course reading daniel silver's new book. he's married to a colleague of mine. you got to love his books. they're all good. fallen angel. it's historical fiction. that's what i love. it's taken me time, but they haven't given up on the stephen king book. 112263, another fictionalized history book, obviously using the kennedy assassination. i've been plodding through that one. it's never a quick read when it comes to stephen king. anyways, that is amended in the summer. hope to finish them all before the convictions. >> for more on this and other summer reading, visit tv.org. >> up next on booktv, stanley weintraub recounts franklin d. roosevelt's last campaign in 1944 which securities fourth term. he examines the issue that mark

a wartime election. this is 45 minutes. [applause] 's >> my book is called, as you heard, "final victory." "final victory" suggest they were nothing but victories in his life. actually, that wasn't the case. he did have two terms as a state senator from new york state. he became assistant secretary of the navy during world war i. he then was chosen to be the vice presidential candidate on the democratic ticket in 1920 when the democrats were sure to lose and they last. he lost, that he thought that this would only energize his career. he had national visibility. he was going to go on and do other things, but that was 1920.

in 1821 he suffered an attack of polio, lost the use of his legs. he was paralyzed from that time on them. we're we're dealing with now is 23 years into that. i've the mobility on his part. i think the public realized how paralyzed he was, that he had no agility visibly, though he hopefully as a good deal to agility verbally, he was a brilliant speaker. he was a brilliant combiner borers and most of the public never know that he was to use the word that he was to use the word that he was to use the word pictures were not to use the word pictures were not taken of him in a wheelchair. pictures are not taken of him using braces arkwright shows.

if they were, the price is very discrete. they did do such things back then. today the press to be a lot less discreet. but we are now dealing with a roosevelt that the public thought they knew, but they didn't really know very well. he gave speeches on radio. i wasn't a television ad. speeches on radio were called fireside chats. he had no fireside as he spoke in the people he spoke to listen on their little radios that were not near any fireside either. this was just to make her leave that was done in the media at the time. he gave a chemin dismember press conferences during as president fee. nearly a thousand press conferences. he did so by sitting behind his desk. people didn't realize that he sat behind his desk because he couldn't stand up. they just accepted it for what it was.

he was very astute and what he said. he was warmhearted and humorous and during world war ii, when there are problems about prices and shortages and so on, he knew exactly what to say in when they say it. for example, at one point he tried to stress that the prices that things are not really very high. it's just that you shouldn't buy them at the wrong times. he said someone visited me who was a foreman in one of the substantial trades. can you imagine a foreman in a factory coming to visit president at the white house? he said he came to me last january and said to me, my old lady is ready to hit you over the head with a dishpan. i said what's the trouble? the cost of living. well, i said last night i went

home in the old lady said what's this? i went out to buy some asparagus and you see what i've got? i've got 56 and that six and that cost me a dollar and a quarter. it's an outrage. i looked at him and said when you the event by an expert in january? fresh asparagus. he said i never thought of that. i said tell that to the old lady with my compliments. someone at the press conference then said, was that the same guy who complained about the price of strawberries? i said no, that was someone else. of course that will make her leave, but a lot of communication to the public was make-believe. the real communication and dealt with more significant matters. for example, we went through the worst oppression in our history, the worst war in our history and he was the president during both of the simley did very well to get out of them as we did.

but in 1844, he said we are long past dr. new deal. that is dealing with the social safety net. we have to deal with.or when the water. this is a press conference. and we dealt with dr. winning the war except that there was still a part of the safety net that had been established, the g.i. bill. the g.i. bill was fought over in congress in 1844 before the election and many conservatives in congress complained that the g.i. bill would stifle the urge of returning veterans to go to work. we didn't need it. it was socialism. well, the g.i. bill it turns out was actually drafted, written by a former chairman of the republican national committee and i had a hard time getting

through congress. roosevelt finally had to appeal to a congressman from georgia who was absent, and vote and the g.i. bill passed by one vote. it's possibly the most significant legislation about social mobility than the history of this country. i passed by one vote and it was written by a republican, the socialist legislation. and we have the equivalent. that is in the introduction you heard said. we have an equivalent now. we have what is called obamacare obamacare was drafted and written by republicans for romney. governor romney has romney care. but here we are in 1994 in the

last full year of world war ii. world war ii in 1944 was not yet a very subtle thing. we have been invading islands in the central pacific taken over earlier in the war. we have not been named gareth 1944. i remember because it is the 10th anniversary of d-day. i don't know what that has to say about the marriage, but in a case i won't forget the anniversary because of d-day. but the result of this unsettled war at this point was that roosevelt felt that he had to continue on. the war had to be one and the peace after that had to be one. but is there somebody else to take his place? he was not well.

we knew he was not well. he didn't know how sick he was, but we knew he was not well. the cover of my book shows roosevelt quite blunt the way he actually looks in 1844. behind me as a flattering picture of roosevelt supposedly done early in 1945. but it's flattering that looks like a campaign poster. it wasn't the roosevelt of reality at that point. roosevelt scholars were too big, the shirts hung on him. he had lost 19 pounds in the previous year. his wife and his daughter, anna said we really need to get a checkup. and he said i get a check up every day of my dark hair. that is the surgeon general of the navy, ross macintyre comes in every day and checks me out. he came in every day. he is an emt.

your nose and throat. he sprays his throat. that is what he did. he didn't check his blood pressure. he didn't check his temperature. he didn't check anything else. he sprayed his third and he. but he was a vice admiral in the navy and the surgeon general of the navy. so he was after all a big man who is going to counter what he had to say. nevertheless because of the badgering of anna roosevelt and eleanor roosevelt, franklin was taken to bethesda naval hospital. it was almost knew at that time. it was our newly opened facility. he was taken there in a limousine with his wheelchair. his wheelchair was an old kitchen chair with wheels attached. he didn't want to be seen in a conventional wheelchair, a

hospital type wheelchair because he didn't want to be thought of as a cripple. so we sat in the wheelchair newest pushed along in the kitchen chair. you can see that kitchen chair at the roosevelt memorial here in washington because one of the statute shows him sitting in it and you can see the wheelchair polo. it's an honest portrait of roosevelt and a sculpture that way. the bethesda naval hospital, they were appalled that his condition. a young doctor from columbia-presbyterian in new york who was then a lieutenant commander in the navy was called and was called in to look them over and said roosevelt is in very bad shape indeed. he may not live out the year unless something is done. the first thing we have to do is the only thing we can do to combat high blood pressure and that is to prescribe digitalis. there is nothing else at the

time. things have changed a great deal since 1944. he was put on digitalis. and then, hard or inside the has to be cut down to one cocktail a day. he's a too his martinis, which he would have that what he called children's hour, which was 5:00. children's hour because traditionally many adults would send children out when they had their 5:00 drinks. roosevelt bargained to a cocktail and a half each day. he was told he had to give up smoking. and you see the iconic cigarette holder in his hand in the portrait behind me. a bargain to five cigarettes a day from two packs. so instead of the two packs, five cigarettes a day. he told harry hopkins, his chief assistant, down to five cigarettes a day and they taste

just as horrible as ever, but he couldn't give them up. it was an addiction and he continued that way. somehow he survived this additional restriction on him and he was able to continue on. but he would've liked to have had somebody take his place as a candidate for president. and there weren't very many people who are eager for the job. he was so powerful a figure in government he overshadowed everybody else in politics that very few people aspired for that job. jim farley, the onetime chairman of the democratic party and postmaster general wanted the job, the roosevelt didn't feel he was at the job. another person who wanted the job was henry wallace, who is vice president, but he wasn't

even going to be given the task of remaining on the vice presidential candidate. he was considered too flaky and that is still another story. a concerned man to miss up to one of job was harry byrd of virginia, the elder harry byrd. there were two in the senate. and the democratic national convention in mid july, 1944, harry byrd actually carried restates, three southern states and the convention. or when roosevelt of course carried all the other states, the chairman of the convention, samuel jackson, senator from indiana said i would not like to declare this unanimous. so of course, all the others change their votes and he was voted unanimously as a presidential candidate for a fourth term. he had wanted, though he couldn't get anybody interested, he wanted henry kaiser to be a

candidate, possibly to succeed him. kaiser had no political ambitions. no one knew whether he was democrat or republican. who was henry kaiser? you may remember him if you're old enough as the industrialist who built the brick three ships of the liberty ships. when i sailed to korea during the korean war, which was a few years after world war ii, it was on a big to reship. it was seven bunks high and you didn't want to be on the bottom bunk because of the rocky ocean. you know what would happen to you there. in any case, those continued for many years to be used after the war. he was a brilliant man and industrialist, but no politician. there is no competition. roosevelt had to be the candidate. the candidate opposite him on

the republican side was tom dewey, governor of new york. .. was made the nominee. he wanted to become one again in 1948 and 1952 and in 1952 became

reasonably close to dwight eisenhower was the presidential candidate of the republicans then. so, roosevelt had a young man 20 years younger than he was and who looked energetic to run against him and he had to find a way to look energetic. his pictures didn't make him look very good. he was at camp pendleton california, southern california, at the time of the democrat convention in chicago. he didn't want to be in chicago at the time. in the railway car that he used traveling across the country, microphones had been set up so that he could give a speech accepting the nomination, and he did, and several reporters and cameramen were allowed to listen to the speech live and to take

his portrait and the picture taken of him made him look so haggard that it nearly lost the election for him that he was lucky that he was alive at that point because that morning, the morning that he gave his acceptance speech a little later on, he called to his son who was a marine major then at camp pendleton. jimmy told me, i have terrible pain. i opened the book with that flash back. he had apparently was a seizure but nobody knew. he never told them. he said limey down. lee me down on the floor. james leave him down on the floor he said after a while i am beginning to feel better. help me up and he was held up and he was assisted to the

packard convertible that had been in one of one of the railway cars to travel to the camp pendleton area where the of maneuvers were going to place for the marines to practice the invasion of japan. and he was at those maneuvers. he looked okay then. of course nobody saw them accept in the distance. but his speech was rather ragged accepting the nomination then didn't sound very good. he needed to show some effort of physical strength so he traveled to hawaii and california. he visited pearl harbor. he visited of their bases of hawaii. all this in an open convertible. he met general macarthur and they discussed the future of the war. he deliberately traveled to

hospitals in a conventional wheelchair so that he could see the troops and they could see him. he wanted troops that had been disabled to see that he was a guy that had overcome such visibility and it was a rare occasion that people saw him like that. i don't think any pictures were allowed. there were no pictures taken. he went from hawaii to alaska. he visited the islands, and the two islands captured by the japanese and had been evacuated by the japanese at that point, but when he was occupied by the canadian and american troops, they found two dogs had been left behind by the japanese, and they became a very strange element and became to that because word got around when roosevelt returned to the

seattle area from alaska troubling about 14,000 miles. this is a very sick man traveling 14,000 miles going off in small boats and fishing and so on pictures taken showing him doing this. the problem became that he not only made another speech, this one from the naval base that sounded bad come he was exhausted from his trip but also there was a report based on those japanese bonds that he had left behind his own scottish ought in the islands and it took millions of dollars and four ships to go off to find and rescue him and this was used by the republican congressmen to raise hell with him for having abused the defense forces for

his scottie dog. it wasn't true and it turned out not to be true but they gave him the terrific campaign issue and the result was that the first major speech he gave when he returned from his long trip was to a dinner group in washington, d.c.. i believe it was the team's union annual convention. he talked to them and she said towards the end of his speech the speechwriters by the we told him don't put this in. it's not a good idea. he said have lived it and he did. he said of course i don't resent the tax. my family doesn't resent the tax. but he does resent them. scotch and since he learned that the republican in congress has come concocted a series that i left him behind and sent a

destroyer back to find him cost the taxpayers to or three or eight or $20 million his scotch soul was furious and he hasn't been the same sense. this house far as the reporters and the listeners were concerned said roosevelt is bck. this was the old roosevelt. and she determined to take not the fellow speech. he didn't repeat that but everybody knew about that. he determined to take his campaign vigorously to some of the big cities. he went to new york first of all and he went again in his train the convertible was with him. they to get out of the train and he was lifted into of course on the scene by the public and he traveled for 51 miles through all of the boroughs of new york

and s.i. and in the pouring rain and in the bitter cold waving his fedora to the thompsons, millions literally of few words and the people were just amazed at his remarkable stamina to be able to do this. and of course that remarkable stamina was called an adrenaline rush if you wish, but he didn't. he then went on to philadelphia and did the same thing and again in the pouring rain crossing the river over to camden and also campaigning there. then the boss of chicago said you've got to come to chicago we have to show the midwest that you are vigorous and able to the president for another four years and so he got on the train again and went to chicago.

the weather was even worse. this was now towards the end of october. he went to soldier field which was and yet the home of the chicago bears as it is now, but it was an open stadium bessie to over 100,000 people. there were at least 100,000 more outside. a cold wind blew in from lake michigan. the temperature was nearly zero. he drove into soldier field up on the platform where there were microphones and he spoke from his car to the crowd outside and they were amazed and he went on to point out that it was very important to keep the safety net, the social net open and available for the return of

veterans that it was very important to have the amenities they needed not just the freedoms he had enunciated earlier but economic freedoms, and the public was again amazed at his vitality. that still wasn't enough because there were rumors spread by the other side that he was a dying man. of course they couldn't prove it but he then went to boston and the home of the boston red sox he spoke again outdoors. one of the people that interest them was orson welles, then a major scarfed. frank sinatra sang america the beautiful and by that time she was not only a hero but he had a son she named franklin roosevelt

sinatra. one doesn't realize that because later on sinatra as he became wealthier also changed his party designation and as a result frank sinatra jr. cantelon. that is the son changed his name and became frank sinatra, jr.. so we forget that earlier history but roosevelt returned to hyde park just before the election feeling that he had done very well and she did. he was helped by a soldier vote. i have a whole chapter in the book on the soldier vote. how did they vote and for the restricted in any way from voting? we have problems down the current election season of attempts made to restrict the vote because you want to restrict the vote of people that are likely not to vote your way

and in this case the soldiers might have voted for the commander in chief and so they were being restricted in congress all kind of face the the absentee ballots. nevertheless, it was fought through and four and a half million soldiers and sailors and marines voted it was a tremendous number. they were able to vote all kind of means were used for communicating with them and getting the absentee ballots back. later on i became the elections officer, the voting officer for my office in korea during the korean more and i found out what was done for an absentee ballots. i had to countersign the back of the envelope after the sealed at with my name and rank and serial number so that they were considered legitimate.

soldiers did much the same thing and in europe and in the pacific than world war ii. i wanted to put in something of a soldier vote but there's a whole chapter on that and a number of people felt the interview veterans about how they voted. many veterans especially sailors said i voted for roosevelt because he was a navy man and the puzzled me at first because a navy man, yes he was assistant secretary of the navy during world war i said he was a navy man and he wanted very much to join the marines and delivery and fled with rules and wouldn't let him he said we need you here at home as assistant secretary said he went over toward the end of the war to inspect the troops and see what he could but he never was in a fighting

situation. he was a navy man and the sailors voted for him. a lot of troops voted the other way but they voted the other way they said that's the way my family voted. they really didn't kno much about either candidate and roosevelt was the overwhelming favorite because they knew who he was. so one chapter deals with the soldier vote and another chapter if i check my time i think we are okay, another chapter deals with an event in the election season that is reminiscent of the other seasons, a free election seasons. was the party that was unpatriotic. was it unpatriotic and in what way was it unpatriotic? roosevelt or his government at least had imprisoned the secretary of the communist party in 1944 passport violations they

had used a fake passport. in 1942 he pardoned him because it was a gesture towards russia towards joe stalin who was our ally. we might not have wanted him as an ally but we needed him and he was there and this was a gesture to stalin. the result was the republicans attacked roosevelt and said that the person who's going to sit at roosevelt's site if he is reelected this role. this was of course mom sensible, but nevertheless, it was declared and people accepted this. the other problem was roosevelt was unpatriotic because he had failed us at pearl harbor coming he knew what had gone on and let pearl harbor happened. conspiracy theories are very common. we love conspiracies. we read about them all the time

and newspapers and listen and watch them on tv. the idea was that the president and his advisers knew that the japanese military code had been broken before pearl harbor and we did nothing about. that wasn't true. we had broken the diplomatic code before pearl harbor and we knew a week for ten days before pearl harbor that the japanese were going to break their relations with us and that very likely meant conflict. general marshall and alan king, i'm sorry, at rolph leahy said out messages to all the major posts in the pacific from the canal to manila saying this is a warning that looks like the

japanese may be on the alert 24/7. this was sent on november 27th. perlmutter was december 7th. nobody was on the alert despite these cables no one was on the alert intact admiral kimmel and general schwartz in charge of pearl harbor were planning to play golf at 8:00 on saturday and sunday morning it 8:00. five minutes before 8:00 the japanese attacked. they didn't play golf but they also were not on the alert. he was asleep in his bed he didn't believe that and he was told about those attacks. pearl harbor they couldn't of gannett manila was attacked in the beginnings of the invasion goes the diplomatic code the was

broken. we didn't break the military code until the after pearl harbor, but it did result in our victory at midway because we did note japanese movements at midway but nevertheless tom dewey wanted to attack roosevelt for having known about the military event and what was the president going to do? he felt helpless. he wasn't going to do this thing. but general macarthur, and sorry, general marshall intervened without roosevelt's knowing and got a message through an envoy sending somebody to the television stand saying you are all wrong and if you break the news that we have now broken the military code this will be a great advantage to the germans and the japanese because the investor of japan in

berlin is sending messages constantly to tokyo about what he's learning from hitler and ascending it in the codes we have broken the the don't know that these broken them and dewey wasn't impressed by this. he said i don't believe you but i have no evidence otherwise. he spoke with advisers and they said it's too dangerous you better stop that so there was never any effort to attack roosevelt for having closed pearl harbor or for having known the codes the were the result of pearl harbor's attack. so there are a lot of things in here that we learn perhaps not for the first time that in the context of the election. there's one thing i found quite fascinating almost unbelievable that exists in the dewey

campaign scrapbooks' which are at the university library. they kept the letters to the editor and clippings of all sorts, cartoons, everything that was valuable to have those in their scrapbooks and the curious prediction about the election came and a letter to the editor from a newspaper in syracuse. of bertrand was the name of the signer. he wrote that his friend john predicted that the president would become quote, we elected by the smallest part of the given in the campaigns. that is the smallest popular vote relative to the other side. was still a big joke. he also claimed that a new and unforeseen circumstance will cause both japan and germany to come to their knees literally

within six months to read what wasn't six months and it wasn't much beyond that. the writer confided he was in a position to know he had died aged 26 and 1910. he had predicted the senate seance. is that a contribution to history? nevertheless it is so curious i thought i had to put it in their sood sean del rebel who died in 1910 predicted the electoral vote very quickly. roosevelt did when. he received 432 ev votes to dewey's 99. that is a big difference but it doesn't reflect the electoral which is a lot closer than that. nevertheless, roosevelt won and dewey took a long time until he

conceded the election and roosevelt finally heard from him in the early hours of the morning not that he conceded roosevelt but he conceded he hadn't won and he was told that one of his secretaries and roosevelt said i still think he is a son of the bitch and that was his last statement about tom dooley. he was inaugurated again on january 30th. a small inaugurations ceremony. he was not in good shape. and 83 -- i'm sorry, 83 days later he died. april, 1945 and harry truman became president. let me stop there and if you have questions i will be glad to answer them and i've taken a lot of your time so think you for being here. [applause]

questions krepp >> it's hard to see the bright lights but can you come closer? >> the concept about roosevelt for a sample in soldier field if you can drive up on platform then you can just to the speech from your car and you also mentioned the dinners for the teamsters he did here in town. how was that handle that he was in a small group? did people realize with the disability was or how is that done? >> there was a bank of microphones set up that he could speak from the seat in the convertible but on other occasions, he stood up to speak and by slatkin they learn how to do this.

by sleight of hand, his assistants got him up and standing on his braces then back down again that way and people didn't realize that he was standing on heavy braces. but by the time of yalta which was the conference in january, february, 1945, he couldn't wear those races anymore. they were too heavy and uncomfortable. he had too much weight and when he reported to congress he apologized to the congress and said you must excuse me for sitting down because the weight of the races is too much for me now and there was the first time that he ever confessed that in public and people must have known at that point that he would not make a four year term in his fourth term. any other -- yes. estimate how much does the book

select the discuss -- how much does the book going to the decision to select truman and is that something that fdr himself was very involved in? >> the question of how truman became nominated? truman turned out to be great plus on the campaign trail because he was very feisty and didn't need to have prepared remarks he was good at speaking off the cuff. but truman was a compromise candidate. it was a compromise because none of the conservative south which was then democratic and it's the same conservative south but they treated none of them would have accepted wallace. on the other hand, james byrnes, was another person that roosevelt thought of as the vice president would not have been accepted by the north. the liberal murf didn't want burns commission is a self carolinian, he was a racist, a

big get and he had also changed his religion. he had in conflict and the urban catholics in the north wouldn't have accepted them so burns was out, too. it turned out they wanted somebody that would fall between the cracks as they put, somebody that was in the middle of the road didn't have a lot of beninese and that turned out to be harry truman. truman didn't want the job. he felt he was going to go into something over his head and besides his wife didn't want the job, take it away from her that she was holding as the secretary in truman's office. she would lose her job. she had to lose her job any way. and truman didn't meet roosevelt often during the campaign. a couple times and there was about it.

they didn't discuss the future. they did not discuss truman becoming president but truman told one of his friends as they left the white house on one occasion i had a nightmare that the president died and i become president. it was a nightmare. it was nothing he felt was in his ambition but he succeeded i think brilliantly as an accidental president. >> i want to thank everyone for coming tonight to the smithsonian and by individual to stand if you have additional questions and would like to take a look at the but we have copies over here. so please come stick around and join me one more time in thanking stanley weintraub. [applause]

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