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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,162 WWW.MY-SUBS.CO 1 00:00:00,161 --> 00:00:02,676 Previously on "The Roosevelts," 2 00:00:02,798 --> 00:00:06,132 FDR began an unprecedented third term. 3 00:00:06,134 --> 00:00:07,934 Why is it do certain moments 4 00:00:07,936 --> 00:00:10,904 produce exactly the right human beings? 5 00:00:10,906 --> 00:00:12,739 Eleanor campaigned for civil rights. 6 00:00:12,741 --> 00:00:14,574 There was that confidence 7 00:00:14,576 --> 00:00:16,643 that Mrs. Roosevelt would get it done. 8 00:00:16,645 --> 00:00:18,678 And America went to war. 9 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:24,684 I ask that the Congress declare a state of war. 10 00:00:24,686 --> 00:00:26,186 And now the final chapter 11 00:00:26,188 --> 00:00:29,322 of "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History." 12 00:00:30,491 --> 00:00:31,624 Funding for this program 13 00:00:31,626 --> 00:00:32,992 was provided by members 14 00:00:32,994 --> 00:00:34,727 of The Better Angels Society, 15 00:00:34,729 --> 00:00:36,196 a nonprofit organization 16 00:00:36,198 --> 00:00:38,064 dedicated to educating Americans 17 00:00:38,066 --> 00:00:40,834 about their history through documentary film. 18 00:00:40,836 --> 00:00:43,382 Members include Jessica and John Fullerton, 19 00:00:43,955 --> 00:00:46,011 The Pfeil Foudation, 20 00:00:47,212 --> 00:00:48,483 Joan Wellhouse Newton, 21 00:00:48,484 --> 00:00:49,858 Bonnie and Tom McCloskey, 22 00:00:49,859 --> 00:00:51,224 and The Golkin Family. 23 00:00:52,112 --> 00:00:53,313 Additional funding was provided 24 00:00:53,315 --> 00:00:55,748 by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, 25 00:00:55,750 --> 00:00:59,786 dedicated to strengthening America's future through education; 26 00:00:59,788 --> 00:01:01,921 by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 27 00:01:01,923 --> 00:01:04,991 exploring the human endeavor; 28 00:01:04,993 --> 00:01:08,695 by Mr. Jack C. Taylor... 29 00:01:08,697 --> 00:01:11,297 and by Rosalind P. Walter. 30 00:01:11,299 --> 00:01:12,999 Major funding was provided by 31 00:01:13,001 --> 00:01:15,301 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 32 00:01:15,303 --> 00:01:17,737 and by the generous contributions to your PBS 33 00:01:17,739 --> 00:01:20,073 station from viewers like you. 34 00:01:20,075 --> 00:01:21,074 Thank you. 35 00:01:22,376 --> 00:01:24,777 Before the names Theodore, 36 00:01:24,779 --> 00:01:26,746 Eleanor, and Franklin 37 00:01:26,748 --> 00:01:30,984 were indelibly etched into the American consciousness 38 00:01:30,986 --> 00:01:33,553 and the course of human history was forever changed 39 00:01:33,555 --> 00:01:37,223 by their individual endeavors, 40 00:01:37,225 --> 00:01:39,158 a prominent family made a point 41 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:41,961 of teaching the value of altruism, 42 00:01:41,963 --> 00:01:44,230 the power of perseverance, 43 00:01:44,232 --> 00:01:47,400 and the virtue of helping out one's fellow man. 44 00:02:33,614 --> 00:02:35,915 In April of 1944 45 00:02:35,917 --> 00:02:38,618 in the midst of the Second World War, 46 00:02:38,620 --> 00:02:41,054 the greatest cataclysm in history, 47 00:02:41,056 --> 00:02:43,590 the president of the United States 48 00:02:43,592 --> 00:02:45,024 seemed to have vanished. 49 00:02:45,026 --> 00:02:50,129 Wartime security had obscured Franklin Roosevelt's movements 50 00:02:50,131 --> 00:02:53,933 ever since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 51 00:02:53,935 --> 00:02:56,102 but this was different. 52 00:02:56,104 --> 00:03:00,406 He was said to be vacationing "somewhere in the south," 53 00:03:00,408 --> 00:03:03,142 getting over a bout of bronchitis. 54 00:03:03,144 --> 00:03:06,212 Actually, he was resting 55 00:03:06,214 --> 00:03:08,881 on the sprawling south Carolina estate 56 00:03:08,883 --> 00:03:11,718 of the financier Bernard Baruch. 57 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:16,055 Coast guard men and marines guarded the perimeter. 58 00:03:16,057 --> 00:03:21,461 He had been secretly diagnosed with congestive heart failure. 59 00:03:21,463 --> 00:03:24,664 His doctors feared for his life. 60 00:03:24,666 --> 00:03:27,467 Reporters from the 3 wire services 61 00:03:27,469 --> 00:03:30,470 were housed 8 miles away, told nothing 62 00:03:30,472 --> 00:03:33,773 about the president's actual condition, 63 00:03:33,775 --> 00:03:37,543 rarely able even to lay eyes on FDR. 64 00:03:37,545 --> 00:03:41,481 His uncharacteristic silence was interrupted 65 00:03:41,483 --> 00:03:45,118 by embarrassing headlines about him and his family. 66 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:49,322 His son Elliott's second wife won a divorce on the grounds 67 00:03:49,324 --> 00:03:52,859 of "unkind, harsh, and tyrannical" treatment. 68 00:03:52,861 --> 00:03:56,596 His sons marine lieutenant colonel James Roosevelt 69 00:03:56,598 --> 00:03:59,465 and Navy lieutenant commander Franklin Roosevelt Jr. 70 00:03:59,467 --> 00:04:01,501 Both received promotions. 71 00:04:01,503 --> 00:04:05,271 Republican newspapers charged favoritism. 72 00:04:05,273 --> 00:04:08,741 Despite the courage all of the Roosevelt boys 73 00:04:08,743 --> 00:04:11,945 had shown in combat, gop*** congressmen 74 00:04:11,947 --> 00:04:14,614 routinely attacked their war records, 75 00:04:14,616 --> 00:04:18,384 claiming they were somehow being protected against harm. 76 00:04:18,386 --> 00:04:23,389 Elliott Roosevelt, who flew 300 combat missions 77 00:04:23,391 --> 00:04:25,858 and won the distinguished flying cross, 78 00:04:25,860 --> 00:04:27,727 had written to his father that, 79 00:04:27,729 --> 00:04:31,164 "I sometimes really hope that one of us gets killed 80 00:04:31,166 --> 00:04:34,667 so that they'll stop picking on the rest of the family." 81 00:04:34,669 --> 00:04:38,838 Democratic senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri 82 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:42,375 insisted the White House respond formally to a letter 83 00:04:42,377 --> 00:04:45,411 from a constituent claiming that Mrs. Roosevelt 84 00:04:45,413 --> 00:04:49,382 was using 4 cars and burning up 2,000 gallons 85 00:04:49,384 --> 00:04:52,385 of precious rationed gasoline a month 86 00:04:52,387 --> 00:04:55,254 gallivanting around the country. 87 00:04:55,256 --> 00:04:58,291 Montana senator Burton K. Wheeler, 88 00:04:58,293 --> 00:05:00,293 an isolationist Democrat 89 00:05:00,295 --> 00:05:02,795 who had long since broken with the president, 90 00:05:02,797 --> 00:05:06,632 predicted FDR's health would prevent him from running again, 91 00:05:06,634 --> 00:05:11,337 adding, "I wouldn't vote for my own brother for a fourth term." 92 00:05:25,552 --> 00:05:27,553 Franklin Roosevelt 93 00:05:27,555 --> 00:05:31,658 so transformed the United States 94 00:05:31,660 --> 00:05:37,330 that it was, in essence, a different land, 95 00:05:37,332 --> 00:05:41,267 a different Republic from when he took office. 96 00:05:41,269 --> 00:05:46,039 There was an acceptance in the White House 97 00:05:46,041 --> 00:05:48,775 that government has a responsibility 98 00:05:48,777 --> 00:05:52,912 not just to a few, but to all of the nation 99 00:05:52,914 --> 00:05:55,381 that no subsequent president, 100 00:05:55,383 --> 00:05:58,051 no matter how Conservative his views, 101 00:05:58,053 --> 00:06:01,187 has ever been able to get away from. 102 00:06:01,189 --> 00:06:03,890 Prior to Franklin Roosevelt, 103 00:06:03,892 --> 00:06:06,225 the assumption was that the federal government 104 00:06:06,227 --> 00:06:08,661 existed to produce the conditions 105 00:06:08,663 --> 00:06:10,430 for the pursuit of happiness. 106 00:06:10,432 --> 00:06:13,700 Franklin Roosevelt said, "why stop there?" 107 00:06:13,702 --> 00:06:16,269 The federal government can, in no small measure, 108 00:06:16,271 --> 00:06:21,307 deliver happiness understood as material well-being. 109 00:06:21,309 --> 00:06:24,143 No one was president longer. 110 00:06:24,145 --> 00:06:28,848 No one defined the office in quite such personal terms. 111 00:06:28,850 --> 00:06:30,149 You know, it used to be said 112 00:06:30,151 --> 00:06:32,218 that Franklin Roosevelt's philosophy of the presidency 113 00:06:32,220 --> 00:06:33,619 was himself in it, 114 00:06:33,621 --> 00:06:35,755 and I think a lot of Americans came to agree with that. 115 00:06:38,092 --> 00:06:40,259 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt 116 00:06:40,261 --> 00:06:42,362 had already occupied the White House 117 00:06:42,364 --> 00:06:45,198 for more than 11 years. 118 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:49,035 Millions of Americans could remember no other first family 119 00:06:49,037 --> 00:06:52,138 and had a hard time imagining another, 120 00:06:52,140 --> 00:06:54,941 especially so long as the country 121 00:06:54,943 --> 00:06:58,111 and the world were still at war. 122 00:06:58,113 --> 00:07:02,982 FDR wanted to see the struggle through to victory 123 00:07:02,984 --> 00:07:05,418 and then to do what Woodrow Wilson 124 00:07:05,420 --> 00:07:08,955 had been unable to do after the first world war... 125 00:07:08,957 --> 00:07:12,759 bring the United States into a new international organization 126 00:07:12,761 --> 00:07:14,994 strong enough to ensure 127 00:07:14,996 --> 00:07:18,598 that the world would not go to war again. 128 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:23,036 Then, he told his devoted cousin Daisy Suckley, 129 00:07:23,038 --> 00:07:26,539 he thought he might break yet another presidential precedent 130 00:07:26,541 --> 00:07:31,377 and retire from office before his fourth term ended. 131 00:07:31,379 --> 00:07:35,548 Meanwhile, he would maintain the strictest secrecy 132 00:07:35,550 --> 00:07:40,320 about his own condition, even from his wife. 133 00:07:40,322 --> 00:07:43,189 I wouldn't discuss 134 00:07:43,191 --> 00:07:47,160 the president's health with him because I hated the idea 135 00:07:47,162 --> 00:07:49,395 and he knew I hated it. 136 00:07:49,397 --> 00:07:53,366 Either he felt he ought to serve a fourth term 137 00:07:53,368 --> 00:07:56,903 and wanted it or he didn't. 138 00:07:56,905 --> 00:08:01,874 That was up to the man himself to decide, and no one else. 139 00:08:16,123 --> 00:08:20,827 May 10, 1944. The White House. 140 00:08:20,829 --> 00:08:22,996 Everyone wanted to greet the president 141 00:08:22,998 --> 00:08:25,031 and see how he looked and felt. 142 00:08:25,033 --> 00:08:28,668 Anna and I held long talks about his "routine," 143 00:08:28,670 --> 00:08:31,904 and how difficult it is going to be to keep him to it. 144 00:08:31,906 --> 00:08:34,574 Anna had the brilliant thought of suggesting 145 00:08:34,576 --> 00:08:37,343 a nice, cool lunch on the porch, 146 00:08:37,345 --> 00:08:40,213 the lawn looking "green as green." 147 00:08:40,215 --> 00:08:43,616 The president looked across at the Jefferson Memorial 148 00:08:43,618 --> 00:08:49,188 and decided to give instructions for trimming the trees back for the vista. 149 00:08:49,190 --> 00:08:50,823 Daisy Suckley. 150 00:08:53,193 --> 00:08:56,229 Daisy Suckley and the president's daughter Anna, 151 00:08:56,231 --> 00:08:58,197 now living in the White House 152 00:08:58,199 --> 00:09:00,466 with her second husband away at war, 153 00:09:00,468 --> 00:09:03,369 were relieved to see that a month in South Carolina 154 00:09:03,371 --> 00:09:07,440 had cleared up the president's supposed "bronchitis." 155 00:09:07,442 --> 00:09:11,144 He did his best to follow his doctor's regimen 156 00:09:11,146 --> 00:09:13,846 and was pleased to be losing weight 157 00:09:13,848 --> 00:09:18,050 because it would allow him more easily to stand in his braces, 158 00:09:18,052 --> 00:09:22,689 but he remained listless and easily tired. 159 00:09:22,691 --> 00:09:25,258 Despite his frailty and the relentless demands 160 00:09:25,260 --> 00:09:27,927 of the continuing struggle overseas, 161 00:09:27,929 --> 00:09:32,031 Roosevelt had ambitious postwar plans for his country. 162 00:09:32,033 --> 00:09:34,734 In his latest State of the Union message, 163 00:09:34,736 --> 00:09:38,304 he had called for a new "economic bill of rights" 164 00:09:38,306 --> 00:09:42,408 that would guarantee to every American a living wage, 165 00:09:42,410 --> 00:09:47,447 a decent home, a good education, and adequate medical care. 166 00:09:47,449 --> 00:09:50,983 "Unless there is security here at home," he said, 167 00:09:50,985 --> 00:09:54,520 "there cannot be a lasting peace in the world." 168 00:09:54,522 --> 00:09:58,357 In truth, Roosevelt late in the war. 169 00:09:58,359 --> 00:10:00,760 At a time when one would suppose 170 00:10:00,762 --> 00:10:04,130 that he was only concerned with war strategy, 171 00:10:04,132 --> 00:10:08,267 called for an economic bill of rights more broad-reaching 172 00:10:08,269 --> 00:10:12,505 than anything that the new deal had contemplated before, 173 00:10:12,507 --> 00:10:15,575 and one of the pieces of legislation that's put through 174 00:10:15,577 --> 00:10:19,479 near the end of his presidency is the G.I. Bill of Rights 175 00:10:19,481 --> 00:10:23,950 that will sustain veterans for many years to come. 176 00:10:23,952 --> 00:10:26,219 The G.I. Bill of Rights, 177 00:10:26,221 --> 00:10:29,355 signed by the president after it was passed by Congress 178 00:10:29,357 --> 00:10:31,457 without a single dissenting vote, 179 00:10:31,459 --> 00:10:35,027 would provide almost 8 million returning veterans 180 00:10:35,029 --> 00:10:38,131 with vocational or college educations, 181 00:10:38,133 --> 00:10:41,534 help more than two million more to buy new homes, 182 00:10:41,536 --> 00:10:44,036 and offer other kinds of loans 183 00:10:44,038 --> 00:10:47,173 to launch hundreds of thousands of new businesses. 184 00:10:47,175 --> 00:10:51,677 No other single piece of legislation would do more 185 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:54,781 to expand the American middle class. 186 00:10:54,783 --> 00:10:58,985 Eleanor applauded her husband's renewed call for reform 187 00:10:58,987 --> 00:11:02,355 and was determined to make sure he did not abandon it, 188 00:11:02,357 --> 00:11:04,857 but she thought he was exaggerating 189 00:11:04,859 --> 00:11:07,426 his medical condition for attention 190 00:11:07,428 --> 00:11:11,030 and complained that by dining alone with Anna and Daisy, 191 00:11:11,032 --> 00:11:13,366 he was cut off from the dissenters 192 00:11:13,368 --> 00:11:16,235 she had always invited to speak their minds to him 193 00:11:16,237 --> 00:11:19,205 over the dinner table. 194 00:11:19,207 --> 00:11:23,509 FDR craved company, but not that kind. 195 00:11:23,511 --> 00:11:26,412 He asked Anna if she would quietly arrange to have 196 00:11:26,414 --> 00:11:30,750 his old love Lucy Rutherfurd come to dinner again. 197 00:11:30,752 --> 00:11:33,186 He began seeing her again 198 00:11:33,188 --> 00:11:37,223 because, I suppose, she was a reminder 199 00:11:37,225 --> 00:11:41,260 of a simpler life when he was able-bodied, 200 00:11:41,262 --> 00:11:44,564 but I think she was a genuinely nice person 201 00:11:44,566 --> 00:11:49,335 who adored him and believed him 202 00:11:49,337 --> 00:11:52,538 and had no causes of her own, 203 00:11:52,540 --> 00:11:57,143 and, like Daisy Suckley, she was there to admire him. 204 00:11:57,145 --> 00:11:59,011 His secretaries knew about it. 205 00:11:59,013 --> 00:12:02,748 Daisy Suckley knew about it, and his daughter, 206 00:12:02,750 --> 00:12:04,851 his daughter Anna, knew about it, 207 00:12:04,853 --> 00:12:06,485 but his wife didn't know about it, 208 00:12:06,487 --> 00:12:08,688 and the other children didn't know about it, 209 00:12:08,690 --> 00:12:13,526 and it just shows you the worlds within worlds of the Roosevelts. 210 00:12:13,528 --> 00:12:15,995 I'm convinced that it's simply 211 00:12:15,997 --> 00:12:18,831 a friendship at this point in time, but think about it. 212 00:12:18,833 --> 00:12:21,033 Lucy must remind him of what it was like 213 00:12:21,035 --> 00:12:24,437 when he was young and healthy, when he could walk and run, 214 00:12:24,439 --> 00:12:28,441 and here, he's deteriorating physically day after day, 215 00:12:28,443 --> 00:12:33,212 and it gives him a lift to remember those old times. 216 00:12:33,214 --> 00:12:35,281 So he decides that he wants to see her. 217 00:12:35,283 --> 00:12:38,751 It will help him to see her, but the only way he can do that, 218 00:12:38,753 --> 00:12:40,920 fearing that Eleanor wouldn't understand, 219 00:12:40,922 --> 00:12:43,022 is to have her come to the White House 220 00:12:43,024 --> 00:12:45,491 when Eleanor is away, and the only person he can trust 221 00:12:45,493 --> 00:12:48,861 to make those scheduling decisions is Anna. 222 00:12:48,863 --> 00:12:51,197 So you can imagine the dilemma that it put Anna in, 223 00:12:51,199 --> 00:12:55,401 being asked by her father if she will make it possible for Lucy to come, 224 00:12:55,403 --> 00:12:58,404 which she does 6 different times during that year, 225 00:12:58,406 --> 00:13:01,240 but knowing how much it would hurt her mother, 226 00:13:01,242 --> 00:13:03,676 but she makes the decision that her father 227 00:13:03,678 --> 00:13:06,145 needs this friendship, this companionship, 228 00:13:06,147 --> 00:13:08,214 in order to keep going, as hard as it would be 229 00:13:08,216 --> 00:13:11,450 for her to be the one that makes that happen. 230 00:13:11,452 --> 00:13:14,987 FDR Jr. told me that one time, 231 00:13:14,989 --> 00:13:19,158 he came back to the white house and walked in unannounced, 232 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:24,263 and his father was sitting in a chair upstairs 233 00:13:24,265 --> 00:13:28,701 and a strange woman was massaging his legs, 234 00:13:28,703 --> 00:13:33,339 and he had never seen her before and had no idea who she was, 235 00:13:33,341 --> 00:13:36,375 and Roosevelt simply said, "this is an old friend," 236 00:13:36,377 --> 00:13:39,111 and they shook hands, and Franklin Jr. 237 00:13:39,113 --> 00:13:41,147 Went off to have dinner or whatever, 238 00:13:41,149 --> 00:13:44,083 and years later, he figured out that that was Mrs. Rutherfurd. 239 00:13:47,287 --> 00:13:52,258 Hyde Park. May 19, 1944. 240 00:13:52,260 --> 00:13:56,362 About 11:30 A.M., the president came, 241 00:13:56,364 --> 00:13:59,765 and suggested we go to top cottage to see the dogwood. 242 00:13:59,767 --> 00:14:04,437 We put a couple of chairs in the sun north of the porch 243 00:14:04,439 --> 00:14:08,808 and just talked quietly about the view, the dogwood, 244 00:14:08,810 --> 00:14:12,111 a little about the coming invasion of Europe. 245 00:14:12,113 --> 00:14:14,914 Next week is the time, 246 00:14:14,916 --> 00:14:18,684 the exact date depending on wind and weather and tide. 247 00:14:18,686 --> 00:14:21,954 How that event hangs over us, 248 00:14:21,956 --> 00:14:24,857 has been hanging over us for months, 249 00:14:24,859 --> 00:14:28,661 and here it is, almost at hand. 250 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,168 The world had waited nearly 30 months 251 00:14:36,170 --> 00:14:38,537 for the allies to launch their invasion 252 00:14:38,539 --> 00:14:41,240 of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. 253 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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