wendell willkie is a great example. his greatest service to the country arguably became a -- arguably came after 1940 when he became an emissary for fdr, traveled around the world, and foreshadow the realignment of political parties which has arguably taken place. >> roosevelt outlived him. he died in 1944 and so did his running mate. >> the speaker of the house? >> he was only 52. >> how appropriate. he burned out. he lived his life like that, and somehow it was not a surprise. >> october 14th, al smith. >> al smith. in many ways a father of the modern democratic party. >> where was he from? >> new york state. he was a governor, you know, raised in the shadows of brooklyn bridge. >> and tammany hall. >> and tammany hall. a classic tammany hall politician who outgrew his origins. do you know the last republican presidential candidate to carry new york city was calvin coolidge in 1924? four years later, al smith is the democratic candidate against herbert hoover. he begins the process of forging an urban-world, but mostl

wendell willkie is a great example. his greatest service to the country arguably came after 1940 when he became an emissary 1940 when he became an emissary for fdr, traveled around the world, and foreshadow the realignment of political parties which has arguably taken place. >> roosevelt outlived him. he died in 1944 and so did his running mate. >> the speaker of the house? >> he was only 52. >> how appropriate. he burned out. he lived his life like that, and somehow it was not a surprise. >> october 14th, al smith. >> al smith. in many ways a father of the modern democratic party. >> where was he from? >> new york state. he was a governor, you know, raised in the shadows of brooklyn bridge. >> and tammany hall. >> and tammany hall. a classic tammany hall politician who outgrew his origins. do you know the last republican presidential candidate to carry new york city was calvin coolidge in 1924? four years later, al smith is the democratic candidate against herbert hoover. he begins the process of forging an urban-world

he's running against wendel willkie for an unprecedented third term. he's really worried he will lose that election and he's making all these decisions overseas, largely blind to what lay ahead of him. it working so much that sometimes he became physically ill. when donovan came back from the european mission, that's when our spy story begins. in july 1941, this is before pearl harbor, roosevelt signed an executive order designating donovan is coordinator of information. about a year later it would be called the oss, the office of strategic services. but in the beginning it was the coordinator of information. just a one page document, very vaguely written, said colonel donovan, his world war i rank, will collect information of national importance for me and other unspecified things. the document was so vague that they of the cabinet members in roosevelt administration begin scratching their heads and wondering what in the world is he up to, appointing this republican wall street lawyer to do all these unusual covert things in his administration. donova