![]() ![]() There are letters between - or a letter of Franklin Roosevelt`s great secret love, Lucy Rutherford, to the president, which is the first one of those we have. And in fact, in a letter to the king, Churchill holds that possibility out, saying that he hopes that the president`s successor can be prevailed upon to keep his predecessor`s calendar. And I think in the last moment, a last kind of hiccup, in a way, Churchill thought he could make Truman come to London, as FDR had planned to in May of 1945. And Churchill really wanted, there at the end of the war, I think, to become once again the chief leader of the English-speaking democracies. He had been more senior in government until Roosevelt really took off as president in 1933. ![]() Mary Soames (ph), Churchill`s youngest daughter, told me that whenever she thought of Papa and the president, she thought of the French proverb, "In love there`s always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek." And Churchill was always kissing and FDR was always offering the cheek.įDR was the senior partner in the alliance, the senior partner in the law firm of Roosevelt and Churchill, and that was hard for Churchill. This is at the very end of five, six years of a very difficult, sometimes, relationship. And I thought reexamining how they fought the war would shed light on how we have to proceed now. ![]() And I think that as they were the first global leaders, truly global leaders, where the world was intertwined - the day the war began, or the weekend the war began, on the 3rd of September, 1939, FDR`s fireside chat - he said that every ship that sails at sea, every plane that takes off, every word that comes through the air does affect America and America`s future. You`re talking about two men who had to build tenuous alliances, often against public opinion in their own countries, to project power, to fight battles beyond their borders against tyrants and terrorists, in many, many ways. And the more I explored the challenges Roosevelt face, the challenged Churchill faced and the way they had to fight the war together, the more resonance there was with the challenges we face today. There`s nothing else like it, the relationship between the two men. JON MEACHAM, AUTHOR, "FRANKLIN AND WINSTON:" I think it`s the most fascinating friendship of modern times. ![]()
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