To see closeup and in dramatic detail who was responsible for rescuing and insisting upon the great invasion of france in june of 1944. As the trial turns to personal tragedy we watched with heartbreaking compassion the course of the disease and how they attempted to prepare the United Nations for an american backed postcold war era. Now we know that even on his deathbed he was the wars great visionary. Douglas brinkley says war and peace is a masterful reevaluation of dday, the demise and the conference and the pulitzer prizewinning coauthor of american war and peace are stunning achievements. Hamilton commands the talent both as a meticulous military historian and a seasoned biographer and the result is an intimate portrait of americas most consequential president. Hes the bestselling and awardwinning biographer of president john f. Kennedy, general Bernard Montgomery among other subjects. The most recent book 1941 to 1942. Hes a senior fellow at the Mccormack Graduate School at the university of boston and splits his time between boston massachusetts and new orleans louisiana. Thank you for joining us please welcome nigel hamilton. [applause] thank you very much. I will split my time between somerville and new orleans. The command was actually the first of the volume called commanderinchief and this one borrowing from a very distinguished writer many years ago is cold war and peace. Welcome this evening. Im delighted to be giving a talk in a bookstore i started my literary career as a bookseller so many people ask for a book about it and there wasnt one, so i started my writing career with my mother also and the book was a bestseller. Thats where it all began and the book was published 50 years ago. That dates us doesnt it . Today and yesterday we are celebrating a number of things. In one littl little way the begg of my own writing career in a much bigger way the anniversary of dday, the invasion of normandy 75 years ago yesterday. On one of the british beaches and a tremendous battle began at normandy. He was 25yearsold commanding innings in trade infantry and there were casualties between june 7 and midaugust of 1944. So its a pretty extraordinary moment 75 years later i was pleased to see our president went to france and britain to commemorate the invasion and pay some tribute to somebody else. For me, its a somewhat emotional moment because this book is the culmination of ten years of my life. I began it thinking i was right to just a short book about fdrs commanderinchief in world war ii and it seemed to me to be wrong, but no american historian or biographer had actually written a serious study of the president of the United States and his role as commander in chief, his constitutional role in the armed forces of the United States. And in the most violent war in Human History how come no one had done this . So, having become an american, i decided to see if i could rectify this and that was the beginning of this much longer journey than i had expected. I go to the end of the first manuscript and sent it off to my editor, got a wonderful email a week or two later saying i loved the manuscript. We are up to november 1942. Where is the rest of the war. [laughter] well, that was a sign that it would take more than one volume. And one of the reasons the books became longer, became a trilogy is because every biographer when he works on a project undergoes a learning experience. If you knew in advance what you were going to say, and everything about the subject, you wouldnt be much of a biographer. You would come across as somebody as they know little. I think one of the charms of good biography is that you the reader are going on a journey with the writer, and appropriately i began the first volume of a journey and at that stage i knew very little about when fdr boarded his president ial yacht in the summer of 1941 and set off on what seemed to be a fishing expedition and when he reached the Cape Cod Canal transferred to an american battleship and went off to meet Winston Churchill for the first formal time and together they signed the Atlantic Charter because fdr wondered if the United States, this is the summer of 1941, if the United States was going to be involved in a world war, fdr wanted to set down the moral basis for the country to fight such a war. The Atlantic Charter. In the course of the book i found that he had overruled his military chiefs of staff and this is a biography of fdr as the commanderinchief. Before they get fired had firee shot at a german so the president who fortunately was a politician who was sent to the voters and were concerned decided he must overrule his military chiefs of staff and ordered a quite different invasion that here, the invasion of north africa, morocco and algeria. And the second volume covered a similar where they bough built n airplane middle of the war and flies to casablanca to sit down but again with Winston Churchill and decide how the war should be continued and again overruled the chiefs of staff and said we will stay in the mediterranean for a moment because the soldiers have still only four states, defenders, morocco and algeria. Now here in the mediterranean not just soldiers but combat commanders, generals have to learn how to defeat the opendoublequote if hitler hadnt become the master of europe for no reason. This was tough business. And to ensure nobody would have any doubt what was required of the American Armed forces he insisted on the policy of Unconditional Surrender of the enemy, Unconditional Surrender. There would be no negotiation with the nazis. Unconditional surrender. And a few months later the First German Army did surrender to general eisenhower in may of 1943 and tw tunis leaving the wy under general eisenhower occupied sicily and established themselves in the great airfields. This final volume picks up the story and once again for me this was a learning experience because i had been brought up in britain on or just before dday under the impression that the strategy for the military conduct of world war ii by the allies and the west in europe was very much a strategy of Winston Churchill and in volume two, i have found out that they opposed the notion of the cross channel landing and for understandable reasons. After all, nobody had actually launched an invasion across the English Channel since almost a thousand years, not even hitler dared do it after the fall of france and dunkirk. So twice that year Winston Churchill had come to north america, to washington, to hide park to plead with the president not to launch dday are giving that it would be too much of a gamble, too many lives at stake that the channel would be running red with blood. But the president insisted advised by his military Staff Committee had overruled them up until that point, but he had said he declared dday must be launched in the spring of 1944, at the end of the winter in the traditional difficult waters could be crossed by the large invasion force. And the reason he wanted that to take place on the first of may, 1944, 75 years ago was because just getting onto the beaches of normandy wouldnt be enough in order to defeat a million troops there would have to be a campaigning summer in which sufficient american tanks could be landed on the shores of normandy and they would build up an army of two or perhaps 3 million men to defeat so it was vital to launch dday in may of 1944. But sadly as the president sets off the latest american battleship to meet churchill in november, 1943 with the allies in southern italy he is told by his staff that churchill wont do it. It had been overruled by the president for the third time churchill was simultaneously setting off on his battleship to meet the president in cairo before they would fly on to meet with the third party in the Great Alliance and before they ever got to tehran he was going to argue with the president that it must be delayed or canceled. On board is battleship, churchill prepared in between parts of the guard a huge monumental indictment of american stupidity. Why crossed the English Channel, why not stay in the mediterranean, why not simply guard the ceilings to the British Colonial empire could be reestablished after the war. Why not let somebody else win the war against hitler and those in the concentration camps, that is what it boils down to. There was only one man in this universe who had the kind of authority and respect to compel Winston Churchill was the commanderinchief of all the British Empire forces that includes not just british that includes canadian, south africans, australians, new zealand. There was only one who could persuade Winston Churchill to back off and get with the program he had agreed a couple of months before that dday should take place 1944 come hell or high water. So the drama of the book which again i stress sufficed me as much as anything because it has virtually been whitewashed out of history. Im sure its somewhere in this book that came out a few months ago, a new biography of Winston Churchill 1100 pages claiming that churchill never wanted to delay let alone a band in the day. Andrew roberts, well with your help bring him up to date. Persuaded the most critical moment i would argue as a historian in the history of world war ii to back down, get with the program and provide 50 of the forces which were necessary on dday itself because it couldnt be mounted without the british. It would have to be launched from england. But what could they do with Winston Churchill was pressing his own cabinet that he would resign if the americans went ahead with roosevelts plan he would reassign as the Prime Minister of britain and if he didnt like it, he could switch his forces to the pacific. I ask you today how is it that the knowledge of this crisis certainly in my lifetime has gone so uncharted its so unknown and 999 people they have no idea even though we are celebrating yesterday and today where we have no idea who saved this plan, who forced Winston Churchill to back down, to get on the planes, fly t plane, flya few days later from cairo, sat him down with marshall and fdr to launch a simultaneous russian offensive on the Eastern Front at the same time as the dday operation with a million Russian Troops so that hitler wouldnt be able to move from Eastern Front to meet the forces on the western front in france. And not only that but persuaded the ones surrendered unconditionally, the russians would provide a million troops to help defeat japan. Germany first, then japan. That had always bee has always e strategy from just before pearl harbor. So, this for me was certainly the most exciting of the three books to write because this is the culmination of the strategy for fighting the nazis in world war ii. I wish we had slides and i could show you photographs we have of the president returning and appointing at this great moment of success having gotten the british to back off and agreed to dday. The president surprises everybody by not appointing them and everybody assumetheman everd command the invasion, general George Marshall butz appoints the young general dwight eisenhower. And in richboro specht looked fantastic appointment that was because the president unlike some others we could name the lead in coalition, believe you couldnt just when a modern war on your own but even hitler could do that. So the remarkable thing about the president is that he not only saved dday, but he appoints the man that will command it, the Supreme Commander and doesnt just send him a table or a telegram from cairo, he gets on his plane which is wonderfully nicknamed the sacred cow and flies to see eisenhower in person and claimed to him why hes chosen him and what dangers he would face from ten downing street where there is a magnificent Prime Minister who is one of the great debaters and arguers of all time. So the president spends several days with eisenhower, takes him on board, they fly to bolt and sicily and its in sicily when they land and he awards the distinguished Service Medal to general mark clark for his bravery at salerno and also asks general George Patton who is in disgrace at the time for having slapped two soldiers faces in a Field Hospital suffering from shell shock and he thought that was the end of his military career. They said you will command an army in the great attack. He returns and flies to the west coast of africa and returns on board. The book is illustrated he returns and is greeted five months before the invasion is due to take place. He is greeted as a conquering hero who had flown all the way to tehran to meet with stalin and decide how the war would be won. Christmas, 1943, the president goes up to hyde park and celebrates christmas with his family and makes a wonderful broadcast to the nation and the world saying the Supreme Commander of the great attack would be general dwight eisenhower. Then a few days later, he catches the flu and nobody thinks much of it. He normally would give his address to congress on the state of the nation in person in congress, but he didnt feel up to it and so it was recorded at the white house and it was broadcast with a wonderful speech outlining what he hoped would happen after the war, trying to encourage people to think beyond the war that was being fought. Unfortunately, he never got better. And therefore, although the first half of the book is the story of a triumph that we should all know about and recognize and give credit to the president for, the second half of the book tells a sadder sto story, the story of how the president s medical team under his white house doctor who was a naval officer basically kept the public from knowing the truth about the president s condition, not just kept it from the public but kept it even from other medical authorities and so it was only months later in late march of 1944 just weeks before the dday invasion roosevelts daughter that had been out on the west coast came back to washington and saw how ill her father was and could hardly breathe and said to the admiral gets a consultant in straight away, which finally the admiral did. And a young cardiologist is brought in from the naval the nl hospital in bethesda who diagnosed a fatal hear the fatat disease and basically said the president had days to live. Again, it is an extraordinary story. Some of us have a notion of how ill the president was not how ill. Basically only able to work perhaps one or two hours a day to have all his meals in the white house usually in his bedroom unable to see visitors, and its at that point he just has enough strength he goes to South Carolina to try to recuperate but doesnt get any better, people think he is dying on his feet, not that he could stand of course, but she comes back to washington and writes the weekend before dday that wonderful prayer which i quote in the book the most beautiful, not an address, but a prayer i noticed when i was looking at the propaganda minister it amused me to read that he was incensed by the idea that this american president would invoke god in a prayer against this wonderful third reich. As we know, they were right to be concerned about the casualties that could ensue, but the casualties turned out to be relatively modest invisibility and things were not only a historic success, but where the two would hitler have always feared. Hitler had said to his generals months before dday this will be the deciding battle between world war ii. He didnt say this will be the deciding how this campaign. He said the deciding battle of world war ii and it was. And my father lost so many men in normandy, his battalion within days he was already moving into belgium and holland and by december of 1944, he was on the border of germany for which he won the distinguished Service Order at age 25. What i was doing at age 25 i have every bit of admiration for those people who risk and especially those who lost their lives in the mighty endeavor as fdr called it. But i think it also, speaking now as a biographer who has spent so many years writing these long the doors will have to close. They cant be kept open. My motivation for spending pay much a lifetime writing these biographies, my montgomery biography with three volumes and took ten years. My motivation has always been the curiosity. I want to know the real story behind the myth, but also in my case i grew up admiring not only my father, but other people that i came to interview in my various books for their leadership qualities. I think leadership is not a particularly popular word in the 1600 pennsylvania avenue, but we need leadership not only in this country, but our hopefully not former allies. Leadership. It doesnt grow on trees. Its a human characteristic. And for a biographer to be able to trace the genesis and be able to follow the story of a great leader and the greatest of all american leaders of the 20th century and i would argue probably the greatest american strategist in American History on a global scale. I am honored and proud to complete my big biography with this book. Thank you very much. [applause] we have time for some questions. There will be a microphone. My dad had the commander on the ship and then i talked to him for the first time 50 years later, all he said about it, all we can think is get off the beach. There is a standard narrative i think you have to eluted to which is fundamental and has to do with the request that the allies open a second front. You talk about roosevelt arguing with churchill but further as early as 42 and also i happened to run across the conference where ala alan brooks supposedly talks about stalin as this amazing military strategist who almost never got anything wrong politically. Of course he got walked on, but can you talk about how stalin compares as a military strategist and the importance of his leadership during the Second World War . I certainly dont want to come across as an admirer. [laughter] but the fact is he performed very badly asked the beginning of the german invasion in the summer of 1941 the invasion of the soviet union and some people feel that he had a nervous breakdown and was incapable of getting any orders. But he gradually pulled himself together and i think general alan you mentioned was Winston Churchills chief of the army staff in britain and many others came to admire the clarity of the decisionmaking mind and i dont think theres any doubt about that, but as the war went on, he did battle in a number of cases. But basically he stayed in moscow. I think there is only one record at a time when he ever goes anywhere near the front. He was desperately frightened of flying and when he needs churchill and president of tehran that is the first time hes ever been in a place and apparently shes hanging on. This further reminded me of something Ronald Reagan once said when they said how did you survive but he was afraid of flying. I was trying to hold the plane together. So stalin shows his concept of the best way to defeat nazi germany and tehran but it isnt a global strategy. Lets not forget the soviet union was natural in terms of japan until the surrender of germany. So the president of the United States is actually running a global strategy, he global war and i think people dont understand the huge responsibility this man took as well as trying to run the country in terms of the domestic policy of the rail strikes and logistics production, mass production and the atom bomb. Im sure there are many people who feel we wish we hadnt gone down the avenue of the atom bo bomb. But there was great concern that they were exploring the development of the atomic bomb and if they hadnt put all their eggs into other baskets, they definitely would have carried out the research and developme development. After all they produced the first jet fighter plane so my feeling is that although general brooks was right to wake up and realize what a strategist the russian dictator was, that wasnt me cam the greatest strategist of world war ii. Coming back to your first point about the dday invasion just before pearl harbor, the president asked his military advisers to draw up a military strategy if america were attacked and drawn into the floor and it was called the victory plan. It may amuse us in this age of leaps whether its hillarys emails or more important stuff. But that victory plan was leaked by the chicago newspaper publisher before pearl harbor and the plan basically default onto a strategy of germany first, dennis japan entered the war japan could be dealt with afterwards where the reversal wasnt true. You could defeat japan and they would still be in command of the whole of europe. Well, as i have explained in the subsequent months and several years, the soviets were pretty much facing two thirds of the mark at the time and almost all the casualties. Stalin is understandably furio furious. Marshall is all for it. He thinks we could get a hold in normandy and expand. The artillery weapons, the greatness of Franklin Roosevelt as he understood and that person had to be motivated and persuaded to overcome the natural tendency towards isolation which was coming back recently and to understand that americas destiny would be in a larger world as a global power and so the reason i would argue that its the greatest is because of the pathway after the total defeat of pearl harbor he pulls himself together and the people around him, organizes this coalition on the first of january 1942 in the United Nations before its an organization but that is what they call to the powers fighting against. And to make sure that the allies followed a timetable in terms of military obligation operations e not beyond the capabilities of the commanders and troops themselves. Literally the bed that president roosevelt slept in the navy for and then falls so ill nearly died in pneumonia but the president never gets better. He smokes and drinks. [laughter] and is nine years older of the president of the United States. Not only does he survive pneumonia but feels rejuvenated. And says no im not going back to ten downing street i will stay right here with the american and british troops. I cant let the president just focus on dday. I will personally put on a dday here at the mediterranean just to show how imaginative we should be. Literally three weeks later to put on the invasion and now obsessed with rome. The invasion is a disaster. There are 43000 casualties incurred the troops, americans and british are tied down and then walk away as if they had nothing to do with it. And certainly from churchills memoirs of the Second World War. And he waited five days after dday and that and then left us in the hedgerows for 30 days. So that is why my father over two and half months lost 600 of his men in casualty. With my three brothers taken at age five and six and seven and eight to normandy every summer to camp overlooking the beaches. And my father hardly ever talked about it. And then going right into germany at the temporary brigadier at age 26 and never forgot how tough it was in normandy and to this day i find it very difficult after writing so much about world war ii i still dont understand how 1 million german troops fighting in normandy fighting and then dying there. And with those casualties. You have to be an anthropologist to understand that. And look at what is going on at headquarters. To be the greatest a story biographer. So how to maintain after the spring of 1944 how was it he was able to command such fierce loyalty to the japanese in the pacific right to the very end of the war . To the ruins of berlin and still murdering jews until the very end. It is a puzzle i will never probably resolve in my own mind. Is there somebody down in the front i think it was yesterday or the day before talking military heads on television was bringing up the point that huge burden the russians were shouldering and he said wasnt stalin saying where have you been whereas my understanding is in spite of the need for the second front stalin was actually okay with the soft underbelly he got that we couldnt charge across the channel and 42 and just for you to amplify but Roosevelt Churchill and how did roosevelt deal with stalin and talk about that. Thats very interesting because stalin who as i say only once ever went close to the front he was desperately afraid of assassination. So he is sitting in the kremlin looking at all these maps in theoretical strategic terms but he doesnt know just how difficult it is to cross the English Channel. And it was Winston Churchill who flew to moscow in 1942 to tell stalin to his face that this was a major undertaking that russia had never done before and would need huge numbers of americans through that combat experience to do it. And stalin was initially disbelieving but i understand he admired churchill that he could see he was no coward. So he trusted churchill that the allies could not do it impossibly not in 1943. When the invasion did take place stalin was the first to send signals to say my god this is a stupendous achievement nothing like this is ever been done before. There is a great moment before when they meet with the foreign minister and eden says that Prime Minister asked me to tell you dday may have to be delayed because we are problems in the mediterranean and stalin says these are the soviets taking two orders are two thirds he says the mediterranean cracks how do you propose to get to berlin . That is at the crux of all this. When i read hitler and in the records of his secret meetings the transcriptions of the generals in 1843 he says this will be the deciding battle of world war ii. We either protect these people or we lose the war. This is something stalin understands it something hitler understands the president of the United States understands. How was it possible Winston Churchill who we all love and admire for what he did in 1940 and saved democracy basically how is it he refused to understand the cross channel invasion was the only way to defeat germany . And in the summer of 1940 im not sure that answers your question. [laughter] its pretty well known that had harry truman had not been kept in the loop but going back to what you said how early fdr became ill if he had passed one year earlier was wallace kept in the loop . And who wouldve taken over in terms of the military strategy . s pointing to the president s greatest failing i think his genius was to bring people around him if you think the secretary of war or the navy was a Republican People of all parties and persuasions to find the mere common cause that is no mean undertaking thats leadership at the highest level that yet he is reluctant as so often happens with politician politicians, for those who may take his place its a form of denial and wallace had been very loyal but didnt think he could command the support of the nation so when it came to roosevelt standing for a fourth term he knows hes dying but is persuaded hes the only man on the planet that can bring the war to a successful conclusion with this Great Alliance and he is persuaded to do it. But he feels that wallace could sink his chances of reelection. And there is some evidence of that. So i dont think wallace would necessarily make a good replacement if he had died in office during his third term but why he didnt trust truman even though at the end of the day the man who says to the Democratic Party he must be Vice President so he can be predicated for whats done by the Democratic Party. But why having get truman as his Vice President why doesnt he keep truman in the loop . Asking to run domestic policy at the end of the war he does arrange for the secretary of war stinson to bring truman on board but doesnt discuss it with truman as far as we know he doesnt say okay. Were not sure its going to work but if it does we have a decision to make next year 1945 i think thats easy to say with hindsight but its not as if he died of a sudden heart attack. He knows hes dying its a miracle hes alive. I tell the story of his relationship in the book with Lucy Rutherford because i believe that relationship with the woman who was the great love of his life i think personally she kept him alive. Here is a man can only operate one or two hours a day but if you get to the end of the book. [laughter] if you read the story of how he arranges to stay for a few days in the little white house before he goes to San Francisco that is the piece side of the war and peace. And he cannot wait for her to arrive and gets in his car and drives to make it in georgia to meet her. And they meet each other. Its a charming story of just how much she meant to him in those last days. I think i have to call it a day. Thank you so much for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] our. Good evening, everybody. Im part of the event staff at politics and prose. 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