SummaryFrom one of America's most respected historians, The
Conquerors reveals one of the most important stories of
World War II. As Allied soldiers fought the Nazis, Franklin
Roosevelt and, later, Harry Truman fought in private with
Churchill and Stalin over how to ensure that Germany could
never threaten the world again. Eleven years in the writing, drawing on newly opened
American, Soviet and British documents as well as private
diaries, letters and secret audio recordings, Michael
Beschloss's gripping narrative lets us eavesdrop on private
conversations and telephone calls among a cast of
historical giants. The book casts new light upon
Roosevelt's concealment of what America knew about Hitler's
war against the Jews and his foot-dragging on saving
refugees; FDR's actions so shocked his closest friend in
the Cabinet, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau,
Jr., that Morgenthau risked their friendship by accusing
the President of "acquiescence" in the "murder of the
Jews." After the Normandy invasion, "obsessed" by what he had
learned about the Nazis and the Holocaust, Morgenthau drew
up a secret blueprint for the Allies to crush Germany by
destroying German mines and factories after the European
victory. As The Conquerors shows, FDR endorsed most of
Morgenthau's plan, and privately pressured a reluctant
Churchill to concur. Horrified, Secretary of State Cordell
Hull and Secretary of War Henry Stimson leaked the plan to
the press at the zenith of the 1944 campaign. Hitler's
propagandist Joseph Goebbels denounced the Roosevelt-
Churchill "Jewish murder plan" and claimed it would kill
forty-three million Germans. Republican presidential
candidate Thomas Dewey charged that by stiffening German
resistance, publicity about Morgenthau's plan had cost many
U.S. soldiers' lives. The Conquerors explores suspicions that Soviet secret
agents manipulated Roosevelt and his officials to do
Stalin's bidding on Germany. It reveals new information on
FDR's hidden illnesses and how they affected his
leadership -- and his private talk about quitting his job
during his fourth term and letting Harry Truman become
President. It shows us FDR's final dinner, in April 1945,
in Warm Springs, Georgia, at which the President and
Morgenthau were still arguing over postwar Germany. Finally
it shows how the unprepared new President Truman managed to
pick up the pieces and push Stalin and Churchill to accede
to a bargain that would let the Anglo-Americans block
Soviet threats against Western Europe and ensure that the
world would not have to fear another Adolf Hitler.
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