Roosevelt and Stalin

Chapter 1

Crossing the Atlantic in Wartime

On Thursday morning, November 11, 1943, the twenty-­fifth anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, President Roosevelt left the White House in an open convertible and swept through the capital, the Stars and Stripes and the presidential flag flying from the front of the car. He was on his way to pay homage at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. There was a holiday air in the city: flags were on display, and banks were closed for the day. As the president s car reached the cemetery and proceeded to the tomb, a twenty-­one-­gun salute, fired from the latest antitank guns, boomed out across the Potomac valley.

At eleven o clock, the exact hour the armistice had been signed, Roosevelt stood bareheaded between General Edwin Pa Watson, his military aide, and Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, his naval aide, in front of the tomb. The day was chilly and raw, the trees almost bare; there was a cold wind. Over the president s shoulders was the dark navy dress cape he frequently wore on short trips from the White House. An army bugler flanked the group on one side; a soldier holding a big wreath of yellow and russet chrysanthemums stood on the other. An army band struck up The Star-­Spangled Banner, after which there was the customary moment of silence. Admiral Brown then took the wreath and laid it on the tomb for the president. Four ruffles of muffled drums were heard, and the bugler blew taps.

Following the brief ceremony, the sounds of a second twenty-­one-­gun salute boomed out across the valley as the president s car wound its way out of the cemetery.

The House of Representatives marked the day with commemorative speeches, most of which voiced the sentiment that ways must be found to make the coming peace more durable than the last. The Senate was not in session.

Roosevelt was in the tenth year of his presidency, the country almost two years into World War II. As darkness fell

Susan Butler was a freelance writer whose work regularly appeared in the New York Times. Her interest in journalism dates back to  Bennington where she was the editor of the student newspaper. She later earned an MA at Columbia University from the School of Arts and Sciences.

She is the author of East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart, which was the basis for the movie Amelia, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, and My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.

Fascinating.   Alan Cate, Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
A solid, comprehensive account of Soviet-American relations during World War II. Alonzo L. Hamby, Wall Street Journal
 
More exciting than a million calls to order . . . Susan Butler is the perfect historian to explore the connections between the two men. Randy Dotinga, Christian Science Monitor
 
An ambitious new portrait of the partnership that saved the world from Nazi tyranny. . . . A powerful book; an irresistible read. David M. Shribman, Boston Globe
 
A rigorous study of one of the 20th century s unlikeliest alliances. Throughout her excellent book, Butler shows how the leaders of the capitalist and communist worlds had not a grudging marriage of convenience but a willing friendship, one founded on and motivated by a shared vision: to defeat Hitler and create a lasting postwar peace. . . . Her attention to detail . . . keeps us gripped. . . . The result is a rewarding read about a meeting of disparate minds. Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune
 
Franklin Roosevelt s relationship with Joseph Stalin has been well plumbed by historians, but Butler brings intimacy and texture to the topic . . . few will deny the pleasure her book provides.   Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs
 
Absorbing, provocative . . . likely to energize considerable debate. Booklist
 
Butler effectively demonstrates that there was no greater mediator and champion of peace than Roosevelt, whose sudden death in the final months WWII robbed the world of perhaps the man who could have averted the Cold War.   Publishers Weekly
 
Comprehensive . . . meticulous . . . striking. . . . A thorough account of the alliance between two very different leaders.    Kirkus
 
The most detailed account available of the relationship between these two extraordinary men. . . . [Susan Butler s book] answers the question, as definitively as counterfactuals can be