Original subtitles

I have just done something that Franklin

Delano Roosevelt could never do on any

day of his 12-year presidency

19:45

as the global war reached its

devastating bankers Franklin Roosevelt

was the supreme figure of the wartime

alliance but also a man living on

borrowed time Roosevelt's health was

collapsing sacked by chronic heart

disease and by two decades as a secret

paraplegic one wartime American general

nicknamed him rubber legs but few

Americans were aware that their

president could not walk unaided or that

he'd been diagnosed as being on the

brink of cardiac vein

despite these secrets however the public

Rosevelt stands as one of America's most

remarkable presidents he crafted a new

deal to drag America out at the

Depression of the 1930s

and amid the catastrophe of world war ii

he envisioned a new deal to redeem the

whole world and we are going to win the

peace that follows Roosevelt would not

survive the war yet his desperate bid to

create a lasting peace and his tangled

legacy in the post-war world is one of

the great stories of the 20th century by

1945 Franklin Roosevelt was a man

inspired by visions of a better world

yet also gripped by deep personal

anxieties America's wheel chair

president racing to shape the future

before his past caught up with him

[Music]

at the beginning of November 1944

American forces were delivering killer

blows to the enemy the American army

dominated the war in Western Europe in

the Pacific the American Navy been

penetrated deep into Japanese coastal

waters to hunt down enemy shipping

at home the arsenal of democracy was

producing more combat aircraft than

Britain and Russia combined pundits were

already talking of the superpowers with

America in a league of its own

Franklin Roosevelt had been elected

president for an unprecedented fourth

term he was the most powerful man in the

world yet ironically one powerless over

much of his own body on election night

7th of November 1944 Roosevelt sat here

on the front porch of Springwood the

family mansion in Hyde Park some 75

miles north of New York savoring the

taste of victory from the porch

FDR could look along the Avenue to the

Albany Post Road it was a view he knew

so well in the early 1920s he'd stared

at it day by day

in a mixture of hope and despair a mere

quarter mile this was a journey he

longed to make but for years his legs

couldn't manage it and now his heart was

too weak as well

[Music]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's character

was forged in a unique crucible of

privilege and then adversity he was the

only son of wealthy New York gentry one

of the river families whose grand

estates spread out expensively along the

banks of the US after a pampered child

dominated by his widowed mother Sara

Delano Roosevelt he went to gromp

modeled on the English Victorian public

schools on to Harvard and then into a

Manhattan law firm a good springboard

for politics Roosevelt also married with

Eleanor was his fifth cousin

once-removed

and a niece of President Theodore

Roosevelt she brought a wealth of useful

connections for a young man with

political ambitions

over the next 11 years she gave birth to

a girl Anna and five boys one of whom

died before his first birthday eleanor

was an intelligent intense but shy young

woman marriage gave her new confidence

and poise but she was still prone to

crippling nerves and to what she called

Grizelda moments when she went into a

deep salt the young FDR by contrast

modeled himself on uncle Ted with his

brash will Winston even though his own

branch of the family were Democrats not

Republicans

his early political career was dazzling

FDR rose through New York state politics

to become assistant secretary of the

Navy during World War one while still in

his 30s

the Navy became a lifelong passion but

even more enduring was the influence of

his wartime boss President Woodrow

Wilson Wilson tried to sell Americans on

his vision for a lasting peace built

around the League of Nations but the

Senate rejected his plans America

slipped back into isolationism and

Wilson himself was laid low by a massive

stroke which paralyzed him and the

remainder of his presidency for the rest

of his life FDR would be inspired by

Wilson's political ideals and also

haunted by Wilson's personal tragedy in

1928 38 FDR ran as the Democratic

Party's vice presidential candidate

although the Democrats lost he was

clearly a rising star yet one already

with secrets this was a man who flew

high but lived dangerously FDR reveled

in the attention that came

in 1918 one journalist penned this

almost sensuous portrait his face is

long firmly shaped and set with marks of

confidence intensely blue eyes rest in

light shadow a firm thin mouth breaks

quickly to laugh openly and freely

Roosevelt knew he was attractive to

women and he enjoyed it although married

with a family he was an incorrigible

flirt but his affection for Lucy Mercer

Ellen a secretary was no mere flirtation

[Music]

Lucy was tall and elegant with a rich

voice deep eyes and a dazzling smile

just how far things went between them

during World War one is not clear but

FDR seems to have talked for time about

marriage the letters were certainly

passionate as Eleanor discovered when

she found them by chance in 1918

[Music]

shot in panic for a while

she felt utterly betrayed there was talk

of divorce

the Franklin's mother Sarah weighed in

hard warning her son that if he

renounced his wife shaming the family

name she would disinherit him and he

would not get another cent FDR had to

listen but the prize extracted by Elinor

for staying together was Franklin's

promise that he would never see Lucy

again the affair would have ended many

marriages but Franklin still admired and

respected Elinor her fierce intelligence

her passionate sense of right and wrong

for her part

Elinor still believed in Franklin maybe

even loved him though theirs was almost

certainly no longer a sexual

relationship and the tension eased in

1920 when she learned that Lucy had

married a wealthy New York businessman

[Music]

but then in August 1921 came a different

and even more devastating setback for

the Roosevelts

FDR was struck down by polio myelitis

the disease was generally known as

infantile paralysis because it

particularly afflicted children causing

them to scream in agony and lose control

of their bodily functions

[Music]

gradually painfully Roosevelt began to

recover

but his thighs and legs remained

unusable and he was confined to a

wheelchair hating the hospital variety

FDR had wheels put on ordinary wooden

chairs which were less obtrusive he had

a special car made which he could drive

without using any foot pedals at

Springwood ramps were installed and he

was moved from floor to floor via a

pulley lift in the servants quarters

originally used for cases and trucks

let me be blunt about what polio had

done to this handsome ambitious virile

politician he was now a man who could

not dress or undress himself who had to

be heaved into bed or placed on a toilet

in the language of the time he was now a

cripple at the age of 39

how would he face such a life Franklin's

mother was once again quite sure what

the future must be her beloved son

should retreat to the Hudson and retire

from public view

[Music]

but FDR refused to heed his mother's

wishes intent on making a political

comeback

he called it polio a childish disease

something that a strong adult should

simply outgrow against all the odds this

mama's boy whom she dressed for much of

his childhood in girls clothes and

little lord fauntleroy prophets dug deep

finding an iron determination and

radiating her

FDR had a simple straightforward faith

in God

[Music]

like his father he was a vestra man at

the local Episcopal Church and was

sustained by an underlying belief that

Providence was watching over him in the

worst sleepless nights of his illness he

would tell himself that this was trial

by fire testing his moral fiber for

challenges to come that faith and

resilience would become an essential

part of his charisma as a political

leader as he would say in later life

once you have spent two years trying to

wiggle one toe everything is in

proportion

[Music]

Roosevelt's battle with himself

accentuated the secretiveness ingrained

in him as an only child being mysterious

holding his cards close to his chest

would become central to FDR's political

identity allowing him to be all things

to all men in 1939 the washington press

corps caricatured him as the sinks even

those closest to roosevelt only

understood a fraction of his mind and

very little of his heart he often said

that he never let his left hand know

what his right was doing

[Music]

which hand am i mr. president whilst

Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau

anxiously from one occasion Morgenthau

was an old friend and Hudson Valley

neighbor Roosevelt smiled sweetly you

are my right hand then he added but I

keep my left under the table divide and

rule that would be Roosevelt's motto in

politics as in private life

[Music]

no one's stereotyped as a man in a

wheelchair could hope to succeed

politically in that day and age somehow

Roosevelt had to walk again or at least

appear to

he was fitted with a heavy steel corset

and braces running from hips to heel the

weight was exhausting and the metal cut

into his body that the braces when

locked enabled him to stand

he then worked to build up his torso so

he could maneuver his locked pelvis and

legs forward

finally he tried to walk

every morning imprisoned in what looked

like something out of a medieval torture

chamber Roosevelt would stand near the

house and vow

I must get down the driveway today then

he would set out towards the gates using

crutches to heave each side of his body

forward after a few steps he paused to

rest covered in sweat sometimes he

crashed to the ground and have to be put

back fuming into his wheelchair

FDR never abandoned hope that he'd make

it right down to the Albany Post Road

but after a couple of years of lumbering

failure it became clear that he could

not walk freely he would have to calm

the public that he could

[Music]

his chance came in the election campaign

of 1924 Roosevelt was booked to give the

nominating address of the Democratic

Party convention in New York on behalf

of the candidate Al Smith this would be

his first appearance in public since

polio struck in 1921 he practiced for

hours with his teenage son James so as

to be ready to take those few mindful

steps behind the scenes Roosevelt was

helped to his feet and his leg braces

locked in place

then James gave him his crutches

FDR slowly heaved himself across the

stage eyes down face fix in

concentration

the audience wash in riveted silence in

the gallery

Eleanor knitted like a mania when he

reached the rostrum Roosevelt handed

back his crutches he held onto the

podium for dear life grinning broadly as

the crowd cheered Roosevelt spoke for a

full half-hour with energy and animation

seeming almost to glow in the spotlights

at the end he praised Al Smith as the

happy warrior of the political

battlefield a reference to Wordsworth

poem honoring Admiral Lord Nelson but it

was clear from press reaction that the

happy warrior who stood out on that hot

June day in New York it was not else

to us

Smith failed to win the presidency in

1924 but tried again in 1928 with

Roosevelt once more making the speech of

nomination this time in Houston Texas by

now FDR was an accomplished public

speaker more important still he had

become a public worker fitted with steel

braces and gripping the arm of his son

Elliott this time

FDR walked to the podium using only a

cane the speech was a complete success

Americans concluded that Roosevelt had

clearly recovered he was no longer

crippled merely a bit lame in a way his

ordeal now seemed a positive present one

New York paper lauded him as a figure

tall and proud even in suffering a man

softened and cleansed and illumined with

pain

thousand Americans are here to clear the

birth of a new era in natural affairs a

New Deal era which is supposed to pull

the country out of a chaos four years

later in 1932 with America hit by the

worst depression of its history

Roosevelt himself ran for the presidency

gaining a landslide victory and becoming

the first Democrat to occupy the White

House since his political mentor woodrow

us

[Music]

never when there's such a joyful

jubilant yelling applauding inauguration

chop Rosa is a nation idle here today

let me assert my firm belief that the

only thing we have amazingly even after

he took office

most Americans never discovered

Roosevelt's secret press and

photographers maintained a discreet

silence about his disability the only

surviving shots of FDR in a wheelchair

come from family photos or home movies

but appearance didn't alter reality

Roosevelt was the wheelchair President

and he was trying to lead his country

through one of the most testing decades

in its history yet ironically I think

Roosevelt's infirmity was his greatest

source of power when he told Americans

traumatized by the depression the only

thing we have to fear is fear itself

Roosevelt more than almost all his

countrymen knew what he was talking

about

[Music]

in his first two terms Rosa was

preoccupied with his new deal for

America to pull the country out of the

depression through massive spending on

infrastructure and social programs

[Music]

but Roosevelt became more and more

engaged in foreign policy as Nazism took

hold in Europe

having spent several summers in the

Rhineland during his youth he had long

been convinced that the German elite

were militaristic expansionists and he

saw through Hitler describing him as a

wildly under nut when he read the

abridged English edition of mine camp in

1933

FDR wrote caustically in the Flyleaf

this translation is so expurgated as to

give a wholly false view of what Hitler

really is or says the German original

would make a different story

during the 1930s Roosevelt could do

little to shift isolationist attitudes

in America

but then came the amazing German

conquest of Western Europe in 1940

creating a global crisis Roosevelt drew

America closer to embattled Britain

America was then pitchforked into the

global war by the Japanese assault on

Pearl Harbor in December 1941

powerful and resourceful gangsters have

banded together to make war upon the

whole human race their challenge has now

been flung at the United States of

America we are now in this war we're all

in it all the way every single man woman

and child is a partner in the most

tremendous undertaking of our American

history 1942 and 1943 America allied

with Britain engaged in a brutal

struggle against Japan in the Pacific

and also through its troops against the

Germans in North Africa

and then Italy probing what Churchill

called the soft underbelly of the axis

before trying to attack hitlist hard

snout in France

the sources of international brutality

wherever they exist must be absolutely

and finally living we must begin the

great task that is before us by

abandoning once and for all the illusion

that we can ever again isolate ourselves

from the rest of humanity but the war

posed new challenges for an already

weary President Roosevelt didn't simply

want victory he wanted to shape an

enduring worldwide peace and avoid a

repeat of the tragedy of Woodrow Wilson

for him I think that meant drawing

communist Russia into peacetime

cooperation moving beyond the era of

European imperialism and above all

persuading Americans to take up the

burdens of international leadership in

an improved version of Wilson's League

of Nations it was in search of those

girls that Roosevelt traveled halfway

around the world in November 1943 for

summit meetings in Tehran to Cairo

here the man they nicknamed the Sphinx

could take the measure of foreign

leaders and test his political skills

would his secretive enigmatic nature

seeming to be all things to all men work

on the world stage for Roselle the

highlight of the trip was his first

meeting with America's other ally Joseph

Stalin Russia's revolutionaries are had

now gained the upper hand in his titanic

struggle Hitler

the Red Army was driving the Germans out

of the Ukraine

[Music]

Roosevelt hoped to establish a close

personal relationship with the Soviet

LinkedIn terse soft-spoken with a dry

humor

Stalin seemed like a man with whom he

could do business

[Music]

but Roosevelt had to persuade Winston

Churchill the British Prime Minister

Churchill also felt he could work with

Stalin personally but as an inveterate

anti-communist he harbored dark fears

about what might happen its Soviet

ideology caught fire across Europe

Roosevelt's mind by contrast was more

open to him Stalinism seemed very

different from Leninist the Soviets had

dropped the official ideology of world

revolution and had allied with the West

Roosevelt genuinely believed I think

that it was possible to bring the Reds

in from the cold into the family of

Nations and that he was the man to do it

at Tehran Roosevelt was willing to

manipulate his old ally Winston to

achieve his goal keen to show the

Soviets that America and Britain weren't

operating in as a bloc Roosevelt went

out of his way to side with Stalin

against Church together they baited the

British leader about the number of

Germans that should be shocked after the

war

Roosevelt envisaged Russia with Britain

as one of the policemen who would ensure

peace and order in the post-war world as

bulwarks of the new United Nations

organisation Roosevelt's other pitch for

Stalin's goodwill at Tehran was tied up

with his great aim for the post-war

world the end of empire imperialism was

one of Roosevelt's obsessions but he

viewed it as essentially advice of the

Europeans with their far-flung colonial

empires he didn't seem to recognize the

expansion of Russia across Asia as

imperialist and certainly not the

expansion of the United States from the

Atlantic to the Pacific when meeting on

their own at Tehran Roosevelt treated

Stalin almost as a fellow anti

imperialist when discussing how to

handle this issue with the reactionary

Europeans he told Stalin that after a

hundred years of French rule in

Indochina the inhabitants were worse off

than they'd been before

as for the British Raj in India

Roosevelt advocated what he called

reform from the bottom somewhat on the

Soviet line to which Stalin responded

dryly reformed from the bottom would

mean or evel's

[Music]

Roosevelt was delighted by the results

of his journey for him the meeting with

Stalin had been a huge step towards

achieving his goal of a new world order

no longer centered on the historic grape

flowers of Europe but the 12,000 mile

round trip had taken a massive toll of

the president's health massive and in

fact fateful back in Washington in

December 1943 Roosevelt was struck down

with flu and seemed unable to regain the

strength the Christmas he said he felt

like a boiled owl he would nod off in

meetings and complained of persistent

headaches

several long breaks in the new year at

his beloved Hyde Park did not make a

real difference

what's amazing today I think it's the

almost casual amateurish ness of the

medical care given to the most powerful

man in the world for months the

president's personal physician Admiral

Ross McIntyre insisted that FDR's

problem was simply persistent bronchitis

and the after-effects of flu but then

McIntyre was a rather strange sort of

presidential doctor McIntyre's day job

with Surgeon General of the u.s. Navy

the Navy's top medical post responsible

for 52 hospitals and a hundred and

seventy-five thousand doctors and nurses

looking after the president was done on

the side he got that job through

contacts in the right places and because

Roosevelt had a chronic sinus condition

and he was an ear nose and throat

specialist

[Music]

[Music]

McIntire did his presidential duties on

the run he callin at the White House

about 8:30 in the morning and go

upstairs to the president's bedroom for

what he called a look-see

this consisted of sitting around while

Roosevelt still in bed ate breakfast and

chatted about what was in the morning

newspapers that said MacIntyre told me

all I wanted to know

no thermometer no stethoscope no taking

the pulse just listening to his master's

voice this was hardly a model of

advanced medical science

it was not until March 1944 when the

president was running a temperature of a

hundred and four degrees that MacIntyre

grudgingly arranged for him to have a

check-up at Bethesda Naval Hospital on

the outskirts of Washington in secret he

was put onto the presidential train at

Hyde Park and taken for what was

probably the first serious medical

examination of his whole presidency

Bethesda was the Navy's premier hospital

and the president was being seen by one

of its young up-and-coming cardiologists

dr. Howard Bruin

FDR was wielding jocular and chatty he

kept that up the whole time a cover

brewing guests for dinner anxiety the

checkup itself with deeply alarming

these are dr. Bruins original

examinations

the president's lungs were congested his

heart enormous and blood pressure

readings dangerously high 170 over a

hundred and ten way above the normal

brewing rate that he was appalled at

what he'd found the diagnosis here is

stark hypertension hypertensive heart

disease cardiac failure

[Music]

FDR's visit to Bethesda could not be

kept a secret but at a press conference

Admiral McIntire insisted brazenly that

the president's health was satisfactory

apart from the lingering effects of flu

and bronchitis what FDR needed claimed

his doctor was just a bit more exercise

and sunshine behind the scenes however

McIntyre ought to be desperate rearguard

action against Bruins devastating

diagnosis the young cardiologist was

insisting that Rose felt needed

injections of the drug digitalis to

strengthen his heart a regular daily

pattern of rests in bed and a strict

diet to wean him off rich food his

infamous evening cocktails and 20 or 30

cigarettes a day McIntyre was absolutely

furious you can't do that he shouted

this is the President of the United

States but Bruin was sure that is would

become was if they didn't act quickly

and he calmly stuck to his guns before

three boards of senior Washington medics

eventually given leave to go ahead ruin

achieved significant results

after a week of digitate the president's

lungs were clear and his heart smaller

he was sleeping much better and had cut

down his cigarettes to half a dozen a

day but his blood pressure remained very

hard and with it

the risk of a stroke yet in those days

there were no medications available for

high blood pressure and the standard

remedies rest and no stress were hard to

arrange for the most powerful man in the

world but Bruin did what he could he

persuaded FDR to take a break on the

estate of an old friend

Bernard Baruch in South Carolina

early nights and a lot of fishing were

real tonics Roosevelt liked it so much

that he stayed for weeks but none of

this dealt with the basic problem how

could the ailing president survive all

the pressures he had been out of the

White House for nine of the first 20

weeks of 1944 he was now back but was

trying to operate on a four hour day

this was hardly satisfactory for the

President of the United States

especially a president who was planning

to run for a fourth term

[Music]

the Washington rumor mills speculated

feverishly about how FDR's health would

cope with another four years as

president

the choice of his new vice-presidential

running mate would be critical

Roosevelt differed about the

alternatives only late in the day

pumping for the obscure and

inexperienced Senator Harry Truman of

Missouri and getting very stressed about

the whole business

it was another alarming sign of FDR's

infirmity dr. Howard brewing was never

consulted but looking back he had no

doubt that a fourth term was a medical

impossibility and deep down FDR surely

knew this too I think it's telling that

at the end of his check up at Bethesda

the President thanked dr. Bruin and the

staff but then left without asking a

single question he carried on avoiding

any discussion of his real condition

with Bruin or any other qualified doctor

I think Roosevelt didn't want to know

perhaps he couldn't afford to know for

this was a man with a vision who like

most states had come to see himself as

irreplaceable with vision comes hubris

the cardinal sin of all political

veterans in the summer of 1944 as the

war boiled up to its climax the

wheelchair President was sure that he

had to stay around to shape the

political future forgiving the desperate

state of his health this was a reckless

gamble

the 6th of June 1944

Dida the long-awaited anglo-american

landings in France

news of Operation Overlord was greeted

with relief and elation awesome area

that evening the president spoke by

radio to the American people not in

tones of exultation but in the form of a

simple prayer and to set free a

suffering humanity help us Almighty God

to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith

in thee in this hour of great sacrifice

[Music]

but for the moment the gi's didn't get

much farther than the hedgerows of

Normandy pinned down by fierce German

resistance meanwhile another d-day

dawned on the Eastern Front little-known

even today in the West this shaped the

fate of Europe as much as operation oval

on the 21st of June the Red Army

unleashed its summer offensive into PLO

Russia

the impact was devastating

in five weeks while Eisenhower and

Montgomery were bogged down in Normandy

the Red Army destroyed 20 German

divisions and drove forward 450 miles to

the gates of Warsaw

[Music]

but when the Polish Home Army rose up

against the Nazis

the Soviets provided little help

admittedly the Red Army was now

exhausted and in no condition to assault

a well-defended City but Stalin with

reason viewed the Warsaw rising as a

deliberate attempt by the poles to

liberate their country before it fell

under Soviet control Churchill angered

by the Soviet attitude pres Stalin to

offer aid Machiavellian as ever in his

approach to ends and means Roosevelt

kept out of this argument for him the

real goal continued to be forging a

long-term partnership with the Soviet

leader at Tehran he'd even pretended to

snooze when Stalin and Churchill haggled

over the details of Eastern Europe

joking

I don't care two hoots about Poland wake

me up when we talk about Germany

but the Walsall rising did have a

significant effect on Roosevelt's

ambassador to Russia

Averell Harriman the Soviet response to

the Walsall rising left Harriman feeling

FDR was too confident about the Soviet

regime gradually adopting Western

democratic ways the question became even

more pressing when in September 1944 the

Red Army broke through into Romania and

Bulgaria the Soviets were clearly going

to be a presence in Eastern Europe after

the war was over how should the West

deal with

[Music]

you

[Music]