FDR & HST

On November 7, 1944 (around the time of my conception), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was elected for his fourth term as president of the United States, defeating New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.  This was unprecedented and will never happen again because of the XXII amendment to the Constitution.  

On March 29, 1945 (while I am in my mother's womb), FDR left Washington, D.C. for a scheduled two week rest at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia.  This tiny town gained prominence in the 19th Century for its mineral springs.  In 1921, when FDR was diagnosed with polio, he traveled to Warm Springs to try to regain the strength in his legs by bathing and exercising in the warm spring water.  He grew to enjoy the resort.

In 1945, FDR was sixty-three, not considered old by modern standards.  However, because of his poor health and the stresses of his twelve plus years on the job (the Depression, World War II, etc.), he looked like an old man.

"Unable to accompany her father, Anna (FDR's only daughter) made arrangements for Lucy Rutherfurd to come to Warm Springs for the second week of his stay.  (As a result) FDR gently dissuaded Eleanor (his wife) from coming."

Lucy Rutherfurd (formerly Mercer) had been (thirty years earlier) Eleanor's social secretary.  In 1916, when Eleanor and FDR's children were away on vacation, FDR and Lucy began an affair that lasted the rest of his life.  Unlike today, this information was unknown to the public as was FDR's inability to walk without the benefit of assistance.

On April 9, 1945, Lucy and her painter friend, Elizabeth Shoumatoff, arrived in Warm Springs.  The next morning, Elizabeth began preliminary sketches for a portrait of FDR that Lucy commissioned.        

At noon on April 12 (74 years ago Friday), FDR was siting in his living room with Lucy and others while Elizabeth painted.  At 1:00 PM, "FDR raised his right hand and passed it over his forehead several times in a strange jerky way."  He said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head" and then collapsed.

FDR suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.  At about 3:30 PM, he stopped breathing.  Lucy and Elizabeth packed and left almost immediately.  FDR's family would arrive soon and the two women shouldn't be there when they did.  

Within two hours, Eleanor summoned the Vice President to the White House.  And who was the Vice President?

John Nance Garner, a congressman from Texas and Speaker of the House of Representatives, was Vice President during FDR's first two terms (1933-1941).

Henry A. Wallace, who had been FDR's Secretary of Agriculture, was Vice President for the third term (1941-1945).  

However, the Vice President for the fourth term was Harry S. (for nothing) Truman (HST), formerly a US Senator from Missouri.  When he arrived at the White House, Eleanor said, "Harry, the president is dead."

Stunned for a few seconds as the shock sank in, the new president asked the former first lady if there was anything he could do for her.

Eleanor responded, "Is there anything we can do for you?  For you are the one in trouble now."

HST had been kept in the dark by FDR on most issues he would face as president.  This was especially true on the problem he would confront less than four months later (when I was born).  

In order to end the war against Japan, should the US drop atomic bombs (prior to his presidency, HST never heard of an atomic bomb which the US had been building for six years) on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?  Or should it engage in an invasion of the Japanese home islands?  Or were the Japanese ready to surrender without either of the above two options?  HST made his decision and never looked back.  

I wonder what FDR would have done?