Customer Reviews

The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Though a definitive account of FDR's health problems may never be possible, Ferrell's book is probably as close as we are likely to come. As Ferrell recounts, FDR by 1944 was so ill that he could put in no more than four hours of work a day, and usually only one or two. Unable to concentrate for long periods, FDR gave intermient attention to postwar foreign policy and addressed problems piecemeal. Put simply, FDR was incapable of overseeing the development of coherent and consistent policies. If Ferrell is right, and I find his evidence compelling, the notion advanced by some historians that Truman reversed FDR's policy of postwar cooperation with the Soviet Union, thereby precipitating the cold war, needs rethinking. Ferrell has done a laudable job, not only of shedding new light on FDR's medical problems, but of bring out their broader implications.

Some have written that Ferrell's work is sloppy and depressing. I disagree. Ferrell does an excellent job of showing 21st Century readers just how different this country was 50 years ago. That the entire country could look at Roosevelt during his last run for office - and know that he was a dying man - and not know it at the same time, is amazing. This is the same country that couldn't deal directly with a President in a wheel chair. The country knew it, but didn't know it, all at the same time. How different was the relationship between the press and the White House!

The purpose of this book is not simply to drive home the point that Roosevelt was a dying man when he ran for a fourth term. The point of this book is about collective denial. The fact that most of the country suffered from it, used it, and both benefitted from it in some ways, and paid for it in others. Collective denial isn't much different from individual denial. It is a powerful mechanism that existed not only in the relationship between FDR and the country, but between FDR and himself. It also is the mechanism that allowed the United States to fight WWII to "make the world safe for democracy," while at the same time the country was somehow unaware of its own racist, anti-democratic values. Ferrell's book should be read within the context of the times, so that it may shed light on ours.

The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944-1945 by Robert H. Ferrell isn't much of a book, and it doesn't cover much information not previously published.

Most FDR fans know the basic facts about his life and death. In 1944, his daughter, Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, insisted that her father have a complete physical because of what could be seen as a visible and marked physical decline. Prior to that, the president's standing physician, Dr. Ross McIntire, was a Navy doctor whose specialty was Ear, Nose and Throat. A battery of doctors from Bethesda Naval Hospital discovered that FDR suffered from severe hypertension and congestive heart failure. In 1944, there was little the medical profession could do for these two maladies. Unbelievably, the president was kept in the dark about his health, and he never asked questions about his health, constant medical testing, or his treatments. These medical experts (who took over his treatment) were also not consulted about FDR's decision to run for a fourth term.

There is not much new in The Dying President, except what comes from the diaries of FDR's distant cousin and confident, Margaret Daisy Suckley. But even these revelations don't add much to the story, other than the fact that FDR did know that Dr. Howard Bruenn was a cardiologist. Ferrell does offer the theories that FDR could have suffered from stomach cancer or melanoma. But he provides no additional research to prove or disprove these already published speculations.

When discussing a book written by Dr. Ross McIntire about FDR, Ferrell describes it as "absurdly thin." The same can be said about The Dying President. The body of this book is only 152 pages, and 36 of these pages are photographs. Ferrell also claims that FDR was such an ill man, that his omissions and mistakes changed the course of history. History reveals otherwise. Even his own cabinet member, Frances Perkins, was quoted as saying "He has a great and terrible job to do, and he's got to do it, even if it kills him."

I recommend you save your money and read The Hidden Campaign by Hugh Evans or FDR's Last Year by Jim Bishop for a better accounting of Roosevelt's last years.

Robert Ferrell analyzes Franklin Roosevelt's last year in office and argues that Roosevelt and his physicians concealed serious medical ailments that undermined the president's efforts from 1944 to 1945. The author states that the president "knew he was suffering from cardiovascular disease, knew he was seriously ill, and chose to keep that fact a secret." (p.1) Furthermore, Ferrell argues that Roosevelt did not possess the faculties during his last year to adequately govern the United States. As a matter of fact, Ferrell asserts that Roosevelt's physicians surreptitiously withheld important medical information from the president and the public. The author also writes that medical knowledge at that time precluded the doctors from making an accurate medical diagnosis about Roosevelt. Finally, Ferrell uses Roosevelt's oral testimonies and associates' reports as well as doctor's diagnoses to try and substantiate the stated arguments in this book.

Ferrell's study fails in two areas: reliability of sources and conflicting or exaggerated accounts about Roosevelt's illnesses. For instance, the author avers that during 1944-1945, medical specialties did not appear in prominence and this hampered an accurate analysis about Roosevelt's health. In addition, some of Roosevelt's medical reports sound strange or exaggerated and his medical chart does not appear. For example, one passage reads: "He has all the symptoms of hardening of the arteries of the brain in an advanced stage."(105) Overall, Ferrell's study remains inconsistent and lacking credibility. The photographs do not add much to the narrative.

In the 1970's Jim Bishop wrote an excellent book titled "FDR's Last Year," which contained some inaccuracies and a lot of very relevant history, (despite sometimes making it sound like FDR could have died at any given moment), but this book by Robert Ferrell is a real mess. Bishop's book was good reading, and followed his subject along through a consistent chronological pattern over the course of a year, and while it did focus a lot on FDR's health, it also revealed all the work FDR accomplished up until his death. This new book is completely unnecessary and a pale comparison to Bishop's. The author's personal agenda must be to prove that FDR tricked the nation into re-electing him when he knew he was dying. An old theory, and there's never been any substantial proof, and certainly not in Ferrell's book. Who really needs several pages of FDR's recorded blood pressure readings on different dates (especially in a book this small)? Who wants to read a book that is so inconsistent in chronological sequencing that it is impossible to understand what the author is attempting to construct or prove? Is this book necessary at all when virtually all the information in it has been known for decades from other books and sources? The book is not well-written and the subject material is derivative. Avoid it and search out better material such as Bishop's book or other more accomplished biographies such as the recent book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, "No Ordinary Time."

The thesis of this book is that FDR as a dying man virtually betrayed his country. The author blames Roosevelt for every ill that faced the post war world from Vietnam to the fall of China to who knows what -- maybe even Clinton's philandering. No mention is made of FDR's great accomplishments in his last year, including the GI bill of rights, the establishment of the United Nations, or least of all the brilliant victory in Europe. He pulls out the old canard of the dying man at Yalta. If FDR performed so badly at Yalta (contrary to all eyewitnes accounts), why did Stalin feel compelled to break the agreements. The author goes on to say that FDR's illness is responsible for a flawed military strategy in the Pacific. The brillance of FDR's strategy is clearly recognize by reputable military historians.

The author's sources are weak and his analysis is borders on fantasy. This book is either the rantings of a right wing extremist or the musings of a senile historian, past his prime. A commander in chief should be commended for standing with his troops, not condemned. Wait until this book is remaindered, if you any inclination to buy it. I wish I did!

I couldn't help but contrast this book with the Bishop book, 'FDR's Last Year'. This writer paints FDR as someone and something far different than I've read in many, many other books. He most certainly was ill, he had poor medical care, and possibly he deceived the nation about his true condition. However, he also provided the nation with reassuring leadership and contributed to our war effort literally until his death. This book is poorly organized, but worse, is mean-spirited. Definitely a 'pass'.