War And Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943-1945

by Nigel Hamilton

Overview

The stirring climax to Nigel Hamilton’s three-part saga of FDR at war—proof that he was the Second World War’s key strategist, even on his deathbed

“A first-class, lens-changing work.” —James N. Mattis, former US secretary of defense

Nigel Hamilton’s celebrated trilogy culminates with a story of triumph and tragedy. Just as FDR was proven right by the D-day landings he had championed, so was he found to be mortally ill in the spring of 1944. He was the architect of a victorious peace that he would not live to witness.

Using hitherto unpublished documents and interviews, Hamilton rewrites the famous account of World War II strategy given by Winston Churchill in his memoirs. Seventy-five years after the D-day landings we finally get to see, close-up and in dramatic detail, who was responsible for rescuing, and insisting upon, the great American-led invasion of France in June 1944, and why the invasion was led by Eisenhower. As FDR’s D-day triumph turns to personal tragedy, we watch with heartbreaking compassion the course of the disease, and how, in the months left him as US commander in chief, the dying president attempted at Hawaii, Quebec, and Yalta to prepare the United Nations for an American-backed postwar world order. Now we know: even on his deathbed, FDR was the war’s great visionary.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358299226
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Series:	FDR at War , #3
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	827,596
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.85(d)

About the Author

NIGEL HAMILTON is a best-selling and award-winning biographer of President John F. Kennedy, General Bernard “Monty” Montgomery, and President Bill Clinton, among other subjects. His most recent book, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941–1942, was long-listed for the National Book Award. He is a senior fellow at the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and splits his time between Boston, Massachusetts, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Table of Contents

Maps vii-ix

Prologue xi

Book 1

Part 1 Going to See Stalin

1 A Trip to the Mediterranean 5

2 The Meeting Is On 8

3 Maximum Secrecy 12

4 Setting Sail 17

5 Sheer Madness 20

6 Churchill's Improper Act 28

7 Torpedo! 33

8 A Pretty Serious Set-to 37

9 Marshall: Commander in Chief Against Germany 41

10 A Witches' Brew 46

11 Fullest Guidance 52

12 On Board the Iowa 58

13 In the Footsteps of Scipio and Hannibal 66

14 Two Pieces in a Chess Game 70

Part 2 Stonewall Roosevelt

15 Airy Visions 79

16 The American Sphinx 82

17 Churchill's "Indictment" 85

18 Showdown 89

Part 3 Triumph in Tehran

19 A Vision of the Postwar World 97

20 In the Russian Compound 101

21 The Grand Debate 106

22 A Real Scare 119

23 Impasse 124

24 Pricking Churchill's Bubble 126

25 War and Peace 135

Part 4 Who Will Command Overlord?

26 A Commander for Overlord 139

27 A Momentous Decision 143

28 A Bad Telegram 149

29 Perfidious Albion Redux 152

30 In the Field with Eisenhower 157

31 A Flap at Malta 161

32 Homeward Bound! 165

33 The Odyssey Is Over 169

Part 5 In Sickness and in Health

34 Churchill's Resurrection 177

35 In the Pink at Hyde Park 181

36 Sick 190

37 Anzio 195

38 The President's Unpleasant Attitude 202

39 Crimes Against Humanity 208

40 Late Love 214

41 In the Last Stages of Consumption 220

Part 6 D-Day

42 "This Attack Will Decide the War" 231

43 Simplicity of Purpose 238

44 The Hobcaw Barony 245

45 A Dual-Purpose Plan 252

46 D-day 256

47 The Deciding Dice of War 264

48 Architect of Victory 269

49 To Be, or Not to Be 273

Book 2

Part 7 The July Plot

50 A Soldier of Mankind 281

51 Missouri Compromise 286

52 The July Plot 291

Part 8 Hawaii

53 War in the Pacific 303

54 Deus ex Machina 311

55 Slow Torture 314

56 In the Examination Room 319

57 A Terrible Mistake 327

Part 9 Quebec

58 A Redundant Conference 333

59 The Complete Setting for a Novel 337

60 Two Sick Men 343

61 Churchill's Imperial Wars 347

62 A Stab in the Armpit 352

63 The Morgenthau Plan 359

64 Beyond the Dreams of Avarice 365

65 The President Is Gaga 368

Part 10 Yalta

66 Outward Bound 375

67 Light of the President's Fading Life 381

68 Aboard the USS Quincy 388

69 Hardly in This World 393

70 "A Pretty Extraordinary Achievement" 398

71 One Ultimate Goal 404

72 In the Land of the Czars 407

73 The Atom Bomb 412

74 Riviera of Hades 417

75 Russian Military Cooperation 420

76 Making History 423

77 A Silent President 428

78 Kennan's Warning 431

79 A World Security Organization 436

80 Poland 438

81 Pulsus Alternans 443

82 The Prime Minister Goes Ballistic 445

83 The Yalta Communiqué 452

84 The End of Hitler's Dreams 458

Part 11 Warm Springs

85 King Odysseus 463

86 In the Well of Congress 466

87 Appeasers Become Warmongers 469

88 Mackenzie King's Last Visit 472

89 Operation Sunrise 480

90 No More Barbarossas! 484

91 The End 491

Acknowledgments 499

Photo Credits 503

Notes 505

Index 557

Editorial Reviews

A first-class, lens-changing work.” — James N. Mattis, former US secretary of defense "If history belongs to the best and latest writer, Nigel Hamilton has won the war for Roosevelt’s legacy from Churchill."— Wall Street Journal "Compelling...as gripping and powerfully argued as the first two." — New York Times Book Review “Thorough and deliberate . . . Vividly recreates FDR’s decline and makes his accomplishments all the more impressive. Like its predecessors in the trilogy, this volume will reward readers of World War II and presidential history.” — Publishers Weekly “Significant study . . . of considerable interest to students of presidential and American military history.” — Kirkus Reviews “With deft storytelling and impeccable scholarship, Nigel Hamilton completes his essential trilogy of FDR and World War II with a bang. War and Peace is a masterful reevaluation of D-day, Hitler’s demise, and the Yalta Conference. A stunning achievement!” — Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America   “On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of D-day, War and Peace is the dramatic culmination of Nigel Hamilton’s magnificent trilogy of FDR’s wartime leadership as commander in chief. It is also a vivid example of the critical importance of presidential leadership in times of national crisis. This sweeping narrative of Roosevelt’s triumphs and the tragedy of his untimely death in 1945 is history and biography at its very finest.” — Carlo D’Este, author of Patton: A Genius for War and Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874–1945 PRAISE FOR COMMANDER IN CHIEF “Ably dramatizes Roosevelt’s wranglings with Churchill during World War II . . . Provocative . . . It is stimulating to follow Hamilton as he lays out his argument.” — Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review “Superb.” — Fareed Zakaria “A detailed look at Franklin Roosevelt’s role in the Allied strategy midway through World War II, with an emphasis on his relations with Winston Churchill. Hamilton shows Roosevelt’s clear vision of how to win the war and how to create a postwar society that would prevent such wars from recurring . . . [Commander in Chief] presents a convincing portrait of its main subject, strengthening readers’ confidence in the author’s conclusions. The book is strongly pro-Roosevelt, but Hamilton gives a solid inside view of the strategic thinking that went into the campaign against Hitler as America laid the groundwork for the D-day invasion the following year.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review PRAISE FOR MANTLE OF COMMAND “The Mantle of Command is splendid: It’s the memoir Roosevelt didn’t get to write.” — New York Times Book Review “Masterly.” — Wall Street Journal “FDR has frequently been underestimated as a military leader, yielding, in the historical imagination, to George Marshall and Winston Churchill, among others. Nigel Hamilton attacks this view with his characteristic verve, portraying a president with the reins of war fully, if often subtly, in his hands. The conventional wisdom will never —

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