Good evening everyone. Welcome to the National World war ii museum. All of those who you are sitting here and watching on the live stream, i know you are out there and with us in spirit. And we feel your presence. I am doctor rob citino, the Senior Historian here at the museum. I am also the executive director of the institute for the study of war and democracy. Tonight is the latest installment of our meet the authors series. We always like to mention our sponsor. We bring this to you with the general support of the strike foundation. We could not do it without them. Many of you have been to our events before. You probably know we have a tradition here at the museum. May i ask, are there any world war ii veterans or home front workers in the audience tonight. If you would please stand or wave and. Thank you. I have heard the president , ceo americas, and the current president say this many times. We built this museum for you, so thank you for coming to these events. Military veterans of any other era, if you would stand and wave. [applause] we know that is a large number. I love the waves. People give different forms of waves. Thank you so much. We would like to acknowledge three special guests in the audience. A current board member there he is. Robert, good to see you. Thank you for coming. And past board members, deborah i am looking in the wrong direction. And is dr. Mike in the audience . Great to see you as always. [applause] thanks so much to all of you for being with us this evening. And of course we will never move on before we acknowledge the National World war ii museums cofounder, president , and ceo emeritus in the front row, nick mueller, as always. [applause] and to all of you in the audience and livestream who may be museum members, you keep us going, so thank you. A sincere thanks to cspan for being here. It is great to see your cameras at our events. I know i tend to stand up straighter when the cameras are in operation, so thank you too. You have all heard the phrase, so and so needs no introduction. You probably know what that means. This person deserves a very fulsome introduction indeed. It is with our speaker tonight, nigel hamilton. Nigel is an awardwinning author and biographer, author of a biography of field marshal montgomery, known as monty, which has been on my shelves for a long time. The best selling work on the young john f. Kennedy, which was turned into an abc miniseries, bill clinton mastering the presidency. Nigel is the first president of the national biographers organization, senior fellow at the mccormick graduate school of massachusetts, boston. I will say this flat out, he is one of the worlds great writers. You know you are in for a treat with his books. This one is no exception. [applause] nigel is also a dear friend of the museum. He spoke at our 2012 international conference, and for the first two books of this fdr trilogy. From a personal perspective, he is a friend of nicks and a friend of mine. He lives right down the road with his wife. Please stand if you wouldnt mind. [applause] thank you. And so, to the main event. We are honored nigel has selected our museum as the site of his official book launch for war and peace. This is the third book in the fdr trilogy. Here nigel brings this story home, covering the saga of fdr from dday to the yalta. It is an appropriate time for gathering. Today is the 74th anniversary of the german surrender in western europe. We are mere weeks away from the 75th anniversary of dday. Without further ado, i give you the incomparable nigel hamilton. [applause] good evening everybody. This is a slightly sad occasion for me because it is a sort of farewell to somebody i have lived with for 10 years. Franklin delano roosevelt. And i shall miss him. I never intended to spend 10 years writing this series. And i certainly didnt intend for the story to take three volumes. All i did know was that it was something of a National Scandal is country in this country that no one, no historian had written a fullscale account of president roosevelt in his role as commanderinchief of the armed forces of the United States in the most violent war in Human History. How was it possible that that had never been done . One of the main reasons of course was fdr died in april of 1945. He had begun to assemble his papers. I was able to interview the harvard graduate who was working in the map room in the white house who was helping him prepare those papers for his memoirs. He was never able to write them. The person who did write them was the british Prime MinisterWinston Churchill in retirement, and later when Prime Minister again. Who was an extraordinary writer, apart from being a great Prime Minister and leader of his country. And churchill took six volumes to tell the story of world war ii. So although i am in their embarrassed i have taken three volumes to tell fd rs story, it is only half of what churchill wrote. I called my talk tonight and thank you so much for coming. You work for years and years and wonder if there is anybody out there who wants you to do it, who responds to what you are doing. I call tonights talk the man who saved dday, because as bob said, we are about to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the normandy invasion. It may be probably the last occasion on which there will still be significant numbers of survivors. The story that i will focus on tonight, the focus is on dday itself, or rather, not on dday, but on the project of dday. Each of my fdr volumes began with a voyage. Volume i began with the president s trip to newfoundland in the summer of 1940, before pearl harbor, to meet a man who would become his opposite number as commanderinchief of the British Empire, Winston Churchill. They met on their battleships off the canadian coast. They drew up together, the great atlantic charter. At the end of the volume, having overruled his own chiefs of staff, the president of the United States decided not to launch a dday invasion that year, which would have been crushed, but to launch instead an invasion of north africa, far away from the german lines of communication, so that American Forces could learn in the field how to meet and defeat the German Wehrmacht. The second volume took up that story and also begins a great voyage. The first president ever to fly abroad in office in a flying boat to casablanca, where again, he met with listing Winston Churchill and again, overruled his chief of staff, recognizing that in january of 1943, almost no american troops had ever fired a single shot in action against a german soldier. Better to continue the learning process in modern warfare in the mediterranean and also to declare a moral policy, much as he had when declaring the atlantic charter, mainly, Unconditional Surrender no negotiation with the nazis. Unconditional surrender. At the end of the book, american soldiers had landed in sicily, conquered sicily, and are also on the shores of southern italy. And a whole German Wehrmacht army has surrendered to general eisenhower in north africa. And so we come to the book that is being launched tonight. Volume three. Tonight, volume iii. I can reveal that my editor was somewhat surprised at the title. He thought it had been used before. [laughter] yes, but a long time ago and nobody else had thought to use it since. [laughter] i thought it was pretty appropriate, war and peace. This third volume also begins with a voyage, a journey. It begins with fdr sailing on a new american battleship, the uss iowa with his chiefs of staff to north africa. I am looking at a picture that is very small, but i think you can see general marshall, admiral leahy, and admiral king. They are going to north africa because they were going to go on to cairo and there, once again, he is going to meet with his opposite number, the Prime Minister of britain, Winston Churchill. But before he gets to cairo, he wants to make quite certain that he has a chance to talk with the american commanderinchief, the allied commanderinchief in the mediterranean, the young dwight, david eisenhower. He is anxious, in fact, and fortunately, there are quite a number of photographs from that period, to listen to ikes views on europe, and to think about him for a very good reason. Because ike tells him that he has just been to see Winston Churchill and he is worried by the Prime Ministers unwillingness to go ahead with the dday invasion in 1944. So when roosevelt arrives in cairo, on the surface, the two men look like they have those been great friends, which they were. But sometimes, great friends fallout over great issues and dday was a great issue. And very quickly, in cairo, the president of the United States faces a crisis, an extraordinary moment in history where his main ally, the Prime Minister, not only of great britain, but de facto commanderinchief of all the empire forces including the south africans, australians, canadians, has come as he had learned, threatened to have a showdown over delaying or halting dday. Which had been agreed, should take place in the spring of 1944, in a few months time. Why was Winston Churchill, a Prime Minister whose British Empire military forces were so essential to the success of the invasion, which would be launched, a crosschannel invasion from britain, where was Winston Churchill such an implacable opponent of the great landings . Afterwards, Winston Churchill would cast his magical rhetorical and literary spell over the story, claiming that it was simply that he wanted to do much more than just cross the English Channel, but he would therefore prefer to focus first on the mediterranean and its steppingstone to the balkans in 1944. Also, that as Prime Minister, he had deep misgivings about russian intention in eastern europe. He was thus unashamedly, he wrote in his memoirs, against putting all the eggs of the western allies into one basket, dday, which could be done later if at all. Many historians have followed suit, lauding churchills political perspicacity, and downplaying the virulence of his opposition to dday planning in 1943. Some come like the biographer, andrew roberts, whom i admire, even claim that it is not true that churchill wanted to postpone, still less, cancel operation overlord, as has sometimes been alleged. Others, like the director of the churchill archives in england, alan packwood, who i count as a friend, claim that it is near hindsight to assume it is mere hindsight to us you let the dday overlord was the most important military operation of world war ii, upon which the success of the war against hitlers depended. I have to say, as a military historian, that is hornswaggle, or loyalist hogwash. I bow to no one in my admiration of churchills lonely stand against hitler after the francobritish defeat in the summer of 1940, his finest hour. But if after pearl harbor in 1941, the direction of the war against hitlers is surely fdrs finest hour, as i hope my fdr trilogy can persuade you, as it has persuaded me. All through volume ii, commanderinchief, churchill has done his best to argue vainly against a crosschannel lending, twice coming to the United States to argue personally with the president. War and peace reveals not only just how opposed to dday churchill remained, but how the Prime Minister sent arguably treasonous messages, in the view of the american secretary, Henry Stimson, direct to stalin, without telling the president , to say dday would have to be put on in favor of more combat in italy and the mediterranean. Finally, in cairo, in front of the president and his military advisers, the Prime Minister delivered his grand indictment, as he called it, of the president dday strategy in a lastditch appeal to delay or abandon the invasion. Now, this was to my mind, the greatest military crisis of the second world war. A crisis of churchills own obstinate making, and the culmination of a whole year of opposition to the dday project. The Prime Minister claims his earlier promise in quebec to carry out the invasion is simply a lawyers agreement, one that he can, as british commanderinchief, tear up. And he is serious. He threatened his own war cabinet in london, he would resign if the president continues to insist upon ddays spring 1944 timetable. He has even threatened his military chief, he will risk breaking the grand alliance by telling the americans they will be welcome to switch their focus to the pacific, if they dont accept a delay or cancellation of dday. In other words, the Prime Minister of britain is willing to break his partnership with the United States, a partnership he himself has created, rather than give in. He openly complains to his staff, he is the only genius who can win the war but is being forced to fight with one arm tied behind his back thanks to american stupidity. Rome, rhodes, turkey, the dardanelles, vienna, anywhere but dday and normandy in 1944, he demands, or the pyramids. How the president of the United States deals with churchills rebellion is therefore the core drama of war and peace, my final volume. In his six volume war memoirs of the second world war, churchill gave his own version and rightly helped him win the nobel prize for literature as literature. As a historian and biographer, i cannot match Winston Churchills prose. I can only offer fdrs point of view, which is very, very different. Fdr saw dday, as did hitler, as the deciding strategy of the war against the nazi third reich i perhaps, no one will ever really explain Winston Churchills opposition to dday. We can do, at last, 75 years after the landing, is see exactly how the president of the United States went about defusing churchills timebomb in cairo, and insisting, as the president did, that the dday operation be carried out as agreed at quebec, saving dday, in other words. Churchill was furious, boiling with rage, in fact. The two men flew to tehran. Fdr got stalin to promise to back the dday invasion with a simultaneous russian offensive on the Eastern Front which would force the wehrmacht to fight on two fronts, in which case the germans would be unable to withdraw forces from the east to reinforce their armies in france facing the allies. Stalin also promises the president to join the war against japan once hitler surrenders. Fdrs trip to cairo and tehran was thus his starring triumph. When churchill was asked by his doctor if anything had gone wrong, he snapped. A bloody lot wrong has gone wrong in fact, as history shows, the bloody lot has gone right. Certainly, hitler is in no doubt, as to the defining importance of an allied cross channel invasion, for the fate of the nazi third reich. The landings and subsequent battle will quote, decide the war, hitler warns his staff, and gerbils. It will not be too hard to beat the western allies, hitler ads. After all, he doesnt quote, have the feelings that the british have their shall we say hole heart in this attack. After the president s trip to cairo and tehran, though, the dday project is energized. It will go forward in the spring of 1944, and it is energized for one extra historic reason, as i tried to define definitively at last in this oak, war and the president s decision not to appoint general martial to command the dday invasion, but the man he had interviewed as we saw at length on his way out to cairo, young general dwight the eisenhower. This was one of the most inspired appointments of world war ii, a Coalition War involving the forces of many nations, but led by the United States. And typically, fdr is not content just to send ike a telegram. Returning from tehran and cairo, he stays with eisenhower in two tunis and together, the two men fly in the president s plane, nicknamed the sacred cow, to malta and sicily, where the president decorates general mark clark for his bravery and leadership in salerno, and tells Lieutenant General george patton, whom i think you can see next to the last figure at the back of the jeep, that despite the current black cloud hanging over patton for slapping and threatening shellshocked g. I. S in a field hospital, you will have an army command in the great normandy operation. Thus, with the grand alliance saved, dday set in stone, and its Supreme Commander appointed. Back in washington, returning on the iowa, the president is fated as a conquering hero, from hyde park. Surrounded by his family, he broadcasts a christmas message announcing to the worlds appointment of eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the forthcoming assault. He looks and sounds full of beans. In the pink as someone describes him. But he is not. He soon falls ill with flu, and he never gets better. The second half of war and peace tells the sadder story. Fdr behindthescenes, is finally and belatedly diagnosed with fatal heart disease. Neither, he nor eisenhower, who is moving to england to take command of the dday invasion, has meantime been able to stop churchill from mounting his own version of the day in italy, under new british supreme command, namely, enzio in southern italy, one of the Prime Ministers worst military intercessions in the entire war, which results in 43,000 allied casualties in three months to no purpose before dday. 43,000. By contrast, the dday invasion is a triumphant allied success. The president broadcasts a prayer on behalf of all americans for its success, and the landings not only prove one of the great combat achievements in military history, but they disprove churchills forecast of an English Channel running in blood, which churchill had predicted to american senators and congressmen in 1943. The president even insists on an American Invasion of southern france, this is part of the normandy invasion but, the president insists on unAmerican Invasion against british unwillingness, of southern france, near marseille to give eisenhower more heft when he advances to germany. That invasion is similarly successful. In the public image, then, the president is the master strategist of the war. In fact, he even sales by battleship. He sales by battleship that summer to pearl harbor. Here he is entering pearl harbor itself, to force General Macarthur to sit down at last with admiral nimitz, his opposite number in the pacific, and see how the United States navy actually operates. And then, with admiral nimitz, to present him with their best ideas on how they proposed to defeat japan without incurring ruinous casualties. Normally, this would have been vintage fdr, blessed with charm, the ability to get commanders to work together, arriving at a clear strategy. But the president is not in vintage good health, he is dying of heart disease. He can barely work two hours a day or give a public speech. Here is a photo of one that he gives on his return to the United States, where he is asked to stand using his iron legs, and he has a heart attack while doing it. Continuing as president and u. S. Commanderinchief is a titanic struggle for him. Assured by all his advisers that there is no one else you can possibly lead the nation to victory, not only in the war, but in preparing the allies for the post war, for peace, he agrees to stand for reelection. Well aware that he will never survive another term despite being only 62 years of age. He is duly triumphant at the polls. That is Inauguration Day in 1945. But he is ravaged healthwise. I am not sure how clear this is, but this is a map of his voyage to yalta, once again traveling to get there in the crimea for a second meeting with stalin, to discuss the wars endgame. Here he is in malta on the way out, with general marshall. Here he is arriving in tehran. How to get the russians to help in the war against japan, in a formal way, and how to establish the United Nations and the u. N. Security council, as well as discuss the insoluble problem of poland. It is something of a miracle of survival. You can see just how ill he looks with churchill there. Who just manages to get through the conference. But on board his battleship coming back to the United States,s military assistant, general watson, actually dies of a heart attack during the voyage. The point is, the president is not merely sick, he is dying, unable to stand, even on his metal stilts when reporting to congress. Beyond his patriotic sense of duty as commanderinchief of the u. S. Armed forces, one thing perhaps more than any other has kept him alive since his doctors gave him their sentence of death 12 months before. For in the very week that they diagnosed his fatal malady, the love of fdrs life, lucy read afford, has become a widow lucy readrutherford, has become a widow, and she inspires him to go on at least two hitlers end. He takes the train and works on his you and speech. There he is, leaving admiral leahy, his white house chief of staff, in washington, to mind the military store. He is joined in warm springs by Lucy Rutherford, and her friend, the watercolor portraitist, his longtime hyde park neighbor daisy sutley is also in the room, and his personal secretary, bill hastert, when the end comes. Do we have time to read a short passage . Bill hasset has provided the president s papers. The private sector and put them neatly in a folder on the card table which the president used as his desk. Lucy and daisy were sitting and watching general show tough work on the watching elizabeth work on a watercolor. She was painting is fast that she could, but became aware suddenly, that his gaze, quote his gaze had a faraway look and was completely solemn. He had asked for a stamp to celebrate the upcoming conference. Wait till you see the San Francisco stamps with the United Nations; but seemed to have moved somewhere else in his mind, steering at lucy next to him. To the filipino butler, the president has said they needed 15 more minutes to work before taking lunch, which he was looking forward to. Suddenly, elizabeth recalled, he raised his right hand and passed it over his forehead several times in a strange, jerky way without without emitting a sound. Daisy recalled the president quotes looking for something, his head forward, his hands fumbling. Immediately she rose, i went forward and looked in his face. Have you dropped your cigarette she asked him, he looked at me furrowed in pain and tried to smile. Alarmed . He put his left hand back up to the back of his head and said, i have a terrific pain in the back of my head. Those would be the president last words, daisy, quite certain of them afterwards, he said it distinctly, but so low that i dont think anyone else heard it. My head was not more than a foot from his. I told him to put his head back on the chair. The president is sick, call the doctor, madame shumatoff yelled. The doctor comes and administers medication for the president s heart, the president had offered a quote massive cerebral hemorrhage or catastrophic stroke. His Blood Pressure was over 300, and there was nothing, despite attempted artificial respiration by the president s doctor could be done except wait for the end. They called washington to speak to the president s naval formal white house dr. , admiral mcintyre. And hes told that there is a long feature siege ahead. But in the event, the siege did not last long. Lucy told elizabeth to pack her easel and bags and some of nicholas robbins, the man who took this photograph in a white cadillac. They set off in the estate before the press could arrive. They stopped to telephone the white house on the journey home. The flag was already at half mast. The operator, before putting through the call, asked if they knew what had become national, in fact, global news. On april 12, 1945, the commanderinchief the last words of the author of this book the commanderinchief was dead. Thank you very much. [applause] applause nigel, thank you very much for another wonderful presentation and for really wrapping up this wonderful and remarkable individual up. We want to open the floor for questions. Well start in the center, about halfway back. Please stand when i bring the microphone to you. We briefly talked while you were signing my book, and it would like you to share with the audience your contrast with hitlers interference with his command, with his army, with what roosevelt did with his own. Yes. I enjoyed meeting you, and, you raised an interesting question, what was it that describes fdrs style of leadership, and can he be faulted for interfering with his military staff . Yes, he did interfere with them. Sometimes as commanderinchief, has to do that. After fdr, harry truman would have to do it. With macarthur. In the second world war, fdr had to do it several times, as i explained, with his chiefs of staff over premature decisions to launch dday in 1942 and 1943 before American Forces, not just the forces, but the combat commanders had shown that they could beat the wehrmacht in open battle. And we have one of our experts on the wehrmacht right here. Tough, tough enemy. So i would say that fdrs great contribution to military command is his willingness, where he felt necessary, to step in to save lives. I think that is what a president often has to do, he has to think of the human equation, not just whether his military advisers should be allowed to go their own way. But once having made his strategic decisions, fdr was truly remarkable in getting his team get on with the business. And the support that he gave to eisenhower, once the dday decision was reached at cairo and tehran was really exemplary. And is in direct contrast, as you pointed out, to the way that abdeladolf hitler tended to interfere with the command decisions especially in battle, of his generals. We will go back to the center again. Thank you very much. You talk about tehran and yalta. Seems like one of the big differences between tehran and yalta was fdrs illness and his declining health. Do you believe that if he had been healthy and if he had continued as he was at tehran, that any of the decisions made in yalta or postyalta, even if he had lived that long, would have been different, based on his health, or not . Well that is the most difficult question i have are been asked [laughter] historians are still debating that. It becomes a political and rather partisan debate. I cannot believe that fdr would not have been tougher with Marshall Stalin if he had been in good health in yalta. There were documents taken during the conference. Stalin is always deferring to the president. The president was running the conference. The fact is that the president did not run the yalta conference. Stalin and churchill did, and battled particularly over poland, but whether with so many millions of russian boots on the ground already in poland, ultimately, they would have made that much difference, particularly when the poles were very naturally unwilling to surrender territory. Who knows . In some ways, it was a relief to end the book where i did. [laughter] and leave those questions to another biographer of a subsequent president. Nigel, i have a question online, kent from missouri wants to know how do you excuse fdr for not informing truman on the aabomb . Or can you excuse him . I cant. As i say in the book, it is very difficult to understand why fdr, again, going back to your earlier question, i think if fdr had been in better health, for instance, if he had only been suffering from a physical ailment, but if he had been mentally fitter he would have understood how vital it was to put his Vice President and obvious successor in the picture. But he relied on Henry Stimson to do it. And the truth is, by those last weeks when perhaps he thought he would spend more time, he did see truman, and obviously, he had given instructions that secretary stimson should share the atomic bomb secrets with the Vice President. But he just was not well enough. And to be honest, i think if he had sat down with truman, i am not sure how much sense he would have made, in terms of whether or not to drop the bomb. I am often asked whether i think, as his biographer, that he wouldve dropped the bomb, and i can say unequivocally that he would have done so. After all, he is the president who founded the manhattan project, who watched as the Scientific Research was done. I have quoted from stimsons diary showing that he was well aware what the germans were or werent doing, the japanese the same. He discussed with Winston Churchill whether or not they should share with whether or not they should share stalin the secret. He is totally on the atomic bomb page until this fatal illness reduces him really, to a very lame president at the end. The point is, he thinks he has accumulated in his fourth term in office, that is a pretty historic, but also that is pretty historic. But also, in all the work he has done with Winston Churchill, in his meetings with stalin, he thinks he has a king related the sort of stature that nobody else he thinks he has accumulated the sort of stature that nobody else could have. That nobody else could have done what he did in that final year. On that point, than i will get to two more questions. Mike r. Wants to know, was it that he had such confidence in his subordinates that they knew the right thing to do at this point in his life, that they were going to carry on his message, his legacy to his successor, and was part of his secret to his success the fact that he would stay hands off . I dont think that is quite true. I think when necessary he accepted that the role of the president and commander in chief is to make the ultimate decision. Hands off, yes, wild things are being done. But when it comes to a okinawa, do we deliver a ahead with an invasion that will kill not just many tens but hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and even civilians . Only a president as commanderinchief can make that decision. And fdr would never have stood back from it, and i think if he had lived in retirement, he would have been proud of what truman did. Question in the back to your right. Thank you. Why didnt fdr lie in state at the u. S. Capitol . Why didnt fdr lie in state at the u. S. Capitol . There are various theories. [laughter] as i am sure you know, there is this very sad train taking him back, the Ferdinand Magellan that takes him back, with eleanor aboard, to the capital. There have been various theories. Some people feel that eleanor was still upset that she had not been present when her husband died, and that Lucy Rutherford had been present, and was annoyed or angry with her daughter anna for having kept that secret. I dont think that is why eleanor decided against it, for her own reasons. Secondly, i dont think eleanor, it has been much exaggerated, her feeling of anger. The point is, it is impossible for any historian to believe that fdr could have had this in some itinsummate, not sexual, the president was unwell, but it is impossible to believe that the commanderinchief, surrounded by doctors, personal staff, lawyers, politicians, it is impossible to believe the claim that eleanor did not know that Lucy Rutherford was keeping him alive. And after fdr died, eleanor wrote to lucy and sent her some objects. I think fdr had been in an extraordinary relationship with eleanor. Obviously, he shouldnt have had that adulterous relationship during world war i, but when that ended, he was completely loyal to eleanor, who looked after him when he suffered his polio. I find it very moving that at the very end of his life, he did have this charming relationship with a woman he had once loved so much, and who loved him. We have time for one or two more questions. To your right, nigel. There was a report that over was told by macarthur that he had sent a 40page memorandum to truman, seeking to inform him that japan was attempting to surrender under terms which would have been acceptable under yalta terms. There was also a report that there was, in 1995, there was a report that the english for the first time, released information that there had been a secret communication from japan to russia in code orange, attempting to negotiate a surrender. Simply indicating that the emperor would be retained. Do you believe that those happened, and should they have been considered consistent with fdrs instructions that it should be Unconditional Surrender . And would that require the dropping of the bomb . It sort of goes beyond my brief, but it does relate to fdr in terms of how he looked on the war with japan. And i do quote evidence in the book that not only was fdr willing to soft and the Unconditional Surrender in specific cases, he writes a wonderful memorandum on this subject to the secretary of state, howell, saying, theres a difference between principle, which you want to hold to, and practical realities, which may require you to do something else. Later, he does talk to somebody about the japanese. He is worried that is japanese that the japanese seem so willing to encourage civilians to commit suicide, not just troops. There is also the concern about american pows. So i dont think fdr was ideologically about dropping the bomb. I think he would avoid the matter i think he would have weighed the matter very carefully. Certainly, in the state he was at the end of the war, i think it was merciful that he was not the president that would have to carry the weight of that responsibility, and that we had a president who refused to pass the buck. Last question. We will go to our livestream audience winston, who had seen his clout decline and his empire almost end, and fdr were dear friends. So it seems in their correspondence, but there may have been some resentment near the end of the war. Was winston truly sad of fdrs passing, or did he see this as his opportunity to reestablish his greatness and the united kingdoms greatness . I dont think churchill in anyway wanted to exploit the president s death. It is true, he did not come to the funeral. But as you say, they were i wonder how many times in Human History there has ever been a coalition of two leaders, of that sort of level, who so trusted and communicated with each other. The great showdown is evidence of the fact that they did actually have it out. I have reached a vast age myself, and finishing this book, i was sad. The president has made me think of mortality. I prefer to think of churchill not coming to the United States because in some ways, you know, he may not have been able to control his own emotions, which i find old enough. [laughter] thank you very much, nigel. [applause] the incomparable nigel hamilton, he proved it as he always does. So you know the drill by now. Buy the book, buy multiple copies of the book. He will be happy to autograph copies of the book drive carefully. Thank you, and good night. One more time please, for our nigel hamilton. [applause] 75 years ago on april 12, 1945, president Franklin Roosevelt died, only a few months into his fourth term, stunning in nation just as the war in europe was coming to an end. Next, on reel america, fdr and world war ii. A program produced by the Pare Lorentz Center at the franklin d. Roosevelt president ial library and museum. It includes nine segments, each focusing on fdrs involvement with a key wartime issue. music world war ii began on september 1, 1939 with the german invasion of poland. music by the time the war ended in 1945, more than 60 Million People have been killed and dozens of nations were destroyed. The ability of democracy