Watching darkness fall : FDR, his ambassadors, and the rise of Adolf Hitler / David McKean.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McKean, David, 1956- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

History.

Ambassadors.

United States--Foreign relations--1933-1945.

United States.

International relations.

Ambassadors--United States--History--20th century.

Germany--Foreign public opinion, American--History--20th century.

Germany.

United States--Foreign relations--Europe.

Europe.

Europe--Foreign relations--United States.

World War, 1939-1945--Diplomatic history.

World War, 1939-1945.

Diplomatic history.

Diplomatic relations.

Public opinion, American.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 396 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

FDR, his ambassadors, and the rise of Adolf Hitler

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021.

Summary:

"A gripping and groundbreaking account of how all but one of FDR's ambassadors in Europe misjudged Hitler and his intentions As German tanks rolled toward Paris in late May 1940, the U.S. Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, was determined to stay put, holed up in the Chateau St. Firmin in Chantilly, his country residence. Bullitt told the president that he would neither evacuate the embassy nor his chateau, an eighteenth Renaissance manse with a wine cellar of over 18,000 bottles, even though "we have only two revolvers in this entire mission with only forty bullets." As German forces closed in on the French capital, Bullitt wrote the president, "In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you." As the fighting raged in France, across the English Channel, Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy wrote to his wife Rose, "The situation is more than critical. It means a terrible finish for the allies." Watching Darkness Fall will recount the rise of the Third Reich in Germany and the road to war from the perspective of four American diplomats in Europe who witnessed it firsthand: Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long, and William Bullitt, who all served in key Western European capitals-London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Moscow-in the years prior to World War II. In many ways they were America's first line of defense and they often communicated with the president directly, as Roosevelt's eyes and ears on the ground. Unfortunately, most of them underestimated the power and resolve of Adolf Hitler and Germany's Third Reich. Watching Darkness Fall is a gripping new history of the years leading up to and the beginning of WWII in Europe told through the lives of five well-educated and mostly wealthy men all vying for the attention of the man in the Oval Office"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. This Is a Day of National Consecration

2. A Small, Obscure Austrian House Painter

3. The Striped-Pants Boys

4. I Want You to Go to Germany as an Ambassador

5. The Vehicle Occupied by Great Caesar's Ghost

6. Some Changes Are in Order

7. I Wonder If You Would Try to Get the President More Interested in Foreign Affairs

8. I Am Much Too Fond of You All

9. Just Think What the Career Boys Will Say!

10. Ambassador Long Was Swell to Us

11. Downhearted About Europe

12. What a Mess It All Is!

13. Without Doubt the Most Hair-Trigger Times

14. If Men Were Christian, There Would Be No War

15. Hypnotized by Mussolini

16. Pack Up Your Furniture, the Dog, and the Servants

17. I Hate War

18. I Still Don't Like the European Outlook

19. What a Grand Fight It Is Going to Be!

20. Joe, Just Look at Your Legs

21. Everybody Down the Line Will Be Sent to Siam

22. May God Prove That You Are Wrong

23. Resistance and War Will Follow

24. I Could Scarcely Believe Such Things Could Occur

25. Methods, Short of War

26. The Last Well-Known Man About Whom That Was Said

27. My Mother Does Not Approve of Cocktails

28. It's Come at Last

God Help Us

29. I'm Tired, I Can't Take It

30. One Mind Instead of Four Separate Minds

31. Churchill Is the Best Man England Has

32. My Mother Alice Who Met a Rabbit

33. The Hand That Held the Dagger Has Struck It into the Back of Its Neighbor

34. I've Told You, Eleanor, You Must Not Say That

35. I Get Constant Reports of How Valuable You Are

36. Your Boys Are Not Going to Be Sent into Any Foreign Wars

37. We Will Talk About That and the Future Later

38. He Can Talk to Churchill Like an Iowa Farmer

39. We Americans Are Vitally Concerned in Your Defense of Freedom

40. History Has Recorded Who Fired the First Shot

41. A Day That Will Live in Infamy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-366) and index.

ISBN:

9781250206961

1250206960

OCLC:

1255523841