1
00:00:02,044 --> 00:00:03,174
Everybody needs
to know, Franklin.

2
00:00:03,253 --> 00:00:04,383
Will you run again?

3
00:00:04,505 --> 00:00:06,345
ROOSEVELT: The situation in
France changes everything.

4
00:00:06,423 --> 00:00:08,723
CHURCHILL: I’d rather
have a declaration of war

5
00:00:08,842 --> 00:00:09,972
from America.

6
00:00:10,052 --> 00:00:12,052
There’s nothing I’d like
better than to kick Hitler

7
00:00:12,179 --> 00:00:13,259
in the teeth.

8
00:00:13,388 --> 00:00:15,218
They’ve attacked Pearl Harbor.

9
00:00:15,307 --> 00:00:19,687
A date which will
live in infamy.

10
00:00:19,770 --> 00:00:21,020
The prime minister
of Great Britain

11
00:00:21,104 --> 00:00:25,944
has nothing to hide from the
president of the United States.

12
00:00:26,068 --> 00:00:27,148
Our team cracked it.

13
00:00:27,236 --> 00:00:28,486
They fooled the Japanese.

14
00:00:28,570 --> 00:00:32,490
We know where they’re going
to be, so we can lay a trap.

15
00:00:32,574 --> 00:00:33,664
See this ship?

16
00:00:33,742 --> 00:00:35,292
It’s got Marines aboard.

17
00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:37,120
My son Jimmy is one of them.

18
00:00:37,246 --> 00:00:41,116
He’s going to be in the
thick of it, isn’t he?

19
00:00:41,250 --> 00:00:43,080
Franklin Roosevelt
was the president

20
00:00:43,168 --> 00:00:47,798
who had to face the Great
Depression and World War II.

21
00:00:47,923 --> 00:00:53,093
The only thing we have
to fear is fear itself.

22
00:00:53,220 --> 00:00:57,350
He was ambitious and
active, incredibly privileged.

23
00:00:57,432 --> 00:00:58,812
But he suffered.

24
00:00:58,934 --> 00:01:02,234
You’ve contracted
infantile paralysis.

25
00:01:02,312 --> 00:01:05,402
And he’s had setbacks.

26
00:01:05,482 --> 00:01:07,822
But through pain
can come wisdom.

27
00:01:07,943 --> 00:01:09,653
The country’s on
the edge of a cliff,

28
00:01:09,778 --> 00:01:11,238
but we’re not going
to let it fall.

29
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What do plan to
do with this power?

30
00:01:13,323 --> 00:01:17,913
He has a vision to change
the very soul of America.

31
00:01:17,995 --> 00:01:24,505
I pledge myself to a New
Deal for the American people.

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00:01:24,626 --> 00:01:27,296
American democracy
was literally

33
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resting on his shoulders.

34
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This was zero hour.

35
00:01:30,882 --> 00:01:32,722
[speaking german]

36
00:01:33,468 --> 00:01:35,008
Get everybody in here.

37
00:01:35,137 --> 00:01:38,517
He knew that he needed
to project real strength.

38
00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,350
He is the dealer in hope
for the entire free world.

39
00:01:41,476 --> 00:01:45,226
An invasion of France
is courting disaster.

40
00:01:45,314 --> 00:01:46,484
He took risks.

41
00:01:46,607 --> 00:01:49,607
Again and again, you see
these moments of great daring.

42
00:01:49,693 --> 00:01:53,323
ROOSEVELT: Success may not
come with rushing speed,

43
00:01:53,405 --> 00:01:57,415
but we shall return
again and again.

44
00:01:57,492 --> 00:02:00,662
Roosevelt led the
grand alliance to victory

45
00:02:00,787 --> 00:02:02,157
over fascism.

46
00:02:02,289 --> 00:02:05,329
This was a tumultuous,
complicated period of time.

47
00:02:05,459 --> 00:02:08,839
It’s a mistake to think that he
somehow got everything right.

48
00:02:08,920 --> 00:02:11,210
But there was something
about that voice.

49
00:02:11,340 --> 00:02:13,840
There was something
about that smile.

50
00:02:13,925 --> 00:02:17,755
That empathy, that
humility, that resilience,

51
00:02:17,846 --> 00:02:20,846
all those qualities that
FDR just had triumphantly

52
00:02:20,974 --> 00:02:22,274
built into his character.

53
00:02:28,607 --> 00:02:31,027
[music playing]

54
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There’s a small American base
at Midway Island in the middle

55
00:02:42,204 --> 00:02:45,124
of the Pacific, and
in the spring of 1942,

56
00:02:45,207 --> 00:02:46,167
the Japanese think
they’re going to be

57
00:02:46,249 --> 00:02:48,379
able to take the
Americans by surprise

58
00:02:48,460 --> 00:02:51,880
and knock out that outpost.

59
00:02:52,005 --> 00:02:54,375
The Japanese believe that
if they can threaten Midway,

60
00:02:54,508 --> 00:02:57,218
it will bring those US carriers
that weren’t at Pearl Harbor

61
00:02:57,344 --> 00:03:01,564
out and they can destroy
them in one climactic battle.

62
00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:05,060
NARRATOR: Suddenly, from behind
the clouds, the Japs attack.

63
00:03:10,190 --> 00:03:11,270
The Japanese
think they’re going

64
00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,990
to be able to take the
Americans by surprise.

65
00:03:14,069 --> 00:03:16,239
What the Japanese didn’t realize
is that the Americans have

66
00:03:16,363 --> 00:03:20,453
broken the Japanese code, and
FDR knows the Japanese fleet is

67
00:03:20,575 --> 00:03:23,445
coming, and the American
forces in the Pacific

68
00:03:23,578 --> 00:03:25,868
lay a trap for them.

69
00:03:25,956 --> 00:03:27,956
NARRATOR: The trap is sprung.

70
00:03:28,083 --> 00:03:30,383
Navy planes roar from the
decks of our carriers.

71
00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:31,460
Army bombers, Marines.

72
00:03:34,423 --> 00:03:36,973
It’s a really high risk
move on the part of FDR,

73
00:03:37,092 --> 00:03:39,472
but it pays off spectacularly.

74
00:03:39,594 --> 00:03:42,974
The results are just
catastrophic for Japan.

75
00:03:43,098 --> 00:03:45,428
The Japanese lose four carriers.

76
00:03:45,559 --> 00:03:47,189
The US loses one.

77
00:03:47,269 --> 00:03:49,899
Japan will never, in the
entire course of the war,

78
00:03:49,980 --> 00:03:53,320
replace the losses at Midway.

79
00:03:53,442 --> 00:03:55,152
NARRATOR: The Battle
of Midway is over.

80
00:03:55,277 --> 00:03:59,107
Our frontyard is safe, but a
big job is still to be done.

81
00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:00,617
[singing]

82
00:04:03,452 --> 00:04:04,202
It’s Jimmy.

83
00:04:10,792 --> 00:04:17,842
You know, every mother in
America should see this film.

84
00:04:17,966 --> 00:04:20,216
Won’t they be scared
seeing their sons in combat?

85
00:04:22,971 --> 00:04:26,351
They’ll be inspired, Harry.

86
00:04:26,475 --> 00:04:28,485
They’re seeing
their boys winning.

87
00:04:31,521 --> 00:04:34,571
Roosevelt is blown away
by the uplifting story

88
00:04:34,649 --> 00:04:36,529
of American victory.

89
00:04:36,651 --> 00:04:38,191
Next thing you know,
this documentary

90
00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,030
is being shown in movie
theaters all across the country.

91
00:04:41,156 --> 00:04:42,866
And it was the first
kind of up close,

92
00:04:42,991 --> 00:04:45,371
you are there, our
boys in action,

93
00:04:45,494 --> 00:04:50,004
achieving spectacular military
victory in the Pacific.

94
00:04:50,123 --> 00:04:51,503
FDR’s responsibility
as commander

95
00:04:51,625 --> 00:04:52,885
in chief and president
the United States is

96
00:04:53,001 --> 00:04:58,511
to be the global optimist
for Western civilization.

97
00:04:58,590 --> 00:05:00,340
Summer of ’42, the
Battle of the Atlantic

98
00:05:00,425 --> 00:05:03,675
still rages, the Germans are
500 miles into the Soviet Union

99
00:05:03,804 --> 00:05:07,354
at this point, the Mediterranean
is still a battleground.

100
00:05:07,432 --> 00:05:09,682
They’re all massive
problems of their own

101
00:05:09,810 --> 00:05:12,900
of a complexity nobody has
ever dealt with before.

102
00:05:13,021 --> 00:05:15,151
The Germans have driven
the British almost all

103
00:05:15,232 --> 00:05:18,402
the way back into Egypt, but
the United States isn’t really

104
00:05:18,527 --> 00:05:21,357
in the European war, and
this is FDR’s problem.

105
00:05:21,446 --> 00:05:22,856
We’ve got to get in the war.

106
00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:29,410
There’s still been no forward
movement of the American troops

107
00:05:29,538 --> 00:05:31,368
against the German
army, and that’s

108
00:05:31,456 --> 00:05:35,666
where so much of the attention
of the American public is at.

109
00:05:35,752 --> 00:05:38,592
Roosevelt knew that somehow
we needed to get the soldiers

110
00:05:38,713 --> 00:05:41,923
moving against the German army.

111
00:05:42,050 --> 00:05:44,390
There’s great debate
in 1942 about which way

112
00:05:44,469 --> 00:05:47,429
the Allies should go in terms
of trying to push the Nazis out

113
00:05:47,556 --> 00:05:48,846
of Western Europe.

114
00:05:48,932 --> 00:05:54,102
In 1942, Russia is bearing the
brunt of the Nazi onslaught.

115
00:05:54,229 --> 00:05:56,109
The Nazis are driving
deep into Russia,

116
00:05:56,231 --> 00:05:59,441
laying siege to Leningrad
and to other cities.

117
00:05:59,568 --> 00:06:02,108
Every day, thousands of
people are being killed.

118
00:06:02,237 --> 00:06:05,447
It’s really a bloodbath
on the Eastern Front.

119
00:06:05,574 --> 00:06:09,794
Joseph Stalin is pleading,
demanding that Churchill

120
00:06:09,911 --> 00:06:12,961
and FDR open a second front.

121
00:06:13,081 --> 00:06:14,921
There were people that
wanted to keep the focus

122
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,130
in the Pacific, because
after all, it was Japan that

123
00:06:17,252 --> 00:06:18,292
had attacked the United States.

124
00:06:18,420 --> 00:06:20,050
There were people who
wanted to go straight

125
00:06:20,130 --> 00:06:21,880
into continental Europe.

126
00:06:21,965 --> 00:06:24,135
Churchill favors
starting in North Africa,

127
00:06:24,259 --> 00:06:26,639
and then that then becomes
a staging ground to come up

128
00:06:26,761 --> 00:06:28,261
through what Churchill
vividly described

129
00:06:28,388 --> 00:06:32,558
as the soft underbelly of
the Nazi controlled Europe.

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00:06:32,642 --> 00:06:35,602
NEWSREADER: In Washington D.C.,
the president of the United

131
00:06:35,729 --> 00:06:38,939
States welcomed the prime
minister of Great Britain.

132
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The gravity of the moment
had brought them together.

133
00:06:42,819 --> 00:06:45,029
Churchill really feels he
has his back to the wall.

134
00:06:45,113 --> 00:06:46,823
Britain is basically
standing alone

135
00:06:46,948 --> 00:06:49,658
against the German and Italian
threat in North Africa.

136
00:06:52,913 --> 00:06:55,423
There’s great camaraderie
between FDR and Churchill,

137
00:06:55,498 --> 00:06:57,788
but there’s also great tension.

138
00:06:57,876 --> 00:06:59,706
I see you found
the good brandy.

139
00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:06,800
Thank you.

140
00:07:10,639 --> 00:07:14,599
Have you given any more
thought to North Africa?

141
00:07:14,684 --> 00:07:18,864
I’ve been doing nothing but
thinking about North Africa,

142
00:07:18,980 --> 00:07:20,730
and northern France.

143
00:07:23,485 --> 00:07:28,325
An invasion of France
is courting disaster.

144
00:07:28,448 --> 00:07:30,488
We’re not ready.

145
00:07:30,575 --> 00:07:31,325
From the map room.

146
00:07:31,451 --> 00:07:32,541
Just came in.

147
00:07:32,661 --> 00:07:33,411
Thank you, my dear.

148
00:07:40,001 --> 00:07:40,791
It’s Tobruk.

149
00:07:48,969 --> 00:07:52,179
Churchill was in the
White House in 1942

150
00:07:52,263 --> 00:07:56,523
when there were severe Allied
reverses in North Africa,

151
00:07:56,601 --> 00:07:57,811
and Tobruk falls.

152
00:08:00,397 --> 00:08:04,067
And FDR looks at him and
sees the pain in his eyes.

153
00:08:04,192 --> 00:08:06,612
The commingling of the
personal and the political

154
00:08:06,695 --> 00:08:12,535
and the diplomatic and the human
was fascinating and decisive

155
00:08:12,659 --> 00:08:13,489
in many ways.

156
00:08:16,538 --> 00:08:19,038
How could this happen?

157
00:08:19,165 --> 00:08:21,035
It’s one defeat.

158
00:08:21,167 --> 00:08:22,837
It’s not over.

159
00:08:22,919 --> 00:08:25,589
A defeat is one thing.

160
00:08:25,714 --> 00:08:28,884
A disgrace is another.

161
00:08:29,009 --> 00:08:35,259
Beaten by a force half our
size, the British army.

162
00:08:35,390 --> 00:08:37,230
I thought they would hold on.

163
00:08:41,396 --> 00:08:47,776
I need every tank you can spare
sent directly to North Africa.

164
00:08:47,902 --> 00:08:49,782
Consider it done.

165
00:08:49,904 --> 00:08:56,454
And I need you to agree to
the North Africa invasion.

166
00:08:56,578 --> 00:09:01,868
We can’t let Hitler control
the Mediterranean and our oil.

167
00:09:01,958 --> 00:09:04,748
It’s where you need it most now.

168
00:09:04,878 --> 00:09:06,588
My generals say otherwise.

169
00:09:06,713 --> 00:09:08,633
Some of them want France.

170
00:09:08,757 --> 00:09:12,967
Some of them want me to move
more resources to the Pacific.

171
00:09:13,094 --> 00:09:17,314
But we’re depending on you.

172
00:09:17,432 --> 00:09:19,272
Roosevelt ultimately
sides with Churchill,

173
00:09:19,350 --> 00:09:22,600
because if a cross-channel
invasion misfires,

174
00:09:22,687 --> 00:09:26,897
there’ll be enormous casualties
and it’ll be morale crushing

175
00:09:26,983 --> 00:09:30,283
in the United States
and Great Britain.

176
00:09:30,403 --> 00:09:31,573
At the end of
the day, they plan

177
00:09:31,654 --> 00:09:34,824
an invasion of North Africa
called Operation Torch,

178
00:09:34,949 --> 00:09:37,239
and FDR will do this
against the military advice,

179
00:09:37,327 --> 00:09:38,907
a presidential
prerogative as commander

180
00:09:38,995 --> 00:09:40,995
in chief, to say we
need to get in the war

181
00:09:41,122 --> 00:09:44,712
and North Africa is
where we do this.

182
00:09:44,793 --> 00:09:48,463
Now FDR has got to focus on
getting our military squared

183
00:09:48,546 --> 00:09:50,796
away and all of the
tools that they need

184
00:09:50,882 --> 00:09:53,432
to go out and be victorious.

185
00:09:53,510 --> 00:09:56,510
FDR understood that
part of being a war leader

186
00:09:56,638 --> 00:10:00,218
is not simply to be commander
in chief of the armed forces

187
00:10:00,308 --> 00:10:02,638
but to be able to
mobilize the home front.

188
00:10:02,727 --> 00:10:05,227
It’s not just making
strategic determinations

189
00:10:05,313 --> 00:10:07,063
about where to fight
and what battles,

190
00:10:07,148 --> 00:10:10,188
you have to get the people and
the soldiers wanting to fight,

191
00:10:10,318 --> 00:10:12,818
willing to fight, willing to
be producing on the home front

192
00:10:12,946 --> 00:10:13,946
24 hours a day.

193
00:10:16,658 --> 00:10:19,868
To win the war, we have
to ramp up production,

194
00:10:19,994 --> 00:10:22,794
and to ramp up production,
the president has to be deeply

195
00:10:22,872 --> 00:10:27,672
involved in making the federal
government a force to make

196
00:10:27,794 --> 00:10:30,594
capitalism start to
create a war machine,

197
00:10:30,672 --> 00:10:35,642
to create what FDR
calls arsenal democracy.

198
00:10:35,718 --> 00:10:38,008
FDR knew that he had to
change his relationship

199
00:10:38,096 --> 00:10:40,006
with the business community,
which had been marked

200
00:10:40,098 --> 00:10:42,018
by hostility at the
end of the New Deal,

201
00:10:42,142 --> 00:10:46,232
that he had to pivot and make
himself a partner of business,

202
00:10:46,354 --> 00:10:48,194
and he really makes a peace.

203
00:10:48,273 --> 00:10:52,113
Factories are transforming from
cars into planes and tanks.

204
00:10:52,193 --> 00:10:56,363
Doctor New Deal becomes
eventually Doctor Win The War.

205
00:10:56,489 --> 00:10:59,029
Rarely do you
find a leader who

206
00:10:59,117 --> 00:11:03,367
is good at proposing
controversial programs as FDR

207
00:11:03,454 --> 00:11:07,674
did during the New Deal,
and then in the 1940s

208
00:11:07,750 --> 00:11:10,290
uniting the country
to win the war.

209
00:11:10,378 --> 00:11:12,798
Name me anyone else who
might have been president

210
00:11:12,881 --> 00:11:15,721
of the United States during
those years who could have done

211
00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:16,470
that.

212
00:11:16,551 --> 00:11:17,931
It was only FDR.

213
00:11:21,681 --> 00:11:24,391
He felt it was so important to
go to the manufacturing plants,

214
00:11:24,517 --> 00:11:27,097
to go to the factories, because
he knew the enormous pressure

215
00:11:27,228 --> 00:11:29,478
that they were working
under to produce.

216
00:11:29,564 --> 00:11:32,274
They know that these weapons
and planes and tanks are

217
00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,240
critical for the war effort.

218
00:11:35,361 --> 00:11:37,111
There’s a lot of sense
of needing to make

219
00:11:37,238 --> 00:11:39,448
sure their morale is up.

220
00:11:39,574 --> 00:11:41,084
In every factory
that he visited,

221
00:11:41,159 --> 00:11:44,449
the productivity went
up shortly thereafter.

222
00:11:44,579 --> 00:11:47,459
And he also has to pressure
the manufacturers to get them

223
00:11:47,582 --> 00:11:50,002
moving as fast as they could.

224
00:11:50,084 --> 00:11:51,634
One of the leading
manufacturers in the United

225
00:11:51,753 --> 00:11:54,093
States was the
Ford Motor Company.

226
00:11:54,172 --> 00:11:57,172
Ford had this enormous Willow
Run Plant that they’ve created,

227
00:11:57,258 --> 00:11:58,798
the biggest one of all.

228
00:11:58,927 --> 00:12:00,967
They’ve only produced one
bomber that’s all that’s

229
00:12:01,095 --> 00:12:03,005
come off the assembly line.

230
00:12:03,097 --> 00:12:06,307
Henry Ford was largely an
opponent of the New Deal.

231
00:12:06,434 --> 00:12:08,814
He was a vicious antisemite.

232
00:12:08,937 --> 00:12:11,187
He said nice things
about Hitler.

233
00:12:11,272 --> 00:12:15,482
So Henry Ford would not have
been at the top of FDR’s hit

234
00:12:15,610 --> 00:12:16,530
parade.

235
00:12:16,611 --> 00:12:20,491
But in 1942, he is
a wartime president

236
00:12:20,615 --> 00:12:23,875
and is trying to mobilize
absolutely everyone.

237
00:12:27,455 --> 00:12:31,955
Henry, quite an impressive
place you have here.

238
00:12:32,085 --> 00:12:34,845
You got a lot of
nice press for it.

239
00:12:34,963 --> 00:12:37,803
We’ve got a mile
long assembly line.

240
00:12:37,924 --> 00:12:40,844
You should bring Hitler
and Tojo in here to see it.

241
00:12:40,969 --> 00:12:43,349
They’d surrender in two seconds.

242
00:12:43,471 --> 00:12:45,851
Only if it lives
up to its billing.

243
00:12:45,974 --> 00:12:47,394
Your factory is
behind the others

244
00:12:47,475 --> 00:12:49,475
and I’m here to find out why.

245
00:12:49,602 --> 00:12:53,482
Mr. Roosevelt,
everything is new.

246
00:12:53,606 --> 00:12:56,816
New machinery, new parts.

247
00:12:56,901 --> 00:13:00,201
You can’t expect it to run like
clockwork right off the bat.

248
00:13:00,321 --> 00:13:04,701
We’re going to get
rid of the Nazis.

249
00:13:04,826 --> 00:13:10,996
And when we do, I hope I’ll
have you and your factory

250
00:13:11,124 --> 00:13:12,004
to thank for it.

251
00:13:18,423 --> 00:13:20,843
Weeks after that
visit, productivity

252
00:13:20,967 --> 00:13:23,337
goes up at the Ford
plant, and they actually

253
00:13:23,469 --> 00:13:26,099
do outstrip the industry
average eventually.

254
00:13:26,180 --> 00:13:28,270
The relationship between
business and government

255
00:13:28,349 --> 00:13:31,809
during World War II was the most
productive in all of history.

256
00:13:31,894 --> 00:13:33,564
It was an incredible
accomplishment.

257
00:13:33,688 --> 00:13:36,518
We see this incredible
increase in factory production.

258
00:13:36,607 --> 00:13:38,687
The country is in
better economic footing

259
00:13:38,776 --> 00:13:40,066
than it has been.

260
00:13:40,194 --> 00:13:42,574
The workplace is
becoming more diverse.

261
00:13:42,697 --> 00:13:44,737
We are seeing more and
more African-Americans,

262
00:13:44,866 --> 00:13:48,736
Mexican-Americans, Latinos
contributing to the war effort.

263
00:13:48,870 --> 00:13:52,250
We are seeing more women in
the workforce, in factories.

264
00:13:52,373 --> 00:13:54,423
Rosie the Riveter.

265
00:13:54,542 --> 00:13:57,382
Eleanor was instrumental
right from the start.

266
00:13:57,462 --> 00:14:01,262
By 1942 and ’43, she was
arguing with the factory owners,

267
00:14:01,382 --> 00:14:02,382
bring women aboard.

268
00:14:02,467 --> 00:14:03,587
You need them.

269
00:14:03,718 --> 00:14:06,428
She made a statement, if
I were a young girl at 17,

270
00:14:06,554 --> 00:14:07,764
I would want to
work in a factory.

271
00:14:07,889 --> 00:14:10,139
That’s where I would want to be.

272
00:14:10,224 --> 00:14:12,104
And Eleanor focused
on the women who had

273
00:14:12,226 --> 00:14:14,766
come to work in the factories.

274
00:14:14,896 --> 00:14:18,316
During the war, Eleanor was
instrumental in encouraging

275
00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:21,279
women to work the 24/7 shifts.

276
00:14:21,402 --> 00:14:25,242
Eleanor met with them,
became pen pals with them,

277
00:14:25,365 --> 00:14:28,785
secured better working
conditions for them,

278
00:14:28,910 --> 00:14:35,420
got them raises, and made sure
there was daycare available

279
00:14:35,500 --> 00:14:38,880
at federal employment
facilities.

280
00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:41,711
Before her, there had been
ceremonial first ladies,

281
00:14:41,798 --> 00:14:43,588
but she was the first
first lady to speak

282
00:14:43,716 --> 00:14:45,966
at a national convention,
the first to speak

283
00:14:46,094 --> 00:14:47,974
at a congressional
investigation,

284
00:14:48,096 --> 00:14:50,386
the first to hold weekly press
conferences, the first half

285
00:14:50,473 --> 00:14:53,143
radio shows of her own.

286
00:14:53,267 --> 00:14:55,637
The price FDR paid for
Eleanor’s independence,

287
00:14:55,770 --> 00:14:59,980
however, was that she was
gone almost 200 days a year.

288
00:15:00,108 --> 00:15:03,608
But as Eleanor emerged into
the first lady she became,

289
00:15:03,736 --> 00:15:05,986
FDR’s admiration for
her only increased.

290
00:15:06,114 --> 00:15:09,584
She becomes absolutely
central to his leadership.

291
00:15:15,581 --> 00:15:18,541
At the fall of 1942, there’s
a lot of pressure on Roosevelt.

292
00:15:18,626 --> 00:15:20,456
It had been almost a year,
and the United States

293
00:15:20,545 --> 00:15:24,845
had done nothing meaningful it
seemed in the European theater.

294
00:15:24,966 --> 00:15:26,676
Winston Churchill would
argue, you haven’t been to war

295
00:15:26,801 --> 00:15:28,721
unless you’ve
fought the Germans.

296
00:15:28,803 --> 00:15:31,683
So this will lead us
to November of 1942.

297
00:15:31,806 --> 00:15:34,346
Operation Torch will be the
largest amphibious invasion

298
00:15:34,475 --> 00:15:36,185
in the United States
history, where

299
00:15:36,310 --> 00:15:38,230
they will land on three
different landing sites

300
00:15:38,312 --> 00:15:40,442
on the coast of North Africa.

301
00:15:40,523 --> 00:15:42,983
The idea is if you can pinch
the Germans in North Africa

302
00:15:43,109 --> 00:15:44,989
between the one force
coming from the east

303
00:15:45,111 --> 00:15:46,991
and the other force
coming from the west,

304
00:15:47,113 --> 00:15:48,823
you can clear all
of North Africa.

305
00:15:51,993 --> 00:15:55,703
The weekend before the
invasion of North Africa, FDR

306
00:15:55,830 --> 00:15:59,540
was uncharacteristically tense,
and I think the reason was

307
00:15:59,667 --> 00:16:02,667
because he was the one
responsible for making

308
00:16:02,753 --> 00:16:05,923
the decision to invade North
Africa against the wishes

309
00:16:06,007 --> 00:16:09,047
of Marshall and Eisenhower, so
you can imagine what he felt

310
00:16:09,177 --> 00:16:10,547
as he was waiting for the news.

311
00:16:10,678 --> 00:16:11,888
Were the troops ready?

312
00:16:12,013 --> 00:16:16,183
Were they sufficiently trained
enough to make this work?

313
00:16:16,309 --> 00:16:19,769
On the eve of the invasion of
North Africa, Operation Torch,

314
00:16:19,854 --> 00:16:22,944
Roosevelt is at one of his
vaunted cocktail parties,

315
00:16:23,024 --> 00:16:25,074
and most of those people
there would not have even

316
00:16:25,193 --> 00:16:27,533
known this was even happening.

317
00:16:27,612 --> 00:16:29,032
Boss.

318
00:16:29,155 --> 00:16:29,995
Thank you, Grace.

319
00:16:46,172 --> 00:16:49,432
Is there anything
from Marshall?

320
00:16:49,550 --> 00:16:52,260
Nothing yet.

321
00:16:52,386 --> 00:16:54,096
Get down.

322
00:16:54,222 --> 00:16:56,432
We’re taking a hell of a
chance with this, Harry.

323
00:16:56,557 --> 00:16:58,227
I feel good about our chances.

324
00:17:01,229 --> 00:17:02,309
Is there anything I can do?

325
00:17:07,151 --> 00:17:08,691
It’s out of our hands now.

326
00:17:12,406 --> 00:17:14,576
I can’t stop wondering
if we’re ready.

327
00:17:22,124 --> 00:17:23,044
[phone rings]

328
00:17:28,506 --> 00:17:29,336
Hello?

329
00:17:32,843 --> 00:17:35,643
It’s the war department.

330
00:17:35,763 --> 00:17:36,563
Yes?

331
00:17:40,810 --> 00:17:42,600
Thank god.

332
00:17:42,687 --> 00:17:44,517
Thank god.

333
00:17:44,605 --> 00:17:46,475
Well, that sounds grand.

334
00:17:46,607 --> 00:17:47,777
Congratulations.

335
00:17:55,950 --> 00:17:58,450
We have landed in North Africa.

336
00:17:58,536 --> 00:18:01,366
We are striking back.

337
00:18:01,455 --> 00:18:02,915
[applause]

338
00:18:07,712 --> 00:18:10,552
British and American forces
have landed in Operation Torch

339
00:18:10,631 --> 00:18:13,381
in November of 1942.

340
00:18:13,467 --> 00:18:16,047
NEWSREADER: A gigantic American
invasion force is landing.

341
00:18:16,137 --> 00:18:18,557
A second front is at hand.

342
00:18:18,639 --> 00:18:21,389
65,000 American troops
plus British troops

343
00:18:21,475 --> 00:18:24,185
will hit the beaches
in French North Africa,

344
00:18:24,312 --> 00:18:26,152
and they’re going to
start pushing eastward

345
00:18:26,230 --> 00:18:28,940
along the North African coast.

346
00:18:29,025 --> 00:18:31,825
Operation Torch
allows for Americans

347
00:18:31,902 --> 00:18:34,912
to see their ground
troops in action.

348
00:18:34,989 --> 00:18:37,829
That has a morale
building effect stateside.

349
00:18:41,912 --> 00:18:44,542
FDR made every
American feel like they

350
00:18:44,665 --> 00:18:49,745
were a part of this challenge
to beat back fascism.

351
00:18:49,837 --> 00:18:53,007
Every radio address ended
with a call to action.

352
00:18:53,132 --> 00:18:57,052
There is one front where
everyone in the United States,

353
00:18:57,178 --> 00:19:01,268
every man, woman, and
child is in action,

354
00:19:01,349 --> 00:19:05,389
and that front is
right here at home.

355
00:19:05,519 --> 00:19:07,939
The story of the war cannot
be told without the story

356
00:19:08,022 --> 00:19:10,652
of the home front, and the story
of the home front cannot be

357
00:19:10,733 --> 00:19:13,443
told really without the
incandescent leadership

358
00:19:13,527 --> 00:19:17,487
of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR
understood that the only way

359
00:19:17,573 --> 00:19:20,493
that we could get the soldiers
the equipment they needed when

360
00:19:20,576 --> 00:19:23,366
there were scarcity of
supplies was rationing.

361
00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:26,616
He has rubber drives
in the village squares,

362
00:19:26,707 --> 00:19:30,207
and everybody brings on a
Saturday their old rubber toys

363
00:19:30,336 --> 00:19:34,256
and rubber hoses, rubber bands,
and he does that same thing

364
00:19:34,382 --> 00:19:36,762
with aluminum.

365
00:19:36,884 --> 00:19:38,974
One very important
feature of World War II

366
00:19:39,053 --> 00:19:41,433
is that the sense
of shared sacrifice.

367
00:19:41,555 --> 00:19:43,965
It’s the same spirit of
during the Great Depression

368
00:19:44,058 --> 00:19:46,308
and the New Deal, that same
idea that we’re all in this

369
00:19:46,394 --> 00:19:47,234
together.

370
00:19:47,353 --> 00:19:49,023
Trust is the
most important part

371
00:19:49,105 --> 00:19:50,565
of his leadership in many ways.

372
00:19:50,648 --> 00:19:52,228
The American people trusted him.

373
00:19:52,316 --> 00:19:54,816
So when he told them that
this is necessary for you

374
00:19:54,902 --> 00:19:57,072
to only have five gallons
of gasoline a week,

375
00:19:57,196 --> 00:20:00,696
it’s necessary for you to only
drink one cup of coffee a day,

376
00:20:00,783 --> 00:20:03,243
even though they grumbled
and got angry with it,

377
00:20:03,369 --> 00:20:07,159
eventually they knew they had to
do their part, because we were

378
00:20:07,248 --> 00:20:09,828
all working together
in a common goal.

379
00:20:09,917 --> 00:20:12,747
That’s one of the huge
parts of FDR’s leadership,

380
00:20:12,837 --> 00:20:14,587
that he was able to mobilize
that collective will

381
00:20:14,714 --> 00:20:15,514
of the country.

382
00:20:19,093 --> 00:20:22,183
It’s January 1943,
and the war has really

383
00:20:22,263 --> 00:20:24,433
reached a crossroads.

384
00:20:24,515 --> 00:20:27,735
Stalin is in the process
of losing a million men

385
00:20:27,810 --> 00:20:30,900
at Stalingrad and he is
desperate for his Western

386
00:20:30,980 --> 00:20:34,070
partners to open a Western Front
to take some of that pressure

387
00:20:34,150 --> 00:20:37,190
off of the Red Army.

388
00:20:37,278 --> 00:20:39,148
In fact, Stalin
says bluntly to FDR

389
00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:41,870
and to Churchill, we Russians
are killing more Germans

390
00:20:41,949 --> 00:20:46,039
every day than the two of
your people put together.

391
00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:48,960
The fear is that if Russia
gets worn down by the Nazis,

392
00:20:49,039 --> 00:20:50,539
that they’ll sue for
a separate peace.

393
00:20:50,624 --> 00:20:51,794
They’ll just give up.

394
00:20:51,876 --> 00:20:53,496
And so FDR is eager
to do something

395
00:20:53,627 --> 00:20:55,957
to help the ally Joseph
Stalin and to relieve some

396
00:20:56,088 --> 00:20:58,838
of that pressure.

397
00:20:58,966 --> 00:21:03,636
I cannot tell you when or
where the United Nations are

398
00:21:03,721 --> 00:21:09,521
going to strike next in Europe,
but we are going to strike

399
00:21:09,643 --> 00:21:11,353
and strike hard.

400
00:21:11,479 --> 00:21:16,649
We believe that the Nazis and
the fascists have asked for it,

401
00:21:16,776 --> 00:21:18,486
and they’re going to get it.

402
00:21:21,655 --> 00:21:24,065
After Operation Torch,
for the first time

403
00:21:24,158 --> 00:21:26,238
the Allies have the initiative.

404
00:21:26,327 --> 00:21:28,157
FDR and Churchill, they’re
going to meet in Casablanca

405
00:21:28,245 --> 00:21:30,115
in Morocco.

406
00:21:30,206 --> 00:21:32,076
FDR is going to be the first
president to leave the United

407
00:21:32,166 --> 00:21:34,666
States in a time of war, and
he’ll be the second president

408
00:21:34,794 --> 00:21:37,464
since Abraham Lincoln
to go to a war zone,

409
00:21:37,546 --> 00:21:40,506
and this conference is really
about what are the next steps.

410
00:21:40,591 --> 00:21:43,181
And they ask Stalin to come,
but Stalin is afraid to fly,

411
00:21:43,302 --> 00:21:44,852
and Stalingrad is
in the midst of it

412
00:21:44,929 --> 00:21:47,389
so he’s not going to be there.

413
00:21:47,515 --> 00:21:50,185
What meant so much
to FDR about Casablanca

414
00:21:50,267 --> 00:21:52,437
is that two of his sons in
the military were there,

415
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:55,610
Harry Hopkins’ son was there,
Churchill’s son was there,

416
00:21:55,689 --> 00:21:58,689
and there’s that next
generation who are carrying out

417
00:21:58,776 --> 00:22:01,026
the goals of that older
generation of Churchill

418
00:22:01,153 --> 00:22:04,873
and Roosevelt.

419
00:22:04,990 --> 00:22:06,990
They seem to be
hitting it off.

420
00:22:07,076 --> 00:22:07,866
Yes.

421
00:22:10,830 --> 00:22:14,710
Did you know Stalin’s
son has been captured?

422
00:22:14,792 --> 00:22:16,252
It’s awful.

423
00:22:16,377 --> 00:22:19,957
I’m told he refuses
to negotiate for him.

424
00:22:20,047 --> 00:22:25,047
I hear his motto
is, not one step back.

425
00:22:25,177 --> 00:22:28,887
I guess that goes
for his son too.

426
00:22:29,014 --> 00:22:33,314
Well, he’s certainly
making the Nazis bleed.

427
00:22:33,394 --> 00:22:35,654
He just might hold Stalingrad.

428
00:22:39,525 --> 00:22:43,115
It’s good to have
our boys close by.

429
00:22:43,237 --> 00:22:44,277
Yes.

430
00:22:44,405 --> 00:22:46,995
They’re out of harm’s
way, for the moment.

431
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:52,160
At the Casablanca
conference, Churchill

432
00:22:52,246 --> 00:22:55,826
is advocating for a
continuation of this attempt

433
00:22:55,916 --> 00:22:58,996
to strike Germany through
the soft underbelly of Europe

434
00:22:59,086 --> 00:23:01,246
by invading through
Italy in hopes of getting

435
00:23:01,380 --> 00:23:03,800
a quick series of victories.

436
00:23:03,924 --> 00:23:07,094
But within the United
States, the military advisors

437
00:23:07,177 --> 00:23:09,507
are not necessarily
of the same mind.

438
00:23:09,597 --> 00:23:10,927
Some of them feel that
most of the attention

439
00:23:11,056 --> 00:23:13,846
should be on the Pacific, while
others feel that the Europe

440
00:23:13,934 --> 00:23:18,154
first strategy is
still the way to go.

441
00:23:18,272 --> 00:23:22,032
We’re already in position
for an invasion of Sicily.

442
00:23:22,109 --> 00:23:25,739
I believe I’ve made
that abundantly clear.

443
00:23:25,821 --> 00:23:28,871
This is just a delay
of the inevitable.

444
00:23:28,949 --> 00:23:30,869
We need to strike in France now.

445
00:23:30,951 --> 00:23:34,701
I’m not certain your
Yanks are ready for that.

446
00:23:34,788 --> 00:23:37,368
When the time
comes, we’ll be ready.

447
00:23:37,458 --> 00:23:40,588
You can bet on that.

448
00:23:40,669 --> 00:23:47,879
Gentlemen, the point is
Italy is a much more achievable

449
00:23:47,968 --> 00:23:49,968
target than France right now.

450
00:23:50,054 --> 00:23:54,104
But we all know it won’t do
anything to help the Russians.

451
00:23:56,644 --> 00:23:58,814
What’s your view,
General Eisenhower?

452
00:23:58,896 --> 00:24:01,146
The invasion of France
is going to be the biggest

453
00:24:01,231 --> 00:24:04,821
operation maybe ever.

454
00:24:04,902 --> 00:24:08,162
The way I see it,
we’re short on time.

455
00:24:08,238 --> 00:24:12,118
Time to supply our bases
in England for launch, time

456
00:24:12,201 --> 00:24:13,871
to train enough troops.

457
00:24:13,994 --> 00:24:17,334
How much time?

458
00:24:17,456 --> 00:24:21,126
We can’t do it before ’44.

459
00:24:21,210 --> 00:24:22,500
It’s true.

460
00:24:22,586 --> 00:24:26,756
We’ll need an overwhelming force
for the invasion of France.

461
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,930
So, in the meantime, we
strike a blow in Italy.

462
00:24:36,517 --> 00:24:39,017
All right.

463
00:24:39,103 --> 00:24:42,773
Italy seems the most
feasible option right now.

464
00:24:46,068 --> 00:24:50,028
FDR was not risk
averse, but he was patient

465
00:24:50,155 --> 00:24:51,565
and he knew when to strike.

466
00:24:51,699 --> 00:24:54,489
He had an uncanny
sense of when to strike

467
00:24:54,576 --> 00:24:57,156
and when to not strike.

468
00:24:57,246 --> 00:24:59,536
FDR shows his
tremendous leadership.

469
00:24:59,665 --> 00:25:02,715
He realized that you have to
have a powerful coalition.

470
00:25:02,793 --> 00:25:05,343
You can’t go it alone, and
you can’t lose the British

471
00:25:05,421 --> 00:25:07,011
and you can’t fight
without the British.

472
00:25:07,089 --> 00:25:09,469
And so to keep this
alliance together,

473
00:25:09,550 --> 00:25:12,300
he said, OK, we’ll do that
because they’re our ally

474
00:25:12,386 --> 00:25:16,176
and then they’ll end up
serving our interests.

475
00:25:16,265 --> 00:25:18,145
At the end of the
Casablanca conference,

476
00:25:18,225 --> 00:25:21,385
Churchill goes to Roosevelt and
suggests that they take a trip

477
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:22,730
out to Marrakesh.

478
00:25:27,401 --> 00:25:30,491
Churchill wants Roosevelt to
see the sun set over the Atlas

479
00:25:30,571 --> 00:25:33,821
mountains before he goes home.

480
00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:37,537
Uncle Joe is going to be
furious when he finds out

481
00:25:37,619 --> 00:25:40,909
there won’t be a second
front in France this year.

482
00:25:40,998 --> 00:25:44,878
He’ll get a second front
when the time is right.

483
00:25:49,757 --> 00:25:53,087
And we both know Stalin
is not to be trusted.

484
00:25:55,971 --> 00:25:58,771
He made a pact with
Hitler once before.

485
00:25:58,891 --> 00:26:01,641
Who’s to say he
won’t do it again?

486
00:26:01,769 --> 00:26:05,689
God help us if he does.

487
00:26:05,773 --> 00:26:10,653
But at least we’ll
get there in 1944.

488
00:26:10,778 --> 00:26:16,578
We have to stand by our
promises, and after the war,

489
00:26:16,658 --> 00:26:17,948
we’ll lead by example.

490
00:26:20,454 --> 00:26:21,584
What do you mean?

491
00:26:24,124 --> 00:26:28,214
I’m talking about
your colonies.

492
00:26:28,295 --> 00:26:31,715
People have the right
to self-determination.

493
00:26:31,799 --> 00:26:34,799
I did not become prime
minister in order to liquidate

494
00:26:34,927 --> 00:26:38,257
the entire British Empire.

495
00:26:38,347 --> 00:26:46,517
If we want freedom in Europe,
that means freedom everywhere.

496
00:26:46,647 --> 00:26:49,147
I’m telling you as
a friend, if you

497
00:26:49,233 --> 00:26:51,653
stick with the old
way, Winston, there

498
00:26:51,735 --> 00:26:53,395
will be a third world war.

499
00:26:57,991 --> 00:27:00,161
And nobody would survive that.

500
00:27:08,544 --> 00:27:11,504
In February of 1943, during
the invasion of North Africa,

501
00:27:11,588 --> 00:27:13,758
the Allies have the initiative.

502
00:27:13,841 --> 00:27:15,721
They’ll drive
across North Africa.

503
00:27:15,843 --> 00:27:22,603
But America’s troops are young
and not terribly well trained

504
00:27:22,683 --> 00:27:25,353
yet, still trying to learn the
lessons of armored warfare,

505
00:27:25,435 --> 00:27:28,355
of combined operations
using aviation.

506
00:27:28,438 --> 00:27:30,568
The Germans will counter
an attack at a place called

507
00:27:30,691 --> 00:27:32,691
Kasserine Pass,
and they’re going

508
00:27:32,818 --> 00:27:34,898
to wreck part of the United
States Army’s advance.

509
00:27:35,028 --> 00:27:38,318
They’re going to roll
it back upon itself.

510
00:27:38,407 --> 00:27:40,657
The Americans were
routed by the Germans.

511
00:27:40,742 --> 00:27:42,662
There were some
examples of cowardice.

512
00:27:42,744 --> 00:27:44,454
There was not good leadership.

513
00:27:44,538 --> 00:27:46,958
It was a flop, and it was
kind of a demoralizing

514
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:50,210
one and a bad start.

515
00:27:50,294 --> 00:27:51,804
At the same time,
there’s an operation

516
00:27:51,879 --> 00:27:53,799
halfway around the world
in the Southwest Pacific

517
00:27:53,881 --> 00:27:55,801
in Guadalcanal and
Solomon Islands

518
00:27:55,883 --> 00:27:58,303
whose casualties are much
higher than they are at Torch.

519
00:27:58,385 --> 00:28:00,095
In the Pacific
theater, we’re going

520
00:28:00,220 --> 00:28:02,810
to hop from island to island as
we close in the defensive ring

521
00:28:02,890 --> 00:28:04,180
on Japan.

522
00:28:04,266 --> 00:28:06,346
At Guadalcanal, both sides
are feeding in reinforcements.

523
00:28:06,435 --> 00:28:08,945
And, of course, the
casualties grow.

524
00:28:09,062 --> 00:28:11,982
NARRATOR: Now it began, the
toil and the terror that

525
00:28:12,065 --> 00:28:15,815
makes Guadalcanal not
a name but an emotion.

526
00:28:15,903 --> 00:28:18,243
The casualties mount
from the fighting,

527
00:28:18,363 --> 00:28:21,833
from malaria, from dengue,
from the rot and corruption

528
00:28:21,909 --> 00:28:25,659
of the jungle, which
knows not mercy.

529
00:28:25,746 --> 00:28:26,746
It’s costly in men.

530
00:28:26,872 --> 00:28:28,962
It’s costly in munitions.

531
00:28:29,082 --> 00:28:31,042
It’s a very, very
costly campaign.

532
00:28:38,926 --> 00:28:41,676
General Marshall’s on his way.

533
00:28:41,762 --> 00:28:44,562
Is Eleanor coming to dinner?

534
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:45,640
No.

535
00:28:45,766 --> 00:28:49,846
She’s left for New
York, giving a speech.

536
00:28:49,937 --> 00:28:52,767
She wrote you a note.

537
00:28:52,898 --> 00:28:54,018
I see.

538
00:28:54,107 --> 00:28:55,977
I must have forgotten.

539
00:28:56,109 --> 00:28:56,899
Thank you, grace.

540
00:29:05,327 --> 00:29:06,537
Sir.

541
00:29:06,620 --> 00:29:08,330
Have a seat, General.

542
00:29:08,455 --> 00:29:09,285
Thank you, sir.

543
00:29:11,959 --> 00:29:15,419
I came to let you know
Eisenhower has the situation

544
00:29:15,504 --> 00:29:18,304
in hand at the Kasserine Pass.

545
00:29:18,423 --> 00:29:20,013
The Germans are withdrawing.

546
00:29:20,133 --> 00:29:22,473
We can’t afford
these command problems.

547
00:29:25,472 --> 00:29:28,482
It’s my responsibility, sir.

548
00:29:28,558 --> 00:29:31,938
Do we know the casualties yet?

549
00:29:32,020 --> 00:29:38,990
7,000 of ours, but
mostly wounded, or missing.

550
00:29:39,069 --> 00:29:39,989
300 killed.

551
00:29:43,323 --> 00:29:52,333
Where are we when 300 dead
boys seems like a small number?

552
00:29:55,335 --> 00:29:59,335
How many was it at Guadalcanal?

553
00:29:59,464 --> 00:30:03,054
7,000.

554
00:30:03,176 --> 00:30:03,966
Dead?

555
00:30:09,349 --> 00:30:11,019
But they were
both victories, sir.

556
00:30:15,689 --> 00:30:16,519
Yes, I know.

557
00:30:20,235 --> 00:30:21,895
7,000 killed or wounded.

558
00:30:22,029 --> 00:30:24,279
At some point, it’s
numbers on a ledger,

559
00:30:24,364 --> 00:30:27,534
but each one of those ledgers
has a mother or a father,

560
00:30:27,659 --> 00:30:29,489
and it’s FDR who
carries that weight

561
00:30:29,578 --> 00:30:31,158
and considers how would
you write that letter

562
00:30:31,246 --> 00:30:32,956
to every mother and father.

563
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,960
It is the burden of command.

564
00:30:35,042 --> 00:30:39,132
It is the burden of being
the commander in chief.

565
00:30:39,212 --> 00:30:42,092
He knew that this
was not a battle.

566
00:30:42,215 --> 00:30:43,965
It was a war.

567
00:30:44,051 --> 00:30:47,301
He knew this was not
the work of six months.

568
00:30:47,387 --> 00:30:50,307
He knew it would be many years.

569
00:30:50,390 --> 00:30:55,600
He had learned that
you have to keep going.

570
00:30:55,729 --> 00:30:59,769
And I think that as
he led us into war,

571
00:30:59,900 --> 00:31:03,320
there was a fortitude and
a resilience that grew out

572
00:31:03,403 --> 00:31:07,163
of his own personal
fortitude and resilience.

573
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,080
Somebody said to
FDR, how can you

574
00:31:09,159 --> 00:31:11,699
go to sleep at night with
all these hard decisions

575
00:31:11,787 --> 00:31:14,327
that you’ve had to make and
the pressures that are on you?

576
00:31:14,414 --> 00:31:16,624
He said, if you spend
two years just trying

577
00:31:16,750 --> 00:31:21,750
to wiggle your big toe, you’re
going to learn patience.

578
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,170
As the war unfolds, there
is increasing pressure because

579
00:31:25,258 --> 00:31:27,678
of the losses that Stalin
and the Soviet Union

580
00:31:27,761 --> 00:31:31,851
are sustaining to open a
second front in the West.

581
00:31:31,932 --> 00:31:34,312
So Stalin Churchill
and Roosevelt

582
00:31:34,434 --> 00:31:38,864
go to Tehran in November
1943, and the central question

583
00:31:38,939 --> 00:31:43,779
from Stalin is, when are you
going to attack in the West?

584
00:31:43,860 --> 00:31:46,280
Tehran is the first
opportunity for Roosevelt,

585
00:31:46,363 --> 00:31:49,123
Churchill, and Stalin to all
sit down, the three of them.

586
00:31:49,241 --> 00:31:51,661
Roosevelt really relied
on his own personal powers

587
00:31:51,785 --> 00:31:53,545
of persuasion and
really dependent

588
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:56,160
on personal connections.

589
00:31:56,289 --> 00:32:00,789
FDR loved politics, and
politics at the very highest

590
00:32:00,877 --> 00:32:05,467
was keeping together a coalition
of thoroughly disagreeable

591
00:32:05,590 --> 00:32:07,130
potential enemies.

592
00:32:07,259 --> 00:32:09,719
And although their three
countries were in an alliance,

593
00:32:09,803 --> 00:32:12,813
their interests
were not parallel.

594
00:32:12,931 --> 00:32:14,681
Stalin believed that
Churchill and Roosevelt,

595
00:32:14,808 --> 00:32:18,308
those capitalists, were ganging
up on Stalin, as indeed they

596
00:32:18,437 --> 00:32:19,687
were.

597
00:32:19,813 --> 00:32:22,863
So Roosevelt’s got to figure out
how to mollify Stalin when they

598
00:32:22,983 --> 00:32:24,153
got together.

599
00:32:24,276 --> 00:32:27,236
And during the war, FDR
sent his advisor Harry Hopkins

600
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:28,990
to meet with Stalin.

601
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:32,332
Hopkins was the entire
State Department

602
00:32:32,451 --> 00:32:36,371
all by himself in this sort of
unofficial capacity as advisor

603
00:32:36,496 --> 00:32:37,326
to the president.

604
00:32:42,335 --> 00:32:46,085
Harry, you’ve met the man.

605
00:32:46,173 --> 00:32:48,723
What can I expect?

606
00:32:48,842 --> 00:32:54,432
Well, he does not care
much about clever strategies.

607
00:32:54,514 --> 00:32:59,024
But he does care about killing
as many Nazis as possible.

608
00:32:59,144 --> 00:33:01,564
That’s clear.

609
00:33:01,688 --> 00:33:03,858
But what’s he really like?

610
00:33:03,982 --> 00:33:07,992
Besides being a
butcher in his own right?

611
00:33:08,069 --> 00:33:13,199
When I first met him, I was
astonished how polite he was.

612
00:33:13,325 --> 00:33:18,165
Perfect uniform, polished
boots, cool as a cucumber.

613
00:33:18,246 --> 00:33:24,086
When I was in Moscow, we
could hear German guns.

614
00:33:24,211 --> 00:33:26,001
No sign of fear from him.

615
00:33:26,087 --> 00:33:28,717
No hesitation.

616
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:30,800
Go on.

617
00:33:30,884 --> 00:33:34,224
I need something I can use.

618
00:33:34,346 --> 00:33:39,426
He does have a sense of
humor in his own peculiar way.

619
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:43,859
He laughs, but when
you least expect it.

620
00:33:43,939 --> 00:33:48,069
And he does not trust Churchill.

621
00:33:48,193 --> 00:33:50,153
What matters is
that he trusts me.

622
00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:58,243
When the time comes, I’ll
have to distance myself

623
00:33:58,370 --> 00:33:59,580
from Winston.

624
00:33:59,663 --> 00:34:02,173
He will not like that.

625
00:34:02,249 --> 00:34:03,669
I can’t worry about that now.

626
00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:09,509
We need Stalin to stick with us.

627
00:34:27,107 --> 00:34:28,227
It shouldn’t be long now.

628
00:34:52,966 --> 00:34:55,716
I’m glad to see you.

629
00:34:55,802 --> 00:34:59,972
I’ve tried for a long
time to make this happen,

630
00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:02,888
and here we are.

631
00:35:02,976 --> 00:35:04,386
[speaking russian]

632
00:35:36,676 --> 00:35:38,796
That’s quite all right.

633
00:35:38,887 --> 00:35:44,347
I believe men should
meet face to face.

634
00:35:44,434 --> 00:35:48,354
I was so terribly sorry
to hear about your son.

635
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,110
[speaking russian]

636
00:36:10,251 --> 00:36:15,631
I suppose we all must
be prepared to sacrifice

637
00:36:15,715 --> 00:36:18,885
everything to win this war.

638
00:36:26,559 --> 00:36:28,599
Tehran Conference is the
first conference where we now

639
00:36:28,728 --> 00:36:31,188
have all of the big three.

640
00:36:31,272 --> 00:36:33,322
NEWSREADER: Tehran,
capital of Iran.

641
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,570
Here, 6,000 miles from
Washington, the president

642
00:36:36,695 --> 00:36:38,455
and prime minister
meet their great ally

643
00:36:38,571 --> 00:36:42,661
in the war against Nazi Germany,
Marshal Joseph Stalin, premier

644
00:36:42,742 --> 00:36:44,912
of Soviet Russia.

645
00:36:45,036 --> 00:36:47,536
Franklin Delano Roosevelt has
the relationship with Winston

646
00:36:47,622 --> 00:36:51,212
Churchill, and Winston Churchill
has met with Stalin before,

647
00:36:51,292 --> 00:36:52,962
but Franklin Delano
Roosevelt has not,

648
00:36:53,086 --> 00:36:54,956
so he wants to
develop a rapport,

649
00:36:55,088 --> 00:36:58,008
and fundamentally he thinks, he
is the only one on Earth that

650
00:36:58,091 --> 00:37:01,431
should be able to go ahead and
break this crusty exterior.

651
00:37:01,511 --> 00:37:05,891
Stalin is ruthless, I would
go so far as to say heartless,

652
00:37:05,974 --> 00:37:09,194
but that Soviet Union
was a necessary ally.

653
00:37:09,269 --> 00:37:12,519
Roosevelt looked at
Stalin not as his partner

654
00:37:12,605 --> 00:37:16,605
or as his great friend,
but as a leader who

655
00:37:16,693 --> 00:37:20,493
was in charge of millions of
soldiers that might wind up

656
00:37:20,613 --> 00:37:23,123
saving American democracy.

657
00:37:23,199 --> 00:37:25,489
One of Roosevelt’s
enormous strengths

658
00:37:25,618 --> 00:37:29,788
was that he could manipulate
people and he could oppose them

659
00:37:29,914 --> 00:37:32,124
or he could have them
working with each other.

660
00:37:32,208 --> 00:37:35,288
I always think one of the
best metaphors for FDR

661
00:37:35,420 --> 00:37:39,670
as a leader is, you know, he had
spinning plates on his fingers

662
00:37:39,799 --> 00:37:42,129
and on top of the plates
were spinning forks,

663
00:37:42,218 --> 00:37:47,058
and this whole apparatus was
operating well because FDR was

664
00:37:47,140 --> 00:37:50,060
there providing the leadership.

665
00:37:50,143 --> 00:37:53,563
Roosevelt was careful to make
sure that Stalin saw that there

666
00:37:53,646 --> 00:37:56,686
was no solid Anglo-US front.

667
00:37:56,816 --> 00:38:00,696
So at Tehran, that the dynamic
of that US-British relationship

668
00:38:00,820 --> 00:38:02,660
begins to change
just a little bit,

669
00:38:02,739 --> 00:38:05,029
but it must have come as
quite a shock to Churchill

670
00:38:05,158 --> 00:38:09,448
to see this gap
begin to open up.

671
00:38:09,537 --> 00:38:11,457
Imagine the human
side for Churchill.

672
00:38:11,539 --> 00:38:16,089
He’s been at war with Hitler
since September 1st, 1939.

673
00:38:16,169 --> 00:38:18,249
Stalin was allied
with him at the time

674
00:38:18,338 --> 00:38:21,258
and America was living
in a fantasyland,

675
00:38:21,341 --> 00:38:24,761
and now Churchill is becoming
less important as these two

676
00:38:24,844 --> 00:38:30,144
forces come up, and it
was incredibly painful

677
00:38:30,225 --> 00:38:32,815
for Churchill, and FDR
didn’t do much to help.

678
00:38:35,522 --> 00:38:37,022
[speaking russian]

679
00:38:56,042 --> 00:39:00,592
Your aspirations are
justified, Marshal Stalin,

680
00:39:00,713 --> 00:39:04,723
but your numbers are off.

681
00:39:04,843 --> 00:39:08,353
The Atlantic wall is
not to be taken lightly,

682
00:39:08,429 --> 00:39:11,599
and Hitler’s got to have more
than eight Panzer divisions

683
00:39:11,724 --> 00:39:13,314
there.

684
00:39:13,393 --> 00:39:23,613
[speaking russian]

685
00:39:23,736 --> 00:39:26,486
The prime minister
is not haggling.

686
00:39:26,573 --> 00:39:29,453
He just woke up on the
wrong side of the bed,

687
00:39:29,576 --> 00:39:31,986
and he was forced to
wake up before noon

688
00:39:32,078 --> 00:39:33,908
for the first time in 20 years.

689
00:39:33,997 --> 00:39:34,907
[laughter]

690
00:39:35,915 --> 00:39:38,915
And without his
precious brandy to boot.

691
00:39:45,049 --> 00:39:50,679
Now, I agree with
the prime minister

692
00:39:50,763 --> 00:39:55,103
that the risks for
this invasion are high,

693
00:39:55,184 --> 00:40:02,074
but it’s a greater risk
to not take action now.

694
00:40:02,150 --> 00:40:05,780
So I agree with
you, Marshal Stalin,

695
00:40:05,862 --> 00:40:10,912
that we must commit to an
invasion of France immediately.

696
00:40:14,287 --> 00:40:22,547
My doubts haven’t changed, but
you stood by me after Tobruk.

697
00:40:26,174 --> 00:40:29,264
I’ll stand by your decision now.

698
00:40:29,344 --> 00:40:32,224
Then we have a lot
of work ahead of us.

699
00:40:52,408 --> 00:40:56,078
Churchill’s giving Ike a hard
time over using those bombers

700
00:40:56,162 --> 00:40:58,212
over France.

701
00:40:58,331 --> 00:41:01,541
He still thinks if we keep
bombing Germany we can avoid

702
00:41:01,668 --> 00:41:02,538
the whole invasion.

703
00:41:02,669 --> 00:41:04,169
Well, he’s wrong.

704
00:41:07,340 --> 00:41:08,550
I’ll handle Winston.

705
00:41:18,184 --> 00:41:20,694
The most important decision
reached at Tehran is that

706
00:41:20,812 --> 00:41:22,902
the United States and Britain
will conduct Operation

707
00:41:23,022 --> 00:41:26,532
Overlord, which becomes
D-Day in Normandy.

708
00:41:26,651 --> 00:41:28,861
Operation Overlord,
or the Allied advance

709
00:41:28,987 --> 00:41:30,487
from England into
mainland Europe,

710
00:41:30,571 --> 00:41:32,871
is the fastest way to Berlin.

711
00:41:32,991 --> 00:41:34,911
Because the war is not
over until a soldier

712
00:41:35,034 --> 00:41:39,624
stands in Berlin with their
heel on Adolf Hitler’s neck.

713
00:41:39,706 --> 00:41:42,576
Roosevelt gets credit for
choosing Dwight Eisenhower

714
00:41:42,709 --> 00:41:47,249
to head the invasion of
France and the war in Europe.

715
00:41:47,380 --> 00:41:51,430
Roosevelt recognized
in Eisenhower something

716
00:41:51,551 --> 00:41:53,641
of a capacity that
he himself had,

717
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:58,890
and that was this personal
political skill, this ability

718
00:41:58,975 --> 00:42:02,315
to keep divergent
interests in other people

719
00:42:02,395 --> 00:42:05,115
from destroying the central
purpose toward which they’re

720
00:42:05,231 --> 00:42:06,651
working.

721
00:42:06,733 --> 00:42:09,323
Roosevelt was willing to
delegate responsibility,

722
00:42:09,402 --> 00:42:12,742
so he listened to Eisenhower.

723
00:42:12,822 --> 00:42:13,612
Winston?

724
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:18,620
Yes, I figured
you’d still be up.

725
00:42:18,745 --> 00:42:22,965
Listen, Ike assures me
it’s essential to divert

726
00:42:23,082 --> 00:42:24,882
those bombers to
targets in France.

727
00:42:31,049 --> 00:42:35,259
Yes, I know France
is our ally and there

728
00:42:35,386 --> 00:42:40,266
will be civilian casualties, but
I’ve got to leave the choice up

729
00:42:40,391 --> 00:42:42,601
to the commander.

730
00:42:42,685 --> 00:42:46,145
It’s his responsibility
and his decision.

731
00:42:48,941 --> 00:42:50,611
Well, that’s really
all there is to it.

732
00:42:53,905 --> 00:42:55,455
You too, Winston.

733
00:42:55,573 --> 00:42:56,533
Get some rest.

734
00:42:56,616 --> 00:42:57,446
Good night.

735
00:43:11,172 --> 00:43:13,172
Your daughter sent me.

736
00:43:13,299 --> 00:43:18,299
She wants to know if you
plan on sleeping tonight,

737
00:43:18,429 --> 00:43:20,639
or ever again.

738
00:43:20,723 --> 00:43:21,523
Maybe she’s right.

739
00:43:24,894 --> 00:43:29,364
We’ve got two months to
pull off the biggest invasion

740
00:43:29,482 --> 00:43:30,902
the world has ever seen.

741
00:43:33,486 --> 00:43:38,116
And if it fails, we won’t
get a second chance.

742
00:43:41,244 --> 00:43:44,834
I’ll sleep when it’s over.

743
00:43:53,965 --> 00:43:57,725
You could see, really, in the
end of ’43 and early ’44 that

744
00:43:57,844 --> 00:44:00,184
hollows were coming
under Roosevelt’s eyes,

745
00:44:00,304 --> 00:44:03,724
that his color wasn’t very good,
that he was having some trouble

746
00:44:03,850 --> 00:44:08,020
breathing, that he was
having headaches at night.

747
00:44:08,146 --> 00:44:10,936
I imagine the anxiety he
must have felt about knowing

748
00:44:11,023 --> 00:44:13,733
that something was wrong but not
being able to talk to anybody

749
00:44:13,860 --> 00:44:15,530
about it.

750
00:44:15,611 --> 00:44:18,241
Who could he talk to about the
fact that his body was failing?

751
00:44:18,364 --> 00:44:21,374
Who could he talk to about
his anxieties about the war?

752
00:44:21,450 --> 00:44:22,830
Because for everybody
else, he had

753
00:44:22,910 --> 00:44:25,620
to keep up as much of
a cover as he could

754
00:44:25,705 --> 00:44:28,715
and not let people know what
he was really feeling inside,

755
00:44:28,791 --> 00:44:33,881
so it must have been, I imagine,
a really lonely time for him.

756
00:44:34,005 --> 00:44:36,595
And Anna, his daughter,
saw this, finally persuaded

757
00:44:36,716 --> 00:44:39,586
her father to go and have a
checkup done at Bethesda Naval

758
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:40,589
Hospital.

759
00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:43,060
He meets with a
young cardiologist,

760
00:44:43,139 --> 00:44:46,929
and he was stunned when
he saw Roosevelt’s visage.

761
00:44:47,059 --> 00:44:50,059
He could see that he was in
the midst of congestive heart

762
00:44:50,188 --> 00:44:52,228
disease.

763
00:44:52,356 --> 00:44:56,276
Things are so bad that
Roosevelt’s doctor recommends

764
00:44:56,402 --> 00:45:02,742
that he stay in bed to
arrest the deterioration.

765
00:45:02,867 --> 00:45:06,287
He’s being told that he can’t
work more than 10 to 15 hours

766
00:45:06,412 --> 00:45:07,412
a week.

767
00:45:07,496 --> 00:45:10,076
This is during among
the most critical times

768
00:45:10,208 --> 00:45:11,128
in world history.

769
00:45:14,086 --> 00:45:16,546
To say that there’s
a lot riding on D-Day,

770
00:45:16,631 --> 00:45:21,051
Operation Overlord, is a
massive understatement.

771
00:45:21,135 --> 00:45:23,255
Operation Overlord
is the culmination

772
00:45:23,346 --> 00:45:25,756
of years of effort
by Franklin Roosevelt

773
00:45:25,890 --> 00:45:28,600
to convince Americans that
they needed to be prepared

774
00:45:28,726 --> 00:45:31,056
for the war, and then once
we entered the war, taking

775
00:45:31,145 --> 00:45:33,145
an army of just a couple
100,000 and building it

776
00:45:33,272 --> 00:45:35,982
up putting people into
uniform by the millions.

777
00:45:36,108 --> 00:45:39,358
Just the logistics of that
alone is pretty staggering,

778
00:45:39,445 --> 00:45:41,945
and training all those folks
and outfitting all those folks.

779
00:45:42,073 --> 00:45:44,873
It is the largest military
operation ever undertaken

780
00:45:44,951 --> 00:45:45,951
in history.

781
00:45:46,077 --> 00:45:49,407
It involves so many
people, so many layers

782
00:45:49,497 --> 00:45:54,497
of military apparatus,
from transports and tanks,

783
00:45:54,627 --> 00:45:57,957
ammunition, soldiers and
sailors, communication devices,

784
00:45:58,047 --> 00:46:02,127
aircraft, tremendous
amount of coordination.

785
00:46:02,218 --> 00:46:05,758
It’s an extraordinarily
difficult operation.

786
00:46:05,846 --> 00:46:07,846
The Atlantic wall
is a system of defense

787
00:46:07,974 --> 00:46:09,854
that the Germans start to
create from the moment they take

788
00:46:09,976 --> 00:46:10,976
Europe.

789
00:46:11,060 --> 00:46:13,730
This is what the Allies
have to break in order

790
00:46:13,813 --> 00:46:15,523
to get into Europe.

791
00:46:15,648 --> 00:46:19,028
It’s basically a 1,700 mile
wall that starts in Norway,

792
00:46:19,151 --> 00:46:20,491
goes all the way to
the Spanish coast.

793
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:25,949
If you think about the Atlantic
wall as these 15,000 bunkers

794
00:46:26,033 --> 00:46:29,043
as being the skeleton, the
trenches that connect them

795
00:46:29,161 --> 00:46:30,871
would be the sinew that
connects those bones.

796
00:46:30,997 --> 00:46:33,917
The cannons would be the
muscles that make it all work.

797
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,250
In front of that would be
6,000 mines, the obstacles

798
00:46:37,336 --> 00:46:39,086
on the beaches, the obstacles
in the field to keep

799
00:46:39,171 --> 00:46:40,091
gliders from landing.

800
00:46:40,172 --> 00:46:41,552
That would be the
armor or the skin.

801
00:46:41,674 --> 00:46:43,344
And then ultimately the
soldiers that defend it

802
00:46:43,467 --> 00:46:44,837
would be the blood
that pump through it.

803
00:46:48,973 --> 00:46:51,813
In the buildup to what
becomes Operation Overlord,

804
00:46:51,892 --> 00:46:55,562
the D-Day invasion, the Allies
create all kinds of diversions,

805
00:46:55,688 --> 00:46:59,778
all kinds of fake radio
traffic, even using fake tanks

806
00:46:59,859 --> 00:47:02,189
and things like that to create
the illusion that this may be

807
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:05,320
a three-pronged or a
two-pronged operation,

808
00:47:05,406 --> 00:47:08,406
all to get the Germans to not
massed their forces at what

809
00:47:08,534 --> 00:47:12,704
ultimately becomes the main
point of contact at Normandy.

810
00:47:12,830 --> 00:47:14,580
We need waves that
are less than five feet.

811
00:47:14,707 --> 00:47:16,077
We’re going to land at dawn.

812
00:47:16,208 --> 00:47:17,498
We’d like to have a half a moon.

813
00:47:17,585 --> 00:47:20,005
We’d like to have 2,500
feet of cloud ceiling.

814
00:47:20,087 --> 00:47:22,047
We’d like to have at
least 50% visibility.

815
00:47:22,173 --> 00:47:24,093
How do we get those
conditions to happen?

816
00:47:27,136 --> 00:47:30,256
On the eve of D-Day, this
is the culmination of years

817
00:47:30,389 --> 00:47:33,269
of preparation, years of
building the supplies,

818
00:47:33,392 --> 00:47:34,522
years of coalition building.

819
00:47:37,188 --> 00:47:39,728
Now there’s nothing
more that FDR can do.

820
00:47:44,862 --> 00:47:47,572
He had to believe that he had
supplied the soldiers the best

821
00:47:47,698 --> 00:47:49,028
they could, that
they were trained

822
00:47:49,116 --> 00:47:51,616
and they were ready for this,
and there was nothing he could

823
00:47:51,744 --> 00:47:53,504
do but depend upon
those soldiers.

824
00:47:59,877 --> 00:48:03,207
Across June 6th, we’re
going to put 155,000 soldiers

825
00:48:03,297 --> 00:48:05,167
on the beach on one day.

826
00:48:05,257 --> 00:48:08,257
You’ve got 7,000 ships,
13,000 aircraft all in support

827
00:48:08,386 --> 00:48:09,386
of this.

828
00:48:09,470 --> 00:48:12,060
It’s the greatest
joint Army, Air Force,

829
00:48:12,139 --> 00:48:15,889
Navy coalition multi-service
military operation

830
00:48:15,976 --> 00:48:17,846
in the history of Earth.

831
00:48:17,937 --> 00:48:19,187
If you were in the
first wave of D-Day,

832
00:48:19,271 --> 00:48:22,611
you would’ve left your port
early in the morning of June

833
00:48:22,691 --> 00:48:23,691
6th.

834
00:48:23,776 --> 00:48:25,486
You would have made your
way across rough seas.

835
00:48:25,611 --> 00:48:26,991
You were probably seasick.

836
00:48:27,113 --> 00:48:28,113
They tried to give
you some breakfast.

837
00:48:28,197 --> 00:48:31,117
You took it and now
you’ve thrown that up.

838
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:32,370
All the toilets are full.

839
00:48:32,451 --> 00:48:35,371
All the rails are full.

840
00:48:35,454 --> 00:48:37,164
You’ve now gotten
on a landing craft.

841
00:48:37,289 --> 00:48:39,789
Climb down a slippery rope
to get in that landing craft.

842
00:48:39,917 --> 00:48:41,997
You would have been
splashed by sea waves,

843
00:48:42,128 --> 00:48:45,168
soaking wet carrying
60 pounds of gear.

844
00:48:45,297 --> 00:48:47,297
You can hear the
aircraft go overhead.

845
00:48:47,425 --> 00:48:49,095
You hope they’re
doing their part.

846
00:48:49,176 --> 00:48:52,046
And in front of you you would
see German defenses, mines,

847
00:48:52,138 --> 00:48:54,848
and barbed wire, artillery
and mortars and machine guns.

848
00:48:54,974 --> 00:48:56,854
Then all of a sudden the
boat would hit the beach,

849
00:48:56,976 --> 00:48:58,516
and then they would
drop the ramp.

850
00:49:03,899 --> 00:49:07,689
FDR had made the decisions
he could make and was now

851
00:49:07,820 --> 00:49:12,570
at the mercy of events, of
time and tide quite literally.

852
00:49:16,036 --> 00:49:16,826
Come in.

853
00:49:26,172 --> 00:49:28,092
From General
Eisenhower, Mr. President.

854
00:49:41,937 --> 00:49:43,517
10 seconds, Mr. President.

855
00:49:48,027 --> 00:49:49,817
And 5, 4.

856
00:49:56,452 --> 00:50:01,542
My fellow Americans,
in this poignant hour

857
00:50:01,624 --> 00:50:04,794
I ask you to join me in prayer.

858
00:50:10,883 --> 00:50:22,023
Almighty God, our sons,
pride of our nation,

859
00:50:22,102 --> 00:50:26,572
this day have set upon
a mighty endeavor.

860
00:50:26,690 --> 00:50:34,320
They struggle to preserve
our republic, our religion,

861
00:50:34,406 --> 00:50:42,076
and our civilization, and to
set free a suffering humanity.

862
00:50:46,377 --> 00:50:49,247
They will need life lessons.

863
00:50:49,338 --> 00:50:56,178
Their role will be long and
hard, for the enemy is strong.

864
00:50:59,265 --> 00:51:04,605
Success may not come
with rushing speed,

865
00:51:04,728 --> 00:51:09,728
but we shall return
again and again.

866
00:51:13,112 --> 00:51:19,122
By the righteousness of our
cause, our sons will triumph.

867
00:51:31,964 --> 00:51:38,144
We shall prevail over the
unholy forces of our enemy.

868
00:51:38,262 --> 00:51:45,062
Help us to conquer the apostles
of greed and racial arrogances.

869
00:51:45,144 --> 00:51:49,274
Lead us to the saving
of our country,

870
00:51:49,356 --> 00:51:56,396
and with our sister nations into
a world unity that will spell

871
00:51:56,488 --> 00:52:03,368
a shore of peace, and a peace
that will let all of men

872
00:52:03,495 --> 00:52:04,575
live in freedom.

873
00:52:07,374 --> 00:52:11,174
Thy will be done, Almighty God.

874
00:52:14,340 --> 00:52:15,170
Amen.

875
00:52:19,345 --> 00:52:23,065
That speech was arguably
the largest mass prayer

876
00:52:23,182 --> 00:52:24,602
in human history.

877
00:52:24,683 --> 00:52:26,603
100 million Americans listened.

878
00:52:29,855 --> 00:52:32,935
Church bells rang,
and everybody went

879
00:52:33,025 --> 00:52:35,325
to churches and synagogues.

880
00:52:35,402 --> 00:52:39,412
The impulse to pray
was overwhelming.

881
00:52:39,531 --> 00:52:43,291
By noon on June 6th,
1944, even defenses

882
00:52:43,369 --> 00:52:47,579
around Omaha Beach, bloody Omaha
Beach, will start to break,

883
00:52:47,706 --> 00:52:49,956
and now what we have is
the invasion is a success.

884
00:52:54,672 --> 00:52:57,512
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
prayer speaks volumes.

885
00:52:57,591 --> 00:53:02,681
He’s responsible for speaking
for all freedom loving people.

886
00:53:02,763 --> 00:53:06,223
What Operation Overlord
stands for, its hope.

887
00:53:06,350 --> 00:53:08,310
Liberty is not just
this ethereal idea.

888
00:53:08,394 --> 00:53:09,484
Liberty is coming.

889
00:53:12,231 --> 00:53:15,231
The summer of 1944, the
Allies now have a foothold

890
00:53:15,317 --> 00:53:18,067
in northwestern Europe and
are able to push across France

891
00:53:18,153 --> 00:53:20,203
and directly into Germany.

892
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:23,370
The war is still unfolding.

893
00:53:23,450 --> 00:53:27,040
The war in Japan
has no end in sight.

894
00:53:27,121 --> 00:53:29,121
So for FDR, it was--

895
00:53:29,248 --> 00:53:31,498
the job was unfinished.

896
00:53:31,583 --> 00:53:34,173
The war was not won.

897
00:53:34,253 --> 00:53:37,423
After D-Day, he feels a sense
that it’s close to the end,

898
00:53:37,506 --> 00:53:39,376
but he has to get there.

899
00:53:39,466 --> 00:53:41,586
So the question
was, will Roosevelt

900
00:53:41,677 --> 00:53:43,007
run for a fourth term?

901
00:53:45,848 --> 00:53:48,678
You have to remember the
enormous emotional toll

902
00:53:48,767 --> 00:53:52,847
being the commander in
chief had taken on FDR.

903
00:53:52,938 --> 00:53:55,818
He was giving orders that
were sending boys into battle

904
00:53:55,941 --> 00:53:58,441
every day, who were dying.

905
00:53:58,569 --> 00:54:02,359
And he could not imagine walking
away from that responsibility

906
00:54:02,448 --> 00:54:03,238
for himself.

907
00:54:03,323 --> 00:54:06,743
Sacrifice was everything to him.

908
00:54:06,827 --> 00:54:10,247
He believed that he had a
duty to serve his office,

909
00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:14,790
to serve his country until
he could no longer do it.

910
00:54:14,877 --> 00:54:19,917
FDR’s decision process seems
to largely lie on a sense

911
00:54:20,007 --> 00:54:23,467
that, my work is not done yet.

912
00:54:23,552 --> 00:54:28,852
The country still needs
an optimistic leader,

913
00:54:28,974 --> 00:54:31,234
an aspirational leader.

914
00:54:31,310 --> 00:54:34,060
I think one of his biggest
strengths was his imagination.

915
00:54:34,146 --> 00:54:36,976
How can we open the
doors for the future?

916
00:54:37,065 --> 00:54:39,145
He has a lot more to do.

917
00:54:39,276 --> 00:54:42,526
NEWSREADER: President Roosevelt
signs GI Joe’s Bill of Rights

918
00:54:42,654 --> 00:54:44,744
that guarantees a
returning soldier

919
00:54:44,823 --> 00:54:47,493
a year of unemployment
insurance and helps pay

920
00:54:47,618 --> 00:54:49,908
for the completion
of his schooling.

921
00:54:49,995 --> 00:54:53,785
The GI Bill was created
to assist veterans returning

922
00:54:53,874 --> 00:54:58,174
from war so that they had a
substantial leg up economically

923
00:54:58,253 --> 00:55:01,423
as they were trying to look
for housing, look for homes,

924
00:55:01,507 --> 00:55:03,507
or go back to school.

925
00:55:03,592 --> 00:55:07,512
When the GI Bill of Rights
passed, he was so happy.

926
00:55:07,596 --> 00:55:11,016
I think he wanted to be the
man who would shape the peace,

927
00:55:11,141 --> 00:55:13,271
and he thought he was
probably in a better position

928
00:55:13,352 --> 00:55:14,642
to do that than anyone else.

929
00:55:17,189 --> 00:55:19,859
The real concern is,
his health is failing,

930
00:55:19,983 --> 00:55:23,113
and there are media
outlets who are making

931
00:55:23,195 --> 00:55:26,415
that point in subtle ways
that, hey, you know, you’re not

932
00:55:26,532 --> 00:55:28,282
looking well.

933
00:55:28,367 --> 00:55:33,657
By 1944, FDR is dying of
congestive heart failure.

934
00:55:33,747 --> 00:55:36,617
You can see that FDR is sick.

935
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:38,288
He doesn’t look as well.

936
00:55:38,377 --> 00:55:40,627
He’s lost his rosy good cheer.

937
00:55:40,712 --> 00:55:42,092
And he’s not going out much.

938
00:55:42,214 --> 00:55:43,884
He’s not giving speeches.

939
00:55:44,007 --> 00:55:46,887
And there’s some question,
is he up to the demands

940
00:55:46,969 --> 00:55:49,469
of being president?

941
00:55:49,555 --> 00:55:50,815
And so when he
was in Pearl Harbor

942
00:55:50,889 --> 00:55:54,309
for some strategic sessions
with MacArthur and Nimitz,

943
00:55:54,393 --> 00:55:56,943
he went to visit the
troops in a particular ward

944
00:55:57,062 --> 00:56:00,322
where they had lost limbs.

945
00:56:00,399 --> 00:56:02,529
And he deliberately
told the people,

946
00:56:02,609 --> 00:56:04,739
I want to be wheeled in.

947
00:56:04,820 --> 00:56:07,490
I want them to see
me in my wheelchair.

948
00:56:07,573 --> 00:56:10,743
And he very, very rarely was
ever seen in his wheelchair

949
00:56:10,826 --> 00:56:12,736
beyond the inner
circle, but he thought

950
00:56:12,870 --> 00:56:16,620
it was important for them to see
that he was disabled, that he

951
00:56:16,748 --> 00:56:19,128
had lost use of certain limbs,
but he could lead a full life

952
00:56:19,251 --> 00:56:20,091
again.

953
00:56:23,255 --> 00:56:26,475
It’s a pleasure
to meet you, sir.

954
00:56:26,592 --> 00:56:28,642
You a sailor?

955
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:30,220
I was.

956
00:56:30,304 --> 00:56:33,604
I’m a bit of a sea man myself.

957
00:56:33,682 --> 00:56:37,392
Nothing soothes me more than
being out in the open water.

958
00:56:37,477 --> 00:56:41,057
Yeah, me too.

959
00:56:41,148 --> 00:56:42,228
That’s over now.

960
00:56:45,110 --> 00:56:52,330
Well, if you want to sail
again, then you’ll sail.

961
00:56:52,451 --> 00:56:54,371
That’s a joke.

962
00:56:54,453 --> 00:56:58,123
Are you telling me
that I don’t sail?

963
00:56:58,248 --> 00:57:01,878
No, I--

964
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:04,960
Well, if I can do it, you can.

965
00:57:11,637 --> 00:57:17,387
Tell you what, if you find
the strength to get back out

966
00:57:17,476 --> 00:57:22,606
to sea, I’ll be sure to
get out there with you.

967
00:57:32,658 --> 00:57:35,118
NEWSREADER: At the International
Teamsters Union dinner,

968
00:57:35,202 --> 00:57:39,832
President Roosevelt makes his
first campaign speech of 1944.

969
00:57:39,957 --> 00:57:42,917
Here we are again
after four years,

970
00:57:43,001 --> 00:57:45,591
and what years they have been.

971
00:57:45,671 --> 00:57:48,921
The 1944 election is not
an easy one for Franklin

972
00:57:49,007 --> 00:57:51,427
Roosevelt. He’s in some trouble.

973
00:57:51,510 --> 00:57:54,140
For his political opponents,
Dewey, the Republican running

974
00:57:54,221 --> 00:57:59,101
against him, they’re starting
to draw attention to Franklin

975
00:57:59,184 --> 00:58:01,104
Roosevelt not being out there.

976
00:58:01,186 --> 00:58:02,346
Where is he?

977
00:58:02,437 --> 00:58:04,727
And is he up to the
demands of being president?

978
00:58:04,856 --> 00:58:08,396
And at the same time, there
is a conspiracy theory

979
00:58:08,527 --> 00:58:10,397
that’s been floated
by the Republicans,

980
00:58:10,529 --> 00:58:15,779
that FDR has sent a destroyer,
a warship, to get his dog Fala.

981
00:58:15,867 --> 00:58:20,617
There’s this rumor about
how FDR had left his dog Fala

982
00:58:20,706 --> 00:58:23,956
at a base in Alaska, at great
cost to the taxpayer sent

983
00:58:24,042 --> 00:58:25,752
a destroyer to go
and fetch his dog.

984
00:58:25,877 --> 00:58:27,747
Completely false.

985
00:58:27,879 --> 00:58:30,969
And so FDR is making a campaign
speech at a Teamsters dinner,

986
00:58:31,049 --> 00:58:32,629
and he said, enough of this.

987
00:58:32,718 --> 00:58:36,008
He knew that he needed
to project real strength.

988
00:58:39,057 --> 00:58:41,937
These Republican
leaders have not

989
00:58:42,060 --> 00:58:53,400
been content with attacks on me,
or on my wife, or on my sons.

990
00:58:53,530 --> 00:59:02,710
No, not content with that, they
now include my little dog Fala.

991
00:59:02,789 --> 00:59:04,209
[laughter]

992
00:59:06,918 --> 00:59:11,508
Of course, I don’t
resent attacks,

993
00:59:11,590 --> 00:59:16,090
and my family don’t
resent attacks,

994
00:59:16,219 --> 00:59:18,389
but Fala does resent them.

995
00:59:18,472 --> 00:59:19,932
[laughter]

996
00:59:24,102 --> 00:59:25,652
Roosevelt shows he’s back.

997
00:59:25,771 --> 00:59:27,151
He’s taunting his enemies.

998
00:59:27,272 --> 00:59:28,692
He’s having fun with them.

999
00:59:28,774 --> 00:59:30,234
He’s not a sick old man.

1000
00:59:30,317 --> 00:59:33,357
He’s the great politician
Franklin Roosevelt.

1001
00:59:33,445 --> 00:59:38,375
You know, Fala’s scotch,
and being a Scotty,

1002
00:59:38,450 --> 00:59:43,160
as soon as he learned that
the Republican fiction writers

1003
00:59:43,288 --> 00:59:49,628
in Congress and out had
concocted a story that I had

1004
00:59:49,711 --> 00:59:53,261
left him behind on
an Aleutian island

1005
00:59:53,340 --> 00:59:57,390
and sent a destroyer
back to find him,

1006
00:59:57,469 --> 01:00:02,219
at a cost to the taxpayer
of two or three or eight

1007
01:00:02,307 --> 01:00:07,977
or $20 million, his
Scotch soul was furious.

1008
01:00:10,982 --> 01:00:13,742
He has not been
the same dog since.

1009
01:00:18,865 --> 01:00:21,325
When he gave the great Fala
speech, the old master still

1010
01:00:21,409 --> 01:00:22,869
has it, newspapers said.

1011
01:00:22,994 --> 01:00:25,664
So time and again he
could rally himself.

1012
01:00:25,747 --> 01:00:28,497
The next day, it’s
played and replayed.

1013
01:00:28,625 --> 01:00:30,165
It’s printed and reprinted.

1014
01:00:30,293 --> 01:00:35,633
I mean, if anything could
go viral in 1944, this does.

1015
01:00:35,715 --> 01:00:38,085
NEWREADER: Crowds at Ebbets
Baseball Field, Brooklyn greet

1016
01:00:38,176 --> 01:00:40,846
President Roosevelt starting
his tour of New York City.

1017
01:00:40,929 --> 01:00:44,929
Mr. Roosevelt has a special
word for Brooklyn Dodger fans.

1018
01:00:45,016 --> 01:00:48,226
You know, I come from
the state of New York,

1019
01:00:48,353 --> 01:00:52,983
and I’ve got to make a
terrible confession to you.

1020
01:00:53,066 --> 01:00:55,686
I have never been in
Ebbets Field before.

1021
01:01:00,657 --> 01:01:03,487
They planned a long,
hard, arduous day for him

1022
01:01:03,577 --> 01:01:06,037
to prove that he was
still up to the job,

1023
01:01:06,163 --> 01:01:07,963
and he was going to go
in an open touring car

1024
01:01:08,039 --> 01:01:10,709
through the boroughs
of Manhattan and Queens

1025
01:01:10,834 --> 01:01:12,884
and Bronx and Brooklyn.

1026
01:01:13,003 --> 01:01:15,213
They didn’t plan on the fact
that there would be a drenching

1027
01:01:15,297 --> 01:01:18,757
rain and that it would be
freezing cold that day.

1028
01:01:18,884 --> 01:01:20,894
And people look at
his ability to do this.

1029
01:01:21,011 --> 01:01:25,221
I think it went for 50 miles,
and they say, all those rumors

1030
01:01:25,307 --> 01:01:28,977
that FDR is in bad health,
those must be wrong,

1031
01:01:29,060 --> 01:01:33,060
otherwise he could not
have done that this day.

1032
01:01:33,190 --> 01:01:35,440
That day in New York
City was a masquerade.

1033
01:01:35,567 --> 01:01:38,987
He was pretending to be much
more healthy than he was,

1034
01:01:39,070 --> 01:01:42,620
and he always knew that
politics was drama.

1035
01:01:42,741 --> 01:01:45,621
FDR once said to the
actor Orson Welles,

1036
01:01:45,744 --> 01:01:51,674
you and I are the two
greatest actors in America.

1037
01:01:51,750 --> 01:01:55,170
And almost like the actor
being taken off stage,

1038
01:01:55,253 --> 01:01:58,053
he was taken to Eleanor
Roosevelt’s apartment

1039
01:01:58,131 --> 01:02:01,971
in New York City, her separate
apartment, which he has never

1040
01:02:02,093 --> 01:02:04,473
seen.

1041
01:02:04,596 --> 01:02:07,556
Eleanor was traveling so much,
and she had become that person

1042
01:02:07,641 --> 01:02:10,231
that she could no
longer go back from.

1043
01:02:10,310 --> 01:02:14,520
And in some ways it turned out
to be fine for both of them.

1044
01:02:14,606 --> 01:02:17,776
He had enormous respect for her,
more than he had had before.

1045
01:02:21,446 --> 01:02:25,236
Quite the life you’ve had.

1046
01:02:25,325 --> 01:02:28,085
Yes.

1047
01:02:28,161 --> 01:02:30,291
Not exactly what I expected.

1048
01:02:41,466 --> 01:02:46,386
You always try
to do what’s right.

1049
01:02:46,471 --> 01:02:48,141
And people see that.

1050
01:02:51,393 --> 01:02:53,563
You must be hungry.

1051
01:02:53,645 --> 01:02:56,695
I can scramble you some eggs.

1052
01:02:56,815 --> 01:02:59,485
Don’t trouble yourself.

1053
01:02:59,567 --> 01:03:02,397
I should get cleaned up
and get out of your way.

1054
01:03:04,990 --> 01:03:06,910
Why not stay here?

1055
01:03:06,992 --> 01:03:08,492
I’ve already put
your room together.

1056
01:03:11,538 --> 01:03:14,328
Thank you, Babs.

1057
01:03:14,416 --> 01:03:18,626
But I’m speaking at the
Waldorf in a few hours.

1058
01:03:18,712 --> 01:03:20,632
People are expecting me.

1059
01:03:23,842 --> 01:03:27,432
You’re running
yourself ragged.

1060
01:03:27,512 --> 01:03:28,852
You’re sure you won’t stay?

1061
01:03:31,891 --> 01:03:33,351
I should go.

1062
01:03:38,523 --> 01:03:42,033
Please don’t worry about me.

1063
01:03:42,152 --> 01:03:42,942
But I do.

1064
01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:04,050
I, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, do solemnly

1065
01:04:04,174 --> 01:04:08,974
swear that I will faithfully
execute the office of president

1066
01:04:09,054 --> 01:04:14,604
of the United States,
so help me God.

1067
01:04:14,726 --> 01:04:17,096
Winter, 1944, I think
a lot of Americans

1068
01:04:17,228 --> 01:04:18,858
expected the war
to have been over

1069
01:04:18,938 --> 01:04:21,148
after the success of Overlord.

1070
01:04:21,232 --> 01:04:25,822
The forces are still not
actually in Germany yet.

1071
01:04:25,904 --> 01:04:30,324
In December 1944, Hitler’s
unwilling to accept defeat,

1072
01:04:30,408 --> 01:04:34,368
so he comes up with a daring
scheme involving 10 Panzer

1073
01:04:34,454 --> 01:04:38,334
divisions to smash
through the Allied lines

1074
01:04:38,416 --> 01:04:41,786
where they’re at their weakest.

1075
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:44,210
NEWSREADER: In the
Christmas season of 1944,

1076
01:04:44,297 --> 01:04:48,427
the German army unleashed
a desperate offensive.

1077
01:04:48,551 --> 01:04:50,761
The Germans conduct this
counteroffensive that today we

1078
01:04:50,845 --> 01:04:52,135
call the Battle of the Bulge.

1079
01:04:52,263 --> 01:04:56,603
It’s a surprise offensive that
takes place in December 1944.

1080
01:04:56,726 --> 01:04:58,686
The Battle of the
Bulge is called the bulge

1081
01:04:58,770 --> 01:05:01,020
because there was a
bulge in the Allied line,

1082
01:05:01,106 --> 01:05:04,066
the drive in ostensibly
to get to Antwerp all

1083
01:05:04,150 --> 01:05:07,610
the way on the Belgian coast.

1084
01:05:07,737 --> 01:05:09,777
When the Germans
begin their assault,

1085
01:05:09,864 --> 01:05:11,874
they have bad weather
on their side,

1086
01:05:11,950 --> 01:05:14,950
so American airpower is negated.

1087
01:05:15,036 --> 01:05:16,696
The German tanks and
artillery can just

1088
01:05:16,788 --> 01:05:21,208
slice through the Americans
of the British and slaughter.

1089
01:05:21,292 --> 01:05:24,672
The Americans lost 19,000 men.

1090
01:05:24,796 --> 01:05:29,966
10,000 men surrendered.

1091
01:05:30,093 --> 01:05:32,553
NEWSREADER: The Nazi party is
willing to sacrifice every soul

1092
01:05:32,637 --> 01:05:34,057
in Germany to stave off defeat.

1093
01:05:36,641 --> 01:05:40,521
The Germans could not afford
any mistakes, because they

1094
01:05:40,645 --> 01:05:42,685
couldn’t replace their
resources and the people that

1095
01:05:42,814 --> 01:05:45,694
had been lost.

1096
01:05:45,817 --> 01:05:47,647
There was a close moment
during the Battle of the Bulge

1097
01:05:47,735 --> 01:05:51,405
when things could
have gone very badly,

1098
01:05:51,489 --> 01:05:55,739
but eventually the United States
wears down the other side.

1099
01:05:55,827 --> 01:05:56,947
NEWSREADER: The
attack was blunted,

1100
01:05:57,036 --> 01:05:59,576
the spearhead stopped, the
Nazi columns thrown back

1101
01:05:59,664 --> 01:06:02,254
by men who had flung
themselves into the breach.

1102
01:06:02,333 --> 01:06:03,753
The Battle of the
Bulge is probably

1103
01:06:03,835 --> 01:06:05,675
the last German attempt
to try to change

1104
01:06:05,795 --> 01:06:08,875
the strategic
momentum of the war.

1105
01:06:09,007 --> 01:06:10,757
Once that fails, they
really are fighting

1106
01:06:10,842 --> 01:06:11,972
on the defensive in the West.

1107
01:06:24,314 --> 01:06:27,904
In January 1945, the Soviets
uncover the concentration

1108
01:06:28,026 --> 01:06:31,026
camps, and they were completely
unprepared for what they saw.

1109
01:06:33,865 --> 01:06:35,745
The Allies had learned
that the Nazis wanted

1110
01:06:35,867 --> 01:06:39,117
to commit mass murder of
European Jews very early on,

1111
01:06:39,204 --> 01:06:41,124
and at this point the
Allies could no longer

1112
01:06:41,206 --> 01:06:45,286
deny what was happening in
the concentration camps.

1113
01:06:45,376 --> 01:06:48,876
My sister was in Auschwitz.

1114
01:06:49,005 --> 01:06:52,625
When she came home post-war,
she said the one thing

1115
01:06:52,717 --> 01:06:58,137
that we never understood
while in Auschwitz, we

1116
01:06:58,223 --> 01:07:07,233
saw large groups of American
and Allied planes flying high

1117
01:07:07,315 --> 01:07:12,285
up in the air, and we stood
there praying that they should

1118
01:07:12,403 --> 01:07:16,573
come down and bomb
the gas chambers

1119
01:07:16,699 --> 01:07:23,909
and bomb the crematoria and
bomb the whole damn camp,

1120
01:07:24,040 --> 01:07:28,000
not caring about what would
happen to our own lives.

1121
01:07:28,086 --> 01:07:34,296
And they just flew on and
never came to help us.

1122
01:07:34,425 --> 01:07:39,925
We could not understand why they
would never attack this death

1123
01:07:40,056 --> 01:07:41,886
factory.

1124
01:07:41,975 --> 01:07:44,195
Franklin Roosevelt
and Winston Churchill

1125
01:07:44,269 --> 01:07:48,689
should have destroyed those
camps, even though there would

1126
01:07:48,773 --> 01:07:53,283
have been many lives
destroyed along with them.

1127
01:07:53,361 --> 01:07:56,361
It’s a complicated problem,
and we should not understate

1128
01:07:56,447 --> 01:07:59,697
just how deep the antisemitism
was in major parts

1129
01:07:59,784 --> 01:08:02,084
of the American government.

1130
01:08:02,161 --> 01:08:05,661
Roosevelt asked his military
advisors, what could we do?

1131
01:08:05,790 --> 01:08:09,210
Could we bomb the rail lines
that lead into the camps?

1132
01:08:09,294 --> 01:08:12,634
And the answer was, we’ve
been trying to bomb rail lines

1133
01:08:12,755 --> 01:08:15,465
for the last three years,
and it’s really hard

1134
01:08:15,550 --> 01:08:18,090
and they can rebuild overnight.

1135
01:08:18,177 --> 01:08:21,007
But I suspect that
Roosevelt thought,

1136
01:08:21,139 --> 01:08:23,639
what if we bomb somewhere
near the camps and the bombs

1137
01:08:23,766 --> 01:08:26,096
go astray and hit the camps?

1138
01:08:26,185 --> 01:08:30,225
Then the Germans might very well
say it was the American bombs

1139
01:08:30,315 --> 01:08:32,905
that killed the Jews.

1140
01:08:32,984 --> 01:08:35,194
There was an argument on
the part of the military

1141
01:08:35,320 --> 01:08:38,240
that it’s better off to
bomb factories and prevent

1142
01:08:38,323 --> 01:08:40,573
the production of war so
the war will end earlier,

1143
01:08:40,658 --> 01:08:44,658
and that will help the
situation as a whole.

1144
01:08:44,787 --> 01:08:47,077
Roosevelt said the German
leaders are going to be held

1145
01:08:47,165 --> 01:08:48,175
strictly accountable.

1146
01:08:48,291 --> 01:08:50,081
They will be brought
to the bar of justice.

1147
01:08:55,673 --> 01:08:57,763
It’s January
1945, and it looks

1148
01:08:57,842 --> 01:09:00,852
like finally after a half
decade of war, the war in Europe

1149
01:09:00,928 --> 01:09:03,468
will finally come to a close
sometime in the late spring

1150
01:09:03,556 --> 01:09:04,516
or early summer.

1151
01:09:04,599 --> 01:09:06,099
And with this brings
pressing questions

1152
01:09:06,184 --> 01:09:08,524
that Churchill, Roosevelt,
and Stalin have to address,

1153
01:09:08,603 --> 01:09:09,773
and they’re questions
that they feel

1154
01:09:09,854 --> 01:09:11,774
they can only address in person.

1155
01:09:11,856 --> 01:09:13,976
So they decide that they’re
going to have a conference

1156
01:09:14,067 --> 01:09:17,317
together at the LaGuardia Palace
on the Black Sea, the farthest

1157
01:09:17,403 --> 01:09:19,533
west that Stalin will go.

1158
01:09:19,656 --> 01:09:20,816
NEWSREADER: Yalta
on the Black Sea

1159
01:09:20,907 --> 01:09:23,197
was the scene of a
big three meeting.

1160
01:09:23,326 --> 01:09:26,446
Here starts a series of talks
that will profoundly influence

1161
01:09:26,537 --> 01:09:30,287
the diplomatic and political
future of the world.

1162
01:09:30,375 --> 01:09:33,385
February of 1945, they’re
starting to plan the post-war

1163
01:09:33,503 --> 01:09:35,093
world.

1164
01:09:35,213 --> 01:09:37,923
And you have three people that
see the world very differently.

1165
01:09:38,049 --> 01:09:42,429
The big three arrive at
Yalta with distinct goals.

1166
01:09:42,553 --> 01:09:45,103
Roosevelt wants to bring the
Soviet Union into the war

1167
01:09:45,223 --> 01:09:47,893
against the Japanese,
but Roosevelt also

1168
01:09:47,975 --> 01:09:50,095
has a personal goal that’s
looking even farther

1169
01:09:50,228 --> 01:09:51,518
into the future.

1170
01:09:51,604 --> 01:09:54,234
After the war’s over, he wants
to create a new organization

1171
01:09:54,357 --> 01:09:58,107
for international peace,
the United Nations.

1172
01:09:58,236 --> 01:10:02,066
FDR believes the United
Nations will help the world

1173
01:10:02,198 --> 01:10:06,158
resolve its problems, will help
de-escalate militarism and make

1174
01:10:06,244 --> 01:10:09,044
the world a safer
place into the future.

1175
01:10:09,122 --> 01:10:12,332
For Churchill and Stalin,
their objectives for Yalta

1176
01:10:12,417 --> 01:10:14,417
are really centered
around Poland.

1177
01:10:14,544 --> 01:10:18,014
Britain went to war in defense
of Polish sovereignty in 1939,

1178
01:10:18,089 --> 01:10:20,219
and the Polish government
has been in exile in London

1179
01:10:20,299 --> 01:10:21,589
ever since.

1180
01:10:21,676 --> 01:10:24,176
Churchill wants to make sure
that when all of this is over,

1181
01:10:24,262 --> 01:10:27,182
that Poland is free,
that they are independent

1182
01:10:27,265 --> 01:10:29,395
and have self determination.

1183
01:10:29,475 --> 01:10:31,345
Stalin wants to
make sure that they

1184
01:10:31,436 --> 01:10:34,436
are going to have a government
in Poland that’s controlled

1185
01:10:34,522 --> 01:10:36,272
by Stalin.

1186
01:10:36,357 --> 01:10:40,857
FDR never thought that
Soviets and Americans ultimately

1187
01:10:40,945 --> 01:10:43,655
had the same political ideals.

1188
01:10:43,781 --> 01:10:47,281
But as a tough political leader,
Roosevelt knew at the beginning

1189
01:10:47,410 --> 01:10:51,120
of 1945, the only way
to finish off this war

1190
01:10:51,247 --> 01:10:53,957
is to keep the Soviets
fighting, and that

1191
01:10:54,083 --> 01:10:57,383
may mean allowing Stalin
to do a lot of things

1192
01:10:57,462 --> 01:10:59,592
that Roosevelt would have
preferred that he not do.

1193
01:11:03,968 --> 01:11:05,468
[speaking russian]

1194
01:11:27,658 --> 01:11:31,948
Of course we want Poland’s
government to be friendly,

1195
01:11:32,038 --> 01:11:39,378
but most importantly, it must
be decided by the Polish people.

1196
01:11:39,504 --> 01:11:42,054
Which means, Marshal
Stalin, the members

1197
01:11:42,173 --> 01:11:45,053
of the Polish administration
who’ve been taking refuge

1198
01:11:45,176 --> 01:11:48,926
in my country should be
included in the government,

1199
01:11:49,013 --> 01:11:54,183
but you have shut them out
and put your own people in.

1200
01:11:54,310 --> 01:11:57,440
[speaking russian]

1201
01:11:57,522 --> 01:12:04,782
I’m assuming that you will
honor our previous agreement

1202
01:12:04,862 --> 01:12:09,452
that Poland will
enjoy free elections

1203
01:12:09,534 --> 01:12:13,044
under American and
British supervision.

1204
01:12:15,665 --> 01:12:17,835
[speaking russian]

1205
01:12:39,897 --> 01:12:47,907
Then swear to me that you
will guarantee free elections

1206
01:12:47,989 --> 01:12:50,159
in Poland.

1207
01:12:50,241 --> 01:12:57,251
[speaking russian]

1208
01:12:57,373 --> 01:13:02,383
I will need your word
on something else too.

1209
01:13:02,461 --> 01:13:06,921
I want you to join
the war against Japan.

1210
01:13:12,763 --> 01:13:16,103
The legacy of Yalta
was complicated.

1211
01:13:16,183 --> 01:13:18,443
When they depart, they
have reached agreements

1212
01:13:18,519 --> 01:13:21,899
that are going to lead to
peace, to a better world.

1213
01:13:24,525 --> 01:13:26,435
And yet Churchill
is deeply concerned

1214
01:13:26,527 --> 01:13:30,067
that Stalin has no intention
of honoring his agreements,

1215
01:13:30,156 --> 01:13:32,776
especially when it comes to
guaranteeing free elections

1216
01:13:32,867 --> 01:13:34,867
in Poland.

1217
01:13:34,952 --> 01:13:37,372
Roosevelt does succeed in
drawing the Soviet Union

1218
01:13:37,455 --> 01:13:40,295
into his plan for
the United Nations.

1219
01:13:40,374 --> 01:13:42,794
He also walks away with
a commitment from Stalin

1220
01:13:42,877 --> 01:13:44,457
to join the fight
in the Pacific.

1221
01:13:47,214 --> 01:13:51,094
We now look back on the
Yalta Conference in 1945,

1222
01:13:51,177 --> 01:13:55,057
and many people would say why
did Roosevelt give up Eastern

1223
01:13:55,139 --> 01:13:56,059
Europe?

1224
01:13:56,140 --> 01:13:58,060
Was it because he
was old and sick?

1225
01:13:58,142 --> 01:14:02,102
No, it was because the Soviet
army owned an awful lot

1226
01:14:02,188 --> 01:14:06,438
of Europe, and no matter how
charming or how angry Roosevelt

1227
01:14:06,525 --> 01:14:09,775
got at this conference,
his personal skill was not

1228
01:14:09,862 --> 01:14:10,992
enough to overcome that.

1229
01:14:14,992 --> 01:14:17,122
Roosevelt believed
that he was going

1230
01:14:17,203 --> 01:14:20,463
to keep going back to
Stalin to negotiate issue

1231
01:14:20,539 --> 01:14:23,379
by issue as things unfolded.

1232
01:14:23,501 --> 01:14:29,011
He didn’t see Yalta
as this climactic act.

1233
01:14:29,090 --> 01:14:31,340
It was not supposed
to be the final word.

1234
01:14:45,982 --> 01:14:46,822
Sir.

1235
01:14:52,863 --> 01:14:55,123
What do you think
of the changes?

1236
01:14:55,199 --> 01:14:58,739
The speech is fine, Sam.

1237
01:14:58,869 --> 01:15:04,039
They won’t like some of
the things I did out there,

1238
01:15:04,166 --> 01:15:05,286
but I did my best.

1239
01:15:14,677 --> 01:15:17,637
I think we should forget
the braces for tonight, Sis.

1240
01:15:21,517 --> 01:15:23,137
I don’t think
that’s a good idea.

1241
01:15:27,732 --> 01:15:32,992
Pa, don’t give them any more
reason to criticize you.

1242
01:15:38,242 --> 01:15:39,372
This is who I am.

1243
01:15:42,079 --> 01:15:44,539
I have nothing left to prove.

1244
01:15:47,418 --> 01:15:51,918
FDR returns to the United
States on March 1st, 1945,

1245
01:15:52,048 --> 01:15:54,378
comes before a joint
session of Congress.

1246
01:15:54,467 --> 01:15:55,927
[applause]

1247
01:16:06,687 --> 01:16:09,057
You can imagine the moment
with a filled chamber,

1248
01:16:09,148 --> 01:16:12,358
the doors open, and
FDR is wheeled down

1249
01:16:12,443 --> 01:16:14,243
the aisle in his wheelchair.

1250
01:16:16,739 --> 01:16:18,779
Congressmen and senators who’ve
been dealing with him for years

1251
01:16:18,866 --> 01:16:20,906
had never seen him in
a wheelchair before.

1252
01:16:32,630 --> 01:16:37,680
I hope that you will pardon
me for an unusual posture

1253
01:16:37,802 --> 01:16:43,392
of sitting down, but I know that
you will realize that it makes

1254
01:16:43,474 --> 01:16:48,814
it a lot easier for me in not
having to carry about 10 pounds

1255
01:16:48,938 --> 01:16:52,568
of steel around on
the bottom of my legs,

1256
01:16:52,650 --> 01:16:57,150
and also because of the fact
that I have just completed

1257
01:16:57,238 --> 01:17:04,238
a 14,000 mile trip.

1258
01:17:04,328 --> 01:17:07,408
It has been a long journey.

1259
01:17:07,498 --> 01:17:08,918
[applause]

1260
01:17:12,169 --> 01:17:14,419
The Congress just felt
a sense of love for him

1261
01:17:14,505 --> 01:17:18,595
because he had
acknowledged his infirmity.

1262
01:17:18,676 --> 01:17:22,846
And it’s the first time he
has ever admitted in public

1263
01:17:22,972 --> 01:17:26,602
to his disability.

1264
01:17:26,684 --> 01:17:28,644
Both Eleanor and
Frances Perkins later

1265
01:17:28,727 --> 01:17:33,437
commented that it wasn’t so
much that FDR was admitting

1266
01:17:33,524 --> 01:17:36,534
to the American people
that he had a disability.

1267
01:17:36,610 --> 01:17:38,030
He was admitting it to himself.

1268
01:17:43,868 --> 01:17:46,448
In the month after his
address to Congress,

1269
01:17:46,537 --> 01:17:49,667
FDR has a frantic set of
legislation and things

1270
01:17:49,748 --> 01:17:50,578
he has to deal with.

1271
01:17:50,708 --> 01:17:51,288
He’s exhausted.

1272
01:17:51,375 --> 01:17:54,165
He’s in poor shape.

1273
01:17:54,253 --> 01:17:57,633
I think he just felt, I’ve
got to give it everything I can

1274
01:17:57,715 --> 01:18:00,185
just to make sure the war
comes to the right end,

1275
01:18:00,259 --> 01:18:02,219
the peace treaty is
right, and that I’ve

1276
01:18:02,303 --> 01:18:05,893
got people established on a
different road toward peace.

1277
01:18:06,015 --> 01:18:09,395
Roosevelt had a sense
of his own immortality

1278
01:18:09,476 --> 01:18:13,436
that was borderline irrational.

1279
01:18:13,564 --> 01:18:18,284
He actually thought he was going
to serve out until 1948, ’49,

1280
01:18:18,402 --> 01:18:20,202
and then he was going
to go to Hyde Park

1281
01:18:20,279 --> 01:18:23,239
and world leaders were going
to come and fly in and bring

1282
01:18:23,365 --> 01:18:25,525
their problems to him
as a former president

1283
01:18:25,618 --> 01:18:26,738
and he would solve them.

1284
01:18:29,455 --> 01:18:30,465
Finally, towards
the end of March,

1285
01:18:30,581 --> 01:18:33,171
he goes down to Warm
Springs to recover.

1286
01:18:33,250 --> 01:18:36,800
And despite the fact that
his health was failing,

1287
01:18:36,921 --> 01:18:39,761
FDR was still focused now on
the first meeting of the United

1288
01:18:39,882 --> 01:18:44,472
Nations, which is to take place
in San Francisco in late April.

1289
01:18:44,595 --> 01:18:47,605
But he gets the Warm Springs,
he’s in such bad shape

1290
01:18:47,723 --> 01:18:51,733
that he has to be carried off
the train and put into his car.

1291
01:18:51,810 --> 01:18:54,270
The population of Warm Springs,
who had always come out

1292
01:18:54,396 --> 01:18:56,686
to meet him, when they see
what condition he’s in,

1293
01:18:56,774 --> 01:19:00,194
literally gasp and ask each
other, what happened to him?

1294
01:19:00,277 --> 01:19:02,317
What’s the matter?

1295
01:19:02,446 --> 01:19:05,196
Warm Springs had always
been the place that gave him

1296
01:19:05,282 --> 01:19:08,372
that resuscitation of his energy
because of the original time

1297
01:19:08,452 --> 01:19:10,002
of what Warm Springs
meant to him.

1298
01:19:10,120 --> 01:19:11,790
He went back there
again and again almost

1299
01:19:11,872 --> 01:19:14,712
like he was finding the
strength in that ground

1300
01:19:14,792 --> 01:19:15,882
there that he had once had.

1301
01:19:21,966 --> 01:19:23,336
And it appears to
people around him

1302
01:19:23,467 --> 01:19:27,137
that FDR is actually starting
on that path towards recovery

1303
01:19:27,263 --> 01:19:28,513
and that maybe he’ll
be strong enough

1304
01:19:28,639 --> 01:19:32,979
to go to San Francisco for the
opening of the United Nations.

1305
01:19:33,102 --> 01:19:34,852
This was what he
was working towards,

1306
01:19:34,979 --> 01:19:37,309
and he was very hopeful that
this would mean something

1307
01:19:37,439 --> 01:19:38,229
for the future.

1308
01:19:44,488 --> 01:19:45,278
Sir.

1309
01:19:50,703 --> 01:19:52,293
Yes, let’s go.

1310
01:19:54,748 --> 01:19:56,168
We have a lot to do.

1311
01:20:06,010 --> 01:20:08,850
It’s Thursday,
April 12th, 1945.

1312
01:20:08,929 --> 01:20:11,769
Warm Springs, Georgia.

1313
01:20:11,849 --> 01:20:14,019
FDR had just been
working on a speech

1314
01:20:14,101 --> 01:20:15,981
he was to deliver the next day.

1315
01:20:18,647 --> 01:20:20,607
In the speech he was
going to talk about how

1316
01:20:20,691 --> 01:20:24,191
the only limitation to
our dreams for tomorrow

1317
01:20:24,278 --> 01:20:25,318
would be our doubts of today.

1318
01:20:25,404 --> 01:20:29,124
Let us move forward with
strong and active faith.

1319
01:20:29,199 --> 01:20:31,989
That was the last speech
he was supposed to give.

1320
01:20:32,077 --> 01:20:35,037
A Russian portrait painter
had been there painting him

1321
01:20:35,164 --> 01:20:37,714
in his Navy cape.

1322
01:20:37,791 --> 01:20:42,631
A cousin, Polly Delano is there,
and Lucy Mercer Rutherford

1323
01:20:42,713 --> 01:20:46,303
is there, the woman he was
never supposed to see again

1324
01:20:46,383 --> 01:20:49,143
after 1918, but who had
been back in his life.

1325
01:20:52,890 --> 01:20:54,180
He has an aneurysm.

1326
01:20:57,061 --> 01:21:01,311
Among his last words were,
I have a terrific headache,

1327
01:21:01,398 --> 01:21:02,228
as he faded.

1328
01:21:18,916 --> 01:21:19,876
Mrs. Roosevelt.

1329
01:21:19,958 --> 01:21:22,498
Yes?

1330
01:21:22,586 --> 01:21:25,046
I’m sorry, but you’re needed
at the White House right away.

1331
01:21:27,591 --> 01:21:28,431
Right away?

1332
01:21:31,345 --> 01:21:33,265
It gives me great
pleasure to introduce

1333
01:21:33,389 --> 01:21:37,019
my friend and the first lady of
the White House, Mrs. Eleanor

1334
01:21:37,101 --> 01:21:37,851
Roosevelt.

1335
01:21:37,935 --> 01:21:39,775
[applause]

1336
01:21:42,940 --> 01:21:46,190
Eleanor gave her talk, and
she said she knew that something

1337
01:21:46,276 --> 01:21:49,196
dreadful had happened.

1338
01:21:49,279 --> 01:21:51,159
As his cousin
Daisy Suckley said,

1339
01:21:51,281 --> 01:21:54,451
Franklin Roosevelt, the
hope of the world, has died.

1340
01:22:00,290 --> 01:22:03,710
Eleanor summons vice president
of Truman to the White House,

1341
01:22:03,794 --> 01:22:06,844
and she put her hand
on his shoulder,

1342
01:22:06,964 --> 01:22:11,644
and she says, Harry,
the president is dead.

1343
01:22:11,718 --> 01:22:16,218
And Truman says, oh, Mrs.
Roosevelt, I’m so sorry.

1344
01:22:16,306 --> 01:22:17,846
You know, what can I do for you?

1345
01:22:17,975 --> 01:22:21,485
And she says, that’s
the wrong question,

1346
01:22:21,603 --> 01:22:26,273
because you’re the one
that’s in trouble now.

1347
01:22:26,358 --> 01:22:28,738
From his beloved second
home at Warm Springs,

1348
01:22:28,819 --> 01:22:31,989
Georgia, the body of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1349
01:22:32,114 --> 01:22:34,074
moves on to the first
stages of its journey

1350
01:22:34,158 --> 01:22:35,778
to his final resting place.

1351
01:22:43,625 --> 01:22:46,915
There’s immense
public grieving.

1352
01:22:47,004 --> 01:22:50,924
There’s this sense that the
glue that had held the country

1353
01:22:51,008 --> 01:22:55,468
together had
cracked, that someone

1354
01:22:55,554 --> 01:22:59,644
who had seemed perennial
was actually temporal.

1355
01:23:05,898 --> 01:23:09,528
And "The York Times"
that day wrote, "Men

1356
01:23:09,651 --> 01:23:12,531
will thank God on their
knees 1,000 years from now

1357
01:23:12,654 --> 01:23:14,954
that Franklin Roosevelt was in
the White House when he was."

1358
01:23:19,203 --> 01:23:21,413
There was a daily
government list

1359
01:23:21,538 --> 01:23:26,878
of casualties that went out, and
the top casualty that day was,

1360
01:23:26,960 --> 01:23:31,210
Roosevelt, Franklin
Delano, commander in chief.

1361
01:23:31,298 --> 01:23:34,048
There was a sense of his being
the only president for lots

1362
01:23:34,176 --> 01:23:35,836
of people that
they’d ever known.

1363
01:23:35,928 --> 01:23:37,638
12 years is a long time.

1364
01:23:37,721 --> 01:23:40,021
Having carried them
through the Depression,

1365
01:23:40,098 --> 01:23:42,018
carried them through the war.

1366
01:23:42,100 --> 01:23:45,020
Feeling a sense of
connection to him.

1367
01:23:45,103 --> 01:23:47,313
The kids who went to the
Civilian Conservation Camps

1368
01:23:47,397 --> 01:23:50,317
become the soldiers
in World War II.

1369
01:23:50,400 --> 01:23:51,740
There’s a story
of somebody who’s

1370
01:23:51,818 --> 01:23:55,158
crying during the funeral, and
they say to him, an old man,

1371
01:23:55,239 --> 01:23:57,659
he’s crying, did you
know President Roosevelt?

1372
01:23:57,741 --> 01:24:01,541
He said, no, but he knew me.

1373
01:24:01,620 --> 01:24:06,170
Franklin Roosevelt rescued
democracy and capitalism

1374
01:24:06,250 --> 01:24:08,540
in their hours of
maximum danger,

1375
01:24:08,627 --> 01:24:14,507
and the fact that we have a
market economy and a republic

1376
01:24:14,591 --> 01:24:20,811
if we can keep it is in
no small measure because

1377
01:24:20,931 --> 01:24:24,601
of his fundamental belief
in the constitutional order.

1378
01:24:28,981 --> 01:24:32,861
Ambition is the most
mysterious part of leadership.

1379
01:24:32,943 --> 01:24:34,943
FDR had this ambition
that’s large,

1380
01:24:35,070 --> 01:24:38,620
but it’s for something
larger than himself.

1381
01:24:38,699 --> 01:24:42,539
FDR had this great gift
for understanding what

1382
01:24:42,619 --> 01:24:45,039
the American people needed.

1383
01:24:45,122 --> 01:24:47,622
FDR made us
better than we are.

1384
01:24:47,749 --> 01:24:50,169
He could call on
our better angels.

1385
01:24:50,294 --> 01:24:58,264
I pledge myself to a New
Deal for the American people.

1386
01:24:58,343 --> 01:25:00,353
There was something
about that voice.

1387
01:25:00,470 --> 01:25:05,140
There was something
about that smile that

1388
01:25:05,225 --> 01:25:07,265
suggested it’s going to be OK.

1389
01:25:10,147 --> 01:25:14,777
Roosevelt opened the eyes of
Americans to positive effects

1390
01:25:14,860 --> 01:25:18,400
that government could
have on individual lives.

1391
01:25:18,488 --> 01:25:21,658
Everybody talks at the end
about how he’ll be remembered

1392
01:25:21,783 --> 01:25:24,043
for having gotten us
through the Depression,

1393
01:25:24,161 --> 01:25:27,831
carrying us through World War
II, and there’s Social Security

1394
01:25:27,956 --> 01:25:30,326
and all these things you can
see in the history books.

1395
01:25:30,417 --> 01:25:32,837
He would say, it’s the
bond with the people

1396
01:25:32,961 --> 01:25:36,761
that I’ve established
and that I care for.

1397
01:25:36,840 --> 01:25:38,880
Underneath all those
laws are people,

1398
01:25:39,009 --> 01:25:40,929
and they’re people whose
lives he’s affected

1399
01:25:41,011 --> 01:25:43,391
and people who he
helped to get them

1400
01:25:43,513 --> 01:25:46,223
back on their feet in the ’30s
to be ready to be the Greatest

1401
01:25:46,350 --> 01:25:49,440
Generation in the ’40s, and
I think that’s what he’d

1402
01:25:49,519 --> 01:25:52,019
want to be remembered for.

1403
01:25:52,147 --> 01:25:53,767
Americans have
always been lucky.

1404
01:25:53,857 --> 01:25:55,477
We got Lincoln
when we needed him,

1405
01:25:55,567 --> 01:25:57,777
we had Washington
when we needed him,

1406
01:25:57,861 --> 01:25:59,781
and we had FDR
when we needed him.

1407
01:26:13,293 --> 01:26:18,593
Let me assert my firm belief
that the only thing we have

1408
01:26:18,715 --> 01:26:23,135
to fear is fear itself.