0:00:08 > 0:00:10I have just done something
0:00:10 > 0:00:14that Franklin Delano Roosevelt could never do
0:00:14 > 0:00:17on any day of his 12-year presidency.
0:00:23 > 0:00:251945.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34As the global war reached its devastating climax,
0:00:34 > 0:00:39Franklin Roosevelt was the supreme figure of the wartime alliance,
0:00:39 > 0:00:42but also a man living on borrowed time.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48The images of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
0:00:48 > 0:00:51meeting at Yalta are well known.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54What may be less familiar, given his appearance,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56is the fact that the American President
0:00:56 > 0:00:57was, by some years,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00the youngest of the Big Three.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Roosevelt's health was collapsing,
0:01:06 > 0:01:08sapped by chronic heart disease
0:01:08 > 0:01:12and by two decades as a secret paraplegic.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17One wartime American general nicknamed him Rubberlegs.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21But few Americans were aware that their president
0:01:21 > 0:01:23could not walk unaided,
0:01:23 > 0:01:25or that he had been diagnosed
0:01:25 > 0:01:28as being on the brink of cardiac failure.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34And in Roosevelt's complicated personal life,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37other skeletons lay hidden in the cupboard.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42His formidable yet fragile wife, Eleanor,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45had supported him through his long battle with disability.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50But their marriage was now coming under increasing strain,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54for Roosevelt was living with a dark secret...
0:01:58 > 0:02:00..about an affair,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03exposed and ended 25 years earlier,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07but now resurrected in wartime by a president
0:02:07 > 0:02:11isolated in the loneliness of power.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19Despite all these very human flaws, however, the public Roosevelt
0:02:19 > 0:02:23stands as one of America's most remarkable presidents.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26He crafted a New Deal to drag America
0:02:26 > 0:02:29out of the depression of the 1930s.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39And, amid the catastrophe of World War II,
0:02:39 > 0:02:44he envisioned a New Deal to redeem the whole world.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48We are going to win the war
0:02:48 > 0:02:52and we are going to win the peace that follows.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Roosevelt would not survive the war,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00yet his desperate bid to create a lasting peace
0:03:00 > 0:03:03and his tangled legacy in the post-war world
0:03:03 > 0:03:06is one of the great stories of the 20th century.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10To understand the endgame of World War II
0:03:10 > 0:03:15and the dawn of the Cold War, we must also understand
0:03:15 > 0:03:21the mind and the heart of this most enigmatic of leaders -
0:03:21 > 0:03:25how his complex personality influenced world affairs
0:03:25 > 0:03:27at a critical moment in history.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32By 1945, Franklin Roosevelt was a man inspired
0:03:32 > 0:03:35by visions of a better world,
0:03:35 > 0:03:40yet also gripped by deep personal anxieties.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43America's wheelchair president,
0:03:43 > 0:03:48racing to shape the future before his past caught up with him.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02EXPLOSIONS
0:04:04 > 0:04:06At the beginning of November 1944,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10American forces were delivering killer blows to the enemy.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16The American army dominated the war in Western Europe.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22In the Pacific, the American navy
0:04:22 > 0:04:25had penetrated deep into Japanese coastal waters
0:04:25 > 0:04:28to hunt down enemy shipping.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35At home, the Arsenal of Democracy
0:04:35 > 0:04:38was producing more combat aircraft
0:04:38 > 0:04:40than Britain and Russia combined.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Pundits were already talking of the superpowers,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49with America in a league of its own.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Franklin Roosevelt had been elected president
0:04:57 > 0:05:00for an unprecedented fourth term.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03He was the most powerful man in the world,
0:05:03 > 0:05:08yet ironically one powerless over much of his own body.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13On election night, 7th of November 1944,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Roosevelt sat here on the front porch of Springwood,
0:05:16 > 0:05:21the family mansion in Hyde Park, some 75 miles north of New York,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24savouring the taste of victory.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30From the porch, FDR could look along the avenue
0:05:30 > 0:05:34to the Albany Post Road. It was a view he knew so well.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40In the early 1920s, he'd stared at it day by day
0:05:40 > 0:05:43in a mixture of hope and despair.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48A mere quarter mile, this was a journey he longed to make,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51but for years his legs couldn't manage it,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54and now his heart was too weak as well.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Franklin Delano Roosevelt's character was forged
0:06:05 > 0:06:09in a unique crucible of privilege and then adversity.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13He was the only son of wealthy New York gentry -
0:06:13 > 0:06:17one of the "river families" whose grand estates
0:06:17 > 0:06:20spread out expansively along the banks of the Hudson.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26After a pampered childhood dominated by his widowed mother,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Sara Delano Roosevelt, he went to Groton,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33modelled on the English Victorian public schools,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37on to Harvard, and then into a Manhattan law firm -
0:06:37 > 0:06:40a good springboard for politics.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Roosevelt also married well.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Eleanor was his fifth cousin once removed,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53She brought a wealth of useful connections
0:06:53 > 0:06:55for a young man with political ambitions.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01Over the next 11 years, she gave birth to a girl, Anna,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05and five boys, one of whom died before his first birthday.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Eleanor was an intelligent, intense, but shy young woman.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Marriage gave her new confidence and poise
0:07:15 > 0:07:18but she was still prone to crippling nerves
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and to what she called "Griselda moments"
0:07:21 > 0:07:23when she went into a deep sulk.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35The young FDR, by contrast, modelled himself on Uncle Ted,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37with his brash, whirlwind style,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39even though his own branch of the family
0:07:39 > 0:07:41were Democrats, not Republicans.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46His early political career was dazzling.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50FDR rose through New York state politics to become
0:07:50 > 0:07:53Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56while still in his thirties.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01The Navy became a lifelong passion,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03but even more enduring was the influence
0:08:03 > 0:08:06of his wartime boss, President Woodrow Wilson.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Wilson tried to sell Americans on his vision for a lasting peace,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15built around the League of Nations.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18But the Senate rejected his plans,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20America slipped back into isolationism,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and Wilson himself was laid low by a massive stroke,
0:08:24 > 0:08:30which paralysed him and the remainder of his presidency.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33For the rest of his life, FDR would be inspired
0:08:33 > 0:08:35by Wilson's political ideals,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and also haunted by Wilson's personal tragedy.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44In 1920, aged 38,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48FDR ran as the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53Although the Democrats lost, he was clearly a rising star -
0:08:53 > 0:08:57yet one already with secrets.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01This was a man who flew high but lived dangerously.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09FDR revelled in the attention that came with politics.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15In 1918, one journalist penned this almost sensuous portrait:
0:09:15 > 0:09:20"His face is long, firmly shaped and set with marks of confidence.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23"Intensely blue eyes rest in light shadow.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28"A firm, thin mouth breaks quickly to laugh, openly and freely."
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Roosevelt knew he was attractive to women, and he enjoyed it.
0:09:34 > 0:09:40Although married with a family, he was an incorrigible flirt.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43But his affection for Lucy Mercer, Eleanor's secretary,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45was no mere flirtation.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49# We're all alone, no chaperone
0:09:49 > 0:09:52# Can get our number
0:09:52 > 0:09:54# The world's in slumber
0:09:54 > 0:09:56# Let's misbehave... #
0:09:56 > 0:09:59Lucy was tall and elegant, with a rich voice,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02deep eyes and a dazzling smile.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Just how far things went between them during World War I
0:10:05 > 0:10:10is not clear, but FDR seems to have talked for a time about marriage.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Their letters were certainly passionate,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17as Eleanor discovered when she found them by chance in 1918.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19# ..Let's misbehave. #
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Shocked, in panic for a while,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26she felt utterly betrayed.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29There was talk of divorce.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34But Franklin's mother Sara weighed in hard, warning her son
0:10:34 > 0:10:38that if he renounced his wife, shaming the family name,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42she would disinherit him and he would not get another cent.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46FDR had to listen.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49But the price extracted by Eleanor for staying together
0:10:49 > 0:10:53was Franklin's promise that he would never see Lucy again.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59The affair would have ended many marriages.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03But Franklin still admired and respected Eleanor -
0:11:03 > 0:11:05her fierce intelligence,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08her passionate sense of right and wrong.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12For her part, Eleanor still believed in Franklin,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14maybe even loved him,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19though theirs was almost certainly no longer a sexual relationship.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22And the tension eased in 1920 when she learned
0:11:22 > 0:11:26that Lucy had married a wealthy New York businessman.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33But then, in August 1921, came a different
0:11:33 > 0:11:36and even more devastating setback for the Roosevelts.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41FDR was struck down by poliomyelitis.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The disease was generally known as infantile paralysis,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50because it particularly afflicted children, causing them
0:11:50 > 0:11:54to scream in agony and lose control of their bodily functions.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Gradually, painfully, Roosevelt began to recover.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06But his thighs and legs remained unusable
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and he was confined to a wheelchair.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12Hating the hospital variety,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15FDR had wheels put on ordinary wooden chairs,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19which were less obtrusive. He had a special car made,
0:12:19 > 0:12:23which he could drive without using any foot pedals.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26At Springwood, ramps were installed
0:12:26 > 0:12:30and he was moved from floor to floor via a pulley lift
0:12:30 > 0:12:32in the servants' quarters,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35originally used for cases and trunks.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43Let me be blunt about what polio had done to this handsome,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46ambitious, virile politician.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52He was now a man who could not dress or undress himself,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55who had to be heaved into bed
0:12:55 > 0:12:59or placed on a toilet. In the language of the time,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03he was now a cripple at the age of 39.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07How would he face such a life?
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Franklin's mother was once again quite sure what the future must be.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Her beloved son should retreat to the Hudson
0:13:18 > 0:13:20and retire from public view.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28But FDR refused to heed his mother's wishes,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31intent on making a political comeback.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34He called his polio a childish disease,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38something that a strong adult should simply outgrow.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Against all the odds, this mama's boy -
0:13:42 > 0:13:46whom she dressed, for much of his childhood, in girl's clothes
0:13:46 > 0:13:49and Little Lord Fauntleroy outfits -
0:13:49 > 0:13:53dug deep, finding an iron determination
0:13:53 > 0:13:56and radiating hope.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07FDR had a simple, straightforward faith in God.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Like his father, he was a vestryman at the local Episcopal church,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and was sustained by an underlying belief
0:14:18 > 0:14:20that Providence was watching over him.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24In the worst sleepless nights of his illness,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28he would tell himself that this was trial by fire,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32testing his moral fibre for challenges to come.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36That faith and resilience would become an essential part
0:14:36 > 0:14:39of his charisma as a political leader.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42As he would say in later life,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45"Once you have spent two years trying to wiggle one toe,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48"everything is in proportion."
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Roosevelt's battle with himself
0:14:59 > 0:15:02accentuated the secretiveness
0:15:02 > 0:15:05ingrained in him as an only child.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11Being mysterious, holding his cards close to his chest,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15would become central to FDR's political identity,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19allowing him to be all things to all men.
0:15:20 > 0:15:26In 1939, the Washington press corps caricatured him as the Sphinx.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Even those closest to Roosevelt
0:15:30 > 0:15:34only understood a fraction of his mind
0:15:34 > 0:15:36and very little of his heart.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41He often said he never let his left hand
0:15:41 > 0:15:43know what his right was doing.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50"Which hand am I, Mr President?" asked Treasury Secretary
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Henry Morgenthau anxiously on one occasion.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58Morgenthau was an old friend and Hudson Valley neighbour.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Roosevelt smiled sweetly.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02"You are my right hand."
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Then he added, "But I keep my left under the table."
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Divide and rule - that would be Roosevelt's motto,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16in politics as in private life.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24No-one stereotyped as a man in a wheelchair
0:16:24 > 0:16:28could hope to succeed politically in that day and age.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Somehow, Roosevelt had to walk again -
0:16:30 > 0:16:32or at least appear to.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39He was fitted with a heavy steel corset and braces,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42running from hips to heel.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46The weight was exhausting and the metal cut into his body,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49but the braces, when locked, enabled him to stand.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57He then worked to build up his torso
0:16:57 > 0:17:01so he could manoeuvre his locked pelvis and legs forward.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Finally, he tried to walk.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Every morning, imprisoned in what looked like
0:17:10 > 0:17:13something out of a medieval torture chamber,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Roosevelt would stand near the house and vow,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19"I must get down the driveway today."
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Then he would set out towards the gates,
0:17:24 > 0:17:29using crutches to heave each side of his body forward.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34After a few steps he'd pause to rest, covered in sweat.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36Sometimes he'd crash to the ground
0:17:36 > 0:17:40and have to be put back, fuming, into his wheelchair.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44FDR never abandoned hope that he'd make it
0:17:44 > 0:17:47right down to the Albany Post Road.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51But after a couple of years of lumbering failure,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55it became clear that he could not walk freely.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58He would have to con the public that he could.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07His chance came in the election campaign of 1924.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Roosevelt was booked to give the nominating address
0:18:11 > 0:18:14at the Democratic Party Convention in New York
0:18:14 > 0:18:17on behalf of the candidate Al Smith.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21This would be his first appearance in public
0:18:21 > 0:18:23since polio struck in 1921.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28He practised for hours with his teenage son James,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32so as to be ready to take those few vital steps.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Behind the scenes, Roosevelt was helped to his feet
0:18:38 > 0:18:42and his leg braces locked in place.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Then James gave him his crutches.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52FDR slowly heaved himself
0:18:52 > 0:18:55across the stage,
0:18:55 > 0:18:56eyes down,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00face fixed in concentration.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06The audience watched in riveted silence.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11In the gallery, Eleanor knitted like a maniac.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19When he reached the rostrum, Roosevelt handed back his crutches.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25He held on to the podium for dear life,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29grinning broadly as the crowd cheered.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31DISTANT CHEERING
0:19:31 > 0:19:36Roosevelt spoke for a full half-hour with energy and animation,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40seeming almost to glow in the spotlights.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43At the end, he praised Al Smith
0:19:43 > 0:19:47as "the happy warrior of the political battlefield" -
0:19:47 > 0:19:51a reference to Wordsworth's poem honouring Admiral Lord Nelson.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55But it was clear from press reaction
0:19:55 > 0:19:58that the "happy warrior" who stood out
0:19:58 > 0:20:01on that hot June day in New York
0:20:01 > 0:20:06was not Al Smith, but Franklin Roosevelt.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Smith failed to win the presidency in 1924,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17but tried again in 1928, with Roosevelt once more
0:20:17 > 0:20:21making the speech of nomination, this time in Houston, Texas.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27By now, FDR was an accomplished public speaker.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32More important still, he had become a public walker.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37Fitted with steel braces and gripping the arm of his son Elliott,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41this time FDR walked to the podium using only a cane.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47The speech was a complete success.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Americans concluded that Roosevelt had clearly recovered -
0:20:50 > 0:20:55he was no longer crippled, merely a bit lame.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59In a way, his ordeal now seemed a positive asset.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05One New York paper lauded him as:
0:21:05 > 0:21:08"A figure tall and proud, even in suffering,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12"a man softened and cleansed and illumined with pain."
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Thousands of Americans are here
0:21:20 > 0:21:23to cheer the birth of a new era in national affairs,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27a New Deal era which is supposed to pull the country out of its chaos.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Four years later, in 1932,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34with America hit by the worst depression of its history,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Roosevelt himself ran for the presidency,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41gaining a landslide victory and becoming the first Democrat
0:21:41 > 0:21:47to occupy the White House since his political mentor, Woodrow Wilson.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49- CROWD CHEERS - Never was there such a joyful, jubilant,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51yelling, applauding inauguration crowd.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Roosevelt is the nation's idol here today.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00First of all, let me assert my firm belief
0:22:00 > 0:22:07that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15Amazingly, even after he took office,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19most Americans never discovered Roosevelt's secret.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Press and photographers maintained
0:22:22 > 0:22:25a discreet silence about his disability.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30The only surviving shots of FDR in a wheelchair
0:22:30 > 0:22:33come from family photos or home movies.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39But appearance didn't alter reality.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Roosevelt was the wheelchair president,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45and he was trying to lead his country through
0:22:45 > 0:22:48one of the most testing decades in its history.
0:22:50 > 0:22:55Yet ironically, I think, Roosevelt's infirmity
0:22:55 > 0:22:58was his greatest source of power.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03When he told Americans, traumatised by the Depression,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,"
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Roosevelt, more than almost all his countrymen,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13knew what he was talking about.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25In his first two terms, Roosevelt was preoccupied
0:23:25 > 0:23:27with his New Deal for America -
0:23:27 > 0:23:31to pull the country out of the Depression through massive spending
0:23:31 > 0:23:34on infrastructure and social programmes.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43But Roosevelt became more and more engaged in foreign policy
0:23:43 > 0:23:46as Nazism took hold in Europe.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Having spent several summers in the Rhineland during his youth,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57he had long been convinced that the German elite
0:23:57 > 0:24:01were militaristic expansionists. And he saw through Hitler,
0:24:01 > 0:24:06describing him as a "wild man" and a "nut".
0:24:09 > 0:24:14When he read the abridged English edition of Mein Kampf in 1933,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17FDR wrote caustically in the flyleaf:
0:24:17 > 0:24:22"This translation is so expurgated as to give a wholly false view
0:24:22 > 0:24:25"of what Hitler really is or says.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28"The German original would make a different story."
0:24:31 > 0:24:34During the 1930s, Roosevelt could do little
0:24:34 > 0:24:37to shift isolationist attitudes in America.
0:24:41 > 0:24:47But then came the amazing German conquest of Western Europe in 1940,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50creating a global crisis.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Roosevelt drew America closer to embattled Britain.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58America was then pitchforked into the global war
0:24:58 > 0:25:02by the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together
0:25:12 > 0:25:16to make war upon the whole human race.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Their challenge has now been flung
0:25:19 > 0:25:21at the United States of America.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26We are now in this war.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31We're all in it. All the way.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Every single man, woman and child
0:25:34 > 0:25:38is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking
0:25:38 > 0:25:40of our American history.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48In 1942 and 1943,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50America, allied with Britain,
0:25:50 > 0:25:55engaged in a brutal struggle against Japan in the Pacific...
0:25:56 > 0:25:59EXPLOSION
0:25:59 > 0:26:02..and also threw its troops against the Germans in North Africa...
0:26:05 > 0:26:06..and then Italy,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11probing what Churchill called the "soft underbelly of the Axis"
0:26:11 > 0:26:15before trying to attack Hitler's "hard snout" in France.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21The sources of international brutality, wherever they exist,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25must be absolutely and finally broken.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27EXPLOSION
0:26:27 > 0:26:30We must begin the great task that is before us
0:26:30 > 0:26:35by abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again
0:26:35 > 0:26:38isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43EXPLOSION
0:26:46 > 0:26:50But the war posed new challenges for an already weary president.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Roosevelt didn't simply want victory.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00He wanted to shape an enduring worldwide peace
0:27:00 > 0:27:04and avoid a repeat of the tragedy of Woodrow Wilson.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10For him, I think that meant drawing communist Russia
0:27:10 > 0:27:13into peacetime cooperation,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17moving beyond the era of European imperialism,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and above all, persuading Americans
0:27:20 > 0:27:24to take up the burdens of international leadership
0:27:24 > 0:27:28in an improved version of Wilson's League of Nations.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36It was in search of those goals that Roosevelt travelled
0:27:36 > 0:27:39halfway around the world in November 1943
0:27:39 > 0:27:43for summit meetings in Tehran and Cairo.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47Here the man they nicknamed the Sphinx
0:27:47 > 0:27:49could take the measure of foreign leaders
0:27:49 > 0:27:52and test his political skills.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Would his secretive, enigmatic nature,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01seeming to be all things to all men, work on the world stage?
0:28:08 > 0:28:10For Roosevelt, the highlight of the trip
0:28:10 > 0:28:14was his first meeting with America's other ally, Joseph Stalin.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Russia's revolutionary tsar had now gained the upper hand
0:28:19 > 0:28:22in his titanic struggle with Hitler.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24GUNFIRE
0:28:24 > 0:28:29The Red Army was driving the Germans out of the Ukraine.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Roosevelt hoped to establish
0:28:36 > 0:28:40a close personal relationship with the Soviet leader.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Terse, soft-spoken with a dry humour,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Stalin seemed like a man with whom he could do business.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54But Roosevelt had to persuade Winston Churchill,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57the British Prime Minister.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Churchill also felt he could work with Stalin personally,
0:29:01 > 0:29:06but as an inveterate anti-communist, he harboured dark fears
0:29:06 > 0:29:11about what might happen if Soviet ideology caught fire across Europe.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Roosevelt's mind, by contrast, was more open.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21To him, Stalinism seemed very different from Leninism.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25The Soviets had dropped the official ideology of world revolution
0:29:25 > 0:29:28and had allied with the West.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Roosevelt genuinely believed, I think,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36that it was possible to bring the Reds in from the cold,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39into the family of nations,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42and that he was the man to do it.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48At Tehran, Roosevelt was willing
0:29:48 > 0:29:52to manipulate his old ally, Winston, to achieve his goal.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57Keen to show the Soviets that America and Britain
0:29:57 > 0:30:01weren't operating as a bloc, Roosevelt went out of his way
0:30:01 > 0:30:04to side with Stalin against Churchill.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08Together, they baited the British leader
0:30:08 > 0:30:12about the number of Germans that should be shot after the war.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17Roosevelt envisaged Russia, with Britain,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21as one of the "policemen" who would ensure
0:30:21 > 0:30:24peace and order in the post-war world,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28as bulwarks of the new United Nations Organisation.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Roosevelt's other pitch for Stalin's goodwill at Tehran
0:30:35 > 0:30:39was tied up with his great aim for the post-war world -
0:30:39 > 0:30:41the end of empire.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47Imperialism was one of Roosevelt's obsessions,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51but he viewed it as essentially a vice of the Europeans
0:30:51 > 0:30:54with their far-flung colonial empires.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59He didn't seem to recognise the expansion of Russia across Asia
0:30:59 > 0:31:01as imperialist, and certainly not the expansion
0:31:01 > 0:31:05of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07When meeting on their own at Tehran,
0:31:07 > 0:31:12Roosevelt treated Stalin almost as a fellow anti-imperialist
0:31:12 > 0:31:14when discussing how to handle this issue
0:31:14 > 0:31:17with the reactionary Europeans.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26He told Stalin that after 100 years of French rule in Indochina,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30the inhabitants were worse off than they'd been before.
0:31:31 > 0:31:37As for the British Raj in India, Roosevelt advocated what he called
0:31:37 > 0:31:41"reform from the bottom, somewhat on the Soviet line."
0:31:41 > 0:31:44To which Stalin responded drily,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48"Reform from the bottom would mean revolution."
0:31:53 > 0:31:57Roosevelt was delighted by the results of his journey.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01For him, the meeting with Stalin had been a huge step
0:32:01 > 0:32:05towards achieving his goal of a new world order,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08no longer centred on the historic great powers of Europe.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12But the 12,000 mile round trip
0:32:12 > 0:32:17had taken a massive toll on the president's health -
0:32:17 > 0:32:21massive and, in fact, fateful.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27THUNDERCLAPS
0:32:29 > 0:32:33Back in Washington, in December 1943,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35Roosevelt was struck down with flu
0:32:35 > 0:32:38and seemed unable to regain his strength.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44At Christmas, he said he felt like "a boiled owl".
0:32:44 > 0:32:48He would nod off in meetings and complained of persistent headaches.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Several long breaks in the New Year at his beloved Hyde Park
0:32:54 > 0:32:57did not make a real difference.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04What's amazing today, I think, is the almost casual amateurishness
0:33:04 > 0:33:08of the medical care given to the most powerful man in the world.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12For months, the president's personal physician,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Admiral Ross McIntire, insisted that FDR's problem
0:33:15 > 0:33:20was simply persistent bronchitis and the after-effects of flu.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25But then, McIntire was a rather strange sort of presidential doctor.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32McIntire's day job was Surgeon General of the US Navy,
0:33:32 > 0:33:37the navy's top medical post - responsible for 52 hospitals
0:33:37 > 0:33:41and 175,000 doctors and nurses.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Looking after the president was done on the side.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49He got that job through contacts in the right places
0:33:49 > 0:33:52and because Roosevelt had a chronic sinus condition
0:33:52 > 0:33:56and he was an ear, nose and throat specialist.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59# Dry bones, I hear
0:33:59 > 0:34:05# The word of the Lord. #
0:34:06 > 0:34:11McIntire did his presidential duties on the run.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15He'd call in at the White House about 8:30 in the morning
0:34:15 > 0:34:20and go upstairs to the president's bedroom for what he called a "look-see".
0:34:22 > 0:34:27This consisted of sitting around while Roosevelt, still in bed,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31ate breakfast and chatted about what was in the morning newspapers.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36That, said McIntire, "Told me all I wanted to know."
0:34:37 > 0:34:42No thermometer, no stethoscope, no taking the pulse -
0:34:42 > 0:34:46just listening to his master's voice.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51This was hardly a model of advanced medical science.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02It was not until March 1944,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06when the President was running a temperature of 104 degrees,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09that McIntire grudgingly arranged for him to have a checkup
0:35:09 > 0:35:13at Bethesda Naval Hospital on the outskirts of Washington.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19In secret he was put onto the presidential train at Hyde Park
0:35:19 > 0:35:22and taken for what was probably the first
0:35:22 > 0:35:26serious medical examination of his whole presidency.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30Bethesda was the navy's premier hospital,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and the president was being seen by one of its young
0:35:33 > 0:35:36up-and-coming cardiologists, Dr Howard Bruenn.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42FDR was wheeled in, jocular and chatty.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44He kept that up the whole time -
0:35:44 > 0:35:47a cover, Bruenn guessed, for inner anxiety.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53The checkup itself was deeply alarming.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00These are Dr Bruenn's original examination notes.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05The president's lungs were congested,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08his heart "enormous,"
0:36:08 > 0:36:12and blood pressure readings dangerously high -
0:36:12 > 0:36:15170 over 110, way above the norm.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Bruenn wrote that he was "appalled" at what he'd found.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25The diagnosis here is stark:
0:36:25 > 0:36:27hypertension,
0:36:27 > 0:36:30hypertensive heart disease,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32cardiac failure.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44FDR's visit to Bethesda could not be kept a secret.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49But at a press conference, Admiral McIntire insisted brazenly
0:36:49 > 0:36:52that the president's health was satisfactory
0:36:52 > 0:36:55apart from the lingering effects of flu and bronchitis.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59What FDR needed, claimed his doctor,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03was just a bit more exercise and sunshine.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Behind the scenes, however,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11McIntire fought a desperate rearguard action
0:37:11 > 0:37:14against Bruenn's devastating diagnosis.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18The young cardiologist was insisting
0:37:18 > 0:37:22that Roosevelt needed injections of the drug digitalis
0:37:22 > 0:37:24to strengthen his heart,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28a regular daily pattern of rests in bed,
0:37:28 > 0:37:33and a strict diet to wean him off rich food,
0:37:33 > 0:37:35his infamous evening cocktails,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38and 20 or 30 cigarettes a day.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43McIntire was absolutely furious.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46"You can't do that," he shouted.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51"This is the President of the United States!"
0:37:51 > 0:37:56But Bruenn was sure that "is" would become "was"
0:37:56 > 0:38:00if they didn't act quickly, and he calmly stuck to his guns
0:38:00 > 0:38:04before three boards of senior Washington medics.
0:38:10 > 0:38:15Eventually given leave to go ahead, Bruenn achieved significant results.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20After a week of digitalis,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24the president's lungs were clear and his heart smaller.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26He was sleeping much better
0:38:26 > 0:38:30and had cut down his cigarettes to half a dozen a day.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32But his blood pressure remained very high,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35and with it the risk of a stroke.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40Yet in those days, there were no medications available
0:38:40 > 0:38:43for high blood pressure and the standard remedies -
0:38:43 > 0:38:46rest and no stress - were hard to arrange
0:38:46 > 0:38:48for the most powerful man in the world.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53But Bruenn did what he could.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56He persuaded FDR to take a break
0:38:56 > 0:39:00on the estate of an old friend, Bernard Baruch, in South Carolina.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Early nights and a lot of fishing were real tonics.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Roosevelt liked it so much that he stayed four weeks.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18But none of this dealt with the basic problem.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23How could the ailing president survive all the pressures?
0:39:25 > 0:39:28He had been out of the White House
0:39:28 > 0:39:31for nine of the first 20 weeks of 1944.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36He was now back, but was trying to operate on a four-hour day.
0:39:36 > 0:39:42This was hardly satisfactory for the President of the United States,
0:39:42 > 0:39:47especially a president who was planning to run for a fourth term.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56The Washington rumour mill speculated feverishly
0:39:56 > 0:39:58about how FDR's health would cope
0:39:58 > 0:40:01with another four years as president.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06The choice of his new vice presidential running mate
0:40:06 > 0:40:08would be critical.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Roosevelt dithered about the alternatives,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16only late in the day plumping for the obscure and inexperienced
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Senator Harry Truman of Missouri,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and getting very stressed about the whole business.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26It was another alarming sign of FDR's infirmity.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Dr Howard Bruenn was never consulted, but looking back,
0:40:33 > 0:40:38he had no doubt that a fourth term was a medical impossibility.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43And deep down, FDR surely knew this too.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45I think it's telling that,
0:40:45 > 0:40:48at the end of his check-up at Bethesda,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52the president thanked Dr Bruenn and the staff
0:40:52 > 0:40:55but then left without asking a single question.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01He carried on avoiding any discussion of his real condition
0:41:01 > 0:41:04with Bruenn or any other qualified doctor.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09I think Roosevelt didn't want to know.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Perhaps he couldn't afford to know,
0:41:13 > 0:41:18for this was a man with a vision who, like most statesmen,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21had come to see himself as irreplaceable.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25With vision comes hubris,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29the cardinal sin of all political veterans.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37In the summer of 1944, as the war boiled up to its climax,
0:41:37 > 0:41:42the wheelchair president was sure that he had to stay around
0:41:42 > 0:41:45to shape the political future.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48But given the desperate state of his health,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52this was a reckless gamble.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01The 6th of June, 1944.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04EXPLOSION
0:42:04 > 0:42:08D-Day - the long-awaited Anglo-American landings in France.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13News of Operation Overlord was greeted with relief
0:42:13 > 0:42:15and elation across America.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22That evening, the president spoke by radio to the American people,
0:42:22 > 0:42:27not in tones of exaltation, but in the form of a simple prayer.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Our sons, pride of our nation,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39this day have set upon a mighty endeavour,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42a struggle to preserve our republic,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46our religion and our civilisation
0:42:46 > 0:42:50and to set free a suffering humanity.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Help us, almighty God,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57to rededicate ourselves
0:42:57 > 0:43:00in renewed faith in Thee
0:43:00 > 0:43:04in this hour of great sacrifice.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15But for the moment, the GIs didn't get much farther
0:43:15 > 0:43:17than the hedgerows of Normandy,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19pinned down by fierce German resistance.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29Meanwhile, another D-Day dawned on the Eastern Front.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Little known even today in the West,
0:43:31 > 0:43:35this shaped the fate of Europe as much as Operation Overlord.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42On the 21st of June, the Red Army
0:43:42 > 0:43:45unleashed its summer offensive into Byelorussia.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49EXPLOSION
0:43:49 > 0:43:51The impact was devastating.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03In five weeks, while Eisenhower and Montgomery
0:44:03 > 0:44:05were bogged down in Normandy,
0:44:05 > 0:44:09the Red Army destroyed 20 German divisions...
0:44:11 > 0:44:16..and drove forward 450 miles to the gates of Warsaw.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22EXPLOSION
0:44:22 > 0:44:26But when the Polish Home Army rose up against the Nazis,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28the Soviets provided little help.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Admittedly the Red Army was now exhausted
0:44:35 > 0:44:38and in no condition to assault a well-defended city.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45But Stalin, with reason, viewed the Warsaw Rising
0:44:45 > 0:44:47as a deliberate attempt by the Poles
0:44:47 > 0:44:52to liberate their country before it fell under Soviet control.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Churchill, angered by the Soviet attitude,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02pressed Stalin to offer aid.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12Machiavellian as ever in his approach to ends and means,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Roosevelt kept out of this argument.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18For him, the real goal continued to be
0:45:18 > 0:45:23forging a long-term partnership with the Soviet leader.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27At Tehran, he had even pretended to snooze
0:45:27 > 0:45:32when Stalin and Churchill haggled over the details of Eastern Europe,
0:45:32 > 0:45:38joking, "I don't care two hoots about Poland."
0:45:38 > 0:45:41"Wake me up when we talk about Germany."
0:45:45 > 0:45:49But the Warsaw Rising did have a significant effect
0:45:49 > 0:45:53on Roosevelt's Ambassador to Russia, Averell Harriman.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58The Soviet response to the Warsaw Rising
0:45:58 > 0:46:01left Harriman feeling FDR was too confident
0:46:01 > 0:46:06about the Soviet regime gradually adopting Western, democratic ways.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15The question became even more pressing when, in September 1944,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18the Red Army broke through into Romania and Bulgaria.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24The Soviets were clearly going to be a presence in Eastern Europe
0:46:24 > 0:46:28after the war was over. How should the West deal with them?
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Again Roosevelt and Churchill were not of one mind.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42In October 1944, Churchill flew to Moscow
0:46:42 > 0:46:46to cut a deal on spheres of influence in the Balkans.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49By conceding the fait accompli of Soviet dominance
0:46:49 > 0:46:52in countries like Romania and Bulgaria,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56he hoped to preserve Britain's interests in Greece and Yugoslavia.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01This was the now notorious "percentages agreement".
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Roosevelt acquiesced for the moment,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10but for him, as for American public opinion,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14this sort of spheres of influence deal-making
0:47:14 > 0:47:18was yet another sign of the Old World imperialism
0:47:18 > 0:47:20that had brought about two world wars.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Biding his time, the president pressed Stalin
0:47:25 > 0:47:28for another summit at which they could confirm
0:47:28 > 0:47:32the shape of the new world order that he envisaged.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37At the same time, the Roosevelt administration
0:47:37 > 0:47:40mounted a massive PR campaign
0:47:40 > 0:47:44to sell the new United Nations to the American people,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47billing it as the country's second chance
0:47:47 > 0:47:49to realise Woodrow Wilson's goal.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57A new blockbuster movie about the Great War president
0:47:57 > 0:48:01hit the cinemas that autumn, portraying Wilson as a tragic hero
0:48:01 > 0:48:04driven by a vision ahead of his time
0:48:04 > 0:48:07who destroyed himself trying to achieve it.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13FDR saw a private viewing in the White House.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17When the film reached the point of Wilson's stroke,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Roosevelt was visibly moved.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Dr Bruenn heard him mutter,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25"By God, that's not going to happen to me."
0:48:27 > 0:48:32Afterwards, the President's blood pressure was 240 over 130 -
0:48:32 > 0:48:34nearly double the healthy norm.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38EXPLOSIONS
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Roosevelt wanted to achieve the new world order
0:48:42 > 0:48:44that Wilson had failed to create,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48and he was determined to stay around to run it.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51But he feared it might be a long time before victory was won,
0:48:51 > 0:48:56because this was truly a world war, not just a struggle in Europe.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01American troops were encountering
0:49:01 > 0:49:04ferocious Japanese resistance across the Pacific.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Roosevelt had approved the development
0:49:10 > 0:49:13of a potentially devastating new weapon,
0:49:13 > 0:49:18but despite the investment of two billion dollars,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21no-one knew if the atomic bomb would work.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26So the US Army had to prepare
0:49:26 > 0:49:30for a massive invasion of the Japanese Home Islands
0:49:30 > 0:49:34in 1945, 1946 or even later.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Judging by the cost of reconquering Saipan, Leyte
0:49:39 > 0:49:42and other Pacific islands in 1944,
0:49:42 > 0:49:47this would be a brutal fight, with heavy American losses.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54The horrors of war touched Roosevelt personally,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58prompting him to be more open about his own disability
0:49:58 > 0:50:01when he toured Hawaii in July 1944.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08Usually Roosevelt was seen in public in one of two positions -
0:50:08 > 0:50:11either seated in an open car,
0:50:11 > 0:50:16or standing with his leg braces locked to hold him upright.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22But when visiting the seriously wounded from Saipan -
0:50:22 > 0:50:25young men in their prime who had lost limbs
0:50:25 > 0:50:28and would be disabled for the rest of their lives -
0:50:28 > 0:50:31Roosevelt deliberately stayed in his wheelchair.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35He told a Secret Serviceman
0:50:35 > 0:50:39to push him slowly through the wards,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44rubberlegs and all, as he chatted solicitously to the patients.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52The message was clear - you didn't need legs to get to the top.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57Rarely did FDR display his infirmity in public,
0:50:57 > 0:51:02but now he was performing the power of vulnerability.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10I've told that story many times, but I still find it deeply moving.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16Here was a man who had to endure every day
0:51:16 > 0:51:20the countless petty humiliations
0:51:20 > 0:51:22of being a paraplegic,
0:51:22 > 0:51:26yet who could nevertheless, in public,
0:51:26 > 0:51:31radiate the confidence and good humour that inspired millions.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37But the courage and self-discipline he'd displayed relentlessly
0:51:37 > 0:51:40for more than 20 years had taken its toll,
0:51:40 > 0:51:46and now his medical regime was sucking the remaining fun
0:51:46 > 0:51:49from his life - food, drink, good company.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55The "happy warrior" of the world's political battlefield
0:51:55 > 0:52:00wielded about as much power as anyone could crave,
0:52:00 > 0:52:05but as a human being he was deeply unhappy.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09By 1944, I think,
0:52:09 > 0:52:14Franklin Roosevelt was almost hollowed out by loneliness.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25If one thinks of the other war leaders,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28their private lives were relatively simple.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Churchill had a long-suffering wife
0:52:31 > 0:52:35who kept him going at the cost of her own emotional exhaustion.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40As for the dictators,
0:52:40 > 0:52:44the abstemious Hitler had a devoted mistress,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47while Stalin mourned his first wife,
0:52:47 > 0:52:49drove his second to suicide,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52and thereafter seems to have got his kicks from killing.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57Roosevelt's love life was more complex,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00and typically devious.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05Yet the tangled story, I think, defies any simple moral judgment.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14Roosevelt's women were essential to his survival as a politician,
0:53:14 > 0:53:19and in 1945 love and politics were entangled as never before.
0:53:21 > 0:53:27To understand this, we need to dig way back into his emotional past.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35Despite FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38Eleanor continued to care deeply for him,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42nursing him through the peak of his illness in 1921
0:53:42 > 0:53:46and even learning to apply catheters and manage bedpans.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52But Eleanor's crusading mission
0:53:52 > 0:53:56made her more driven and harder to relax with.
0:53:56 > 0:54:02Franklin continued to enjoy light-hearted female company,
0:54:02 > 0:54:06especially attractive young women who thought he was wonderful.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Women like Marguerite LeHand, known as Missy,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15his principal secretary for 20 years,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19who idolised the man whom she called FD
0:54:19 > 0:54:22and who made him laugh.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26And Daisy Suckley, FDR's Hyde Park spinster cousin,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28ten years younger, whom he treated
0:54:28 > 0:54:32as a special confidante and quiet companion.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35In their own ways, these women gave him
0:54:35 > 0:54:38the love that was lacking in his own marriage.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Eleanor, too, found love in other ways.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Through the feminist movement in Manhattan,
0:54:51 > 0:54:53she flirted with lesbian relationships
0:54:53 > 0:54:56and established a furniture-making business
0:54:56 > 0:54:58with two of her special women friends,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, at Val-Kill,
0:55:01 > 0:55:04a property a few miles from Springwood.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Privately, FDR called Nancy and Marion the "she-males",
0:55:12 > 0:55:14but he liked them, while they said
0:55:14 > 0:55:18that Uncle Franklin was "utterly charming".
0:55:18 > 0:55:22He encouraged the venture here at Val-kill,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26which finally gave Eleanor a place of her own.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And FDR, always fancying himself as an architect,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32even designed the cottage for them.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42FDR also needed his own hideaway, and designed this simple house
0:55:42 > 0:55:45on the highest hill of the Roosevelt estate,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48whose porch looked out westward across the Hudson River.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55At Top Cottage, FDR could keep some distance from Eleanor.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03Clearly the Roosevelts were now very far from being a traditional couple.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05Each had an independent life
0:56:05 > 0:56:10involving intimate friendships with others.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15That suited Franklin, never keen to be dependent on any one person.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21Yet their marriage had also put down deep roots,
0:56:21 > 0:56:26toughened by the Lucy Mercer affair and also by his battle with polio.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31And they shared a commitment to progressive politics,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34to making America a better place.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40Everything Eleanor Roosevelt says and does becomes news.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45True to her prediction, her personal life is no longer her own.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Instead, she's becoming an American institution.
0:56:48 > 0:56:50When Franklin moved into the White House,
0:56:50 > 0:56:54Eleanor became the eyes and ears of the wheelchair president,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57travelling the country learning of human misery
0:56:57 > 0:57:01and reporting back to him and to the nation.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04In addition to being the first wife of a president
0:57:04 > 0:57:06ever to hold her own weekly press conference,
0:57:06 > 0:57:11she writes a daily syndicated newspaper column called My Day.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16My Day, which she started writing in 1935, quickly became
0:57:16 > 0:57:19one of the most popular columns in the American press.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25She saw her role, in part, as launching trial balloons
0:57:25 > 0:57:28for her husband, which he could then disown
0:57:28 > 0:57:30if they got shot down by critics.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37"I was the agitator," Eleanor said, "he was the politician."
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Theirs was a remarkable political partnership,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43utterly novel in American history.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48But when the New Deal president became the war president,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51things began to change.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56Eleanor hated the war,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59and she was deeply depressed at the deaths,
0:57:59 > 0:58:01the maiming and the mourning.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08As the fighting dragged on, the two of them began to drift apart,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11no longer of one mind on the cause that mattered.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19As Eleanor tightened up, Franklin relied more and more
0:58:19 > 0:58:22on vivacious younger ladies to keep him company.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Mrs Roosevelt and Crown Princess Martha of Norway are among
0:58:27 > 0:58:31the notables appearing at the New York Madison Square Garden...
0:58:31 > 0:58:33He was very taken with Princess Martha,
0:58:33 > 0:58:36exiled wife of Prince Olav of Norway,
0:58:36 > 0:58:40who moved her three children to America to escape the war.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Eleanor was irked, but shrugged her shoulders,
0:58:44 > 0:58:46telling a friend,
0:58:46 > 0:58:49"There's always a Martha for relaxation
0:58:49 > 0:58:51"and for the non-ending pleasure
0:58:51 > 0:58:54"of having an admiring audience for every breath."
0:58:56 > 0:58:59It was the Roosevelts' daughter, Anna,
0:58:59 > 0:59:02a spirited, strong-minded woman in her late thirties,
0:59:02 > 0:59:05who came to fill the gap between her parents.
0:59:07 > 0:59:10She moved into the White House in 1944,
0:59:10 > 0:59:12and did whatever was asked, big or small,
0:59:12 > 0:59:16to make FDR's existence more comfortable.
0:59:16 > 0:59:20When Roosevelt became ill after the exertions of Tehran,
0:59:20 > 0:59:23Eleanor seemed oblivious to his physical state,
0:59:23 > 0:59:27and it was Anna who prodded him into a proper medical checkup.
0:59:29 > 0:59:33This was a battle to help keep the President alive
0:59:33 > 0:59:37so he could achieve his vision for the world after the war.
0:59:39 > 0:59:44But the result was an odd and rather prickly menage a trois.
0:59:52 > 0:59:54Eleanor, a teetotaller,
0:59:54 > 0:59:57hated FDR's cocktail hours before dinner
0:59:57 > 0:59:59when there was a tacit agreement
0:59:59 > 1:00:02that no official business would be discussed.
1:00:02 > 1:00:05Anna indulged them at a modest level
1:00:05 > 1:00:07as one of his few pleasures.
1:00:10 > 1:00:15At the end of one cocktail hour, Eleanor marched in,
1:00:15 > 1:00:18armed with a sheaf of papers.
1:00:18 > 1:00:23"Now, Franklin," she said in her usual brisk manner,
1:00:23 > 1:00:26"I need to talk to you about these."
1:00:27 > 1:00:30FDR simply lost it.
1:00:30 > 1:00:33He chucked the sheet of papers across the room
1:00:33 > 1:00:37and said to a mortified Anna,
1:00:37 > 1:00:39"You deal with those in the morning."
1:00:41 > 1:00:45Eleanor stood silent, lips pursed.
1:00:45 > 1:00:47Then she said,
1:00:47 > 1:00:50"I'm sorry," and walked away.
1:00:53 > 1:00:55But fortunately for Eleanor,
1:00:55 > 1:00:59she didn't know just how far Anna was going
1:00:59 > 1:01:01in order to keep her father happy.
1:01:04 > 1:01:08On the 28th of April 1944, in deepest secrecy,
1:01:08 > 1:01:12she arranged for Mrs Winthrop Rutherfurd to have lunch
1:01:12 > 1:01:16with the President while he was recuperating in South Carolina.
1:01:16 > 1:01:20Anna set up the lunch at her father's behest.
1:01:20 > 1:01:23It was the prelude to more than a dozen intimate dinners
1:01:23 > 1:01:26that would follow over the next year,
1:01:26 > 1:01:29usually in the White House when Eleanor was away.
1:01:31 > 1:01:33Her absence was an essential condition,
1:01:33 > 1:01:37because this tete-a-tete was not with another Martha.
1:01:40 > 1:01:44Franklin was seeing his former lover Lucy again.
1:01:44 > 1:01:49She was now a free woman, recently widowed at the age of 52.
1:01:51 > 1:01:53Anna acted as go-between.
1:01:53 > 1:01:56Her father asked her to arrange the timings
1:01:56 > 1:01:59and special access to the White House.
1:01:59 > 1:02:04This put Anna in what she later admitted was a terrible position.
1:02:12 > 1:02:17As a girl, Anna had taken her mother's side about the affair.
1:02:18 > 1:02:21But now, as a divorcee who'd remarried,
1:02:21 > 1:02:24she realised that her father needed
1:02:24 > 1:02:27sympathetic and appreciative company,
1:02:27 > 1:02:32rather than Eleanor's latest must-do hit list.
1:02:33 > 1:02:37And she could also see that Lucy remained special,
1:02:37 > 1:02:40allowing him to enjoy what Anna called
1:02:40 > 1:02:44"a few hours of much needed relaxation."
1:02:46 > 1:02:48Even so,
1:02:48 > 1:02:52it was a truly bizarre situation -
1:02:52 > 1:02:56daughter abetting her father's liaison
1:02:56 > 1:02:58behind the back of her mother,
1:02:58 > 1:03:02in what she felt were the interests of the nation.
1:03:07 > 1:03:10All these women mattered in different ways
1:03:10 > 1:03:13to Roosevelt as 1945 opened.
1:03:18 > 1:03:20The war was reaching its climax,
1:03:20 > 1:03:24yet when and how it would end remained in doubt.
1:03:27 > 1:03:29EXPLOSIONS
1:03:29 > 1:03:30As the new year began,
1:03:30 > 1:03:33the Allies were recovering from heavy casualties
1:03:33 > 1:03:35after a desperate German counterattack
1:03:35 > 1:03:37in the Battle of the Bulge.
1:03:40 > 1:03:44And the American navy weathered Japanese kamikaze attacks
1:03:44 > 1:03:46off the coast of Thailand.
1:03:48 > 1:03:51Roosevelt was briefed on the state of the Manhattan project,
1:03:51 > 1:03:54America's race to build the atomic bomb.
1:03:55 > 1:03:57A test was likely within a matter of months,
1:03:57 > 1:04:00but whether it would work was still unclear.
1:04:08 > 1:04:11Yet Roosevelt did not inform his new vice president,
1:04:11 > 1:04:15Harry Truman, about progress on the bomb.
1:04:15 > 1:04:18Plucked from the Senate to be FDR's running mate,
1:04:18 > 1:04:23Truman was not part of Roosevelt's inner circle.
1:04:23 > 1:04:25Yet he was now, to use the cliche,
1:04:25 > 1:04:29a heartbeat away from the presidency.
1:04:29 > 1:04:34And looking into Roosevelt's grey, gaunt face,
1:04:34 > 1:04:38Truman could sense that the president's heart was failing.
1:04:41 > 1:04:46Truman, in his own words, felt "troubled and worried."
1:04:46 > 1:04:50But Roosevelt simply kept his new vice president out of the loop
1:04:50 > 1:04:53on the bomb and on policy in general.
1:04:56 > 1:05:00Given the state of his health, such secrecy was almost criminal.
1:05:00 > 1:05:05But Roosevelt was like a man in denial about his own mortality.
1:05:06 > 1:05:10Perhaps only in those fleeting moments with Lucy,
1:05:10 > 1:05:16conjuring up anew the vitality and love of his lost past,
1:05:16 > 1:05:21did Roosevelt voice his dark fears about the future.
1:05:28 > 1:05:31On the 22nd of January 1945,
1:05:31 > 1:05:34Roosevelt set out for a second meeting with Stalin.
1:05:36 > 1:05:39The Soviet leader was scared of flying
1:05:39 > 1:05:41and would not move far beyond his security net,
1:05:41 > 1:05:45so Roosevelt - and Churchill - had to go to him.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51Stalin's chosen venue was the old Tsarist summer palace
1:05:51 > 1:05:54at Yalta in the Crimea.
1:05:54 > 1:05:56Getting there and back by boat and plane -
1:05:56 > 1:05:59a 14,000 mile round trip -
1:05:59 > 1:06:02was another long and arduous journey for an ailing president.
1:06:04 > 1:06:09And when Roosevelt finally got there, this was no holiday resort.
1:06:10 > 1:06:14The Crimea had only recently been recaptured from the Germans,
1:06:14 > 1:06:16and mod cons were in short supply,
1:06:16 > 1:06:19though bedbugs were abundant.
1:06:19 > 1:06:23Senior generals had to queue up to use the few bathrooms.
1:06:25 > 1:06:27The week-long conference would draw
1:06:27 > 1:06:30on all of FDR's reserves of strength.
1:06:31 > 1:06:36A huge amount was at stake for Roosevelt at Yalta.
1:06:36 > 1:06:40He wanted to get agreement on the new United Nations
1:06:40 > 1:06:43and on a strategy for defeating Japan.
1:06:43 > 1:06:47And on both these issues, Soviet cooperation was vital.
1:06:49 > 1:06:51But as at Tehran,
1:06:51 > 1:06:54he and Churchill didn't always see eye-to-eye
1:06:54 > 1:06:56on how to deal with Stalin.
1:06:56 > 1:07:00And the Soviet leader kept unsettling them
1:07:00 > 1:07:04by his tactical ploys, playing hard to get.
1:07:04 > 1:07:09At dinner on the very first evening, he put them on the back foot
1:07:09 > 1:07:14by pretending to take offence at their nickname for him, "Uncle Joe".
1:07:17 > 1:07:19Despite this, Roosevelt was convinced
1:07:19 > 1:07:23he could secure Soviet participation in the United Nations
1:07:23 > 1:07:26to anchor them in the international community.
1:07:28 > 1:07:31To get Soviet agreement on the big architecture
1:07:31 > 1:07:35of a new world order, FDR deliberately stayed above
1:07:35 > 1:07:39what he saw as small details, particularly in Eastern Europe.
1:07:41 > 1:07:45So while Churchill and Stalin haggled once again over Poland,
1:07:45 > 1:07:48Roosevelt pushed the Soviets to sign up
1:07:48 > 1:07:51to the Declaration on Liberated Europe -
1:07:51 > 1:07:54a general commitment on the independence
1:07:54 > 1:07:57of all the countries freed from Nazi rule.
1:07:59 > 1:08:01FDR hoped that signing this
1:08:01 > 1:08:05would commit the Soviets to follow Wilsonian values,
1:08:05 > 1:08:09or at least to hold them to account if they didn't.
1:08:09 > 1:08:11He told sceptics,
1:08:11 > 1:08:14"It's the best I can do for Poland at this time."
1:08:16 > 1:08:21Conscious that the Red Army already controlled Poland,
1:08:21 > 1:08:25Roosevelt did not push as hard as Churchill.
1:08:25 > 1:08:27In his view,
1:08:27 > 1:08:31you couldn't make omelettes without breaking eggs,
1:08:31 > 1:08:33and it was just bad luck
1:08:33 > 1:08:37that so many of the eggshells would be Polish.
1:08:38 > 1:08:41His top priority, as always,
1:08:41 > 1:08:44was not to jeopardize relations with Stalin.
1:08:46 > 1:08:50And over Asia, Roosevelt's softly-softly approach
1:08:50 > 1:08:52appeared to pay off.
1:08:52 > 1:08:56He conceded Stalin's demands for territory in Japan and China.
1:08:56 > 1:08:59In return, Stalin confirmed that the Soviets
1:08:59 > 1:09:03would enter the Asian war within three months of victory in Europe.
1:09:06 > 1:09:10With the atomic bomb still untested, General George Marshall,
1:09:10 > 1:09:14the US Army Chief of Staff, was relieved to share
1:09:14 > 1:09:17the brutal endgame of the Japanese war with the Red Army.
1:09:19 > 1:09:21Asked when leaving Yalta
1:09:21 > 1:09:24whether he looked forward to civilised amenities again,
1:09:24 > 1:09:28Marshall said gravely, "For what we have gained here,
1:09:28 > 1:09:31"I would gladly have stayed a whole month."
1:09:35 > 1:09:39By the time he got back to Washington, Roosevelt was exhausted.
1:09:39 > 1:09:43He delivered his report of the summit to Congress sitting down,
1:09:43 > 1:09:46making a rare reference to his disability.
1:09:48 > 1:09:50I hope that you will pardon me
1:09:50 > 1:09:53for an unusual posture of sitting down.
1:09:53 > 1:09:57But I know that you will realise that it makes it a lot easier for me
1:09:57 > 1:10:00in not having to carry about ten pounds of steel
1:10:00 > 1:10:03round on the bottom of my legs,
1:10:03 > 1:10:05and also because of the fact that I have just completed
1:10:05 > 1:10:07a 14,000 mile trip.
1:10:07 > 1:10:09APPLAUSE
1:10:09 > 1:10:14The speech was full of optimism about Stalin as a man of good faith
1:10:14 > 1:10:18and about a new era in international politics.
1:10:19 > 1:10:22And I am confident that the Congress
1:10:22 > 1:10:27and the American people will accept the results of this conference
1:10:27 > 1:10:31as the beginnings of a permanent structure of peace,
1:10:31 > 1:10:37upon which we can begin to build under God
1:10:37 > 1:10:40that better world in which our children
1:10:40 > 1:10:45and grandchildren must live and can live.
1:10:50 > 1:10:54Roosevelt needed to sell Yalta to his own people,
1:10:54 > 1:10:58ahead of the founding conference of the new United Nations,
1:10:58 > 1:11:01which would be held in San Francisco in April.
1:11:01 > 1:11:06He didn't want any repeat of the tragedy of Wilson and the League.
1:11:06 > 1:11:11It wasn't just the Russians he needed to bring in from the cold,
1:11:11 > 1:11:12but the Americans.
1:11:16 > 1:11:18TAPPING OF TYPEWRITER
1:11:18 > 1:11:19PHONE RINGS
1:11:19 > 1:11:24All through March 1945, Stalin tightened his grip on Poland.
1:11:25 > 1:11:29Churchill sent anguished messages to the White House,
1:11:29 > 1:11:31demanding a joint protest to the Kremlin
1:11:31 > 1:11:34about what he was already calling an Iron Curtain
1:11:34 > 1:11:36coming down across Eastern Europe.
1:11:38 > 1:11:41But FDR, more coldly realist,
1:11:41 > 1:11:43felt that the Poles were a lost cause
1:11:43 > 1:11:46and did not wish friction over Eastern Europe
1:11:46 > 1:11:48to imperil the UN project.
1:11:51 > 1:11:55Yet by early April, Stalin was dragging his feet on this,
1:11:55 > 1:11:59threatening to send only a junior diplomat to San Francisco.
1:11:59 > 1:12:01That would leave Americans wondering
1:12:01 > 1:12:05whether the Soviets had really turned over a new leaf.
1:12:08 > 1:12:11Despite odd moments, FDR stuck to the end
1:12:11 > 1:12:16with his policy of enticing the Russians into the family of nations.
1:12:17 > 1:12:22He wrote to Churchill to play down the aggro with Moscow.
1:12:22 > 1:12:26"I would minimise the general Soviet problem as much as possible,
1:12:26 > 1:12:28"because these problems, in one form or another,
1:12:28 > 1:12:32"seem to arise every day, and most of them straighten out.
1:12:32 > 1:12:37"We must be firm, however, and our course thus far is correct."
1:12:40 > 1:12:43Was Roosevelt right that the West
1:12:43 > 1:12:46needed to soothe Russian insecurities?
1:12:46 > 1:12:49Would sticking with his strategy
1:12:49 > 1:12:51of drawing the Soviets in from the cold
1:12:51 > 1:12:56have averted, or at least eased, the Cold War?
1:12:56 > 1:12:57Or was Churchill right
1:12:57 > 1:13:02that the only message they understood was firmness?
1:13:04 > 1:13:07That has to remain a fascinating "what if" of history,
1:13:07 > 1:13:11because Roosevelt died before the Cold War really began.
1:13:11 > 1:13:15But the Roosevelt-Churchill debate
1:13:15 > 1:13:18about conciliation versus toughness
1:13:18 > 1:13:20still perplexes statesmen today
1:13:20 > 1:13:23when dealing with Vladimir Putin's Russia.
1:13:28 > 1:13:32In early April, Roosevelt went down to Warm Springs, Georgia,
1:13:32 > 1:13:36for another break. Dr Bruenn was in attendance.
1:13:36 > 1:13:39So too were Daisy and Lucy -
1:13:39 > 1:13:42in their own ways also part of his medical team.
1:13:44 > 1:13:46Eleanor remained in Washington,
1:13:46 > 1:13:51but she bombarded him with messages about wartime issues.
1:13:54 > 1:13:58On one occasion, they argued over the phone
1:13:58 > 1:14:03about aid to Yugoslavia for a full 45 minutes.
1:14:03 > 1:14:07After Roosevelt hung up, the veins on his forehead were bulging
1:14:07 > 1:14:11and his blood pressure had risen 50 points.
1:14:11 > 1:14:17Eleanor was still pushing him hard, mind and heart,
1:14:17 > 1:14:21just as she'd done ever since the dark days of polio.
1:14:23 > 1:14:25At Warm Springs, the president worked on
1:14:25 > 1:14:28his Jefferson Day radio speech,
1:14:28 > 1:14:31intended to sell the new United Nations to America
1:14:31 > 1:14:35as an essential part of "an abiding peace".
1:14:37 > 1:14:41The draft recalled the words of his inaugural address
1:14:41 > 1:14:43in the depths of the Depression
1:14:43 > 1:14:48about the only thing to fear being fear itself.
1:14:50 > 1:14:54Roosevelt planned to close with these ringing words,
1:14:54 > 1:14:57"The only limit to our realisation of tomorrow
1:14:57 > 1:14:59"will be our doubts of today.
1:14:59 > 1:15:03"Let us move forward with strong and active faith."
1:15:04 > 1:15:07Though weary, the president seemed in good spirits.
1:15:07 > 1:15:12There was nothing to suggest what would happen the next day.
1:15:12 > 1:15:14CLOCK TICKS
1:15:17 > 1:15:20On Thursday morning, the 12th of April,
1:15:20 > 1:15:23the president complained of a stiff neck and a slight headache,
1:15:23 > 1:15:26but he sat patiently for a portrait painter,
1:15:26 > 1:15:28fiddling away at his papers.
1:15:33 > 1:15:37Suddenly, just before lunch, he looked up.
1:15:37 > 1:15:41"I have a terrific pain at the back of my head,"
1:15:41 > 1:15:46he murmured, and then slumped forward and lost consciousness.
1:15:47 > 1:15:49As aides lifted him on to his bed
1:15:49 > 1:15:52and Dr Bruenn worked desperately,
1:15:52 > 1:15:56a shocked Lucy was ushered into a car and driven away.
1:15:58 > 1:16:02For a couple of hours, the president fought for life,
1:16:02 > 1:16:06his tortured, rasping breaths
1:16:06 > 1:16:09reminiscent of the dying Abraham Lincoln 80 years before
1:16:09 > 1:16:12at the end of another great war.
1:16:13 > 1:16:19But at 3:35pm, Roosevelt's heart finally stopped.
1:16:33 > 1:16:37In Washington that afternoon, the vice president was on Capitol Hill
1:16:37 > 1:16:40while Eleanor was attending a charity concert.
1:16:42 > 1:16:45Summoned by phone to the White House,
1:16:45 > 1:16:49she took in the news, trying to stay calm.
1:16:51 > 1:16:53When Truman arrived at the White House,
1:16:53 > 1:16:56it was Eleanor who broke the news:
1:16:56 > 1:17:00"Harry, the president is dead."
1:17:02 > 1:17:05Stunned, he asked if there was anything he could do for her.
1:17:06 > 1:17:09She looked at him gently.
1:17:09 > 1:17:12"Is there anything we can do for you?
1:17:12 > 1:17:15"For you are the one in trouble now."
1:17:17 > 1:17:21Eleanor kept her composure all through that afternoon.
1:17:21 > 1:17:25She retained it when she got to Warm Springs late that night -
1:17:25 > 1:17:29even when she learned the guilty secret that Lucy had been there
1:17:29 > 1:17:32for the last three days, that she'd visited Franklin
1:17:32 > 1:17:35on many occasions over the previous few months,
1:17:35 > 1:17:38and that Anna had arranged it all.
1:17:42 > 1:17:46It was only later, when she confronted Anna,
1:17:46 > 1:17:49that Eleanor lost her cool,
1:17:49 > 1:17:52consumed with a burning anger.
1:17:54 > 1:17:58Betrayed long ago but, she had hoped, once and for all,
1:17:58 > 1:18:02she now found herself betrayed again,
1:18:02 > 1:18:06this time with her own daughter as accomplice.
1:18:06 > 1:18:11It was a bitter, anguished encounter,
1:18:11 > 1:18:16leaving the two women estranged for many months.
1:18:29 > 1:18:32Next day, bottling up her emotions,
1:18:32 > 1:18:35she accompanied his body on the special train
1:18:35 > 1:18:39that chugged its way 800 miles north to the nation's capital.
1:18:43 > 1:18:46Eleanor, still bruised and angry,
1:18:46 > 1:18:50watched in growing awe at the thousands who lined the route,
1:18:50 > 1:18:54openly grieving for their lost president.
1:19:10 > 1:19:14After a service at the White House, the coffin was taken to Hyde Park
1:19:14 > 1:19:18to be buried next to Springwood, the house where he had been born.
1:19:23 > 1:19:27Eleanor was deeply moved, beginning to realise
1:19:27 > 1:19:31just how much her flawed husband had meant to his people.
1:19:33 > 1:19:35She had known him too well,
1:19:35 > 1:19:38yet in other fundamental ways had failed to appreciate him.
1:19:40 > 1:19:43GUNFIRE
1:19:56 > 1:19:59As America mourned, so did the free world -
1:19:59 > 1:20:01and even Stalin.
1:20:04 > 1:20:07When Ambassador Harriman called on the Soviet leader
1:20:07 > 1:20:10the day after Roosevelt's death, Stalin's reaction
1:20:10 > 1:20:15seemed to vindicate FDR's policy of building trust.
1:20:15 > 1:20:17Harriman wrote,
1:20:17 > 1:20:20"I noticed that he was obviously deeply distressed at the news.
1:20:20 > 1:20:23"He greeted me in silence and stood holding my hand
1:20:23 > 1:20:26"for about 30 seconds before asking me to sit down."
1:20:28 > 1:20:32Stalin asked Harriman lots of questions about Roosevelt's health
1:20:32 > 1:20:36and about the circumstances of his death.
1:20:36 > 1:20:38For a paranoid dictator,
1:20:38 > 1:20:42obsessed about assassins and poisoners,
1:20:42 > 1:20:46it was hard to believe that the President of the United States
1:20:46 > 1:20:51had died merely from natural causes after botched medical care.
1:20:53 > 1:20:56With real emotion, Stalin declared,
1:20:56 > 1:21:02"President Roosevelt is dead but his cause must live on.
1:21:02 > 1:21:05"We shall support President Truman
1:21:05 > 1:21:08"with all our forces and all our will."
1:21:11 > 1:21:12Seizing his chance,
1:21:12 > 1:21:16Harriman suggested that the best way to help Truman
1:21:16 > 1:21:20and to reassure the American people about Soviet-American relations
1:21:20 > 1:21:22would be for Foreign Minister Molotov
1:21:22 > 1:21:25to go to see the new president and then attend
1:21:25 > 1:21:29the opening session of the UN in San Francisco.
1:21:29 > 1:21:33After a brief discussion with Molotov, Stalin agreed.
1:21:35 > 1:21:38In death, it seemed, Roosevelt had secured
1:21:38 > 1:21:41what was slipping through his fingers
1:21:41 > 1:21:43in the last weeks of his life.
1:21:45 > 1:21:49And so the Soviet Union joined the United Nations.
1:21:49 > 1:21:52It became a permanent member of the Security Council,
1:21:52 > 1:21:55just as Roosevelt had intended.
1:21:55 > 1:21:58APPLAUSE
1:22:01 > 1:22:04But his hopes for an eventual alignment of Russia
1:22:04 > 1:22:07to social democratic values were utopian.
1:22:09 > 1:22:13Or at least not something realised so far,
1:22:13 > 1:22:16despite the formal ending of the Cold War.
1:22:18 > 1:22:22The spirit of Yalta evaporated,
1:22:22 > 1:22:25in part because Stalin was determined
1:22:25 > 1:22:28to control his conquests in Eastern Europe,
1:22:28 > 1:22:33and regarded any kind of open politics as a threat to security.
1:22:35 > 1:22:38But ironically, it was another of Roosevelt's legacies
1:22:38 > 1:22:40that poisoned the peace.
1:22:40 > 1:22:45Even if the Big Three had managed to sort out their differences
1:22:45 > 1:22:49in Germany and Eastern Europe - and that's a big "if" -
1:22:49 > 1:22:53the way that World War II ended in Asia
1:22:53 > 1:22:56made the Cold War almost inevitable.
1:23:03 > 1:23:06Roosevelt had thrown all America's industrial might
1:23:06 > 1:23:09into the race to build an atomic bomb.
1:23:11 > 1:23:16Nazi Germany capitulated before the first American atomic test.
1:23:25 > 1:23:29But Truman, fearful like Roosevelt of bloody battles
1:23:29 > 1:23:33to end the war in Asia, dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.
1:23:35 > 1:23:36As soon as he heard the news,
1:23:36 > 1:23:41Stalin made a Soviet bomb the regime's top priority.
1:23:42 > 1:23:44The Cold War arms race was born -
1:23:44 > 1:23:48that endless vying for superiority
1:23:48 > 1:23:50in ever more complex killer weapons.
1:23:52 > 1:23:56And so, ironically, one of Roosevelt's projects,
1:23:56 > 1:24:00however necessary it might now seem for ending the war,
1:24:00 > 1:24:03helped undermine his vision for peace.
1:24:03 > 1:24:07The United Nations was poisoned by suspicion
1:24:07 > 1:24:12amongst the "policemen" who he hoped would keep peace and security.
1:24:19 > 1:24:23Yet the Cold War never hotted up into World War III.
1:24:24 > 1:24:27The bomb may have acted as a deterrent,
1:24:27 > 1:24:29but I think that the UN,
1:24:29 > 1:24:34founded in those vital transition weeks between war and peace,
1:24:34 > 1:24:37also played a part.
1:24:37 > 1:24:41It created the structure, however fragile,
1:24:41 > 1:24:44of an international community.
1:24:44 > 1:24:49In that basic sense, Roosevelt's hopes were realised.
1:24:56 > 1:25:00And Eleanor remained true to FDR's global vision.
1:25:00 > 1:25:04Overcoming, as in 1918, her grief and bitterness,
1:25:04 > 1:25:09she drew comfort from verses sent to her by a friend.
1:25:09 > 1:25:13"They are not dead who live in lives they leave behind.
1:25:13 > 1:25:17"In those whom they have blessed they live a life again."
1:25:19 > 1:25:21In a strangely poignant way,
1:25:21 > 1:25:24it was as if America's outpouring of grief after Franklin's death
1:25:24 > 1:25:27made her belatedly aware of the greatness
1:25:27 > 1:25:31that lay behind his pettiness, secrecy and deceits.
1:25:33 > 1:25:36Daisy Suckley - in some ways FDR's closest companion,
1:25:36 > 1:25:39but never his lover or his wife -
1:25:39 > 1:25:42captured the Franklin-Eleanor relationship perfectly
1:25:42 > 1:25:46on the night of his death. She wrote in her diary,
1:25:46 > 1:25:49"Poor ER - I believe she loved him
1:25:49 > 1:25:52"more deeply than she knows herself,
1:25:52 > 1:25:56"and his feeling for her was deep and lasting.
1:25:57 > 1:26:02"The fact that they could not relax together, or play together,
1:26:02 > 1:26:06"is the tragedy of their joint lives, for I believe,
1:26:06 > 1:26:08"from everything that I have seen of them,
1:26:08 > 1:26:11"that they had everything else in common.
1:26:12 > 1:26:15"It was probably a matter of personalities,
1:26:15 > 1:26:18"of a certain lack of humour on her part -
1:26:18 > 1:26:21"I cannot blame either of them.
1:26:21 > 1:26:25"They are both remarkable people - sky-high above the average."
1:26:31 > 1:26:33For seven years after his death,
1:26:33 > 1:26:36Eleanor was a member of the American delegation to the UN -
1:26:36 > 1:26:38the only woman.
1:26:39 > 1:26:43It is my ruling as chairman of the commission
1:26:43 > 1:26:47that the point raised by the Soviet member is out of order.
1:26:47 > 1:26:49APPLAUSE
1:26:49 > 1:26:53Her Machiavellian combination of charm and persistence,
1:26:53 > 1:26:55reminiscent of FDR himself,
1:26:55 > 1:27:00helped push through the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
1:27:02 > 1:27:05She also kept her My Day column going
1:27:05 > 1:27:09until a few weeks before her death in 1962,
1:27:09 > 1:27:12championing liberal causes such as civil rights...
1:27:15 > 1:27:17..equal pay for women,
1:27:17 > 1:27:20and a national health service through the McCarthy era.
1:27:23 > 1:27:27Even after FDR's death, and despite his double betrayal,
1:27:27 > 1:27:32Eleanor's partnership with Franklin remained in some ways indissoluble.
1:27:40 > 1:27:44Today Franklin and Eleanor lie here in the Rose Garden at Hyde Park,
1:27:44 > 1:27:46under a simple gravestone.
1:27:49 > 1:27:52Their complex, often contrary marriage,
1:27:52 > 1:27:54scarred by FDR's betrayals,
1:27:54 > 1:27:58masked a deeper unity of purpose and values
1:27:58 > 1:28:01between two remarkable, if flawed, personalities
1:28:01 > 1:28:05who shared a vision of a better future.
1:28:10 > 1:28:13And from the grave one can look down the avenue
1:28:13 > 1:28:17to the Albany Post Road - the view that tantalized Roosevelt
1:28:17 > 1:28:20for the last quarter-century of his life.
1:28:21 > 1:28:25The wheelchair president never made it to the main road.
1:28:25 > 1:28:28But the journey he did complete,
1:28:28 > 1:28:31with its successes and failures,
1:28:31 > 1:28:35helped define our world into the twenty-first century.