked exactly what had happened.
955
01:00:50,376 --> 01:00:54,378
Franklin's cousin Laura Delano told Eleanor
956
01:00:54,380 --> 01:00:56,814
that Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd
957
01:00:56,816 --> 01:00:59,517
had been with her husband when he collapsed
958
01:00:59,519 --> 01:01:02,153
and furthermore that she and Franklin
959
01:01:02,155 --> 01:01:06,457
had seen one another several
times over the last few years
960
01:01:06,459 --> 01:01:08,392
and that her daughter Anna
961
01:01:08,394 --> 01:01:12,096
had sometimes helped arrange those visits.
962
01:01:12,098 --> 01:01:15,099
Eleanor said nothing.
963
01:01:16,935 --> 01:01:19,503
I can't even imagine what
it must have been like
964
01:01:19,505 --> 01:01:22,840
for Eleanor to absorb that
her husband had just died
965
01:01:22,842 --> 01:01:26,243
and to absorb what must have
felt like a terrible betrayal.
966
01:01:26,245 --> 01:01:27,912
She said when she went on the train
967
01:01:27,914 --> 01:01:29,680
with her husband's body back to Washington,
968
01:01:29,682 --> 01:01:31,148
she felt like she wasn't even herself.
969
01:01:31,150 --> 01:01:33,250
She looked out at the people outside,
970
01:01:33,252 --> 01:01:36,354
but some part of her was just not there.
971
01:01:39,825 --> 01:01:42,293
She accompanied her husband's body home
972
01:01:42,295 --> 01:01:45,663
from Warm Springs, where
the hearse passed slowly
973
01:01:45,665 --> 01:01:50,067
by his fellow polios so
that they could say good-bye.
974
01:01:56,341 --> 01:01:59,844
Thousands wept along the tracks
975
01:01:59,846 --> 01:02:03,047
as his funeral train made
its way to Washington...
976
01:02:11,556 --> 01:02:15,926
He'd been the president for 12 years,
977
01:02:15,928 --> 01:02:20,364
and the word "president" meant Roosevelt,
978
01:02:20,366 --> 01:02:23,968
and suddenly to have him
gone with the war not over
979
01:02:23,970 --> 01:02:27,672
had an enormous impact on people.
980
01:02:27,674 --> 01:02:30,875
No one alive then can't
tell you where they were
981
01:02:30,877 --> 01:02:33,244
and how they felt and what people said.
982
01:02:48,728 --> 01:02:51,362
When the funeral procession is passing,
983
01:02:51,364 --> 01:02:56,400
there's a story told about a man
who falls to his knees in grief.
984
01:02:56,402 --> 01:03:00,938
Another man standing next
to him helps him to his feet
985
01:03:00,940 --> 01:03:04,141
and says, "did you know the president?"
986
01:03:04,143 --> 01:03:08,579
And the first man says,
"no, but he knew me."
987
01:03:13,819 --> 01:03:17,388
And then on to Hyde Park,
988
01:03:17,390 --> 01:03:22,026
where he was to be buried
in his mother's rose garden.
989
01:03:22,028 --> 01:03:24,795
Eleanor felt sorrow
990
01:03:24,797 --> 01:03:27,565
for the grieving Americans
she saw along the way,
991
01:03:27,567 --> 01:03:30,234
she remembered, but her own feelings
992
01:03:30,236 --> 01:03:33,871
remained "almost
impersonal," perhaps because
993
01:03:33,873 --> 01:03:38,409
"much further back, I had had
to face certain difficulties
994
01:03:38,411 --> 01:03:41,112
until I decided to accept the fact
995
01:03:41,114 --> 01:03:47,018
that a man must be what he is,
life must be lived as it is,
996
01:03:47,020 --> 01:03:50,187
and you cannot live at
all if you do not learn
997
01:03:50,189 --> 01:03:55,893
to adapt yourself to your
life as it happens to be."
998
01:03:55,895 --> 01:03:58,295
Poor E.R.
999
01:03:58,297 --> 01:04:02,400
I believe she loved him more
deeply than she knows herself,
1000
01:04:02,402 --> 01:04:06,303
and his feeling for her
was deep and lasting.
1001
01:04:08,573 --> 01:04:12,643
The fact that they could not
relax together or play together
1002
01:04:12,645 --> 01:04:17,415
is the tragedy of their joint lives,
1003
01:04:17,417 --> 01:04:19,950
for I believe,
1004
01:04:19,952 --> 01:04:22,653
from everything that I have seen of them,
1005
01:04:22,655 --> 01:04:26,190
that they had everything else in common.
1006
01:04:27,993 --> 01:04:31,529
It was a matter of personalities.
1007
01:04:31,531 --> 01:04:35,433
I cannot blame either of them.
1008
01:04:35,435 --> 01:04:37,435
Daisy Suckley.
1009
01:04:40,505 --> 01:04:45,443
All human beings have failings.
1010
01:04:45,445 --> 01:04:52,983
All human beings have needs
and temptations and stresses.
1011
01:04:54,486 --> 01:04:59,223
Men and women who live
together through long years
1012
01:04:59,225 --> 01:05:01,992
get to know one another's failings,
1013
01:05:01,994 --> 01:05:05,896
but they also come to know
what is worthy of respect
1014
01:05:05,898 --> 01:05:12,603
and admiration in those they
live with and in themselves.
1015
01:05:12,605 --> 01:05:18,375
If at the end, one can say,
"this man used to the limit
1016
01:05:18,377 --> 01:05:21,846
the powers that God granted him.
1017
01:05:21,848 --> 01:05:25,816
He was worthy of love and respect
1018
01:05:25,818 --> 01:05:29,320
and of the sacrifice many people made
1019
01:05:29,322 --> 01:05:35,993
in order that he might achieve
what he deemed to be his task,"
1020
01:05:35,995 --> 01:05:40,564
then that life has been lived well
1021
01:05:40,566 --> 01:05:44,368
and there are no regrets.
1022
01:06:34,821 --> 01:06:37,088
It was late.
1023
01:06:37,090 --> 01:06:39,390
Churchill said, "I felt as if I was struck
1024
01:06:39,392 --> 01:06:41,592
with the force of a physical blow,"
1025
01:06:41,594 --> 01:06:44,094
when the word comes,
1026
01:06:44,096 --> 01:06:47,998
and he ultimately gave
a very powerful eulogy
1027
01:06:48,000 --> 01:06:50,734
in the house of commons, saying that,
1028
01:06:50,736 --> 01:06:53,971
"Franklin Roosevelt was the
greatest friend of freedom
1029
01:06:53,973 --> 01:06:56,273
Britain or the world has ever known."
1030
01:06:56,275 --> 01:07:00,244
Stalin was "distressed" at the news
1031
01:07:00,246 --> 01:07:03,848
and worried that someone
had poisoned the president.
1032
01:07:03,850 --> 01:07:09,386
Huddled in his bunker in
Berlin, Hitler exulted.
1033
01:07:09,388 --> 01:07:13,958
"See? The war is not
lost," he told an aide.
1034
01:07:13,960 --> 01:07:17,761
He would be dead in 18 days.
1035
01:07:17,763 --> 01:07:22,166
The war in Europe ended a week after that.
1036
01:07:22,168 --> 01:07:27,171
Hitler's 1,000-year Reich
had lasted just 12 years.
1037
01:07:29,741 --> 01:07:32,810
Theodore Roosevelt's
widow Edith was shocked
1038
01:07:32,812 --> 01:07:35,079
at the news of FDR's death
1039
01:07:35,081 --> 01:07:39,683
and wired "love and sympathy" to Eleanor.
1040
01:07:39,685 --> 01:07:42,152
The war years had mellowed her view
1041
01:07:42,154 --> 01:07:43,988
of her late husband's cousin.
1042
01:07:43,990 --> 01:07:47,992
He was "a nice man," she
said, and had turned out to be
1043
01:07:47,994 --> 01:07:50,928
as Conservative as Alexander Hamilton
1044
01:07:50,930 --> 01:07:54,465
and as Democratic as
Theodore Roosevelt's hero
1045
01:07:54,467 --> 01:07:56,700
Abraham Lincoln.
1046
01:08:03,041 --> 01:08:06,210
Without question, if tr
died at the end of his life
1047
01:08:06,212 --> 01:08:09,480
feeling a sense of frustration
and unrealized ambition
1048
01:08:09,482 --> 01:08:13,217
and knowing that the ideas that
he had hoped to put into place,
1049
01:08:13,219 --> 01:08:16,654
the progressive era, had not
gone into place under him,
1050
01:08:16,656 --> 01:08:19,490
FDR could die at the
end of his life knowing
1051
01:08:19,492 --> 01:08:21,692
that almost everything he
had wanted to accomplish
1052
01:08:21,694 --> 01:08:22,893
he had accomplished,
1053
01:08:22,895 --> 01:08:25,196
and he would loom as the far larger figure,
1054
01:08:25,198 --> 01:08:29,066
even though he stood in TR's
shadow when he was a young man.
1055
01:08:31,403 --> 01:08:34,138
Roosevelt said in his last inaugural
1056
01:08:34,140 --> 01:08:38,142
that "our constitution is not perfect yet.
1057
01:08:38,144 --> 01:08:45,115
Nothing is perfect yet,
but we have to press on,"
1058
01:08:45,117 --> 01:08:48,786
and what Roosevelt made possible
1059
01:08:48,788 --> 01:08:52,456
was a kind of Democratic vigor
1060
01:08:52,458 --> 01:08:57,895
to go forth from new deal America,
1061
01:08:57,897 --> 01:09:01,732
World War II America, around the world,
1062
01:09:01,734 --> 01:09:04,902
and we weren't always right.
1063
01:09:04,904 --> 01:09:07,404
We committed enormous sins.
1064
01:09:07,406 --> 01:09:11,642
He was wrong about Japanese internment.
1065
01:09:11,644 --> 01:09:15,546
He was too slow on civil rights,
1066
01:09:15,548 --> 01:09:21,185
but he kept a process going
1067
01:09:21,187 --> 01:09:24,455
that Washington kept going
and Jefferson kept going
1068
01:09:24,457 --> 01:09:28,859
and Jackson and Lincoln and tr and FDR.
1069
01:09:28,861 --> 01:09:32,463
They kept alive the
possibility of progress,
1070
01:09:32,465 --> 01:09:35,733
and they did it despite their shortcomings.
1071
01:09:35,735 --> 01:09:38,502
They overcame their flaws,
1072
01:09:38,504 --> 01:09:41,739
and I think that's really
what great leadership is.
1073
01:09:41,741 --> 01:09:45,743
It's transcending the natural limitations
1074
01:09:45,745 --> 01:09:48,145
with which we're all born
1075
01:09:48,147 --> 01:09:51,582
and managing to change
the history of the world
1076
01:09:51,584 --> 01:09:54,218
just a little bit for the good,
1077
01:09:54,220 --> 01:09:55,719
and in Franklin Roosevelt's case,
1078
01:09:55,721 --> 01:09:58,289
he changed it quite a bit for the good.
1079
01:10:01,059 --> 01:10:05,129
Every Democratic president since 1945
1080
01:10:05,131 --> 01:10:09,033
has lived in the shadow
of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1081
01:10:09,035 --> 01:10:14,204
Harry Truman was constantly
being measured by FDR.
1082
01:10:14,206 --> 01:10:19,577
His success in that
remarkable election in 1948
1083
01:10:19,579 --> 01:10:25,582
was largely due to his ability
to keep the FDR coalition going.
1084
01:10:25,584 --> 01:10:29,687
John F. Kennedy used the CCC
1085
01:10:29,689 --> 01:10:33,023
as the basis for the Peace Corps.
1086
01:10:33,025 --> 01:10:38,529
Lyndon Johnson said, "FDR
was a daddy to me always,"
1087
01:10:38,531 --> 01:10:42,366
and much of the war on
poverty in the great society
1088
01:10:42,368 --> 01:10:45,269
derives from the new deal.
1089
01:10:45,271 --> 01:10:50,908
Jimmy Carter, instead of
opening his campaign in Detroit
1090
01:10:50,910 --> 01:10:54,478
as Democratic candidates usually did,
1091
01:10:54,480 --> 01:10:57,581
chose instead Warm Springs, Georgia.
1092
01:10:57,583 --> 01:11:02,119
Bill Clinton said that
his grandfather thought
1093
01:11:02,121 --> 01:11:05,055
that when he died, he
was gonna go to Roosevelt
1094
01:11:05,057 --> 01:11:07,291
rather than to heaven,
1095
01:11:07,293 --> 01:11:12,229
and Barack Obama, even
before he took office,
1096
01:11:12,231 --> 01:11:16,266
again and again alluded to the experience
1097
01:11:16,268 --> 01:11:18,669
of Roosevelt and the new deal.
1098
01:11:27,112 --> 01:11:33,851
The White House. April 19, 1945.
1099
01:11:33,853 --> 01:11:36,253
Hick dearest,
1100
01:11:36,255 --> 01:11:38,656
the Trumans have just been to lunch,
1101
01:11:38,658 --> 01:11:43,327
and nearly all that I can do is done.
1102
01:11:43,329 --> 01:11:46,196
The upstairs looks desolate,
1103
01:11:46,198 --> 01:11:49,933
and I'll be glad to leave tomorrow.
1104
01:11:49,935 --> 01:11:55,773
It is empty and without
purpose to be here now.
1105
01:11:57,242 --> 01:12:02,613
Franklin's death ended a period in history,
1106
01:12:02,615 --> 01:12:09,219
and now in its wake for lots
of us who lived in his shadow,
1107
01:12:09,221 --> 01:12:13,624
we have to start again
under our own momentum
1108
01:12:13,626 --> 01:12:18,362
and wonder what we can achieve.
1109
01:12:19,597 --> 01:12:21,932
Much love, dear.
1110
01:12:21,934 --> 01:12:23,801
E.R.
1111
01:12:23,803 --> 01:12:27,137
A few days later, Eleanor Roosevelt emerged
1112
01:12:27,139 --> 01:12:30,207
from her New York apartment
on Washington Square
1113
01:12:30,209 --> 01:12:34,211
to find a newspaperwoman
waiting on the sidewalk.
1114
01:12:34,213 --> 01:12:37,915
"The story is over," she
said gently and hurried on,
1115
01:12:37,917 --> 01:12:42,786
but it was not over.
1116
01:12:42,788 --> 01:12:45,055
Eleanor Roosevelt is a sort of miracle
1117
01:12:45,057 --> 01:12:47,157
of the human spirit, I think.
1118
01:12:47,159 --> 01:12:49,193
There are so many times in her life
1119
01:12:49,195 --> 01:12:51,462
when you would think she
would have given up...
1120
01:12:51,464 --> 01:12:54,098
when she was a little girl,
1121
01:12:54,100 --> 01:12:57,334
when she was betrayed during World War I,
1122
01:12:57,336 --> 01:12:59,470
then this awful betrayal at the end...
1123
01:12:59,472 --> 01:13:04,608
and somehow, she continued doing her work.
1124
01:13:04,610 --> 01:13:08,045
She lived to meet the needs of others.
1125
01:13:08,047 --> 01:13:11,115
She explained that early on,
and she never abandoned it,
1126
01:13:11,117 --> 01:13:13,283
that the way to be loved
1127
01:13:13,285 --> 01:13:16,353
was to do things for people, to help them,
1128
01:13:16,355 --> 01:13:20,658
and I think that's what
she always relied on
1129
01:13:20,660 --> 01:13:23,293
to go on, and she went on.
1130
01:13:59,998 --> 01:14:04,101
The atomic bomb ended
the war in the Pacific.
1131
01:14:04,103 --> 01:14:07,004
FDR had given the go-ahead to build it
1132
01:14:07,006 --> 01:14:10,774
because he feared the
Nazis would build one first,
1133
01:14:10,776 --> 01:14:13,243
and Mrs. Roosevelt had no quarrel
1134
01:14:13,245 --> 01:14:16,780
with President Truman's decision to use it,
1135
01:14:16,782 --> 01:14:20,617
but she understood that when the bomb fell,
1136
01:14:20,619 --> 01:14:22,820
a new world had been born,
1137
01:14:22,822 --> 01:14:25,389
"a world," she wrote,
"in which we have to learn
1138
01:14:25,391 --> 01:14:28,225
to live in friendship with our neighbors
1139
01:14:28,227 --> 01:14:31,328
of every race, creed, or color
1140
01:14:31,330 --> 01:14:34,965
or do away with civilization."
1141
01:14:36,334 --> 01:14:39,269
Arrangements are now being
made for the formal signing
1142
01:14:39,271 --> 01:14:43,640
of the surrender terms at
the earliest possible moment.
1143
01:14:43,642 --> 01:14:46,710
Newsmen rush the president's report
1144
01:14:46,712 --> 01:14:49,079
to a waiting world, and
through the early evening
1145
01:14:49,081 --> 01:14:52,516
Tuesday, August 14, the
fateful news is flashed.
1146
01:14:52,518 --> 01:14:56,153
In New York City, as throughout
a rejoicing nation and world,
1147
01:14:56,155 --> 01:14:58,288
vast throngs of grateful, happy people
1148
01:14:58,290 --> 01:15:01,859
celebrate the end of
fighting, the dawn of peace.
1149
01:15:01,861 --> 01:15:04,127
Two million New Yorkers jam Times Square.
1150
01:15:04,129 --> 01:15:08,799
It's official. It's all
over. It's total victory.
1151
01:15:12,704 --> 01:15:15,672
The world remembered
Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
1152
01:15:15,674 --> 01:15:18,442
commander-in-chief,
American war casualty.
1153
01:15:18,444 --> 01:15:21,278
Years of brave responsibility
took their toll.
1154
01:15:21,280 --> 01:15:24,581
A grateful world honors him today.
1155
01:15:39,430 --> 01:15:41,598
In late 1945,
1156
01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:44,434
President Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt
1157
01:15:44,436 --> 01:15:46,503
to be a delegate to the first meeting
1158
01:15:46,505 --> 01:15:50,340
of the united nations
general assembly in London.
1159
01:15:50,342 --> 01:15:53,977
Before disembarking, she
held a press conference.
1160
01:15:53,979 --> 01:15:57,114
"For the first time in my
life," she told reporters,
1161
01:15:57,116 --> 01:15:59,883
"I can say just what I want.
1162
01:15:59,885 --> 01:16:03,220
For your information, it
is wonderful to feel free."
1163
01:16:03,222 --> 01:16:08,592
Then she asked that those
words be kept off the record.
1164
01:16:08,594 --> 01:16:11,995
Her fellow delegates
included two Republicans
1165
01:16:11,997 --> 01:16:15,599
who had actively opposed her
husband's foreign policy...
1166
01:16:15,601 --> 01:16:18,402
Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg
1167
01:16:18,404 --> 01:16:21,839
and the veteran diplomat
John Foster Dulles.
1168
01:16:21,841 --> 01:16:24,842
Both thought her a naive do-gooder
1169
01:16:24,844 --> 01:16:29,012
appointed purely for political
and sentimental reasons.
1170
01:16:29,014 --> 01:16:31,982
She didn't think much of them, either.
1171
01:16:31,984 --> 01:16:35,786
Vandenberg was "hard to get
along with" and secretive,
1172
01:16:35,788 --> 01:16:37,588
she told an old friend,
1173
01:16:37,590 --> 01:16:41,959
and, "J. Foster Dulles I like not at all."
1174
01:16:41,961 --> 01:16:45,896
She astonished them both.
1175
01:16:45,898 --> 01:16:49,566
Perhaps a million displaced
persons from Eastern Europe
1176
01:16:49,568 --> 01:16:54,271
refused to return to territories
now under Russian rule.
1177
01:16:54,273 --> 01:16:56,707
Mrs. Roosevelt's committee agreed
1178
01:16:56,709 --> 01:17:00,377
they should be given the right of asylum.
1179
01:17:00,379 --> 01:17:04,081
Andrei Vishinsky, who had been
the merciless Soviet prosecutor
1180
01:17:04,083 --> 01:17:06,984
during the purge trials of the 1930s,
1181
01:17:06,986 --> 01:17:10,154
demanded their immediate, forced return,
1182
01:17:10,156 --> 01:17:14,391
equating giving in to their
demands to appeasing Hitler.
1183
01:17:14,393 --> 01:17:16,660
Mrs. Roosevelt was asked to respond.
1184
01:17:16,662 --> 01:17:21,164
"The united nations
was created to safeguard
1185
01:17:21,166 --> 01:17:24,835
the rights of individual
human beings," she said,
1186
01:17:24,837 --> 01:17:28,338
"not the prerogatives of governments.
1187
01:17:28,340 --> 01:17:32,309
Refugees should be allowed
to live where they liked."
1188
01:17:34,647 --> 01:17:36,647
It is my ruling
1189
01:17:36,649 --> 01:17:39,650
as chairman of the commission
that the point raised
1190
01:17:39,652 --> 01:17:43,120
by the Soviet member is out of order.
1191
01:17:43,122 --> 01:17:47,024
The Soviet member or anyone
else on the commission
1192
01:17:47,026 --> 01:17:51,428
may, of course, appeal against this ruling.
1193
01:17:51,430 --> 01:17:55,165
The Russians lost the vote.
1194
01:17:55,167 --> 01:17:59,836
Mrs. Roosevelt won the
admiration of her colleagues.
1195
01:17:59,838 --> 01:18:02,172
Senator Vandenberg told the press
1196
01:18:02,174 --> 01:18:04,107
her performance had made him want
1197
01:18:04,109 --> 01:18:07,311
to "take back everything
I ever said about her,
1198
01:18:07,313 --> 01:18:11,014
and, believe me, it's been plenty."
1199
01:18:14,052 --> 01:18:18,188
She was unanimously
elected chair of a committee
1200
01:18:18,190 --> 01:18:22,225
to draw up a universal
declaration of human rights,
1201
01:18:22,227 --> 01:18:26,563
history's first attempt at
laying out the principles
1202
01:18:26,565 --> 01:18:31,068
under which all nations should
behave toward their own citizens
1203
01:18:31,070 --> 01:18:33,337
as well as toward one another.
1204
01:18:33,339 --> 01:18:35,539
It would not be easy.
1205
01:18:35,541 --> 01:18:37,908
Her committee included
1206
01:18:37,910 --> 01:18:40,877
Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists,
1207
01:18:40,879 --> 01:18:45,182
the representatives of
democracies and dictatorships,
1208
01:18:45,184 --> 01:18:49,786
colonial powers and
once-colonized peoples,
1209
01:18:49,788 --> 01:18:52,789
and she had to deal with a state department
1210
01:18:52,791 --> 01:18:56,360
constantly worried she
would promise too much.
1211
01:18:56,362 --> 01:19:00,264
She was as tough as she was tactful
1212
01:19:00,266 --> 01:19:03,200
and drove her fellow delegates so hard
1213
01:19:03,202 --> 01:19:05,869
that one felt called upon to remind her
1214
01:19:05,871 --> 01:19:09,640
that they had human rights, too.
1215
01:19:09,642 --> 01:19:12,009
If they wanted shorter days,
1216
01:19:12,011 --> 01:19:14,645
Theodore Roosevelt's
favorite niece answered,
1217
01:19:14,647 --> 01:19:17,047
they should make shorter speeches.
1218
01:19:17,049 --> 01:19:21,118
Thanks largely to what one admirer called
1219
01:19:21,120 --> 01:19:24,888
her distinctive blend of
"naivete" and "cunning,"
1220
01:19:24,890 --> 01:19:29,393
they fell into line one by one.
1221
01:19:29,395 --> 01:19:32,829
This universal declaration of human rights
1222
01:19:32,831 --> 01:19:37,434
may well become the
international Magna Carta
1223
01:19:37,436 --> 01:19:39,703
of all men everywhere.
1224
01:19:39,705 --> 01:19:46,043
Man must have freedom in which
to develop his full stature
1225
01:19:46,045 --> 01:19:48,912
and through common effort
1226
01:19:48,914 --> 01:19:52,182
to raise the level of human dignity.
1227
01:19:52,184 --> 01:19:54,184
New Zealand? Yes.
1228
01:19:54,186 --> 01:19:57,654
United Kingdom? Yes.
1229
01:19:57,656 --> 01:20:01,525
At 3:00 in the morning
on December 10, 1948,
1230
01:20:01,527 --> 01:20:03,694
the declaration was adopted
1231
01:20:03,696 --> 01:20:06,863
without a single dissenting vote.
1232
01:20:06,865 --> 01:20:09,933
Afterwards, the entire general assembly
1233
01:20:09,935 --> 01:20:12,336
did something it had never done before
1234
01:20:12,338 --> 01:20:14,438
and has never done since.
1235
01:20:14,440 --> 01:20:17,140
It rose to give a standing ovation
1236
01:20:17,142 --> 01:20:19,476
to a single delegate.
1237
01:20:21,680 --> 01:20:24,514
All her life, Eleanor Roosevelt said,
1238
01:20:24,516 --> 01:20:26,483
she'd wanted to "take on a job
1239
01:20:26,485 --> 01:20:29,286
and see it through to a conclusion."
1240
01:20:29,288 --> 01:20:32,889
She had done it, and she had triumphed.
1241
01:20:36,427 --> 01:20:39,930
She was characteristically
modest about her achievement.
1242
01:20:39,932 --> 01:20:43,467
The declaration was not self-enforcing.
1243
01:20:43,469 --> 01:20:47,838
The challenge, she said, was one
of "actually living and working
1244
01:20:47,840 --> 01:20:52,609
in our countries in freedom and
justice for each human being."
1245
01:20:58,383 --> 01:21:02,085
Mrs. Roosevelt had a very fast walk.
1246
01:21:02,087 --> 01:21:05,522
In fact, her walk was just not fast.
1247
01:21:05,524 --> 01:21:07,724
It was purposeful,
1248
01:21:07,726 --> 01:21:10,193
somewhat like her Uncle Theodore,
1249
01:21:10,195 --> 01:21:14,231
and she was stopped by people who would say
1250
01:21:14,233 --> 01:21:16,867
the most poignant things to her...
1251
01:21:16,869 --> 01:21:19,302
"you saved my family."
1252
01:21:19,304 --> 01:21:22,239
"During world war ii, you reunited us"...
1253
01:21:22,241 --> 01:21:24,908
and she would say, "thank you very much,"
1254
01:21:24,910 --> 01:21:27,044
and want to push on,
1255
01:21:27,046 --> 01:21:31,181
and I would think perhaps
she hadn't heard them,
1256
01:21:31,183 --> 01:21:34,017
but that wasn't the reason she didn't stop.
1257
01:21:34,019 --> 01:21:38,488
She was no longer interested
in what had been accomplished.
1258
01:21:38,490 --> 01:21:41,825
Her interest was in all
the things in the world
1259
01:21:41,827 --> 01:21:45,295
that remained to be done.
1260
01:21:45,297 --> 01:21:47,698
She seemed to be everywhere,
1261
01:21:47,700 --> 01:21:49,900
taking note of everything,
1262
01:21:49,902 --> 01:21:52,569
asking what she could do to help.
1263
01:21:52,571 --> 01:21:56,573
The colonial era was coming to an end.
1264
01:21:56,575 --> 01:22:00,444
The west needed to find new ways to relate
1265
01:22:00,446 --> 01:22:04,481
to the newly liberated
peoples emerging from it.
1266
01:22:04,483 --> 01:22:07,751
And Mrs. Roosevelt said about India,
1267
01:22:07,753 --> 01:22:10,087
"it's like Mount Everest.
1268
01:22:10,089 --> 01:22:14,057
You think you can never get
to the top of these problems,
1269
01:22:14,059 --> 01:22:17,961
but like climbing mount
Everest, you take a first step."
1270
01:22:17,963 --> 01:22:22,699
She took time out to
fulfill a lifelong dream...
1271
01:22:22,701 --> 01:22:27,404
sitting in the moonlight
and gazing at the Taj Mahal,
1272
01:22:27,406 --> 01:22:30,140
just as her father had promised her
1273
01:22:30,142 --> 01:22:33,143
he would do with her one day.
1274
01:22:33,145 --> 01:22:37,381
She was an early and
effective advocate for Israel.
1275
01:22:43,488 --> 01:22:48,492
In the Soviet Union, she debated
with premier Nikita khrushchev,
1276
01:22:48,494 --> 01:22:52,529
and when she went to see
Lenin's tomb in red square,
1277
01:22:52,531 --> 01:22:55,966
she insisted on standing in line
1278
01:22:55,968 --> 01:23:00,470
along with hundreds of
ordinary Soviet citizens.
1279
01:23:00,472 --> 01:23:03,106
Throughout her public life,
1280
01:23:03,108 --> 01:23:07,144
Eleanor Roosevelt had always
had a small circle of friends
1281
01:23:07,146 --> 01:23:11,248
in whom she could confide her
private thoughts and feelings...
1282
01:23:11,250 --> 01:23:13,517
Nancy cook and Marion Dickerman,
1283
01:23:13,519 --> 01:23:17,421
Earl Miller, Lorena Hickock, Joseph lash.
1284
01:23:17,423 --> 01:23:21,158
Now a new friend was often at her side...
1285
01:23:21,160 --> 01:23:25,362
a New York physician, an expert on polio,
1286
01:23:25,364 --> 01:23:30,100
18 years younger than she...
named David Gurewitsch.
1287
01:23:30,102 --> 01:23:32,369
When the president died,
1288
01:23:32,371 --> 01:23:37,207
David got a call in his office,
and it was Mrs. Roosevelt,
1289
01:23:37,209 --> 01:23:39,776
and she said, "I've moved
back to New York now,
1290
01:23:39,778 --> 01:23:43,080
"and I shall need a doctor in New York.
1291
01:23:43,082 --> 01:23:45,182
Are you willing to be my doctor?"
1292
01:23:45,184 --> 01:23:47,684
And he wrote in a note,
he said, "I agreed,"
1293
01:23:47,686 --> 01:23:51,054
and then she said,
1294
01:23:51,056 --> 01:23:53,523
"I promise not to bother you too much,"
1295
01:23:53,525 --> 01:23:55,525
and that was the beginning.
1296
01:23:58,463 --> 01:24:02,999
More letters would
follow, hundreds of them.
1297
01:24:03,001 --> 01:24:07,370
Dr. Gurewitsch became her
confidant and constant companion
1298
01:24:07,372 --> 01:24:09,973
as well as her doctor.
1299
01:24:09,975 --> 01:24:13,910
Her friend Esther Lape, who had known her
1300
01:24:13,912 --> 01:24:16,813
since her first forays into reform,
1301
01:24:16,815 --> 01:24:21,251
believed he was "dearer to her
than anyone else in the world."
1302
01:24:21,253 --> 01:24:23,687
"I love you," she once told him,
1303
01:24:23,689 --> 01:24:27,557
"as I love and have
never loved anyone else."
1304
01:24:27,559 --> 01:24:30,694
Mrs. Roosevelt found in him a person
1305
01:24:30,696 --> 01:24:34,998
she could trust, and that
was a wonderful thing for her,
1306
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:40,237
and she found in David someone,
basically, who took care of her,
1307
01:24:40,239 --> 01:24:42,973
who was loyal to her,
1308
01:24:42,975 --> 01:24:46,376
and had a lively interest in her work.
1309
01:24:46,378 --> 01:24:50,981
When Dr. Gurewitsch became
engaged to Edna Perkel,
1310
01:24:50,983 --> 01:24:54,718
it took both women a little time to adjust.
1311
01:24:54,720 --> 01:24:57,053
All I knew was
1312
01:24:57,055 --> 01:24:59,189
that they were very close friends
1313
01:24:59,191 --> 01:25:01,825
because the first time I
had dinner was a shock to me.
1314
01:25:01,827 --> 01:25:03,960
The 3 of us alone at dinner,
1315
01:25:03,962 --> 01:25:09,566
that's when I knew that this
was a very close friendship.
1316
01:25:09,568 --> 01:25:13,103
She was uneasy, quite uneasy
1317
01:25:13,105 --> 01:25:16,239
about how the 3 of us would be together,
1318
01:25:16,241 --> 01:25:18,675
and, indeed, in a letter she wrote to him,
1319
01:25:18,677 --> 01:25:21,878
she said that I was a nice person,
1320
01:25:21,880 --> 01:25:26,716
and she said, "I fully expected
our relationship to change,"
1321
01:25:26,718 --> 01:25:29,953
but, in fact, it was reinforced,
1322
01:25:29,955 --> 01:25:33,323
and she made it her business
that this was going to work
1323
01:25:33,325 --> 01:25:36,593
because she wanted to keep David close.
1324
01:25:36,595 --> 01:25:39,329
She told me that she loved me.
1325
01:25:39,331 --> 01:25:42,098
Mrs. Roosevelt and the Gurewitsches
1326
01:25:42,100 --> 01:25:45,936
eventually bought a house
together on East 74th Street,
1327
01:25:45,938 --> 01:25:48,939
just 9 blocks from the twin brownstones
1328
01:25:48,941 --> 01:25:52,876
Sara Delano Roosevelt had
built for herself, Eleanor,
1329
01:25:52,878 --> 01:25:56,746
and Franklin more than
half a century before.
1330
01:25:56,748 --> 01:26:00,016
Mrs. Roosevelt never had dinner alone
1331
01:26:00,018 --> 01:26:02,352
if she could help it because she was,
1332
01:26:02,354 --> 01:26:06,289
as David said, "a
chronically lonely person."
1333
01:26:06,291 --> 01:26:08,491
She really never had dinner alone.
1334
01:26:08,493 --> 01:26:10,961
Mrs. Roosevelt came upstairs.
1335
01:26:10,963 --> 01:26:14,698
She marched into the kitchen
and said, "may I help you, dear?"
1336
01:26:14,700 --> 01:26:17,667
And my heart sank because Mrs. Roosevelt
1337
01:26:17,669 --> 01:26:21,004
had no clue about what
happens in a kitchen.
1338
01:26:21,006 --> 01:26:23,607
So I thought she could do the least harm
1339
01:26:23,609 --> 01:26:26,142
if I asked her to wash the lettuce,
1340
01:26:26,144 --> 01:26:29,145
and so she stood beside me at the sink,
1341
01:26:29,147 --> 01:26:31,815
and she was washing lettuce,
and I said after a few moments,
1342
01:26:31,817 --> 01:26:34,451
"would you excuse me, Mrs. Roosevelt?"
1343
01:26:34,453 --> 01:26:36,787
I went in to my husband,
and I said to David,
1344
01:26:36,789 --> 01:26:39,589
"find an excuse to get
her out of the kitchen
1345
01:26:39,591 --> 01:26:42,826
because we're standing in
water up to our ankles,"
1346
01:26:42,828 --> 01:26:45,862
and she never helped
me in the kitchen again.
1347
01:26:53,771 --> 01:26:55,772
Eleanor Roosevelt
1348
01:26:55,774 --> 01:26:58,175
had been her husband's Liberal conscience,
1349
01:26:58,177 --> 01:27:03,647
always urging him to do what
she saw as the right thing.
1350
01:27:03,649 --> 01:27:07,450
During her last years,
she served her country
1351
01:27:07,452 --> 01:27:11,187
and her party in the same role.
1352
01:27:11,189 --> 01:27:13,189
Over the next decade,
1353
01:27:13,191 --> 01:27:16,593
she continued her work
on behalf of civil rights,
1354
01:27:16,595 --> 01:27:20,563
championing integration
of the armed forces,
1355
01:27:20,565 --> 01:27:24,367
applauding the integration of the schools,
1356
01:27:24,369 --> 01:27:28,939
publicizing instances of discrimination,
1357
01:27:28,941 --> 01:27:31,808
supporting the freedom riders,
1358
01:27:31,810 --> 01:27:34,511
and ignoring the death threats
1359
01:27:34,513 --> 01:27:38,548
that never stopped coming her way.
1360
01:27:38,550 --> 01:27:40,884
Eleanor Roosevelt.
1361
01:27:42,020 --> 01:27:45,455
At a national convention of the NAACP,
1362
01:27:45,457 --> 01:27:47,791
she interviewed the first black student
1363
01:27:47,793 --> 01:27:50,794
to integrate the University of Alabama...
1364
01:27:50,796 --> 01:27:53,363
Autherine Lucy.
1365
01:27:53,365 --> 01:27:57,467
Now, you must have felt
all alone in this situation.
1366
01:27:57,469 --> 01:28:01,338
Were you very much afraid?
1367
01:28:01,340 --> 01:28:05,075
I have to admit that, yes, I was afraid,
1368
01:28:05,077 --> 01:28:07,744
but it is my policy
1369
01:28:07,746 --> 01:28:12,782
that in any situation
which calls for courage,
1370
01:28:12,784 --> 01:28:16,553
we cannot give in to our fear.
1371
01:28:16,555 --> 01:28:19,122
We must overpower our fear,
1372
01:28:19,124 --> 01:28:22,258
and that is what I did in this respect.
1373
01:28:28,599 --> 01:28:30,967
In 1949,
1374
01:28:30,969 --> 01:28:34,070
Mrs. Roosevelt had
found herself in conflict
1375
01:28:34,072 --> 01:28:37,507
with Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York.
1376
01:28:37,509 --> 01:28:41,244
She backed a bill on constitutional grounds
1377
01:28:41,246 --> 01:28:44,247
that barred parochial
schools from receiving
1378
01:28:44,249 --> 01:28:46,950
direct aid from the federal government.
1379
01:28:46,952 --> 01:28:50,520
The cardinal denounced
her as anti-catholic
1380
01:28:50,522 --> 01:28:53,256
and went on to accuse her of actions
1381
01:28:53,258 --> 01:28:55,926
"unworthy of an American mother."
1382
01:28:55,928 --> 01:28:58,862
Her friends were furious.
1383
01:28:58,864 --> 01:29:02,565
She remained cool in her response.
1384
01:29:02,567 --> 01:29:05,201
"The final judgment, my dear cardinal,
1385
01:29:05,203 --> 01:29:08,271
of the worthiness of all human beings
1386
01:29:08,273 --> 01:29:11,207
is in the hands of God."
1387
01:29:11,209 --> 01:29:14,010
In the end, it was the cardinal
1388
01:29:14,012 --> 01:29:18,982
who had to call upon her at
val-kill to make his peace.
1389
01:29:20,953 --> 01:29:23,186
And even if there were
1390
01:29:23,188 --> 01:29:26,456
only one communist in the State Department,
1391
01:29:26,458 --> 01:29:28,458
even if there were only one communist
1392
01:29:28,460 --> 01:29:32,896
in the State Department, that would
still be one communist too many.
1393
01:29:34,433 --> 01:29:38,101
Eleanor called McCarthy "our gestapo."
1394
01:29:38,103 --> 01:29:40,870
She was just horrified by the silence
1395
01:29:40,872 --> 01:29:42,939
of some of her former allies
1396
01:29:42,941 --> 01:29:45,709
and by so many people naming names.
1397
01:29:45,711 --> 01:29:52,549
She thought it was a really
disgusting moment in political life.
1398
01:29:52,551 --> 01:29:55,151
"The day I'm afraid to sit down
1399
01:29:55,153 --> 01:29:57,420
with people I do not know," she said,
1400
01:29:57,422 --> 01:30:00,790
"because 5 years from now, someone will say
1401
01:30:00,792 --> 01:30:03,159
5 of those people were communists
1402
01:30:03,161 --> 01:30:05,595
and, therefore, I am a communist,
1403
01:30:05,597 --> 01:30:08,298
that will be a sad day."
1404
01:30:09,867 --> 01:30:13,036
She had sad days of her own,
1405
01:30:13,038 --> 01:30:16,006
most often connected
with her troubled children
1406
01:30:16,008 --> 01:30:20,276
whose continuing problems
she was unable to solve.
1407
01:30:20,278 --> 01:30:23,647
Sometimes, she confided
to David Gurewitsch,
1408
01:30:23,649 --> 01:30:26,816
they brought her close to suicide.
1409
01:30:26,818 --> 01:30:31,554
Eleanor Roosevelt suffered
from exactly the same kind
1410
01:30:31,556 --> 01:30:35,225
of depression that her uncle Theodore did,
1411
01:30:35,227 --> 01:30:39,562
and she, too, in order to
stay sane, had to stay active.
1412
01:30:39,564 --> 01:30:43,500
All her life, she could not stop doing.
1413
01:30:43,502 --> 01:30:45,735
Even as an old lady,
1414
01:30:45,737 --> 01:30:48,538
she would sit up till 3:00 in the morning
1415
01:30:48,540 --> 01:30:51,908
answering letters from perfect strangers.
1416
01:30:51,910 --> 01:30:54,044
She needed to be needed.
1417
01:30:54,046 --> 01:30:56,179
There was no question about that
1418
01:30:56,181 --> 01:30:58,515
because at the end when
she didn't want to live,
1419
01:30:58,517 --> 01:31:02,018
the reason she didn't want
to live was fundamentally
1420
01:31:02,020 --> 01:31:05,955
that she felt she could
not be useful anymore.
1421
01:31:05,957 --> 01:31:09,592
She used to tell me,
people are given obstacles
1422
01:31:09,594 --> 01:31:13,196
in life to grow strong on,
and once, I said to her,
1423
01:31:13,198 --> 01:31:16,266
"Mrs. Roosevelt, not everybody
grows strong on obstacles.
1424
01:31:16,268 --> 01:31:19,102
Some people just fall down,"
1425
01:31:19,104 --> 01:31:21,938
and she said very determinedly,
1426
01:31:21,940 --> 01:31:24,207
"you're not supposed to fall down.
1427
01:31:24,209 --> 01:31:27,110
You must keep standing and walking."
1428
01:31:28,746 --> 01:31:32,582
Her work was always her salvation.
1429
01:31:32,584 --> 01:31:34,584
When she was asked a political question
1430
01:31:34,586 --> 01:31:36,586
she didn't want to answer,
1431
01:31:36,588 --> 01:31:40,123
she liked to say, "I
know nothing of politics."
1432
01:31:40,125 --> 01:31:42,992
In fact, she could be as politically shrewd
1433
01:31:42,994 --> 01:31:45,528
and as unforgiving as her old friend
1434
01:31:45,530 --> 01:31:48,865
and political mentor Louis Howe had been.
1435
01:31:48,867 --> 01:31:51,801
In 1954, her son Franklin
1436
01:31:51,803 --> 01:31:54,204
was denied the Democratic nomination
1437
01:31:54,206 --> 01:31:55,939
for governor of New York
1438
01:31:55,941 --> 01:31:59,376
by the boss of Tammany
Hall Carmine Desapio.
1439
01:31:59,378 --> 01:32:01,878
She vowed to get even.
1440
01:32:01,880 --> 01:32:04,981
In order to get ahead
more than 40 years earlier,
1441
01:32:04,983 --> 01:32:09,519
her husband had made peace with
the Tammany boss of his time.
1442
01:32:09,521 --> 01:32:12,956
This time, his widow had other ideas.
1443
01:32:12,958 --> 01:32:15,959
She helped establish a reform organization
1444
01:32:15,961 --> 01:32:18,228
to combat boss rule,
1445
01:32:18,230 --> 01:32:21,831
campaigned from the roofs of
sound trucks in the summer heat,
1446
01:32:21,833 --> 01:32:24,901
and eventually ended the career of the man
1447
01:32:24,903 --> 01:32:26,803
who double-crossed her son.
1448
01:32:26,805 --> 01:32:30,740
"I said I'd get him," she told
a friend on election night,
1449
01:32:30,742 --> 01:32:33,410
"and I got him."
1450
01:32:39,216 --> 01:32:42,619
In 1956, she helped the worldly,
1451
01:32:42,621 --> 01:32:46,689
well-traveled governor of
Illinois Adlai Stevenson
1452
01:32:46,691 --> 01:32:51,494
win the Democratic presidential
nomination for the second time.
1453
01:32:58,736 --> 01:33:05,141
It is a foolish thing to
say that you pledge yourself
1454
01:33:05,143 --> 01:33:09,412
to live up to the traditions
1455
01:33:09,414 --> 01:33:12,782
of the new deal and the fair deal.
1456
01:33:12,784 --> 01:33:17,854
Of course you are proud
of those traditions.
1457
01:33:17,856 --> 01:33:22,792
Of course you are proud to have the advice
1458
01:33:22,794 --> 01:33:26,696
of the elders in our party,
1459
01:33:26,698 --> 01:33:30,333
but our party is young and vigorous.
1460
01:33:30,335 --> 01:33:36,606
Our party may be the
oldest Democratic Party,
1461
01:33:36,608 --> 01:33:39,108
but our party...
1462
01:33:39,110 --> 01:33:43,446
our party must live
1463
01:33:43,448 --> 01:33:46,216
as a young party,
1464
01:33:46,218 --> 01:33:49,052
and it must have young leadership.
1465
01:33:52,157 --> 01:33:55,759
It was imperative that the
Democrats return to power,
1466
01:33:55,761 --> 01:33:59,295
she said, "but they must come
back with the right leaders."
1467
01:33:59,297 --> 01:34:02,332
For her, even though Dwight eisenhower
1468
01:34:02,334 --> 01:34:06,603
had already beaten
Stevenson once back in 1952,
1469
01:34:06,605 --> 01:34:10,073
he was that leader, and during
the campaign that followed,
1470
01:34:10,075 --> 01:34:14,277
she offered him practical advice
on how to reach the voters.
1471
01:34:14,279 --> 01:34:17,447
Get to know more ordinary
people, she told him.
1472
01:34:17,449 --> 01:34:21,017
Speak as if you're talking to one person.
1473
01:34:21,019 --> 01:34:25,488
Every speech need not be
the Gettysburg Address.
1474
01:34:25,490 --> 01:34:29,025
Eisenhower crushed Stevenson again,
1475
01:34:29,027 --> 01:34:32,962
but 4 years later, she was still for him
1476
01:34:32,964 --> 01:34:35,098
and against the front-runner...
1477
01:34:35,100 --> 01:34:37,567
Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
1478
01:34:37,569 --> 01:34:40,904
She thought Kennedy too inexperienced,
1479
01:34:40,906 --> 01:34:44,774
too willing to cut corners,
too close to his father Joseph,
1480
01:34:44,776 --> 01:34:48,278
whose pre-war defeatism
she had not forgotten,
1481
01:34:48,280 --> 01:34:52,115
and she said all of this
and more on television.
1482
01:34:52,117 --> 01:34:55,652
When Kennedy complained
she was being unfair,
1483
01:34:55,654 --> 01:34:57,654
she wired him right back.
1484
01:34:57,656 --> 01:34:59,656
"My dear boy," she wrote.
1485
01:34:59,658 --> 01:35:02,826
"I only say these things for your own good.
1486
01:35:02,828 --> 01:35:05,662
I have found in a lifetime of adversity
1487
01:35:05,664 --> 01:35:08,064
that when blows are rained on one,
1488
01:35:08,066 --> 01:35:11,434
it is advisable to turn the other profile."
1489
01:35:11,436 --> 01:35:15,205
Stevenson proved a tentative candidate,
1490
01:35:15,207 --> 01:35:17,707
but Mrs. Roosevelt went to the convention
1491
01:35:17,709 --> 01:35:20,476
in Los Angeles on his behalf, anyway,
1492
01:35:20,478 --> 01:35:24,147
hoping somehow to stop
the Kennedy bandwagon.
1493
01:35:24,149 --> 01:35:27,016
When the delegates spotted
her entering the hall,
1494
01:35:27,018 --> 01:35:30,220
they stood and cheered for 7 minutes.
1495
01:35:30,222 --> 01:35:33,890
She pretended not to notice
for as long as she could
1496
01:35:33,892 --> 01:35:36,860
because, she said, it
would have been impolite
1497
01:35:36,862 --> 01:35:39,963
to the speaker to acknowledge the applause,
1498
01:35:39,965 --> 01:35:43,867
and she later wrote
him a letter of apology.
1499
01:35:43,869 --> 01:35:46,903
In the end, despite her efforts,
1500
01:35:46,905 --> 01:35:49,572
Kennedy was nominated on the first ballot.
1501
01:35:49,574 --> 01:35:52,175
He was young and vigorous,
1502
01:35:52,177 --> 01:35:55,678
just the kind of politician
she had said she hoped
1503
01:35:55,680 --> 01:35:59,048
the Democratic Party would put forward.
1504
01:35:59,050 --> 01:36:01,784
A few weeks later,
1505
01:36:01,786 --> 01:36:05,855
the nominee arranged to call
upon Mrs. Roosevelt at val-kill,
1506
01:36:05,857 --> 01:36:08,958
hoping for her political blessing.
1507
01:36:08,960 --> 01:36:12,128
The day before he was to appear,
1508
01:36:12,130 --> 01:36:16,366
one of her granddaughters fell
from a horse and was killed.
1509
01:36:16,368 --> 01:36:19,035
Kennedy offered to cancel the meeting.
1510
01:36:19,037 --> 01:36:21,170
She said to come ahead.
1511
01:36:21,172 --> 01:36:23,473
She understood how difficult it was
1512
01:36:23,475 --> 01:36:26,342
to alter a campaign schedule.
1513
01:36:35,686 --> 01:36:38,321
Kennedy left their lunch
1514
01:36:38,323 --> 01:36:41,858
"absolutely smitten by this
woman," a friend remembered.
1515
01:36:41,860 --> 01:36:45,061
"I liked him better
than I ever had before,"
1516
01:36:45,063 --> 01:36:47,830
Mrs. Roosevelt told a friend afterward.
1517
01:36:47,832 --> 01:36:49,832
On election night,
1518
01:36:49,834 --> 01:36:53,069
she watched the returns
at her New York home.
1519
01:36:53,071 --> 01:36:55,238
- I
- purposely sat next to her
1520
01:36:55,240 --> 01:36:58,341
the night of the Kennedy-Nixon election,
1521
01:36:58,343 --> 01:37:00,443
and the door downstairs was open.
1522
01:37:00,445 --> 01:37:02,779
People came pouring in, and every time
1523
01:37:02,781 --> 01:37:06,816
some community somewhere
would go Democratic,
1524
01:37:06,818 --> 01:37:09,552
people would applaud in the room.
1525
01:37:09,554 --> 01:37:11,020
She never applauded.
1526
01:37:11,022 --> 01:37:12,422
She said, "why are they applauding?
1527
01:37:12,424 --> 01:37:15,091
What do they expect? It is
a Democratic stronghold."
1528
01:37:15,093 --> 01:37:18,261
She was glad Kennedy won.
1529
01:37:18,263 --> 01:37:21,831
She thought his mind was
"open to new ideas," she wrote,
1530
01:37:21,833 --> 01:37:26,436
but she did not hesitate to
urge him on to greater efforts
1531
01:37:26,438 --> 01:37:29,105
on behalf of peace, progress for women,
1532
01:37:29,107 --> 01:37:32,141
and equal rights for all Americans,
1533
01:37:32,143 --> 01:37:34,644
just as she had urged her husband on,
1534
01:37:34,646 --> 01:37:36,913
and when she thought him wrong,
1535
01:37:36,915 --> 01:37:40,383
she did not hesitate to
criticize him, either.
1536
01:37:40,385 --> 01:37:44,153
That, too, was what she had always done.
1537
01:37:53,597 --> 01:37:59,102
Courage is more exhilarating than fear,
1538
01:37:59,104 --> 01:38:03,106
and in the long run, it is easier.
1539
01:38:03,108 --> 01:38:08,077
We do not have to become heroes overnight,
1540
01:38:08,079 --> 01:38:12,148
just a step at a time,
meeting each thing as it comes,
1541
01:38:12,150 --> 01:38:17,787
seeing it's not as dreadful as it appeared,
1542
01:38:17,789 --> 01:38:22,559
discovering we have the
strength to stare it down.
1543
01:38:24,662 --> 01:38:29,632
On Mrs. Roosevelt's 77th birthday in 1961,
1544
01:38:29,634 --> 01:38:33,169
someone asked her if
she shouldn't slow down.
1545
01:38:33,171 --> 01:38:35,438
"I suppose I should," she said,
1546
01:38:35,440 --> 01:38:39,475
but "I think I have a good
deal of my uncle Theodore in me,
1547
01:38:39,477 --> 01:38:43,846
because I could not, at any
age, be content to take my place
1548
01:38:43,848 --> 01:38:47,950
in a corner by the fireside
and simply look on."
1549
01:38:47,952 --> 01:38:51,654
Would I loved to have imagined Eleanor
1550
01:38:51,656 --> 01:38:55,825
knowing at the end of her
life what figure she had become
1551
01:38:55,827 --> 01:38:58,161
and being able to say
to Theodore Roosevelt,
1552
01:38:58,163 --> 01:39:01,030
"you believed in me, and
look what I've become."
1553
01:39:01,032 --> 01:39:04,967
But she was beginning to slow down.
1554
01:39:04,969 --> 01:39:09,272
In July of 1962, she was
hospitalized for a time
1555
01:39:09,274 --> 01:39:12,508
with intermittent fever and infections.
1556
01:39:12,510 --> 01:39:16,980
David Gurewitsch diagnosed aplastic anemia,
1557
01:39:16,982 --> 01:39:19,349
a rare condition in which the body
1558
01:39:19,351 --> 01:39:23,119
fails to produce enough new blood cells.
1559
01:39:23,121 --> 01:39:28,358
That summer, she, David,
Edna, and Maureen Corr,
1560
01:39:28,360 --> 01:39:32,829
Mrs. Roosevelt's last secretary,
made a trip to Campobello,
1561
01:39:32,831 --> 01:39:35,531
the island where she had the first home
1562
01:39:35,533 --> 01:39:38,067
she considered truly her own,
1563
01:39:38,069 --> 01:39:41,804
where Franklin had taught
his children to sail,
1564
01:39:41,806 --> 01:39:45,875
but it was also the place
where, during the Great War,
1565
01:39:45,877 --> 01:39:49,278
she had suffered over his
relationship with Lucy Mercer
1566
01:39:49,280 --> 01:39:53,082
and where she had watched
as infantile paralysis
1567
01:39:53,084 --> 01:39:56,652
seemed certain to end his political career.
1568
01:39:56,654 --> 01:40:00,223
She was too frail to walk very far,
1569
01:40:00,225 --> 01:40:02,525
but her friends helped her make it
1570
01:40:02,527 --> 01:40:04,827
to her favorite picnic spot.
1571
01:40:17,941 --> 01:40:21,010
She loved the island in
the daytime, she said,
1572
01:40:21,012 --> 01:40:24,280
but after dark, the memories flooded back.
1573
01:40:24,282 --> 01:40:28,818
"The night," she said,
"has a thousand eyes."
1574
01:40:35,059 --> 01:40:38,895
She was hospitalized again
when they got back to the city,
1575
01:40:38,897 --> 01:40:40,897
grew steadily worse
1576
01:40:40,899 --> 01:40:43,966
despite everything the doctors tried to do.
1577
01:40:43,968 --> 01:40:46,135
David had said to her,
1578
01:40:46,137 --> 01:40:49,105
"we're still trying to save you.
1579
01:40:49,107 --> 01:40:51,874
We think we can save you."
1580
01:40:51,876 --> 01:40:55,378
And she said to him,
"David, I want to die,"
1581
01:40:55,380 --> 01:40:58,648
because a life, for
her, without being useful
1582
01:40:58,650 --> 01:41:02,085
was a life which would have been pointless.
1583
01:41:03,587 --> 01:41:06,889
She insisted on being
taken home to her apartment
1584
01:41:06,891 --> 01:41:09,792
and worried after she got there
1585
01:41:09,794 --> 01:41:12,795
that she'd failed to
be sufficiently grateful
1586
01:41:12,797 --> 01:41:15,898
to the men who'd carried her stretcher.
1587
01:41:16,200 --> 01:41:20,603
Eleanor Roosevelt died in her own bedroom
1588
01:41:20,605 --> 01:41:24,373
on November 7, 1962.
1589
01:41:24,375 --> 01:41:27,944
She was 78 years old.
1590
01:41:27,946 --> 01:41:31,681
The funeral was to be held in Hyde Park.
1591
01:41:31,683 --> 01:41:37,453
David Gurewitsch would accompany
her casket up the Hudson River.
1592
01:41:37,455 --> 01:41:39,322
And when he came upstairs to tell me
1593
01:41:39,324 --> 01:41:41,791
he was gonna leave now with Mrs. Roosevelt,
1594
01:41:41,793 --> 01:41:44,660
I looked out of the window,
1595
01:41:44,662 --> 01:41:46,863
and I thought, of
course, the first thought,
1596
01:41:46,865 --> 01:41:51,534
that this is his last
trip with Mrs. Roosevelt...
1597
01:41:54,004 --> 01:41:55,805
And...
1598
01:41:59,943 --> 01:42:04,347
When the hearse got to the
traffic light on the corner
1599
01:42:04,349 --> 01:42:06,849
and stopped for the red light,
1600
01:42:06,851 --> 01:42:10,286
I was amazed because I couldn't believe
1601
01:42:10,288 --> 01:42:13,289
the traffic lights were still working.
1602
01:42:24,368 --> 01:42:28,171
President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy,
1603
01:42:28,173 --> 01:42:30,473
Vice President Lyndon Johnson,
1604
01:42:30,475 --> 01:42:34,143
former presidents Harry
Truman and Dwight Eisenhower
1605
01:42:34,145 --> 01:42:37,246
all watched alongside her children,
1606
01:42:37,248 --> 01:42:39,348
her friends, and her neighbors
1607
01:42:39,350 --> 01:42:41,851
as she was buried next to her husband
1608
01:42:41,853 --> 01:42:44,854
in the heart of her
mother-in-law's rose garden,
1609
01:42:44,856 --> 01:42:48,324
just as he had wished her to be.
1610
01:42:50,394 --> 01:42:53,296
It had rained all morning.
1611
01:42:55,666 --> 01:42:58,568
When we reached the gravesite,
1612
01:42:58,570 --> 01:43:00,570
we all gathered around,
1613
01:43:00,572 --> 01:43:03,139
and suddenly, it stopped raining.
1614
01:43:03,141 --> 01:43:06,843
Suddenly, there was a burst of sunshine.
1615
01:43:06,845 --> 01:43:09,612
All of us looked at each other and smiled
1616
01:43:09,614 --> 01:43:12,281
because we knew why that happened,
1617
01:43:12,283 --> 01:43:15,184
and it stopped raining,
1618
01:43:15,186 --> 01:43:17,854
and just at the close of the service,
1619
01:43:17,856 --> 01:43:21,090
it began to rain again, and
we all said the same thing...
1620
01:43:21,092 --> 01:43:24,494
the great organizer.
1621
01:43:24,496 --> 01:43:27,964
Mrs. Roosevelt was the great organizer.
1622
01:43:37,307 --> 01:43:43,412
I don't know whether I
believe in a future life.
1623
01:43:43,414 --> 01:43:46,849
I believe that all that you go through here
1624
01:43:46,851 --> 01:43:48,918
must have some value.
1625
01:43:48,920 --> 01:43:52,488
Therefore, there must be some reason.
1626
01:43:52,490 --> 01:43:54,757
There is a future... that I'm sure of...
1627
01:43:54,759 --> 01:43:58,361
but how, that I don't know.
1628
01:43:58,363 --> 01:44:02,465
I think I am pretty much of a fatalist.
1629
01:44:02,467 --> 01:44:05,268
You have to accept whatever comes,
1630
01:44:05,270 --> 01:44:08,204
and the only important
thing is that you meet it
1631
01:44:08,206 --> 01:44:12,775
with courage and with the
best that you have to give.
1632
01:44:31,295 --> 01:44:33,496
Perhaps great leaders
1633
01:44:33,498 --> 01:44:35,698
do indeed have to come through adversity,
1634
01:44:35,700 --> 01:44:38,301
to come through trials
of fire to become stronger
1635
01:44:38,303 --> 01:44:40,803
than they would be without it,
1636
01:44:40,805 --> 01:44:43,206
and you think about each
one of these 3 people...
1637
01:44:43,208 --> 01:44:45,208
Theodore Roosevelt not only conquering
1638
01:44:45,210 --> 01:44:47,176
the asthma that he had as a child,
1639
01:44:47,178 --> 01:44:49,412
but having to deal with
the death of his wife
1640
01:44:49,414 --> 01:44:50,980
and his mother on the same day
1641
01:44:50,982 --> 01:44:53,482
and yet somehow conquering
those demons by activity
1642
01:44:53,484 --> 01:44:55,551
and becoming Theodore Roosevelt;
1643
01:44:55,553 --> 01:44:59,288
Eleanor Roosevelt having to
conquer that terrible childhood
1644
01:44:59,290 --> 01:45:01,457
where her mother looked
at her as an ugly girl,
1645
01:45:01,459 --> 01:45:03,359
where her father was an alcoholic,
1646
01:45:03,361 --> 01:45:06,062
and when she had to become a strong,
1647
01:45:06,064 --> 01:45:08,064
independent person on her own;
1648
01:45:08,066 --> 01:45:11,968
FDR having to conquer
the adversity of the polio
1649
01:45:11,970 --> 01:45:13,936
which took away his power to walk
1650
01:45:13,938 --> 01:45:16,505
from the time he was 39 years old...
1651
01:45:16,507 --> 01:45:19,008
and yet they all emerged stronger
1652
01:45:19,010 --> 01:45:22,078
as a result of these trials of fire.
1653
01:45:22,080 --> 01:45:25,815
Ernest Hemingway once said,
"everyone is broken by life,
1654
01:45:25,817 --> 01:45:28,651
but afterward, many are
strong in the broken places."
1655
01:45:30,954 --> 01:45:35,892
One hot August afternoon back in 1939,
1656
01:45:35,894 --> 01:45:37,894
the White House press corps
1657
01:45:37,896 --> 01:45:41,564
crowded into FDR's tiny
office at Springwood.
1658
01:45:43,333 --> 01:45:47,570
The war was still weeks away,
and there wasn't much news.
1659
01:45:47,572 --> 01:45:50,039
The sheikh of Bahrain
was coming for a visit.
1660
01:45:50,041 --> 01:45:52,275
The president was glad the supreme court
1661
01:45:52,277 --> 01:45:54,877
had seemed more reasonable lately.
1662
01:45:54,879 --> 01:45:56,879
The opposition in Congress
1663
01:45:56,881 --> 01:45:59,782
was being shortsighted about defense.
1664
01:45:59,784 --> 01:46:04,186
Eleanor Roosevelt
happened to be there, too,
1665
01:46:04,188 --> 01:46:07,890
and she and Franklin began
to reminisce about visits
1666
01:46:07,892 --> 01:46:10,893
with Theodore Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill
1667
01:46:10,895 --> 01:46:15,298
each had made when they were children.
1668
01:46:15,300 --> 01:46:18,234
When they went swimming,
Eleanor remembered,
1669
01:46:18,236 --> 01:46:21,470
Uncle Ted always insisted all the children
1670
01:46:21,472 --> 01:46:24,407
run down the dune to Oyster Bay.
1671
01:46:24,409 --> 01:46:28,110
"It was awfully steep," FDR said.
1672
01:46:28,112 --> 01:46:30,813
"The sand went down with
you, and you were darned lucky
1673
01:46:30,815 --> 01:46:33,215
if you didn't end up halfway down
1674
01:46:33,217 --> 01:46:35,384
going head over heels."
1675
01:46:35,386 --> 01:46:39,288
"And climbing back up," Eleanor recalled,
1676
01:46:39,290 --> 01:46:43,426
"you slipped down one step
for every two you took,
1677
01:46:43,428 --> 01:46:45,661
but you kept at it,
1678
01:46:45,663 --> 01:46:50,633
and eventually, the fear was worn away."
1679
01:47:22,400 --> 01:47:32,400
- synced and corrected by chamallow -
- www.MY-SUBS.com -
1680
01:48:25,399 --> 01:48:28,034
To learn more about the
rich history and legacy
1681
01:48:28,036 --> 01:48:31,605
of one of the most influential
families in American history,
1682
01:48:31,607 --> 01:48:35,909
go to PBS.org/theroosevelts.
1683
01:48:35,911 --> 01:48:37,878
"The Roosevelts: An Intimate History"
1684
01:48:37,880 --> 01:48:40,513
is available on blu-ray and DVD.
1685
01:48:40,515 --> 01:48:42,849
The Companion book is also available.
1686
01:48:42,851 --> 01:48:48,321
To order, visit shoppbs.org
or call 1-800-play-PBS.
1687
01:48:48,323 --> 01:49:41,474
Also available for download from iTunes.
135305
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