Making History

Official tumblelog of Media Rich Learning, making American history for classrooms since 1997.

Did Cancer Kill FDR?

In 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly of a massive brain hemorrhage, just months after beginning his fourth term in office. FDR’s doctor, Howard G. Bruenn M.D., likened the fatal attack to a “bolt of lightening.”

This account of the demise of America’s 32nd president has been accepted by the vast majority of historians and the public for more than 60 years. However, a new book, “FDR’s Deadly Secret” offers a different scenario. The authors, journalist Eric Fettman and Neurologist Steven Lomazow suggest FDR was suffering from a brain tumor that his physicians deliberately withheld the information from the public. While the evidence they present is convincing, they never uncovered the “smoking gun.” Nevertheless, their research provides fodder for several discussion themes suitable for high school history classrooms.

1) Presidential Health: Privacy vs. the Public Right to Know.
The American public was kept in the dark when Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. Only those within JFK’s inner circle knew he suffered from Addison’s disease. Some critics suggest Reagan’s physicians concealed his mental decline during his second term. The Health Information Privacy Act (HIPA) guarantees the privacy of health concerns for all Americans. Should the nation’s top executives enjoy the same guarantee? Or, does the public’s right to know outweigh the private right to privacy?

2) Seek the Primary Source.
In this golden age of easy—and often dubious—information, its critically important that students seek the primary source. The aforementioned authors arrived at their conclusion—that FDR’s suffered from a tumor located on the right side of his brain—based, in part, on some blue ribbon detective work. They uncovered newsreel footage of FDR’s post-Yalta speech to Congress and the printed speech of the same. In the film, the normally eloquent FDR seems confused and frequently stumbles on his words. Comparing the film to the speech draft, they concluded that the President could not see the left side of the page. Brilliant!

3) What if?
The authors suggest that if knowledge of FDR’s cancer was widespread he could not have run for reelection in 1944. Republican Thomas Dewey or some Democrat other than Harry Truman would have become President in 1945 and the entire post-war/Cold War history might have taken a different course. So? What if…? I’m not familiar with the 1944 Republican platform, but let’s follow the hypothetical trail. IF Dewey had been elected in 1944 and reelected in 1948 would the Cold War have emerged as it did under Truman’s guidance? Who would the Presidential candidates have been in 1952? Ike? Earl Warren? What would the 1950s have looked like? If Warren had become President, we almost certainly would NOT have had the Brown v. Board of Education decision. And so on, and so on.

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