В США вышла книга с дневниками помощника Рузвельта о сложностях руководства страной во время Второй мировой войны

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... You can’t judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the old adage. But the cover of “The Yankee Sphinx” is intriguing. The book is billed as an FDR novel. And the picture on the cover is one of FDR’s hand holding a cigarette. Most noticeable is that the picture lacks FDR’s trademark cigarette holder. It was unusual for FDR not to use a cigarette holder until his last days. To my knowledge, FDR was captured only once without the cigarette holder in an iconic photo featuring him between Stalin and Churchill during the Yalta Conference. Enough about the book’s cover and FDR’s chain smoking. “TheYankee Sphinx” is an arrangement by Mark Frost (best known as a writer for “Hill Street Blues”). Frost puts into book form a diary left by his relative, William D. Hassett, who served as an aide to FDR from 1935 until the president’s death in 1945. At the beginning of this fascinating tale is Hassett doing menial work, having squandered his savings and career as a journalist in the stock market crash of 1929. He gets a call from the White House to summon him to meet with FDR. Knowing he is going to be offered a job, Hassett accepts before the president even gestures. Though this is 1935, the story immediately fast forwards to 1941 in the months leading to U.S. entry into World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) sails on The Augusta to dock off the coast of Nova Scotia for a secret meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Though FDR is sympathetic to Britain’s war effort against Nazi Germany, he cannot yet commit the U.S. to active participation in the war. He explains to Churchill that the votes in Congress are not there to authorize a declaration of war. But the meeting was still historic. Later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, the negotiations made an attempt to map the post war world. In the discussions, FDR was able to commit the U.S. to Lend-Lease, the measure to extend Great Britain the necessary tools to fight Hitler. And Congress was willing to go this far. Soon FDR will have his mandate for war. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and FDR was able to declare war a day later. On the phone almost immediately with Churchill, FDR defers a commitment to join the war effort against Nazi Germany (despite Churchill’s commitment to join the war against Imperial Japan). But Hitler made FDR’s job a bit easier by declaring war on the United States four days after Pearl Harbor. The U.S. is now allied with the British against both Germany and Japan. The two democracies also have to accept there is no choice but to extend the alliance to the Soviet Union and its communist dictator Josef Stalin. But now what? Hassett exposes the reader to the depth of the remaining arguments. Those arguments include the decision of whom to wage the primary war against. It’s agreed that the main war effort will be against Hitler, though all-out war will be waged as well against Imperial Japan. Then Hassett exposes us to pressure on FDR from Congress to launch an immediate invasion of France to score a knockout blow against Nazi Germany. FDR and Churchill have a brief squabble over which direction is to be taken. But both leaders come to an agreement that the war effort has to be more protracted, as our forces are not yet prepared for an invasion of Europe. The allied success in North Africa is welcome news in Washington and persuades Congress that a more drawn out approach is the wiser path. But what about the post-war world? Though Churchill fears Stalin’s post-war intentions in Poland (as is FDR), the U.S. president is just as wary about Churchill’s post-war colonial intentions. Indeed, the statement of the Atlantic Conference in 1941 spelled out an end to colonialism in the post-war world. It would take a greater reckoning than the Atlantic Charter for Great Britain to accept in the post-war world that its days of empire were numbered. Hassett’s diary reveals the hope FDR was putting in the United Nations. This dream of FDR was realized but the great leader did not live to see it to fruition. Indeed, FDR didn’t live to see an end to the war itself against either Germany or Japan. But the story is familiar enough that no detailed account is needed. Perhaps most intriguing about “The Yankee Sphinx” is the peripheral politics surrounding the war. There is FDR’s decision to seek a fourth term in 1944 (in the hopes of finishing the job). There was sniping from Republicans about FDR’s deteriorating health, though it cannot be denied that the administration resorted to nefarious false assurances that FDR was of sound health (despite his inability to walk). Speaking of health issues, there is the specter of Harry Hopkins, FDR’s closest advisor whose health wasn’t any better than that of his boss. There is also the conflict between FDR’s doctors over his physical condition. Hassett also served under Harry Truman, FDR’s vice president and successor. But the diarist offers only a cursory account of his years with Truman. He does make the effort, however, to insist he had as much respect for Truman as he had for FDR. The herculean task FDR faced cannot be overstated. Mortality is something we all face. But mortality at once with the weight of the world on one’s shoulders is something else. Mark Frost has done a service arranging this revealing diary kept by William D. Hassett. “The Yankee Sphinx” is a valuable tool for both serious students of FDR and those of modest curiosity. John O’Neill of Allen Park writes a weekly review.