[Part Two — see Part One here.]
Tonight's episode [April 18, 9 pm], takes us into FDR's second two terms as president, which is essentially the story of one leader's valiant attempt to prepare and guide a nation through war.
It's no spoiler to reveal that FDR died as the beginning of his fourth term. Nor is it a stretch to say he was an undeclared casualty of the great conflict.
From secret negotiations with Churchill, from which FDR devised the historic Lend-Lease agreements on his own, to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, it's hard to imagine the relentless succession of disasters and monumentous decisions not breaking a lesser person.
And remember, FDR was physically incapacitated by polio, and often in constant physical pain. During this time we also see him endure the death of his mother and the debilitation and eventual death of his loyal secretary, Missy LeHand. Further, we learn his wife Eleanor essentially rebuffed his advances to reestablish their marriage on more initmate grounds, more than twenty years after his infidelity.
Again, we see the near-incomprehensible contradictions that mark his career. On one hand he orders the internment of Japanese civilians, while on the other he squeezes Churchill to sign the Atlantic Charter, guaranteeing the end of colonialism after the war.
We see FDR respond to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, that kills 2,407 Americans on December 7, 1941, and deliver his famous, "date which will live in infamy" line.
The best quote in his address to Congress: "The American people in their righteous might will win through to righteous victory."
Yet before the attack even came, FDR, his Cabinet and Generals were preparing what they knew to be inevitable, despite the president having had to promise the country would stay out of the conflict. Knowing the country would be drawn into war, FDR also had to contend with the horrifying knowledge that the country's military did not have the capacity to even defend the homeland, never mind venture forth to do battle in Europe and Aisa.
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